Wryneck (Vendehals) & Little Tern project update

Observations:

The morning didn’t get off to the most promising start. It was foggy all over Blavand, and only the top of the lighthouse was visible above the thick fog.
Patience paid off, and slowly but surely the horizon cleared. We were then able to start our observations at 6.20.

In the end, the sightings turned out to be quite nice! Indeed, Henrik spotted a little egret [silkehejre]! It’s only the sixth one ever recorded in the history of Blavand’s birdwatching records. It was quite a moment. And Henrik couldn’t stop showing his enthusiasm by saying “awesome”!

Then we spotted a european serin [gulirisk] ! Which is also quite rare in Blavand.

The moral of the day: You should always hold out hope for some great sightings, even when the fog is slow to lift!

Little egret [silkehejre] flying north. Picture by Henrik Bøhmer

Todays observation can be seen here. 

Ringing: 

Today we caugth 36 birds including 1 recapture and we had 10 different species. But we were very pleased with the first Wryneck (Vendehals) and the other persons that are staying at the station came all to the light house for seeing the bird and making some pictures. It is a very strange bird and as the name is telling it has the ability to turn its head from side to side and back and forth like a snake to discourage other animals. 

Wryneck/ Vendehals, Picture by Joseph Stephan.

A close up of the Wryneck/ Vendehals, Picture by Joseph Stephan

Little Tern Project:

Today, Joseph and I readied the exclosure for the little tern project so that we can hopefully observe a whole bunch of them breeding in the coming month. We marked out the coordination system using wooden stakes and placed the 3D-printed decoys around the area. After we had tidied everything up, we already saw the first little terns landing next to the decoys. They were showing courtship behavior which was really beautiful to see. Afterward, we drove along the coastline to look for little terns with color rings and found a total of 9!

Little Terns showing courtship behavior besides the decoys, Picture by Joseph Stephan.

Moths of the day:

This night only 13 different species. Two were new for the location this year: the Lunar Marbled Brown (Majspinder) and the Muslin Moth (Grå Tigerspinder). Maybe we had a third new one, but I am not completely sure that it this species. Hope that somebody will confirm or pointing out that it is not that species. It is the Broom Buff (Vintergyvelfladmøl). It is one of the Agonopterix genus and that is a difficult genus.

Green in the table are relative rare species for Denmark.

Lunar Marbled brown (Majspinder)

At the station: Robert Luttik, Morten Jenrich Hansen, Hanelie Sidhu, Joseph Stephan, Clara Delahaye, Jorn de Jong and Henrik Bøhmer.