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Alvin's Wood Pigeon and Bee-eaters!
mandag 25. maj 2026
Ringing
Today our wish came true! A beautiful (and big) Wood Pigeon (Ringdue) was found in the nets, and Alvin could have the full pigeon experience as we both had hoped.
Alvin and his first Wood Pigeon (Ringdue)!
A very nice exercise on steel ring closing, handling and measuring of a strong and bigger bird, and discovering a new species up close. Alvin is an experienced ringer, but Wood Pigeons are a rarity in the nets in most places, except here! Blåvand has a sort of magic and is known to be the Wood Pigeon catching place, and it did not disappoint.
I myself have had the chance of catching and ringing 4 Wood Pigeons since my arrival in early May! They were also a new species for me and it was a very exciting experience.
Close up of the Wood Pigeon
Other than this nice catch, the rest of the morning was rather slow with the usual visitors, some breeding and resident birds.
Ringing totals for today:
Ringdue (Wood Pigeon ): 1
Solsort (Blackbird): 1
Tornsanger (Common Whitethroat): 0/1
Gransanger (Chiffchaff): 2
Løvsanger (Willow Warbler): 1/1
Broget Fluesnapper (Pied Flycatcher): 1
Musvit (Great Tit): 0/3
Bogfinke (Chaffinch): 1/1
Total: 7/6
Observations
Weather at 05.40: W4, 1/8, 12°C, >30 km visibility.
Starting a little late, the migration was OK today. There was a nice passage of Common Scoter (sortand) with more than 3000 birds and Northern Gannet (sule) with more than 100 birds. However, besides this there was only little movement. Thomas joined me, so the time flew anyway. The highlights of the morning observation was first a resting and singing Wood Warbler (skovsanger) and a little later a European Bee-eater (biæder) calling twice. A walk through the bog and beach did not provide much, but there are still two Bluethroats (blåhals) in the northern part of the bog. At the beach we had a very nice, adult Little Gull (dværgmåge).
Later we had a relaxing time on the benches by the station’s parking lot. Surprisingly, at 11.05 we had a singing Common Rosefinch (karmindompap) that rested in a branch for some seconds. It was a brown bird, but obviously a male. Then at 11.12, a European Bee-eater (biæder) right over the parking lot, flying straight SE toward Blåvand. Rosefinch used to be regular but in the last years, it has been just barely annual. Always a great experience and, a new Denmark-species for Thomas who were more than happy!
Anders Zuschslag came by for a short visit to make backups and maintenance on the ringing database. He arrive just in time for both the Rosefinch and the Bee-eater. What a timing!
People at the station: Alix Bortolussi, Alvin Johansson, Jorn de Jong, Thomas Kristensen and Henrik Böhmer.
