Now the real fun begins

Observations:

My first morning with no grownups watching over me went quietly. A lot more silent than previous days but with a good amount Arctic Skua's (Stercorarius parasiticus).

The highpoint of the day was by far a Pallid Harrier (Circus macrourus)  coming over us ahead. With me wanting to not miss any waders on my first obs as "responsible observer" I spotted it quite late. Luckily we got some pictures could see that it wasn't just a hen or marsh harrier. There were some doubt about it maybe being a Montagu's harrier (Circus pygargus) as the dark on the outer primaries looked a bit too strong, but doubts were dismissed in the end. A good observation on a quite dull day.

Pallid Harrier photographed by Sebastian Dreisig

Todays observations:

Ringing:

Today marks a great day for the Blåvand autumn season of 2026: We finally reached 50 birds caught in a day!!! After a whole two days with strong winds and no ringing, the conditions have finally imroved enough for nets to be opened, and, evidently, for small birds to resume migration. The day started with decent numbers of Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus) and Common Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus), most of them with decent fat scores, which indicates that they are in good condition to migrate. Through the morning, I started to pick up on the sad-sounding calls of Bullfinches (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) flying around in the Lighthouse garden, and sure enough, soon I started getting juveniles in the nets. 

About an hour before standard was set to end, I got the bird of the day, also in the Lighthouse garden:  It was a Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major)! I had to take it down to the station to give it a steel ring on, and in the process I got to show it off to Strummer, who had never seen it in the hand before, and Johan, who had just returned from observations. In the process of handling and taking picutres of the bird, it managed to give me a good few pecks in the hand, giving it the honor of being the first bird in Blåvand this season to make me bleed!

We held the nets open for a few hours after standard was done, in the duration of which we managed to catch a few more young Bullfinches (some in complete juvenile plumage and others undergoing their post-juvenile moult) as well as some assortment of other birds. After all was closed and done, we had managed to get a whole 50 birds, a new record for the season!

Today's captures:

At the station: Strummer, Alba, Johan, Alex, Sebastian, Mikkel