Beretning fra en Erasmus-studerende

De senere år har de danske fuglestationer været en yndet destination for en række Erasmus-studerende fra et specifikt universitet omkring Munchien og her i efteråret har vi ved Blåvand Fuglestation haft fornøjelsen af to personer til hhv. obervationer og ringmærkning. 

I perioden 1. september til 20. november hjalp tyske Antonia vores ringmærker med den daglige fangst. Hun havde haft en måned på Skagen Fuglestation forinden og kunne derfor springe direkte ind i den daglige drift. Antonia har sendt os en lille rapport fra sit ophold... 

In October and November, I completed my internship at the Blåvand Fuglestation. For my studies in Germany, I had to do a mandatory internship abroad and as birds have been a big interest for me the last years, I decided to spent my time at bird stations in Denmark. The main task I have been doing in Blåvand was the daily bird ringing. This took place in the two ringing gardens, the stations garden and the lighthouse garden. Beginning half an hour before sunrise, I helped to open all the nets and then check those nets regularly for songbirds, which are passing Blåvand at their migration route.

I enjoyed this task a lot, as there was so much to learn each day. Handling and ringing birds has given me the opportunity to get a really close look on each species and learn to identify them by (sub)species, age and sex. This can be a lot to keep in mind at first, but over the time I got more and more comfortable with the right identifications. At the end of my internship I could really look back and say, that I have learned a lot. I saw and learned about a lot of new species, I knew where to look for molt limits in the feather groups to identify the age of the bird, and what features are important to identify the sex of the bird. I looked forward to it every day and can honestly say that there was no minute of boredom, as it was so exciting and wonderful to be able to learn so much in such a short time.

The other main task we did at the station was the daily bird observation at the beach, which gave us the opportunity to learn a lot about bird migration and identify birds while flying, sometimes quite close and sometimes from a distance. It is really fascinating to see different flight patterns and observe the different bird flocks, as well as seeing the change of the migration over the months. There were a lot of highlights both in the ringing and the observation. And most importantly, working and living everyday with the station team was a lot of fun.

I enjoyed the company, the laughing, the shared dinners and daily life a lot and can say, that doing something exciting like bird ringing gets even better when you do it with great people. I will definitely come back some day as a guest and enjoy living at the bird station again.