Morning observation:

When Thomas and I left the station, we noticed the already high amounts of winds of the coming "storm" tomorrow. This didn't break our spirits though, as we bought some nice new comfy chairs for the station and we sat in a more secluded spot away from the wind.
We started the observation off slow with only three different species in the first time interval, but this quickly changed and after Henrik joined, the migration was going along in a nice pace. While we didn't have large numbers, apart from the higher amount of scoters "Sortand", we had quite a bit of variation. We saw a nice amount of common guillemots "Lomvie" and also a couple of arctic terns "Havterne" flying by.

Overall a very windy and not very exciting day, but a very comfy one in the new chairs :).

Today´s observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

I could just open a few nets due to the wind today. These caught nice birds though: In the first round I had a 1K Redpoll “Gråsisken”, another one was following in a later round.

1k Redpoll/ Gråsisken. Picture: Levi van den Os

I had two nets at Krattet open and caught a Ring Ouzel “Ringdrossel”. As there were not many birds and I had a lot of time, I brought the bird to the happy observers.

Ringouzel/ Ringdrossel. Picture: Thomas Kristensen.

Later in the morning, a Barn Swallow “Landsvale” was in the net. The other had newer seen one in hand and were quite amazed.

Barn Svallow/ Landsvale. Picture: Marit Nillissen

All in all, it was a slow ringing day, but it had some nice highlights.

It is very windy outside now and tomorrow morning, even windier weather is forecasted. That means, the nets will stay closed (unless the wind decides to magically stop during the night, I will wake up at opening time anyway and check).

The moths:

Due to the wind, there were not many moths in the traps today. I will show Charanyca trigrammica “Firestreget ugle”. It is a rather common but quite nice one, I think.

Charanyca trigrammica “Firestreget ugle”

At the station Henrik Böhmer, Bent Jakobsen, Marit Nillissen, Emma Gray, Thomas Kristensen, Joseph Stephan, Levi van den Os and Hanelie Sidhu

Morning observation:

Today, unfortunately, there weren’t many observations, and it wasn’t even because of a slow migration day that the numbers were low. When Marit and I got up to the observation spot, everything was really fine, with okay visibility and even an incredibly warm wind that made it pleasantly warm from the morning. So we hoped that this would be a good day with both nice weather and a good number of birds.

It was now the 20th of May—the day when you’re supposed to have the best chance of seeing the most species in Denmark. But after 20 minutes of morning observation, the fog came rolling in over us almost without warning, and within 10 minutes we couldn’t see anything. We hoped it would disappear just as quickly as it had come, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

After a little while, we decided to go back to the station and wait for it to clear up. Just before 6 o’clock, we went back up again full of hope—both because there had been a fairly big clearing, and because we need a minimum of 2 hours within the 3-hour time window to call it standard. So we hoped we could just make it.

But even though there was clearly some clearing, we could still only see about 500 meters out over the sea. We waited there a bit and walked around to see if we could find a spot. But eventually, we gave up and went back to the station.

So in the end, it didn’t amount to more than 20 minutes of morning observation and a count of resting birds on the beach today.

Today´s observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

Not many birds today but a little surprise in first round: The first 1K Song Thrushes "Sangdrossel" were in the nets today! They were the first 1K birds this year that we ringed, it is rather early that they are already out of their nest I think. During the morning, I could sometimes see them flying around.

1K Song Thrush "Sangdrossel". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

The moths:

Not as many moths as yesterday but still a good number. Scotopteryx mucronata “Junimørkvingemåler” was new for me and is not so common.

Scotopteryx mucronata “Junimørkvingemåler”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

At the station: Thomas Kristensen, Emma Grey, Levi van den Os, Marit Nillissen, Joseph Stephan and Hanelie Sidhu

Morning observation:

Today Thomas and I, as always, hoped for an exciting morning observation. While we didn’t get any unusual species, we did see two larger flocks of shelducks “Gravand” and mergansers “Toppet skallesluger”, which was a nice change. Thomas’ dad also joined us this morning for the observation which was nice. The numbers today were not that great, but still better than the previous couple of days. During the obs we did have a very curious yellowhammer “Gulspurv” landing right in front of our feet. They didn’t really seem to care that we were sitting there.

Today´s observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

Again not a busy day but some nice species in the nets. The team was happy when I came down from the lighthouse garden after closing with a Bluethroat “Blåhals” and a Spotted Flycatcher “Grå Fluesnapper”.

Bluethroat "Blåhals". Picture: Emma Gray.

Spotted Flycatcher "Grå Fluesnapper". Picture: Emma Gray.

Marsh Warbler "Kærsanger". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

The moths:

Quite many moths today, I ran out of tubes to put them in. Two new species for me, see pictures.

Delotote bankiana "Tyvebånd-dagugle". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Hadena bircuris "Brun nellikeugle". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

At the station: Levi van den Os, Thomas Kristensen, Marit Nillisen, Emma Gray and Hanelie Sidhu

Morning observations:

Thomas and I were hopeful for some good migrating birds, but it was just the usual species. Even though it was slow, we still had a highlight of the day! We saw two Arctic skua’s “Almindelig Kjove” light morph flying by! We also had quite some Oystercatchers “Strandskade”.

Today’s observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

I had the nets open for 8 ½ hours today. Including recaptures I caught 2,7 birds per hour. That is not so much, but the birds were well distributed over time, I had few zero rounds. A new Collared Dove “Tyrkerdue” was a bit exciting, before this spring, I had not caught these in Denmark.Some Linnets “Tornirisk” were in the nets, always a nice bird in hand.

Linnet female/ Tornirisk hun. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Tornirisk male/ Tornirisk Han, picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Quite some birds had brood patches, I especially noticed it in the Linnets “Tornirisk” and Lesser Whitethroats “Gærdesanger”.

The moths:

In the time between the rounds, I was not bored as I had many moths in the traps today. The others were especially amazed by Smerinthus ocellata “Afterpåfugløje”. It is a nice, big and quite common one that is starting to fly around that time in the year.

Smerinthus ocellata “Afterpåfugløje”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Phibalapteryx virgata “Snerremåler” is not so common and quite pretty, so decided to show that one as well.

Phibalapteryx virgata “Snerremåler”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

At the station: Emma Gray, Thomas Kristensen, Marit Nillissen, Levi van der Os and Hanelie Sidhu

Morning observations:

Levi and I once again took our place at the observation spot today, ready for three hours of migration counting. But there wasn’t much migration to count, as almost all the birds chose to rest today. Even the scoters “Sortand” weren’t moving much. Fortunately, a couple of large flocks—around 550 individuals in total—chose to rest right in front of us, so we spent the morning scanning through them.

The morning actually started off well, with a good number of terns arriving in lovely flocks of around 40 birds, and a couple of red-throated divers “Rødstrubet lom” also passed by early on. So we had some hope it would continue like that, but the numbers quickly dropped off, as mentioned.

The few gannets “Sule” that were around this morning also didn’t feel like heading north today and chose instead to rest and perform their delightful head-dives to catch something to eat—hopefully before heading north tomorrow.

Todays observations can be seen here.

I found another flower starting to bloom in the garden: Liljekonval "Convallaria majalis". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

The ringing:

Although the nets were open before the standart opening time, I did not find any birds in the first round. Second round brought a Willow Warbler „Løvsanger”, several yero round were following until a round with four Lesser Redpolls ”Lille Gråsisken” saved the day a bit. Before closing, I got one new Lesser Whitethroat ”Gærdesanger” and two Blackbirds ”Solsort” more.

Lesser Whitethroat "Gærdesanger". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

The moths:

Luckily, I had company by some moths, that needed to be identified and I also caught two dayflying ones, that I caught with a glas. Else, it would have been a very slow morning. I had thirteen different species, one needed to remain a slash species. There were tree new for me and several new for the season. Sideridis turbida ”Prikliniet strandugle” is not so common.

Sideridis turbida ”Prikliniet strandugle”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

At the station: Marit Nillissen, Levi van den Os, Thomas Kristensen, Emma Gray and Hanelie Sidhu

When I came back to Blåvand some days ago, I was surpised and amazed, how green it is now in Blåvand. The Scotch broom "Cytisus scoparius" is flowering yellow. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Morning observations:

Henrik joined me for the observation today, however the migration was very slow. We had a very low amount of scoters "Sortand" with not much variation. We did see an arctic skua "Almindelig kjove" flying past though, which was probably the highlight of the morning.

Today's observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

It was a slow morning today, just five new birds were ringed, the number of recaptures was higher, eight. My highlight was to ring a new Robin “Rødhals”, it is a while ago, that I had one in hand.

Robin “Rødhals”, Picture: Marit Nillissen.

After closing, I saw two mating Sand Lizards “Markfirben” in the lighthouse garden.

Mating Sand Lizards/ Markfirben. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

The moths:

I only had three different moths species in the traps today. Actiontia polydon “Lilla perikonugle” was a new species for me.

Actiontia polydon “Lilla perikonugle”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

In the afternoon, I went to the bog and found a caterpillar of Malacosoma castrensis “Redespinder”.

At the station. Marit Nillissen, Henrik Böhmer, Thomas Kristensen, Joseph Stephan, Levi van den Os, Emma Gray and Hanelie Sidhu

Morning observations:

This morning was again really slow. We started off with quite some migrating Common terns “Fjordterne”, but as time went on, migration decreased. In the last time interval, we got 120 Common scoters “Sortand”, which is very low. The migration season is coming to an end. Thomas and I did have a good chat, so despite the slow migration, it was a nice morning.

Todays observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

It was a slow morning with more walking than work at the nets or in the lab. But there was also a surprise in the net, we caught a Thrush Nightingale “Nattergal”.

Nattergal "Thrush Nightingale"

At nine a german family came to the station who wished to see the ringing. They were lucky, I had some birds and could show them a Wren “Gærdesmutte”, two Chaffinches “Bogfinke” a Chiffchaff “Gransanger” and explained about ringing and the activities of the station.

The moths:

Not many moths today but I had one new for the season, Spilosoma lubricipeda “Almindelig tigerspinder”.

Spilosoma lubricipeda “Almindelig tigerspinder”.

At the station: Thomas Kristensen, Marit Nillissen, Joseph Stephan, Levi van den Os, Emma Gray and Hanelie Sidhu

Morning Observations:

Levi and I went up to the observation spot without any expectations of a fantastic migration day, but we did hope it would be better than the last two days, which had been really slow. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case today either. The migration of red-throated divers “Rødstrubet lom” was okay today, and they came quite close, so we got a really good look at them. But that was probably the only highlight of the day. With only four different species over a period of time, you can’t exactly say that much else was happening. But we had a good time, and after about half an hour, David came up and joined us for a chat. So, a nice morning—even without birds.

Today's observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

Not all nets could be opened due to the wind this morning. First round just gave one bird, I saw it flying in and ran after it, it was an adult male Sparrowhawk “Spurvehøg”. Most of the team came to see the small, charming Hawk.

Sparrowhawk ad. male/ Spurvehøg ad. han. Pictures: Emma Gray

As in most raptor species of Accipitriformes, Falconiformes and Strigiformes, there is a reversed sexual size dimorphism (RSD) in Sparrowhawks which means, that the male is smaller than the female. The size of the female is a factor for a successful recruitment into the breeding population: Larger females are favored while the body size of the male does not seem to have a significant impact. There are many hypotheses for the reasons of RSD in raptors (MacDonald et al. 2004, Schoenjahn et al. 2020).

The day did not bring many more birds, in the last hour, the wind dropped, and the closing round was the round with most birds.

The moths:

As the morning was a bit windy and I had already heard the wind when I woke up one time in the night, I was not expecting many moths. I had seven different species plus one slash-species Hada plebeja “Kurvbomst-ugle” was new for the season and also Notodonta ziczac “Zigzagspinder” was new for this spring at BLF. I found Chloroclyster siterata later on the wall, this one as well is new for this year, last autumn I had it already here.

Hada plebeja “Kurvbomst-ugle”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Notodonta ziczac “Zigzagspinder”

At the station: Joseph Stephan, Marit Nillissen, Levi van den Os, Emma Gray, David Manstrup and Hanelie Sidhu

Morning observations:

Today Thomas and I went on the morning observations while Marit went ringing. Unfortunately this was probably the worst morning observation we've had this season, with extremely low variety and only the scoters "Sortand" in high numbers. It was very nice weather however and the sun was actually so warm I could take off my coat.

Today's observations can be seen here.

In the afternoon Emma, Marit and I went on a little adventure to the beach to collect some bags of shells for Joseph's little tern project. With high efficiency and a bunch of sand sifting, we managed to fill the bags in only an hour! Pulling the cart back to the station was quite the workout though. Below some pictures of the whole thing.

Little Tern Team getting ready to collect some shells. Picture: Marit Nillissen

Emma and Levi working hard. Picture: Marit Nillissen

The struggle and joy of collecting shells. Picture: Emma Gray

The ringing:

After coming back yesterday evening I was welcomed by quite a good number of birds in the morning, we had 48 new plus seven recaps.

The first Icterine Warblers “Gulbug” at BLF arrived today, four of them, both in the station as well as in the lighthouse garden.

Icterine Warblers/ Gulbug. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

We also had a Starling "Stær" couple, male and female in the net, it looked like the female had some eggs in its belly.

Female and male Starling/ Hun og han stær. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

A Sonechat "Sortstrubet Bynkefugl" in the net was another nice surprise, we often see them in the bog but rarely catch them.

Stonechat/ Sortstrubet Bynkefugl. Picture: Marit Nillissen

Kystfugle Project

Today was the first truly exciting day for our ROLA (Records of Location and Activity) here in Blåvand!

We observed 12 Little Terns (a.k.a. "dwarfs") and 3 pairs of Ringed Plovers mingling and preparing to nest within the fenced area. Even more promising: we may have our first Little Tern eggs inside the electric fence! One individual remained on its scrape for 2 hours and 30 minutes while being fed by its partner - a strong indicator that incubation may have begun.

We also managed to read two new colour rings on the Little Terns.

To celebrate Thomas and I hissed the Nationalpark Vadehavet flag!

the station at the moment; Photo: Joseph

In the afternoon, I headed to Rømø with Kim F. to check the fencing, create anti crow spikes, artificial nests, and set up trail cameras. Just like in Blåvand, we placed the nests along three gradients - from bare sand to dense vegetation - each located at least 350 meters outside the perimeter fence.

artificial nest with trail cam in the background; Photo; Joseph

Now we wait and see what predators show up...

Tomorrow, we tackle the sand drift - my worst enemy at the moment!

Stay tuned for more updates from the field!

The moths:

Although a little tired after the journey, I was setting up the moths traps again yesterday evening and was a bit excited if I would get many new ones now, that I was a while away. There were not so many in the morning, eight different species, plus one that needed to remain a slash species. I will show Clostera curlula “Lille Maneplet”, it is new for Blåvand this spring as well as Eupithecia nanata “Smalvinget lyngdværgmåler”, which is new for the place and new for me.

Clostera curlula “Lille Måneplet”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Eupithecia nanata “Smalvinget lyngdværgmåler”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

At the station: Marit Nillissen, Thomas Kristensen, Levi van den Os, Joseph Stephan, David Manstrup, Emma Gray and Hanelie Sidhu

Morning observation

This morning, it was just Thomas and I as Levi wished to sleep in. We started the morning good with some nice species migrating, such as the Razorbill “Alk”, Common eider “Ederfugl” and Velvet scoters “Fløjlsand”. The other time intervals were okay, but it slowed down as the time continued. The weather was nice and sunny, but a bit windy. We were hoping that the wind would push the migration a bit more, so we could get higher number. But that didn’t happen.

After the obs, I joined the ringing to help Morten out.

Todays observations can be seen here.

Ringing

Today was the last day Morten took over the ringing, as he is headed back home again. Hanelie (or as Joseph likes to call her: "The G.O.A.T") will take over the ringing again as she is back from Gedser! It was a good day for the ringing with many Willow warblers “”Løvsanger”. Morten even got enough birds to take many bloodsamples; he got around 100 samples throughout the week! After standard time, the nets were open for one more hour, were we caught a female Black Redstart “Husrødstjert”.

Black Redstart. Picture: Morten Jenrich Hansen

At the station: Emma Gray, Joseph Stephan, Thomas Kristensen, Morten Jenrich Hansen, Levi van den Os, Marit Nillissen, Hanelie Sidhu