Observation:

Ringing:

Little tern project:

Today was a very slow day for the Little tern observation. In the two hours I was there, I only saw 2 Little terns flying, and one of them made a landing in the fence. Besides those 2 little terns, I have seen 5 Common ringed plovers walking and scraping in the fence, which was nice to see. That reminded me to go and check the nest of the ringed plover we saw on one of our first days, but sadly it was empty. I also couldn't find any traces in the surrounding area (probably because of the wind). 

The empty Common ringed plover nest, Picture by Jorn de Jong.

After checking for the nest, I noticed a part of the electric fence wiring was broken. I contacted Joseph about it and fixed it so the chances of predators coming in wouldn't be increased.

Moths of the day:

Observations:



Todays observations can be seen here.

Ringing:

Bogfinke han, picture by Alix.

Not many birds in the nets today so with four people in the ringing, there was not much to do. Alix got to know the gardens and we looked together at data entry and where spare rings are. Morten kept the nets in the station garden open in the afternoon, but did not catch any birds at all. He heard a Wryneck in the neighbouring garden, but it did not come close to the nets.

Little tern project:

Today was a short day for little tern observations because the military was unexpectedly training this morning. I wasn’t aware of this, so I was only able to observe for 45 minutes before I was asked to leave. During that time, I saw a total of 12 little terns flying, which landed in the fence 22 times.

Moths of the day

Today we had a few more moth species, 8 different ones, but still not many as I would normally expect at this time of the year. Two were new for the location for this year: see the bold marked name in the table. The Common Carpet Moth (Almindelig Bladmåler) and the Silver Y (Gammaugle). Both Common moth in Denmark (see pictures). The first generation of Silver Y’s migrate from the South to here and lay eggs and the second generation goes back to the south again.

Common Carpet Moth (Almindelig Bladmåler) and the Silver Y (Gammaugle).

 At the station : Robert Luttik, Hanelie Sidhu, Clara Delahaye, Jorn de Jong, Alix Bortolussi and Morten Jenrich Hansen.

Observations :

Today I was on my own for the morning observations. It was a shame for the others, because this morning hundreds of northern gannets were flying past non-stop before my delighted eyes.
They were coming from all directions, appearing on the horizon as large silhouettes gliding above the waves, but also really close to the shore - you could easily have observed them with the naked eye.
There were birds of all ages (except the juveniles, of course) for my great delight. I enjoy so much to age the northern gannet !
The wonder didn't end there, indeed, in the all morning, I've seen 6 arctic skua - parasitic jaeger [almindelig kjove], 2 pale morph and 4 dark morph. They all came quite closed, 5 of them coming from the south so i had plenty of time to observe them. At some point, a skua chased some little terns. Hence its well-known name, as it also steals the catch of certain species of gulls and terns, which is how they got their name. [from what i've seen, it  didn't manage to steal their fishes]. 
Besides these wonnderrfulll observations, there were also a lot of sandwitch terns migrating north ! 
 

Highlights of the day : 
Northern gannet [sule] - 309
Arctic skua [almindelig kjove]- pale morph : 2
                                                     dark morph : 4 
Sandwitch terns [splitterne] - 77

Todays observations can be seen here.

Ringing : 

Moths of the day

Today we had only 5 different species, but not strange because of the long rain period during the night and the wind in the morning. Two were new for the location: see the bold marked name in the table. It is called the Angle Shades (Agatugle) a species which can be seen throughout the year (see picture) and Ipsilon Dart Moth (Ypsilonugle) a species that flies from May till November (see picture).

Angle Shades (Agatugle) and Ipsilon Dart Moth (Ypsilonugle)

 At the station : Robert Luttik, Hanelie Sidhu, Clara Delahaye, Jorn de Jong, Alix Bortolussi and Morten Jenrich Hansen.

Observations :

There were no observations this morning due to the thick fog.

Instead, I walked around the inland areas looking for species to see or hear... apart from the common ones... I didn’t spot any other special birds. However, I did have time to watch some deers for quite a while. At first, two of them were resting on the dunes. Later, a whole herd crossed the road just a few dozen metres away from me. It was magnificent to see their antlers covered in velvet.

Here are a few sketches from my field observations :

A deer standing over the dunes, drawing by Clara


A hare resting in the inland, drawing by Clara


Ringing : 

When we came down from our bedrooms this morning, we could already see the fog in the light of the lighthouse. Foggy days also mean days with low winds, but as long as it does not suddenly clear up, they usually do not bring so many birds. That was also the case today, but we did get some nice ones and two firsts for the season: A Sedge Warbler “Sivsanger” and a Garden Warbler “Havesanger”. Also a Wryneck “Vendehals” in the net.

Sedge Warbler "Sivsanger". Picture by David.

Garden Warbler "Havesanger". Picture by David.

Wryneck "Vendehals", picture by David.

After ringing, Robert and I exchanged a net in the lighthouse garden. It is ready now to catch many birds again!

Yesterday evening, I went to the bog and watched and listened the Bluethroat “Blåhals” singing just for me.

Bluethroat "Blåhals". Picture by Hanelie.

Moths of the day : 

Today we had only 13 different species. One was new for the location: see the bold marked name in the table. It is called the Obscure Tortrix (Clepsis senecionana, no Danish name) and this species you can find in the picture below.

Obscure Tortrix (Clepsis senecionana)

At the station : Robert Luttik, Henrik Bøhmer, Hanelie Sidhu, Thomas Kristensen, Clara Delahaye, Jorn de Jong and David Manstrup.

Observations : 

The southerly wind has brought us a large number of red-throated divers migrating northwards!
This is the largest number recorded since the start of the season – 573 in total. We were delighted to see them arriving in flocks of up to 30, high on the horizon.

We also spotted, amongst the flocks of common terns/ arctic terns (which numbered 490 today), two black terns quite close by and several little gulls.

Highlights of the day :
Red-throated loon [rødstrubet lom] - 573
Common tern/Arctic tern [fjordterne/havterne] - 490
Sandwich tern [spliiterne] - 46 
Black tern [sortterne] - 2
Black-headed gull [hættemåge] - 57
Little gull [dværgmåge] - 5

Todays observations can be seen here.


Black tern [sortterne] resting, drawing by Clara


Ringing : 

Lille Gråsisken, picture by Hanelie.

Although the wind was coming from the south this morning, we did not catch so many birds today. But While Redstarts “Rødstjert”, Pied Flycatchers “Broget Fluesnapper” and Common Whitethroats “Tornsanger” did not show up today, There were still Chiffcaffs “Gransanger” and Willow Warblers “Løvsanger” and Lesser Whitethroats “Gærdesanger”, the two last could be sampled for the West-Nile Virus. Morten left to Aarhus today, but he will be back for more sampling on Monday. There was also a ringing tour this morning, and the participants were lucky enough to see a female Starling “Stær” in hand. She also behaved well and did not scream.

Little tern project : 
This morning, Joseph and I visited the exclosure for the second time to do the observations, and the difference compared to yesterday was enormous. In the first 20 minutes alone, we had more landings in the fence (7) than we did during the entire observation yesterday. The terns were very active, frequently displaying courtship behavior and making multiple attempts to build some nests. In total, about 20 individual little terns, of wich 7 were color ringed, were seen today. There were also a total of 44 landings within the exclosure.

One of the color-ringed terns we saw during the observation was Y5J. This tern was first spotted by Joseph at the shoreline, where he was presenting a fish to tern U14 with great success, as can be seen in the picture below. 30 minutes after his successive courtship attempt, he was seen scraping the sand in the exclosure in an attempt to make a nest, which was really nice to see.

Little tern Y5J and U14 after a successfull courthship attemt, picture by Joseph Stephan.

On the left tern Y5J can be seen makin a nest, picture by Joseph Stephan.

After the observation, Joseph and I collected and cleaned up the trash lying in the area around the fence to keep the habitat for the terns (and the other birds, of course) as natural and clean as possible.

Jorn dumping the trash we collected after the observation, picture by Joseph Stephan.

Moths of the day

Today we had a very good moth night and caught 24 different species. Ten were new for the location this year: see the bold marked names in the table. I choose the picture of the Shears (Kurvblomst-ugle) and the Small Emperor Moth (Lille Natpåfugleøje) to show you in the blog.

Coming back to the dispersal of Bagworms (Sækbærer). I found two ways of dispersal. One is hanging on a silk wire and be moved by the wind. The other way is that the females are eaten by birds and the eggs are not digested and distributed by fecal deposits.

Shears (Kurvblomst-ugle) and Small Emperor Moth (Lille Natpåfugleøje)

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

Observations :

The highlight of the day was a magnificent black tern [sortterne]  heading south whilst feeding!
It was another first for me; I’m really happy because it was one of the species I wanted to see during my stay in Blavand, and now I’ve seen it :)

This gave me the opportunity to find out a bit more about its behaviour and its range. 

Like so many other species, this species is in sharp decline across most of Europe. Like many others, it is threatened by the destruction of its habitats. The black tern nests in colonies on bodies of fresh water: marshes, lakesides or riverbanks. A variety of human-induced factors threaten these habitats: land development involving the drainage of wetlands, as well as water pollution and eutrophication.

This reminds us of our collective responsibility, and the responsibility of the policies put in place to best preserve the remaining habitats. Especially as bird lovers and birdwatchers, we can also play an active part in these conservation efforts at our own level.

There you go, all these thoughts just from observing this very special black tern! I’ll leave you with the other cheerful news of the day after this little 15-minute political interlude !

Todays observations can be seen here.

Ringing : 

Some birds in the nets today: We are using a lot of F-Rings, as we have many Chiffchaffs “Gransanger” and Willow Warblers “Løvsanger”. One 3k+ Lesser Whitethroat caught our attention: It already had a Danish ring, t I did not recognise the ring number. Maybe a foreign Danish recapture? It turned out that the bird was ringed at Blåvand, but in 2022 by Morten!

Lesser Whitethroat "Gærdesanger". Picture by Hanelie.

Since then, it regularly returned to Blåvand to breed and was recaptured several times every year.

In the afternoon, I went to Grønningen.  There were not many birds, but I saw my first Swift “Mursejler” of the season. Also one Spoonbill “Skestork” was feeding at a pond.

Spoonbill “Skestork”. Picture by Hanelie.

Little tern project :

This morning, Joseph and I went to the exclosure together for the first observation of the Little Tern project. Based on last year’s results, our expectations for the first day were low. Those expectations were not unfounded, because during the entire observation we saw a total of approximately 15 little terns flying, only 4 of which landed in the exclosure. Two of them were ringed (one color ring and one metal ring).

Fortunately, there are other species that can also use the exclosure. For example, we saw the first Common Ringed Plover (Stor præstekrave) that had already built a nest and was incubating her eggs, which was lovely to see.

A Common Ringed Plover (Stor præstekrave) incubating on her nest, Picture by Joseph Stephan.

The nest of the breeding Ringed plover, Picture by Joseph Stephan.

Moths of the day :

Today we found 12 different species. Three were new for the location this year: the Common Heath (Lyngmåler), the Garden Carpet (Sortbæltet Bladmåler) and the Large Birch Bright or Brown Bagworm (Sigarsækbærer). This last one is a bit of a strange moth. The caterpillars feed on lichen, but they may also eat plant remains. They live in a protective casing made of grass or bark that is usually attached to a tree. The females remain in this casing when adult and have no wings. I have found it in Gjerrild (Djursland) where I live and now also here. The species is found everywhere in Europe including for instance Scotland. When writing this I got a question. How do they move from one area to another, are the females just walking or is there another way of dispersion?

Red in the table are rare species for Denmark.

Large Birch Bright or Brown Bagworm (Sigarsækbærer)

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

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.

Observations:

No observations today due to illness. Get well soon, Clara!

Ringing:

Lesser Whitethroat/ Gærdesanger. Picture by Hanelie.

We were expecting today to be less good than yesterday, but we still had a good number of birds and it was a nice morning. Morten too, got enough birds to sample, so no one could complain. The Trans-Sahara migrants are really arriving now, today we ringed the second Common Whitethroat “Tornsanger”, and we also had some more Lesser Whitethroats “Gærdesanger”. Morten caugth a woodpigeon, that does not happen much therefor the picture.

Woodpigeon (Ringdue)

Common Whitethroat/ Tornsanger. Picture by Hanelie.

In the closing round, I found two Vipers “Hugorm”, under a net, a male and a female. They did not come for birds – the net was empty – but to enjoy the sun, and I got some nice and close pictures of them together.

Viper female and male/ Hugorm hun og han. Picture by Hanelie.

In the afternoon, Robert and I checked the bat bunker, but there were no bats anymore – I had quite a few in March. They must be somewhere not too far to breed. I wonder where…

Moths of the day

This night was a very good night for moths, we caught 20 different species. Two were new for the location this year: the Red Sword-grass (Irisugle) and the Streamer (Rosen bladmåler). The Red Sword-grass (Irisugle) is a bit strange moth (see picture). It looks like a piece of wood.

Before I came to Blåvand Hanelie promised me that she would have 2 special ones for me and this night/day they came: it was the Small Lappet (Hede-takspinder, 4 in total) and the Small Emperor Moth (Lille Natpåfugleøje) They were new species for me, so a happy man. Also the the Small Lappet (Hede-takspinder) is a funny looking moth, see picture).

Green in the table are relative rare species for Denmark and the red one is rare for Denmark.

Red Sword-grass (Irisugle)

Small Lappet (Hede-takspinder)

At the station: Clara Delahaye, Jorn de Jong, Bent Jakobsen, Morten Jenrich Hansen, Robert Luttik and Hanelie Sidhu.

Observations : 

Weather at 5.45: NE6, 2°C, 1/8, 2km visibility

It was very cold this morning; it felt as though we were back at the start of March! The difference in temperature between the sea and the air created strong heat waves on the horizon, which disrupted observations for much of the morning. We struggled to identify the birds flying beyond the reef. They were vague, barely distinguishable silhouettes, which may partly explain the rather low numbers recorded today. Apart from that, there seemed to be few birds overall.

I think my favourite moment was in the ten minutes before the end of the birdwatching session, when a group of eight northern gannets [sule], including one 4K, came to fish on the horizon and land in the waves. - I’m pretty sure northern gannets are in my top 10 favourite birds to watch :) -

Todays observations can be seen here.

 Ringing:

This morning was not bad for catching birds. And Morten was lucky: We had quite many long-distance migrants: Redstarts “Rødstjert”, Pied Flycatchers “Broget Fluesnapper”, Willow Warblers “Løvsanger” and the first Common Whitethroat “Tornsanger” of the season! Robert and I closed the lighthouse garden while Morten kept the nets in the station garden open during the afternoon to get some more birds and samples.

Lille Gråsisken. Picture by Robert.

Rødstjert hun, picture by Hanelie.

Moths of the day

This night even less moth than yesterday. Only 6 different species. I think it was just too cold this night. But we had a new species for the location for this season: The Pebble Prominet (Ziczacspinder, see pictures below).

Pebble Prominent (Ziczacspinder)

At the station: Morten Jenrich Hansen, David Manstrup, Thomas Kristensen, Clara Delahaye, Jorn de Jong, Robert Luttik, Hanelie Sidhu.

Observations:

Weather at 5.45: NW5, 6°C, 5/8, 30km visibility

Today, the migration of red-throated loons [rødstrubet lom] & common scoters [sortand]  was much slower than yesterday. But we managed to count a large number of common terns / arctic terns [fjordterne/havterne] migrating north – 590!
David and I also spotted a total of four adult arctic skuas [alm. kjove]: two pale morphs and two dark morphs. (That was my first pale morph arctic skua, so I was absolutely delighted.)

Todays observations can be seen here. 


Menu of the drawing day : some woodpeckers ! Picture by Clara 

Ringing:

This morning started very slow. In the first round we caught two Blackbirds “Solsort”. But it improved: Later, we got some Willow Warblers “Løvsanger”, a Redstart “Rødstjert”, a Brambling “Kvækerfinke”, a Pied Flycatcher “Broget Fluesnapper”.

Brambling "Kvækerfinke". Picture by Hanelie.

Pied Flycatcher “Broget Fluesnapper”. Picture by Robert.

But the big surprise of the day was the Grasshopperwarbler “Græshoppersanger”. You hardly ever see it in the field, it is just calling very dominant and characteristic, but sometimes a lucky ringer gets it in the nets and today, I was the lucky one!

Grasshopperwarbler "Græshoppersanger". Picture by David.

Moths of the day:

This night were evidently less moth flying around. We did not catch many and had only 7 different moth species. Yesterday afternoon we caught a very small day active moth: the Speckled grass-miner (no Danish name). Those small ones are difficult to make pictures of. First because they are tiny and secondly they are not sitting still. So the apps that we use are sometimes not certain about the outcome and then we have to take the books and have to study whether it is a certain species (we never kill the moths to make our life easier). And today we found another very small day active moth (5 to 6 mm): the Neat Cosmet (relatively rare and also no Danish name). See picture below.

Neat Cosmet (Mompha divisella)

In the afternoon, Morten arrived at the station, he will take blood samples of Long-distance migrants this week. These will be tested for the Vest-Nile-Virus. So we are hoping to catch many the following days.

At the station: Morten Jenrich Hansen, David Manstrup, Clara Delahaye, Jorn de Jong, Robert Luttik, Hanelie Sidhu.