Ringing:

Observation:

Northwesterlies. Again. You know what that means: Awesome day for birds in Blåvand! I know it makes no sense but today turned out quite well.

The standardized observation this morning didn't have too many birds. We barely scratched 100 Meadow pipits (Anthus pratensus) and the same with Common Scoters (Melanitta nigra).

The highlight of the morning was myself spotting a shearwater that didn't look like all the others I've been seeing all season. I quickly mumbled to Anton: "Shearwater out there now... Not sooty. It's a Manx!". Anton quickly agreed and we got it reported to the birders around. A lifer for myself and to be self-found was a dream. We've only had one other this season on the 2nd of August seen by the spanish observation team, so all of us on the beach were quite pleased. Additionally this bird came maybe only 50m away from the shore, so the looks were quite a bit better than the majority of shearwater observations.

With the low numbers we decided to evacuate after obs anyway, which also turned out to be quite a good decision. only 10 minutes after arriving back at the station, the seasons first Northern Nutcracker (Nucifraga caryocatactes) came flying towards the station. I myself ran from my slumber on the couch and saw it land in a tree in our garden, and show off for 10 minutes in the top of our trees. This individual was the subspecies "Thickbilled" (ssp. caryocatactes). These are to my understanding the most common guests in Denmark, but this last week the biggest invasion has been of the siberian "Slender-billed" subspecies. So this made our obs a bit more special than all the other (This is not just me coping for it not going in our nets).

Our very own Northern Nutcracker (Nucifraga caryocatactes caryocatactes ). Captured by Anton Ræbild Jensen

A Yellow-browed warbler (Phylloscopus inornatus) was also heard in the station garden around 2pm. As this being the individual ringed earlier in the day can't be ruled, it ends as a footnote on todays blog.

Blåvand x Birds = greatest lovestory of all time

Todays observations:

At the station: Strummer, Johan, Anton, Alex, Bello, Britt

Ringing:

My first blog since returning to ringing, and only because Mathilde took the day off. If you're an avid reader of the blog you have probably noticed that we've enjoyed how much she enjoys writing the blog posts :)

Today was an incredibly slow day. We (Strummer and Johan) ringed 9 new birds and handled one recaptured Eurasian Blackbird (Turdus merula) from this August. The suspects were the usual ones; Common Chiffchaffs (Phylloscopus collybita), Eurasian Chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs) and European Robins (Erithacus rubecula).

Our recap Eurasian Blackbird (Turdus merula) captured by Johan Them Steffensen

The ringing numbers so you can render your own verdict of the day: 

Observation:

Like the ringing, it was a slow morning for the obs with very low numbers of everything apart from gannets (Morus bassanus). It was a letdown for Anton, who is usually the one counting passerines when we're out, but a good day for me, who has been on scoter (Melanitta nigra), diver (Gavia stellata) and gannet counting duty. Although I only have three species to focus on at least I always have something to count!

We ended with 338 gannets today, a very solid count. We try to count them by age when possible, which is is often quite easy as soon as you get the hang of it. In simple terms, the 2-year olds are very dark all over, the 3-years are halfway in moulting their black feathers, the 4-years often just have a black bar at the back of the wing or are in the middle of moulting them, leaving what looks like black piano keys. It's on days like these where you can get some practice with the gannets given the lack of everything else. 

Today's observations

At the station: Strummer Edwards, Mathilde Sif Eiby, Anton Ræbild Jensen, Storm Hauris Borum and Johan Them Steffensen

Ringing: Before telling you about today's standardized ringing, we got a surprise last night! Strummer was doing a bit of night catching, and they caught a Sanderling (Sandløber)! What a lovely, and different textured bird compared to all the passerines - looks more like a plush toy to me, because of those thick dense feathers, and maybe the huge round eye. The proportions are quite interesting as well, with the longer neck and longer bill. 

A young Sanderling, aged by the lack of all-black tertial feathers. Pictures by Johan Them Steffensen.

In today's normal ringing we had decent numbers as well with 51 birds of 12 different species in the nets. Most prominent of the day were as usual the 14 Robins (Rødhals), the 11 Chiffchaffs (Gransanger) and the 9 Blackcaps (Munk) - funnily enough all 9 in the station garden. My favourite species of the day was the Blue Tit (Blåmejse), of which I had two young birds in the same net. 

Look at those colours! A beautiful young Blue Tit, aged on the duller feathers in the wing feather group called greater coverts - right there on its shoulder. Picture by Mathilde Sif Eiby.

Today's numbers:

*loading*

Observation: Today was a much slower day than yesterday. The weather was nice, but the weak wind from the west-northwest gave lower numbers of birds migrating through. The most dominant species were the pipits, with over 240 Meadow Pipits (Anthus pratensis) flying past, and the loons, with over 320 Red-throated Loons (Gavia Stellata) flying south. Good numbers of Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) and Cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo) were also seen, but otherwise most of the numbers were quite low.

Just as the obs of today were shaping up to be a bit boring, Henrik suddenly shouted, “Listen, Richards Pipit!” as a pretty sizeable and heavy Pipit flew close by us. The Pipit gave off clear and loud vocalisations that sounded nothing like what you would expect of a Pipit - the sounds were almost sparrow- or lark-like. 

Richards Pipit (Anthus richardi) was yet another species I (Anton) have never seen before, and it is the sixth species of Pipit we have seen at obs in just the last seven days! Now we only need Blyth's Pipit (Anthus godlewskii), Water Pipit (Anthus spinoletta), and Tawny Pipit (Anthus campestris) to have seen all the Danish species of Pipits at obs this season

Ringing:

Let’s get back to another slow day at ringing in Blåvand! Myself, Strummer and Storm manned the ringing team and apparently that was more than enough. We kept spirits high but only got visited by 19 newly ringed birds and 3 recaptures. In this stack we had some cool specimens that included a Eurasian Blackbird (Turdus merula), that seemed to have skipped a greater covert in its moult. A very easy limit to see. Other than that we had a decent amount of thrushes in the opening rounds today, and to top it off a male Eurasian Bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) that gave some great runway looks. Always a great bird.

The moult limit can be seen even by the most untrained eye. Weird bird. Photo: Johan Them Steffensen.

Beautiful Eurasian Bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) that needs no introduction. Photo: Johan Them Steffensen.

Observation: 

Yesterday was a bit slow, especially after the doozy of an obs we had the day before yesterday (01-10/2026). Today we were lucky enough to be blessed with better winds from the south (i.e. no more of the dreadful wind from the northwest), and it rewarded us with a pretty fruitful day at obs.

Firstly, the numbers were pretty decent. With over 4500 Chaffinches/Brambling (Fringilla coelebs/F. montifringilla) moving through, and other highlights like over 50 Songthrushes (Turdus philomelos) and over 320 Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) flying past, it was a more than satisfactory day. 

Secondly, the rarities were also present. Notably, the Pallid Harrier (Circus macrourus) from yesterday and the day before was still in the area, and it gave yet another great showing. An Olive-Backed Pipit (Anthus hodgsoni) also flew by early into the obs, but unfortunately, no one from the station heard it. A Little Bunting (Emberiza pusilla) passed close by obs around 08.40, which I (Anton Ræbild Jensen) luckily heard, as I have never seen the species before (shoutout to Mikkel Bello for getting it on tape).

Today's observations 

Extracurricular activities:

In the comings and goings of the station in news we have had the pleasure of being visited by Kulten from Aarhus University which is student society focusing on field biology. They found some rare birds for us today and we are hoping they’ll do the same tomorrow.

We also utilized the bad ringing winds to gather energy for some garden work. The station bois got to wield some blades and cut stuff. Nice. Who says men can’t prune.

Todays ringing numbers:

At the station: Strummer, Storm, Anton, Mathilde, Johan, Peter, Jonathan, Lærke, Jonas, Anton, Felix, Tue

Ringing: Today we reached 30 birds of 11 species. Most notably was this beautiful female Bullfinch (Dompap), that looked adult in the net, but on closer inspection had a clear moult limit in the wings, which means it must have been born this year.

Young female Bullfinch from today, sexed by the grey overall look (the sun distorts the colour here), and aged by the browner feathers in the feather group on the wing called greater coverts. Picture by Mathilde Sif Eiby.

With these slower ringing days, tomorrow I'll join Anton for the observation instead, so I can become better at distinguishing sea birds and bird calls as well. 

Today's numbers:

Observation: Although the weather today seemed promising, it was another relatively quiet day on the dunes. Nice numbers of gannets (Morus bassanus) and red-throated divers (Gavia stellata) today, but nothing extraordinary. Common scoter (Melanitta nigra) numbers also quite low, only just making it to 600 individuals. The North-Eastern winds seem to have pushed many migrants inland, including the few flocks of geese we saw, which took the route over the heath behind us rather than over the sea. Today's highlight was a pallid harrier (Circus macrourus), potentially the same individual as spotted yesterday. 

This evening, we were joined at the station by a group of young birders from Århus university, who are staying for the weekend and will join us for observation tomorrow, as well as partake in some "kratluskeri" a.k.a. bush creeping for cool birds in the Blåvand area. 

Today's observations

At the station: Strummer Edwards, Mathilde Sif Eiby, Anton Ræbild Jensen, Storm Hauris Borum and Johan Them Steffensen

Ringing: Today I was joined by Storm in the lab, since Johan was sick. We had an okay varition of birds, including some new ringing species for Storm, and a new species in the net for the season - the Black Redstart (Husrødstjert).

Coal Tit (Sortmejse) from today. Picture by Storm Hauris Borum.

Goldfinch (Stilits) from today. Picture by Storm Hauris Borum.

First Black Redstart of the season! Picture by Storm Hauris Borum

Today's numbers:

Observation: Holy s**t, today was (unexpectedly) amazing!

The wind has been pretty much the same the last couple of days, that being eastern and south-eastern winds. Now, eastern winds are, of course, nothing to complain about at Blåvand, as already clearly demonstrated by the huge number of passerines moving through lately. The thing is that changes in wind direction are just more exciting than constant wind from one direction, and I honestly expected that today would be decent, if slightly worse than yesterday… man, was I wrong!

The sunrise that met me at obs today. Credit Anton Ræbild Jensen.

Today at obs, it was just Henrik and I from the station, but I wasn’t worried, as whenever Henrik is at obs, we always document way more species. The day started at 7.15 with a beautiful sunrise and a couple of Common Scoters (Melanitta nigra) and Meadow Pipits (Anthus pratensis) moving as usual. However, at 07.32, a weird Tree Pipit-like (Anthus trivialis) bird flew past me, and Henrik asked me if I heard it. Apparently, it was an Olive-backed Pipit (Anthus hodgsoni), one of my bucket-list species for Blåvand, and I was already ecstatic about today's obs! What I didn’t know at that point was that we were just getting started, as just 40 minutes later another Olive-backed Pipit went right by, this time letting me hear it very clearly before disappearing south. 

And as if those two rarities weren’t enough, we also managed a Lapland Longspur (Calcarius lapponicus), two Pallid Harriers (Circus macrourus), and a Red-throated Pipit (Anthus cervinus). The Harriers gave us amazing views, and the Red-throated Pipit was especially amazing. It appeared right at eye level with a couple of Meadow Pipits and gave off two extremely clear and characteristic “PSEUI” calls so loud and sharp that they almost hurt our ears. The Red-throated Pipit is generally a difficult species to find, and this is the first in almost two years to be seen at the Huk.

One of the Pallid Harriers giving us excellent views on fly-by. Credit Anton Ræbild Jensen.

By this point, you, the reader, might be convinced that today was all about rarities. Usually, obs is either a game of quality or quantity (sometimes neither), but today has proved that you can, apparently, have your cake and also eat it. What I mean, in short, is that while we had a sizeable amount of really good rarities today, we somehow also managed to get amazing numbers of migrating birds. The highlights include: 2380 Common Scoters, almost 7000 Chaffinces/Bramblings (Fringilla coelebs/F. montifringilla), 104 Common Snipes (Gallinago gallinago), 184 Red-throated Loons (Gavia stellata), close to 500 Greylag Geese (Anser anser), 450 Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), and so much more!

Possibly a docu-shot of one of the Olive-backed Pipits today. Credit Anton Ræbild Jensen.

This might genuinely be one of, if not the best, days of the fall season. I will, however, keep doing my best to top today. Maybe tomorrow might have the same potential as today - we will see…

Today's observations

At the station: Strummer Edwards, Mathilde Sif Eiby, Anton Ræbild Jensen, Storm Hauris Borum and Johan Them Steffensen

Ringing: Another day of ringing brought 36 birds of 12 different species. Most notable mentions were the Red-breasted Flycatcher (Lille Fluesnapper) from yesterday, that came back for a little recap. Other than that, I had a cute couple of Siskins (Grønsisken), a male and a female (forgot to photograph the female though). 

A young male Siskin, aged from some lighter / duller wing feathers in the feather group called greater coverts, and sexed from the extend of greenish yellow and the black crown feathers.

Last day of September means we can now see the cumulated monthly numbers as well. This month we managed to ring a total of 821 birds of 34 species!

- The most prevalent species was, to noone's surprise, the Robin (Rødhals) with 271 individuals, the Blackcap (Munk) with exactly 100 individuals, and the Chiffchaff (Gransanger) with 90 individuals.

- The one of a kind species have been the Tree Pipit (Skovpiber), Meadow Pipit (Engpiber), Yellow-browed Warbler (Hvidbrynet Løvsanger), Wheatear (Stenpikker), Eurasion Jay (Skovskade), House Sparrow (Gråspurv) and Reed Bunting (Rørspurv). More honorable mentions are the Ringed Plover (Stor Præstekrave) and the Red-breasted Flycatcher of which we've caught two of each.

This month we've also handled 87 recaptures of 20 species. 30 of the recaptures were Robins.

Today's numbers:

Observations: Nice clear skies greeted us on the dunes today and we were shortly treated to a lovely sunrise over the heath. However, there was little time to enjoy the view as I was glued to the scope for the first hour, counting common scoters (Melanitta nigra) migrating past in a steady flow. The peak is always in the first hours or so after sunrise, and already within that time I had counted 800. 

We had a nice day for geese compared to the last couple days, with flocks og brant (Branta bernicla), barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis), and greylag geese (Anser anser). We are expecting a higher count of migrating geese throughout October, and hopefully a nice representation of species as well. 

Raptor numbers were good today, at least by Blåvand standards. This is not a great place to watch migrating raptors compared to migrating sea-birds, but we still had two hen harries (Circus cyanistes), three red kites (Milvus milvus), and three white-tailed eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla), as well as a very close-flying sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus). 

While checking his photos from today, Anton discovered a surprise horned lark (Eremophila alpestris) amongst his photos of other small birds (mostly finches). Although the quality is not the best, some key characteristics are still visible: black moustacial stripe down the cheek, a white supercilium (eyebrow) and pale chin. It would have been a lifer for me, if only we had noticed when it was actually there. However, I still got a lark lifer today, when I heard a wood lark (Lullula arborea) sing for the first time!

Surprise horned lark discovered amongst the small bird photos from today. Photo by Anton Ræbild Jensen. 

Todays observations

At the station: Strummer Edwards, Mathilde Sif Eiby, Anton Ræbild Jensen, Storm Hauris Borum and Johan Them Steffensen

Ringing: A surprisingly good day of ringing today! Even though we had to close halfway through the standard in the morning due to rain, we opened up again after the rain stopped in the afternoon, and got a total of 72 birds today.

Johan got to practice some more today in both labs, since I got my new license, Strummer and I are more flexible. He also got some of the cutest and trickiest birds around - the flying meatball, the tangled mess, the escape artist, the Wren (Gærdesmutte). Kært barn har mange navne.

We had the most adorable Wrens today - just look at this one! Picture by Mathilde Sif Eiby.

The lighthouse garden was significantly busier than the station garden today, but I still found another Red-breasted Flycatcher in one of the station nets, that I could surprise Strummer with. Two in one week!

 Our second Red-breasted Flycatcher in a week! Picture by Strummer Edwards.

In the afternoon Storm was helping out Strummer at the lighthouse, and they somehow got a Meadow Pipit (Engpiber) in our Helgoland Trap! As it was the first Pipit I've seen in hand, I even got to ring it - what a treat, and our first this season too!

The Meadow Pipit from today. Look how long that back claw is! Picture by Anton Ræbild Jensen.

Today's numbers:

Observation:

Despite some morning drizzle, the migration obs went pretty well with a steady number of common scoters (Melanitta nigra). This was also a great day for red-throated divers (Gavia stellata) with several flocks of up to 6 individuals flying past. A total of 143 individuals were counted today! 

Near the end of standard time, the rain sadly worsened our visibility quite a bit. However, it did draw the gannets (Morus bassanus) closer to the coast, giving us a great view of them flying past. A total of 47 gannets were counted, a great number compared to the last few days I (Storm) have been on observation. Gannets are some of my favourite sea birds and it was nice to learn how to age them from Anton. It is relatively easy as they change their plumage yearly between the 1st and 5th year from a uniform brownish, slowly turning their iconic white with black wingtips. 

There were not many other species of note today, and almost no passerines due to the unfavourable weather conditions. Sadly we did not see the local great skua (Stercorarius skua) today but we hope it's doing well wherever it has gone. 

Todays observations

At the station: Strummer Edwards, Mathilde Sif Eiby, Anton Ræbild Jensen, Storm Borum and Johan Them Steffensen

Ringing: We were expecting a more rainy morning, but in the end we actually managed our full 5 hours of standardized ringing by just delaying the opening for an hour. We didn't see a lot of birds, but Johan got to ring the few we had. Overall it's been a great first week for me in Blåvand though, and from Henrik's recommendation, I also got my C-license today, having now handled almost 750 birds of almost 50 different species!

Who doesn't love Chiffchaffs? Picture by Mathilde Sif Eiby

Today's numbers:

Observation: It is wild how much a little rain can do to a good obs...

Like yesterday, the wind was (mostly) from the south and southeast, but unlike yesterday, the visibility was low, and it rained slightly for most of the 3 hours at obs. This resulted in an absolutely pitiful obs. The only notable numbers today were the 1216 Common Scoters (Melanitta nigra) migrating past, as well as the 406 Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus) and 197 Black-headed Gulls (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) resting on the beach. Luckily, Storm was with me the whole time, and we got the most out of our time in the rain.

Todays observations

At the station: Strummer Edwards, Mathilde Sif Eiby, Anton Ræbild Jensen, Storm Borum and Johan Them Steffensen

Ringing: More new species in the net today! I'm really on a ringing streak - Strummer also keeps pointing out how different ringing has been this past week, compared to the last weeks. 

The birds were singing like crazy this morning, but surprisingly few flew into the nets. The Yellow-browed Warbler seems to be consistently coming back every day in the same net though, and with some new input from Strummer's ringing teacher, today I decided to put it as a young bird born this year (past days we haven't managed to age it). A bit later in the morning, I was suddenly also fortunate enough to get a beautiful female Reed Bunting (Rørspurv).

Our first Reed Bunting in the net this season! Picture by Mathilde Sif Eiby.

Not that long after, Strummer calls me with more great news! As they were extracting one of their dream ringing species, the Eurasian Jay (Skovskade), a Sparrowhawk (Spurvehøg) flew into the net beside them, so we both got a new ringing species today! My Sparrowhawk was behaving so well, and then came the Jay - definitely the noisiest bird, I've ever been in a room with - it's so loud, my ears were hurting!

LOOK AT THIS EURASIAN JAY. Pictures by Mathilde Sif Eiby. 

We weren't really getting anything after that, but luckily the Bird Gods are with us, and BAM, Anton calls from the obs, saying they found the Great Skua (Storkjove) just chilling right in front of them on the beach. So happy there were no birds that round, so I could run straight to see my first Great Skua!

Today's numbers:

Observations: Today was a great day at obs - probably the best I (Anton) have had since arriving. The winds (finally) changed from western to eastern winds, and the passerines certainly noticed!

With help from Henrik, Storm, and Jakob, we managed to count large numbers of migrating finches, pipits, and other passerines, as well as some migrating waders. The most prevalent species of pipit was the usual Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis), with about 545 individuals flying past. There were, however, also okay numbers of both Tree Pipits (Anthus trivialis) and Rock Pipits (Anthus petrosus), with 25 and 13, respectively. 

As for the finches, there were 128 Eurasian Siskins (Spinus spinus), 78 Linnets (Linaria cannabina) and a couple of Redpolls (Acanthis flammea) and Red Crossbills (Loxia curvirosta). The real highlight of the day (besides the Great Skua, of course) was the Chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs) and Bramblings (Fringilla montifringilla). During the just 3 hours we spent at the standardised obs, a total of 11491 Chaffinches/Bramblings flew by. According to DOF-Basen, this is the largest number of Chaffinches and Bramblings counted at standard obs since at least 2021!

And as if that wasn't enough, we also got large numbers of Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) with 710 individuals, good numbers of Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) at 115 individuals, and a decent amount of Dunnocks (Prunella modularis) at 209 individuals.

 Todays observations 

At the station: Strummer Edwards, Mathilde Sif Eiby, Jakob Hansen, Anton Ræbild Jensen, Storm Borum and Johan Them Steffensen