Observations

Strong WSW winds during the morning (up to 12-15 m/s) preceded a small rain front and a posterior shift in the winds to WNW. These conditions proved to be unproductive for "continental" wader passage, but very promising for seabirds and "atlantic" waders!

The morning count produced almost 900 Oystercatchers, along with a variety of waders in lower numbers, some seabirds, seaducks (1800 Common Scoters, 3 Velvet Scoters, Red-breasted Merganser), etc. Also some very close-by skuas:

As it wasn't an impressive result for the morning count, and last week's routine had been exausting, the counter team decided to take a rest at lunch time. What a mistake! As I got up from my nap and went for a walk to the shoreline near the station, I noticed an intense Oystercatcher migration with groups of over 100 individuals! Also some new waders feeding and resting, including a juvenile Purple Sandpiper (first of the season), and a new juvenile Little Gull.

The >5,5 h count with the whole counting team in the evening was incredible, with almost 5400 Oystercatchers! Some other waders were on the move, with the best Whimbrel and Turnstone numbers to date this season. This good evening rises up the daily total to almost 6300 Oystercatchers, what probably is one of the best numbers in the last two decades. We wish we knew that before!

Also nice gull movement with thousands of Lesser Black-backed and Common Gulls. In between these large groups moving south, many Caspian Gulls of all age classes were detected but adult dominance, rising the total up to 64. 

Ringing

Today, the weather was too windy for us to reach the standard net amount. Because Alba and I had made an (unfortunately unsuccesful) attempt at night catching from around 2 am, we decided to sleep in and get some much needed rest. In the spirit of keeping rings on our mind, Johan and I watched The Fellowship of the Ring: Extended Edition (!) during the slow morning.

I would, however, not accept a day with no birds caught, so at 11:00 I opened a few sheltered nets, which brought us one new Icterine Warbler and one recaptured Willow Warbler! Alba and I also got to give a German visitor a tour around the nets and she was lucky enough to be present for the catching and ringing of the Icterine. After 1.5 hours of opened nets however, rain clouds started forming and we decided to close the nets again.

So all in all, another eventful day for the ringers at Blåvand:

At the station: Alba, Johan, Ida, David, Lois, Nico, Miguel

Observations:

Westerlies are still the prevailing wind, with a moderate southwest blowing today. Good visibility conditions and absence of heavy rain allowed the counts de be continued normally.

Despite not being a crazy migration day, numbers and diversity were still good. A Temminck's Sandpiper was the main highlight, but other species flew by the shore in good numbers: almost 1400 Oystercatchers, 143 Red Knots, 156 Dunlins, Ruffs, Curlew Sandpiper... Also some duck movement, with 6 Shelducks and Teals, Eiders or some Velvet Scoters.

Adult Dunlin (Calidris alpina) migrating southwards past Blaavandshuk.

This proves that the coming days could be worth it to continue!

Ringing:

Ringing was, again despite the weather theoretically being close to ideal for catching lots of birds (rain in the late night followed by a shift in the winds), very slow and boring. The only consolation was another beautiful female Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus), but otherwise, we were all pretty bored and demoralized. It ended up only becoming 9 caught birds in total, with 7 of them being new birds and 2 being recaptures. With winds picking up during the morning and no prospects of catching even half-decent numbers of birds, we closed everything after standard was done.

List of birds caught today:

About an hour after standard was done, Johan was so kind as to drive Strummer to the airport, as they're migrating to London for about a week before returning here to Blåvand. In the meantime, we hope to catch some sick ass birds doing nightcatching to supplement the practically no birds we get during the day :)

Later in the day, Leon also left the station, as danish school starts up again soon. With Anton having left yesterday, that means we're down to only 7 volunteers at the station (for about 1 whole day before 4 new people bump the number up to 11 again).

At the station: Alba, Johan, Strummer, Ida, David, Lois, Nico, Miguel, Leon

Observation

Moderate southeast winds during the night and the morning in the 4th of August, along with very soft rain during the night and good cloud cover were quite promising for wader migration at Blaavandshuk.

The day started with a notable variety and good numbers of waders, particularly interesting when it comes to "continental" species, such as Shanks, Sandpipers or Plovers. Passage continued during the whole day, slowing down progressively in the evening.

Many birders at the Wader Spot and a 16.5 h count provided over 5,000 waders southwards! Oystercatcher was the dominant species with over 1,700 individuals, but Dunlin, Red Knot and Bar-tailed Godwit made a good contribution with 868, 586 and 350 birds respectively. Tringa species were abundant in the early morning with 50 Greenshanks, 7 Spotted and 282 common Redshanks, and 3 Wood Sandpipers plus 10 Green Sandpiper. Some other interesting records were a Temminck's Stint, 7 Spotted Redshanks and Little Ringed Plover. Other species detected included Whimbrels, Curlews, Curlew Sandpiper, Turnstones, Ruff, etc.

Some ducks brough some variety appart from waders, with 3 Goldeneyes, 5 Eiders, Velvet Scoter and some Graylags, Gadwalls, Eurasian Teals, Red-breasted Merganser...

All these birds contributed to a very funny day for the observer team from Spain and all the birders who joined the counts!

Ringing

While today was another overall slow day of migration ringing, we were rewarded with a long awaited first of season! We caught two female Redstarts (Rødstjert) which were absolutely stunning in the hand. 

Besides that, other highlights included a 2k+ Lesser Whitethroat (Gærdesanger) and another Treecreeper (Trælober), bringing our total for the season up to five!

We kept nets open until 7, catching around one bird an hour (still doing net runs throughout dinner and the ringing team watchparty of Project Hail Mary). Afterwards, I completed my nightly humiliation ritual of catching 0 birds night catching.

The Strummer Edwards nightcatching experience at this point in the season

Observations:

Ringing:
We awoke today with hearts filled with hope and supplemented with coffee. The wind was direct eastern and with only 3m/s we rushed out to open every single net for maybe the first time since I've joined the station. Sadly the birds didn't join in the hype and mostly stayed away. We ringed/read a total of 17 birds across 11 species from 4:57 - 16:49. Highlights included a very photogenic Lesser Whitethroat (Curruca curruca), a juvenile Eurasian Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) with the same affinity for the lense, and a Common Whitethroat (Curruca communis) that was first ringed in 2022.

Juvenile Eurasian Blackcap (Sylvia atricacilla)

A very beautiful Lesser whitethroat (Curruca curruca)

In the "extracurricular activities" coloumn we attempted a twitch of the Great-tailed Grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus) which was spotted in Esbjerg. After dipping the yankee, we returned and and got a visit from Tv2Syd. If you want to see the volunteers on the screen you can tune in tonight at 19:30 :)

Todays ringing numbers:

 At the station: Alba, Johan, Strummer, Ida, Henrik, David, Lois, Nico, Miguel, Leon, Anton

Observations

Early morning count started with west-southwest moderate winds and a rain front getting close to land. These conditions were apparently very promising for seabirds!

The expectations were well achieved with a very nice and close Manx Shearwater (Puffinus puffinus) flying southwards, very close to land. Good views for all the six observers at the moment of this scarce, but regular species in Blavandshuk.

Views from the shore south of Blaavand.

Tern numbers were again quite high, and some wader movement included a few small groups of Grey Plover and juvenile Dunlins.

A late evening walk along the beach south of the station allowed us to see most of the common seaducks and diving species in the area, with nice calm, sunny and clear conditions.

Ringing

The ringing was very slow today, with a total of only 2 newly ringed individuals (one during standard time, one after) and 4 recaptures. This was partly owed to (the risk of) heavy showers during the morning, which had us opening and closing some net sections to be safe. 

Species ringed today:

People at the station: David, Nico, Lois, Miguel, Alba, Ida, Strummer, Leon, Anton, Henrik

The weather today was similar to yesterday weak westerlies (shifting to WSW in the evening) with disperse showers alternating with sun and good lighting conditions for counting.

Many Terns are already using the Blåvand area while foraging and resting during the day, so the first hours after sunrise and the last before sunset are good opportunities for counting them while they come from the south and return, respectively. Over 4000 Common, 45 Arctic and 600 Sandwich Terns were counted during the 3h census in the morning, and over 6400 Terns in total were estimated to be present along the day (but could be even more!). More Arctic Skuas were also seen these last days.

Three Greater Scaups southwards in the late evening count were a good sighting, during an otherwise quiet observation period, at least for two migrants.

Ringing

Unfortunately it continues to be a very slow time ringing here at Blaavand, with fewer than ten birds caught for the day.  The highlight of the day  was another Treecreeper (Trælober), a sepcies which has been a frequent capture this season.

Observations:

Eastern and southern winds from the last couple of days were replaced by weak westerlies, with a small rain front just southwest of Blaavand for most of the day. 

These conditions proved to be very good for Oystercatchers. Over 1300 were counted, but the real number of birds passing during the whole day could be even higher. There were some other waders on the move, but with much lower counts: Bar-tailed Godwits, Red Knots, Sanderlings...

Close groups passing just over the shoreline allowed good photographic opportunities to study ageing, sexing and intra-species variation in some features.

Ringing:

The eastern winds of yesterday have left us and the north-western winds have returned. These are not the ideal conditions for ringing, which is reflected in the fact that we only caught 8 birds today. It did not help that we had to close the nets after only 3 hours due to rain, and the looming threat of heavy rain showers on the weather radar kept us from opening them again, thus ruining the standard time :(

During the little time we did get to ring, Johan had the opportunity to show his visiting father how ringing is done, as well as showcase his skills at extracting and handling the birds, which have improved greatly during the two weeks he's been staying so far. Johan will be leaving us for the weekend, but will return come Sunday, so hopefully he gets to enjoy sleeping in for a couple of mornings. 

After the nets were closed, Henrik talked with Strummer about a call he had recorded shortly before, which was confirmed to almost certainly be from a grackle! So out we went to try to find it, but it was no use, since it was nowhere to be seen, probably already having flown further inland. We really hope to see it again some-time in the near future, especially since most of us have never seen a grackle before.

The captures of today:

At the station: Alba, Johan, Strummer, Ida, Henrik, David, Lois, Nico, Miguel, Leon, Anton

Observations:

Easterlies since the early morning, along with clear skies, good visibility and no precipitation proved to be good conditions for shorebird migration.

Over 550 Red Knots, 100 Redshanks, 250 Bar-tailed Godwits, 26 Greenshanks and 200 Oystercathers helped to build up the numbers in the migration wader counts. Ducks also gathered good numbers, with over 3000 Common Scoters, 12 Eiders or 2 Shovelers. A couple of Red-necked Grebes migrating south were very nice for the Spanish observers.

A couple of Caspian Terns proved to be a good sighting, but the main highlight of the day was an adult Pectoral Sandpiper migrating south with three Sanderlings, that briefly stopped just by the shore. Six observers were lucky enough to see this 1st for Blåvand!

Ringing:

Today marked a record in captures for recent days, with 25 birds newly ringed and 4 recaptured. The highest numbers were in Tree Sparrows: it appeared that many juvenile birds had flown from their nest. We caught two new species for this season, a Garden Warbler (Sylvia Borin) and a Eurasian Blackcap (Sylvia Atricapilla). As the weather was very nice, we kept the nets up for some time after the standard period, during which Strummer and I made efforts to catch a very interested Wood Pigeon (Columba Palumbus), but we unfortunately failed. Strummer also came very close to luring a Wood Pigeon into the Helgoland-trap, but it was always too smart.

One of the juvenile Tree Sparrows (Passer Montanus).

A molting Greater Whitethroat (Curruca Communis).

 
An Oak Eggar (Lasiocampa Quercus) in the moth trap that Leon and Anton set out last night.

Today's totals:

At the station: Alba, Johan, Strummer, Ida, Henrik, David, Lois, Nico, Miguel, Leon, Anton

Observations:

Ringing:

With the winds finally calm enough to open all of the nets, we had high hopes of catching more birds than we've done these past few, very slow, days. The first few rounds were promising, in that we actually caught birds, and barely two hours in, we got a whole 5 birds at the Station Garden, which prompted us to call on Henrik so that he could come and observe Strummer at work. Up to this point, Strummer has had an X-license in Denmark, which means that they cannot yet ring independently, despite the fact that they have plently of experience handling and ringing birds in America. This has been because Henrik wanted to make sure that they can confidently identify and age/sex the birds we have here in Denmark, which he confirmed during the next two hours of ringing in which Strummer got priority for ringing/extracting birds. Satisfied with what he saw, Henrik then wrote a recommendation, and only about half an hour after sending an application to the danish Ringing Administration, Strummer finally got their C-license!

During the "exam", Strummer got to ring/handle some very nice birds, such as a Redpoll (Acanthis flammea/cabaret) and a Eurasian Treecreeper (Certhia familiaris)

Eurasian Treecreeper (left) and Redpoll (right). Picture: Strummer

After standard, three guided tours showing ringing here at Blåvand Bird Station were on offer, however no-one showed up at the sign advertising this, so we ended up just going normal rounds for another three hours. At around 12, Henrik and I (Alba) began to close the nets, starting at the Lighthouse Garden. In the middle of this, I began to hear familiar bird calls, and just as it clicked which species it was from, Henrik had called it out to the other volunteers. Soon after, everyone else had gathered in the Lighthouse Garden in the hopes of seeing or hearing the culprit: a Marsh Tit (Poecile palustris). These small tits are quite common in a lot of places in Denmark, but very rare out here at Blåvands Huk, and Henrik exclaimed that this was the first one he had ever heard out here. By the time the rest had arrived however, the bird had seemingly moved on, so we continued closing the nets. Just as we went down to the nets at Krattet, I saw that there was a bird hanging in the 18 meter net, and as I went past it in order to get to the opposite pole, I realized that the little Marsh Tit had not escaped us after all, and was indeed hanging in the net! 

After carefully extracting it, we went up to the lab where Strummer got the honour of ringing it. They only just saw the species for the first time in their life the day before, so they were very excited to get to ring one! I myself have ringed and handled quite a few at the CES site at Rungstedlund, so I will admit that a lot of the excitement went a bit over my head, but it was a very fun experience nonetheless. 

Marsh Tit, a rare bird for Blåvands Huk. Picture: Leon

Throughout the whole day, we caught a whole 32 birds (24 new and 8 recaptures) and had great species variety. Hopefully the next few days will feature similar numbers/variety of birds!

At the station: David, Nico, Miguel, Lois, Alba, Strummer, Ida, Johan, Leon, Anton and Henrik

Obervations:

Just after sunrise, the wind was blowing directly and quite intensely from the west. As the hours passed, it became more and more weak, and shifted to southwest around midday. 

This change motivated some seabirds to appear, such as a Guillemot, some tens of Northern Gannets and more Arctic Terns, for example. The first juvenile Little Gull and Kittiwake of the season were seen, adding a small surprise to the otherwise quiet morning count.

Around 5:00 p.m. some Red Knot groups started migrating south, making 77 adult birds southwards until 18:00. As conditions are right, we're hoping for good numbers tomorrow!

Ringing:

Ringing was fairly slow. Even though we had 122 meters for most of the day the total amount of birds caught were 4 individuals spread out over 2 lesser whitethroats (Curruca curruca) and 2 icterine warblers (Hippolais icterina) . The 2 icterine warblers (Hippolais icterina) were respectively 1K and 2K+, so they were quite educational when it came to evaluate feather condition for me as a newer ringer. 

2K+ Icterine warbler (Hippolais icterina) with very worn feathers.

Other notable events included preparing for the winter by splitting wood for the stove. Another new experience for myself and the spaniards where Henrik also proved a capable instructor (no shins were hurt in the process)

At the station: David, Nico, Miguel, Lois, Alba, Strummer, Ida, Johan, Leon, Anton and Henrik