This morning the weather was a little bit windy from the south, and throughout the standard time a few drops of rain kept taunting me and making me wonder if it was going to rain a lot or not! In the end, the rain never picked up and I could have all the nets open for the whole time with no problem.

The proportion of newly ringed birds and recaptured local birds is a 50/50 today, with 5 recaptures and 5 new ringed birds.

Only one ‘baby’ was recaptured today, which makes me wonder if the weather was slightly too bad for the little ones learning to fly and explore, and that maybe they preferred to stay put and safe in a bush in the garden. It was a very sweet baby Dunnock (Jernspurv) that was ringed a couple of days ago.

A little highlight of today was a beautiful male Lesser Redpoll (Lille Gråsisken), which was quite vocal in the hand; so cute!

Beautiful male Lesser Redpoll (Lille Gråsisken)

At this time of year, the birds exhibit breeding signs such as brood patches, a defeathering of the chest and belly area to better transfer heat to the eggs while incubating, as well as cloacal protrusion on males which is a protrusion of the cloaca, to better deliver sperm to the females.

These two characteristics are making it possible to sex some species that would usually not be possible to distinguish based on plumage, like the Chiffchaffs (Gransanger) for example.

The presence of a clear cloacal protrusion is indicating of a male bird, and most of the time the presence of a brood patch would indicate that the bird is a female. As a note though, some species such as Whitethroats share the incubation of eggs between males and females, so both sexes can have brood patches, making it not useful for sexing.

It is useful to know the incubation strategies of the common species when ringing breeding birds, and I am so glad that I had the opportunity to learn about breeding bird ringing at the CES site in Vestamager, Copenhagen last year. There is extra care to be taken with breeding birds who are putting all their energy into their broods, incubation, feeding of young, nest building, etc, as well as juvenile birds who are still developing, need to stay in the area they are caught for their parents to not loose sight of them, to leave them in an environment they have already explored a little bit, etc.

I find this period to be a very different type of ringing compared to migration time ringing for example, and I really like it. The birds exhibit some special behaviors and it is so endearing to catch youngs and breeding parents! I have a very nice time caring for parents and babies, and adapting my ringing routines to have as little of an impact on their day as possible.

This morning Amanda joined me again for the ringing which was so nice! She unfortunately had to drive back home to Copenhagen after the ringing as she has work on Monday, but I enjoyed those two ringing sessions and two days with her so much! I miss you already my dear!

The weather looked a bit uncertain at certain points, even with a few drops of rain from time to time. It never went bad enough to warrant us to close the nets though, which was nice. Being two people instead of me alone when the weather is looking uncertain is less stressful because if it goes chaotic, we can close and manage the nets quicker!

The morning was relatively quiet as is usual for this end of season, but we still were happy to find a few special birds in our nets!

For example, early in the session we caught a Marsh warbler (Kærsanger) which is the first of the season for the station, as well as for me! Catching these ‘Acrocephalus’ warblers is always fun, they are a treat in the hand and interesting to study. We look at the wing and a few measurements to confirm the identification in between Reed warbler (Rørsanger), Marsh Warbler (Kærsanger), and the rare Blyth’s Reed Warbler (Buskrørsanger), as they can sometimes be a little hard to differentiate by the plumage and appearance alone when not used to these species. Our little cutie was definitely a Marsh warbler!

Marsh warbler (Kærsanger)

Later in the morning we caught a beautiful breeding female Greenfinch (Grønirisk), which was the first of the season for me, and a rather rare catch for both of us!

Female Greenfinch (Grønirisk), with a presence of a brood patch indicating she is breeding in the area.

Amanda also had the pleasure of getting a sweet Lesser Redpoll (Lille Gråsisken) recapture, which she really enjoyed as it is another species she rarely gets to catch.

Female Lesser Redpoll (Lille Gråsisken)

Otherwise, still an immense joy as usual to catch some young fledglings Tree Sparrow (Skovspurv), they are the cutest!

Thank you Amanda for two very nice days together, and see you sometimes soon again I hope!!

This morning Amanda and I set off to open the nets at 4:00, and after that had a good breakfast. The wind had gone down a lot since yesterday, and we were hoping for a day with a bit more birds than what I had yesterday morning.

Some of the first birds we caught in the early morning were little fledglings Tree Sparrow (Skovspurv). These first captures set off the theme of the day because we caught quite a few fledglings of different species today!

We had the pleasure of getting the first fledgling Song Thrush (Sangdrossel), which had the most adorable short tail and wings! That little cutie was old enough to be out of the nest, but still practicing their flying skills and most definitely still taken care of by their parents.

Freshly fledged Song Thrush (Sangdrossel), note the short wings and very short tail feathers!

We also had fledgling Dunnocks (Jernspurv), as well as the first two fledgling Chaffinches (Bogfink) which were siblings (female and male) so we could see the difference of coloration of both sexes in chaffinches at this age.

Young Dunnock (jernspurv)

Another highlight of the day, which was not a ‘baby bird’, was this female Blackcap (Munk) which we recaptured with a ring from Belgium! Getting foreign recaptures like this is always very thrilling, and fun to get some more life history from the bird when the reports come back from the original ringers.

Female Blackcap (Munk) with a ring from Belgium.

Belgian ring

This afternoon, Amanda and I will try to find the Woodchat Shrike (Rødhovedet Tornskade) which Alvin and I had found around a week ago, as it would be a new species for Amanda for Denmark! If we don’t find the shrike though, perhaps we can find another interesting bird in the area!

This morning was still windy from the south / south west, and just on the limit of being too much to ring. Because of that some nets had to stay closed because they were too exposed.

During the 5 hours of standard time, the number of birds was unsurprisingly very low.  

Luckily Henrik was at the station as well and could keep me company in between rounds!

One of today’s very few birds was this beautiful Common Whitethroat (Tornsanger).

Beautiful adult male Common Whitethroat (Tornsanger)

Later this afternoon Amanda arrives to join me on the ringing for the weekend, and I’m really happy and excited about that! It has been a while since we last ringed together, back in Copenhagen.

The day tomorrow looks good weather-wise, with much less wind and even some easterly winds in the afternoon! We might consider keeping the nets open for longer than the standard time during the afternoon to try to take advantage of those winds, which usually bring good birds. Henrik has a feeling that we will catch something rare tomorrow based on the weather, and I could easily see that happening! Let’s hope we have a nice surprise!

Tune in to tomorrow’s blog to hear all about it :)

Today the weather was once again not adequate to ring in the standardized morning hours unfortunately, due to rain and strong winds.

In the afternoon also came some rain in heavy showers, and I got caught in one of them when I was out birding in the dunes! 

I did see some nice birds while being out though, including a lot of Barn swallows (Landsvale), Red-Backed Shrikes (Rødrygget Tornskade), Linnets (Tornirisk), Yellowhammers (Gulspurv), Reed Buntings (Rørspurv), lots of Starlings (Stær) where I tried to look for Rosy starling (Rosenstær) but didn't find any. 

Let's hope tomorrow will be better!

This morning was unfortunately rainy and I could not open the nets to conduct a safe ringing session. 

I took this opportunity to have a slower morning, and could use the rest of sleeping-in a little later than usual! Even though ringing is an activity I really love, it is a tough schedule to sustain for long periods of time, especially in the summer days when the sunrise is very early. So when there are some days when the weather is bad, I take all the rest I can get!

I did try to have the station garden nets open in the afternoon when the weather cleared, and had them open for around 3 hours. However, not a single bird was caught despite some birds being around! I then took some time to study some bird species from the various books the station bookshelf has to offers. 

This morning was also a goodbye, because Jorn reached the end of his internship stay and left this morning to go back home to The Netherlands. After 9 weeks, working on the little tern project with Joseph, monitoring the nests and little tern population in the Blåvand Lighthouse area, as well as working on his school assignments and reports, it was time for him to have some holidays at home with his friends and family! I wish him all the best, and will miss having him around! 

Artificial Little Tern nest with wax egg, and quail eggs. The goal was to monitor predation, as well as testing out various nesting terrains regarding to the sand drift, camoufflage, and preference of the birds.

And by the way, thank you Jorn for the amazing Frisian treats you left for the station! I have been enjoying them so much as well as learning about your culture.

Tomorrow's weather looks uncertain as of now, and I will keep monitoring it closely. But there is a possibility that the nets have to stay closed for at least a part of the morning because of rain and strong winds. We will see! 

People at the station: Alix Bortolussi

This morning was extraordinarly slow despite a change of wind direction and some cloud coverage, which are usually signs for a decent amount of birds in the ringing session.

At the 4 hour mark I had only had 4 birds in total, so I was getting a little desperate ahahah!

One of these birds though was an interesting capture, because it was already ringed from Spain! A little Chiffchaff (Gransanger) travelled all the way to Blåvand to come and breed here. This individual was a female currently breeding, which could be seen by the presence of a brood patch. My first foreign recapture since arriving in the beginning of May!

Chiffchaff (Gransanger) with Spanish ring recaptured today

After that, on the last two rounds I had a small wave of a few birds, for example two beautiful Bullfinches, a male and a female.

Male Bullfinch (Dompap)

When I came back to the station after closing the nets and ringing the last birds, Bent was visiting and we spotted a Weasel carrying a dead mouse! The little guy had had some luck and found itself a big dinner. It was both curious and shy of us, and I managed to snap a few pictures with my phone.

Our resident Weasle

Tomorrow morning might have some rain coming, so I will see how much ringing I can safely conduct!

The morning went well with some nice visits of Spotted Flycatchers (Grå Fluesnapper), some more Icterine Warblers (Gulbug), the first Dunnock (Jernspurv) fledgling and the first Starling (Stær) fledgling!

It is a lot of fun to see the ‘baby’ version of common species, and often they can look very different from their adult plumage!

Young Dunnock (Jernspurv), fresh out of the nest! Picture Alix Bortolussi

Young Starling (Stær). Picture Alix Bortolussi

I tried to leave the nets open a little longer than the standard time required because yesterday we had a small influx of birds at the end of the morning, but I had no luck today and the last two rounds were very scarce.

The Great-Tailed Grackle has unfortunately not returned to his usual spots around the lighthouse, and there were today again multiple disappointed bird watchers during the morning to see it. I wonder if it will come back!

The morning started off slow, but as the day progressed it got better and better. What I thought would be a day with less than 10 birds, ended up being a decent 25 birds total, recaptures included!

We had the surprise of catching a few unringed Icterine Warblers (Gulbug), which is a species that should start to migrate away from our locality around now and we were expecting to catch some already ringed resident birds more than new birds. Nice surprises!

Icterine Warbler (Gulbug). Picture Alix Bortolussi

I also caught my first Firecrest (Rødtoppet Fuglekonge) of the season, which was a cute little female.

Female Firecret (Rødtoppet Fuglekonge). Picture Alix Bortolussi

During the second half of the morning Saxe, a young Danish birder I first met in Skagen Fuglestation, joined me and we took some rounds together. I was happy to catch some interesting birds to show him, Spotted Flycatcher (Grå Fluesnapper), Crested tit (Topmejse), Icterine warbler (Gulbug), Firecrest (Rødtoppet Fuglekonge), etc.

Spotted Flycatcher (Grå Fluesnapper). Picture Saxe Lind Christiansen

We were hoping to see the Long -Tailed Grackle around, as I had seen it previously earlier in the morning. Unfortunately the little rascal decided to fly towards the city and disappear from everyone’s view in the mid-morning. Hopefully it is back tomorrow morning at his usual spots!

At 10:00 Henrik and I had the pleasure of going on a guided tour with a couple of danish birders, and had some really good birds to show! We had a really good time, and I think our guests did too.

After all the nets were closed, Henrik, Thomas and I found our last energy and did some gardening work in the lighthouse garden around the nets.

Ringing:

The morning started out really slow for Alvin and I, we had a few 0 rounds in a row which was a little bit disappointing as Alvin was leaving around 08:30 to catch his train back to Skagen.

After a round, as we were walking down from the lighthouse garden to go back to the station, we saw the Great-Tailed Grackle fly really low into the lighthouse ringing garden and thought, what if it’s in a net now?!

We RAN back up to the nets and THERE IT WAS, IN THE NET. We ran towards it, but right as we tried to catch and secure him in the net, he managed to escape from us. What a crazy experience.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work out for us this time, and he flew off happily having fooled us. What a privilege it would have been to be able to see this beautiful bird in the hand, and document and measure it. Maybe in the next few days! It seems to really like the lighthouse garden and its surroundings.

Great-Tailed Grackle, the net escapist! Picture Alvin Johansson

After that crazy moment, Henrik had a juvenile Wood Pigeon (Ringdue)  in the station garden and Alvin could ring his last bird before leaving for the train station. A very cute fledgling Wood Pigeon, missing their characteristic ‘ring’ around the neck at this age.

Young Wood Pigeon, notice the lack of ring around the neck which is a characteristic trait of juvenile birds! Picture Alix Bortolussi

A very sweet way of ending Alvin’s stay, and after that Jorn Alvin and I set off to the train station and said goodbye. Alvin has had such a fantastic time during his stay here and would really love to come back in the future. During such a short period of time he has had the chance of experiencing a few of his dream birds, such as the Woodchat Shrike he found and the Greenish Warbler he noticed by a single call around the nets. It was lovely ringing together and I had such a fun time too!

My only wish is that we could have caught the Great-Tailed Grackle before he left ahahah!

In the late morning, Henrik could conduct his first ringing guided tour, a new activity he has implemented for the station! With a nice group of around 8 adults and 3 children, Henrik could take them on a personal and guided tour around the ringing gardens and nets, and of course walk them through the ringing processes and show the guests some beautiful birds up close.

These tours are available without any pre-booking, and have 3 different time slots of 10am, 11am, and 12pm, being 1h long each and are being conducted whenever the informational sign is out by the lighthouse parking lot. Really fun!