This morning, we probably had the strongest winds of the season, with gusts of winds as high as 22 m/s. Naturally this meant we were not able to open the mist nets today. Instead of walking the rounds in the gardens I went for a walk in the dunes and on my way back to the station I checked on the fenced off breading area of the Little terns. Part of the fence did not withstand the high tides and the strong winds of late. With a little afford and some time I hoisted the fence back up. In the process of fixing the fence I learned that the electrical current that goes through the fence, protecting the breading birds from predators, works just fine. The rest of the day was quite uneventful. Michael and I lazed around the station and I did some work on my project.

The weather predictions for tomorrow say that there will be some rain early in the morning and a westerly wind of 9 m/s. It remains to be seen if we will be able to open the nets.

People at the station: Michael and Maxim

This morning Maxim and I opened the nets at the standerd time and for a change, we caught some birds. in total we caught 2 controls and 7 new birds. One of the controls was a 1k blackbird from last week and 4 of the new birds where young tree sparrows, of which one we caught with a spring trap. 

After ringing I went to the beach to see if there where any new ringed plovers to ring. I came across the first young little terns of the season in the enclosure. I also ringed 2 young ringed plovers in a walk of about 2 km over the beach. 

After the walk over the beach, I discovered the first scarce chaser of Blåvand. Unfortunately, I didn't have a my camera with me and when I came back with my camera, I couldn't find it anymore. 

With the weather prediction of strong winds this morning I woke up knowing that the possibility of opening the nets was slim. And to no surprise this was correct. It was surprising however that Michael was already out in the dunes searching for birds to ring. And he had some success! Ringing a juvenile Skylark and recapturing one he ringed the 17^th of May.

Juvenile Skylark caugth in the early hour of the morning - Note the long toe nails

With no ringing in the morning Michael and I went back to bed to catch up on some sleep. Later in the morning I worked on my project while Michael went back out in the dunes where he heard a Bluethroat singing on the north side of the “lake”. Michael also found a bush where a Shrike pair are supposed to nest, but he had no luck finding the actual nest just yet. In the afternoon Bent came by to see how the two of us were doing before heading out to the coast to check on the fenced off breeding area of the Little terns and Collared plovers.

Later in the afternoon the wind died down a bit and so the nets were opened in both gardens. This resulted in ringing 4 juvenile Great tits and three recaptures.

One of the juvenile Great tits of the day

People at the station: Bent, Michael and Maxim

Jeg havde min sidste dag på fuglestationen lørdag, hvor jeg blev afhentet midt på eftermiddagen,men
holder nu kontakten med den hollandske M&M duo og lovede, at skrive søndagens blog som min sidste opgave.
Jeg gik nu ikke  glip af meget ved at værre taget hjem.

Foråret og trækket af fugle har virkelig sluppet speederen de seneste uger, så det nu virker til, at det kun er sommerens faste ynglefugle, der er i området.

Vi skal lige et par uger længere ind i sommermånederne før returtrækket af vadefugle kommer i gang og sætter kulør på tilværelsen ved Blåvand fuglestation.

Maxim og Michael havde nogle net åbne i morgentimerne, men var presset af for meget vind til at kunne arbejde med alle net.
Deres forsøg på fangst og ringmærkning af nogle fugle slog da også fejl – de fangede ikke en eneste fugl i de timer, hvor de havde net oppe! 

De tog dog lidt revanche senere på dagen, hvor de fik ringmærket et kuld Gransanger unger fra en rede i Fyrhaven og 3 unger af Stor Præstekrave på stranden.

Ellers vil jeg blot benytte mine sidste linjer af bloggen til at sige tusinde tak til alle involverede ved Blåvand Fuglestation for, at give mig muligheden til at hjælpe med ringmærkningen endnu et forår.

Det giver altid en masse spændende oplevelser i naturen herude og møde med søde mennesker på fuglestationen.
Både de faste folk i gruppen omkring Blåvand fuglestation, de besøgende gennem foråret af både enkelt personer og grupperne af weekend møder blandt DKU, SU og Club300.
Ekstra tak går til Maxim, Michael, Bianca, James, Lisa, Jimmy, Freya, Lucas og Mallory, der har holdt mig ud i kortere eller længere tid som ringmærkningsinstruktør og bofælle.
De har alle været søde og taget hensyn til den mærkelige gamle mand i flokken af unge naturentusiaster ????

Nu venter jeg spændt på at se, hvad Maxim og Michael disker op med de næste 2 uger – udgangs effekten og det, at jeg er taget hjem lidt før tid pga mit udfordrede helbred, burde give garanti for en SU art eller 2 i nettene!

Held og lykke til M&M resten af sæsonen!

The morning began slow. It was better than a few days back, when we had just a few birds,but it was still really slow. for the first few hours Lucas and Mallory where still here to support us, but after a few hours, they left the Blåvand fuglestation. Hopefully they had a good time here, but it is time for their next adventure;)

The most mentionable we caught was a newborn great tit. They are incredibly cute and another advantage of the young ones, they don't bite that hard. The ringed parents know the nets very well, they are both ringed of course, and managed to avoid the nets while alarming. 

While ringing Morten heard a bee-eeter fly by, but before we could see it, it was already gone. In the meanwhile, I also noticed a chiffchaff (ringed of course) carrying food, and that could mean only 1 thing, it has a nest with youngs nearby. after roughly half an hour, I managed to find the well hidden nest with youngs.

At the end of the afternoon, Morten also left, so the station is now in hands of the dutchies...