Morgen observation:

I started the morning watch at 6:30 in “the hole,” where I had really good shelter from the rather strong SE wind, which was blowing at around 10 m/s. I didn’t have high expectations for the day’s observation, which only made the outcome even more enjoyable – because today, a good number of birds and a wide variety of species showed up.

In fact, there was so much going on that at times I found it a bit difficult to keep up – both with writing things down and trying to spot birds moving in all directions. It’s been a long time since I’ve had that feeling on an obs, so it was super exciting.

Especially all the different wader species and the very large flocks of Eurasian Wigeon were a real treat. With 58 wigeons passing in two flocks in one short period, there was definitely plenty to look at.

On top of that, a couple of Red-throated Divers also passed by – which is always a highlight to see.

So, with 12 different species of waders and everything else, it turned out to be a fantastic day. The 12 wader species were:

• 118 Oystercatchers
• 34 Common Ringed Plovers
• 2 Golden Plovers
• 7 Grey Plovers
• 82 Red knots
• 85 Sanderlings
• 5 Dunlins
• 17 Bar-tailed Godwits
• 1 Curlew
• 5 Common Redshanks
• 2 Greenshanks
• and 13 Turnstones

With a total of 371 waders, 5 Arctic Skuas, and a beautiful 1st calendar-year Marsh Harrier trying to migrate, it turned into a really good southeasterly wind day.

THK

Ringmærkning

With the weather warnings predicting high winds and some rain, it was a pleasant surprise to have this breathtaking sunrise to start another work day!

After that the morning went by quite slowly, which gave us a good opportunity to have a detailed identification and aging session with the few birds we did get!

Lise getting very confident at telling Chiffchaffs from Willow Warblers apart, which is something that can be challenging at times! We also got a beautiful lesser whitethroat, one of my personal favorite warblers!

Since the morning conditions were not the best and this evening seems more promising, we will be night trapping and hopefully be able to update you in the morning with something diffrent!

-Lua Koplin 

Folk på stationen: Lua Koplin, Lise Mastrup, Thomas Kristensen

Observationer

Ringmærkning

Mens Lua og jeg gik og åbnede net i dag fik vi lidt småregn, så vi valgte at holde krattet og et par standardnet lukkede. Resten af formiddagen holdte dog heldigvis tørt og vi startede dagen med et par rødhalse. De er allerede blevet blandt mine favoritter herude, de er så fine at have i hånden.

Dagens første fugl, en rødhals.

Det blev en stille dag med hensyn til antallet af fugle. Vi havde nogle gensyn med både solsort og løvsanger fra de forrige dage og fangede også en ung dompap, som vidst blev forstyrret midt i sin morgenmad. Den havde i hvert fald næbet fyldt med bær, så jeg håber den fandt tilbage til dem efter vi slap den fri igen. Senere på formiddagen havde vi et par rødstjerter. Selvom de stadig var ungfugle kunne vi tydeligt se at de var hanner, for de orange og sorte farver var ved at komme til udtryk. 

Rødstjert 1k han. Dens karakteristiske sorte hals og orange bryst er så småt på vej.

Efter standardtiden sluttede holdte vi nettene i stationshaven åbne indtil eftermiddagen bød på regn, i håb om lidt flere fugle. Det blev dog ikke til mange flere, men til trods for det har det været en god dag og vi har nydt sensommersolen :) 

- Lise Mastrup

Folk på stationen: Lua Koplin, Lise Mastrup, Thomas Kristensen og Sverre Dahl Porsgaard

Observationer
Hello dear blog and loyal readers! Today was still warm, still slightly windy with wind from southeast. As always i had high hopes for the morningsibservation. I was specifically looking out for migrating loons and dabbing ducks, as they have both been somewhat decent the last couple of days. So at six AM i set out for my daily walk into the rosehipbush. The first half an hour was decent with two skuas, a light going south and a dark resting for a little while. I did howver already notice that the tide was quite high, and thus not a lot of resting gulls or waders. The common- and sandwich terns was however quite busy this morning, most going north or forraging in the area. Some gannets were also starting to show up for their favorite dinnerplace a couple hundred meters from the shore. By the time i went home roughly 90 gannets where eating fish or resting quite close to where i was seated. I could see them without telescope or binoculars, and had a fantastic view seen through my scope. I do love the diversity of gannets in the different stages of age and moulting. As always a nice sight!:)
The loons and ducks did however disappoint. Besides my usual scoters i only had a single teal duck and three red throated loons! Not a lot at all. The waders however... were also lacking.In total 18 oystercatchers (!), 4 turnstones, 6 red knots, 21 sanderlings and 3 red shanks. Not a very exciting morning if i a being completely honest. The view however was wonderful, and if birds would have shown up i would have had them in the most wonderful morning light.

Ringmærkning

With the end of August also came what I believe to be one of the last nice summer days! With nice warm weather we also had a nice variety in bird species! The morning started with a nice mix of Robins, Bullfinches and Chaffinches. Later on we got a nice streak of Yellowhammers and Redstarts!

-Yellowhammer in hand

Later we got a cute pair of Coal Tits and a few Willow Warblers, as well as one young Black Bird and beautiful Black Caps!

At around 9:30am Sverre joined Lise and I for  a few net checks and got to ring his first bird, a wounderful first year Bullfinch!

-Sverre´s first ringed bird, a young Bullfinch

Then, as we were packing up and going on our final net check round, a nice little surprise, a Sparrow Hawk looking for her morning snack in the form of a traumatised Redstart!

On our way back to the observatory I let a few present visiters know that we would be releasing the sparrow hawk fairly soon. Turns out word got around quickly and when we came back to the parking lot of the station with the ringed bird in hand, we had a nice sized group of motivated people and lots of exited children waiting for the release! This made a great chance for a little demonstration and biodiversite awareness talk from my part. Since I speak german I was able to also share some fun facts about this incredible bird with the youngest of our spectators, who seemed to quite enjoy a close look at the beautiful hawk!

-Lua Koplin

 People at Station: Lua Koplin, Lise Mastrup and Sverre Dahl Porsgaard

Observationer

Still nice and warm be the sea. A starting temperature of 17 degrees and a calm wind from southeast. David Manstrup joined me for the first two hours of the morning observation today, that was a pleasent surprise. We had a nice velvet scoter (Fløjlsand) and two arctic skuas (almindelig kjove), a light and a dark, within the first half hour. The migration of dabbing ducks has started ever so slighty, as we had a total of 20 teals (krikand) and 6 wigeons (pibeand) today. Together with the 35 pintail (spidsand) from yesterday, duckseason as more or less beginning. Officially hunting season on dabbing ducks (teal, pintail, wigeon, garganey, northern shoveler, gadwall and mallards) is starting on monday the first of september. That will probably force a lot of ducks south. Raptor-wise we saw three migrating sparrowhawks, a marsh harrier and a great spotted woodpecker. To top it all of we also saw a whopping 12 red-throated loons. I was quite pleased to see them coming this close, some just along the reef. But have been told they will be here in MUCH larger quantities later in the season. I have high hopes for the coming month! :)
- SDP

Ringmærkning

Vi startede godt ud her til morgen med alle net åbne. Efter en lille reparation på det ene kratnet nød vi farveskiftene på himlen i løbet af solopgangen under de første runder. I dag var en stille dag med hensyn til antal fugle, men så havde vi til gengæld god tid til dem der var. Jeg (Lise) er stadig helt ny til ringmærkning, så mens vi ikke har et væld af fugle, er Lua god til at lære mig håndteringen og detaljerne ved de enkelte fugle. Sverre nævnte for os at han så en stor flagspætte flyve i retning af fyrhaven under morgenobsen og måske var det selvsamme flagspætte vi fangede nede i det bagerste kratnet. Her fik jeg (med en hjælpende hånd fra Lua!) lov til at prøve kræfter med at vikle den ud af nettet.

Sidst på formiddagen havde vi flere runder med tomme net. Da vi under den sidste runde inden for standardtiden snakkede frem og tilbage om, hvor længe vi havde lyst til at holde nettene åbne endnu, blev vi glædeligt overrasket af to nye arter for dagen - sortmejse og topmejse. Ovenpå dem gav vi nettene et par chancer endnu og fangede lidt fugle som Sverre hjalp med at håndtere.

To styk sortmejser - en voksen og en ungfugl.

En topmejse med sans for at posere for kameraet.

Folk på stationen:
David Manstrup, Lua Koplin, Lise Mastrup and Sverre Dahl Porsgaard

Observationer

The wind is picking up again, not much but just enought for it to get interesting. Today started with six meters per second from east-southeast. I was alone for the first half of the morning observation. In this time i had three red throated loons (rødstrubet lom) and one black blackthroated (sortstrubet lom). That was really nice and caught me a bit by surprise. What a loony start of the day! I also had some beautiful adult red knots (islandsk ryle), who really showed their spectacular red chest in the pretty morning light today! In total 27 red knots.
After the first half Bent joined me again for the hour to come. From here on we saw a lot of gannets (suler), in total we probably had around 100 fouraging and just generally resting in the area! We also had two wonderful red male bar tailed godwit (lille kobbersneppe). Red was really the theme-color today! Bent and i stayed roughly an hour after the standard time, because we saw some barn swallows (landsvale) gathering up for migration, together with three sparrowhawks that marked the end of yet another nice morning observation at Blåvandshuk:)
- SDP

Ringmærkning

The morning started of slow, but the warm nice weather made up for the last few cold days! After getting 4 new robins, things slowed down a bit but then we had a nice surprise, as we caught a bird in our helgoland trap, wich is a walk in trap that narrows towards the end, different to our usual catching methods wich are the classic mistnets. The bird we caught was no stranger to us, as it just happens to be a little female redstart that is always around the same area.

Around 09:30, as Lise and I were just in the middle of a net check, calmy chatting about, we saw our catch of the day fly into the net infront of us! It was a very fisty and angry young greater spotted woodpecker that very happily pecked on my hand as if I was a tree! After Lise got a chance to help processing and handle her first woodpecker, Sverre got the chance to release it afterwards, being the only staff member to not get pecked!

-Lua Koplin

Folk på stationen:
Bent Jakobsen, Lua Koplin, Lise Mastrup and Sverre Dahl Porsgaard

Observationer
Ahhh såm kom der endelig lidt mild og dejlig vind sydfra. Morgenen bød på 3 sekundmeter fra Sydsydøst og hele 15 grader fra starten af. Jeg havde derfor nøje udvalgt mig et sted i klitterne hvor jeg både havde udsigt over hav såvel som land. Med den milde og lydsvage vind havde jeg nemlig mulighed for at følge med i trækkende vipstjerter og pibere ud fra kaldet. Og specielt lyde blev da også dagens højdepunkt da jeg havde selskab af en ordentlig rappenskralde af en jernspurv. Den gav den i sandhed gas med diverse kald fra hybenbusken imens engpibere og både gule og hvide vipstjerter fløj over mig. Der var igen i dag tryk på sydtrækkende sortænder i morgenstundens første time. Derudover var der et overvæld af både fjordterner og splitterner som man virkelig kunne høre på en vindstille dag som i dag. Jeg må ærligt indrømme at jeg havde forventet lidt trækkende rovfugle grundte vindretningen, det blev dog desværre kun til to trånfalke som endda var rastende. Efter de tre timers morgenobs gjorde Bent mig selskab. Vi blev hængende indtil 10.15. Der kom lidt vadere imens Bent var der, men de var langt ude grundet lavvande, Han spottede dog fire flotte trækkende storspove! Ellers må dagens højdepunkt være da ca. 600 skarver kom flyvende over hovedet på mig og slog sig ned for at fiske lige ud fra strandbreden. De guffede den ene fisk efter den anden i sig og mæskede sig gevaldigt i en halv times tid inden de stilte sig på en sandbanke og tørrede vingerne. Skarven er nu engang en af mine yndlingsfugle:)

- SDP

Ringmærkning

Vi vågnede friske op til en smuk, vindstille morgen med håb om flere fugle i nettene end de foregående dage. Fuglene var heldigvis også friske, så vi kom ikke til at kede os. Dagens højdepunkter ankom i form af en rigtig fin rødtoppet fuglekonge med sin flotte orange krone og senere en ringdue. Undervejs fik vi desuden besøg af Bent og til de sidste par runder sluttede Sverre sig til os og fik mulighed for at øve sig på at håndtere et par fugle.

Dagens rødtoppet fuglekonge, som gæstede os i stationshaven.

Ringduen er super spændende til trods for (eller måske netop fordi) det er en man ser overalt til daglig.

- LM

Folk på stationen:
Lise Mastrup, Lua Koplin and Sverre Dahl Porsgaard

Observationer

I fear i am starting to sound like a broken record, but today was yet another day with northwestern wind. Today 9 meters per second. I started the Observation alone, but after half an hour Åge joined me for the lookout. Bent also joined me in the last hour. That was very needed, as it had been a slow morning without company. Together the three of us sat there counting oystercatchers (Strandskade), Red knot (Islandsk ryle), Dunlins (almindelig ryle) and whatever else might show up. In total we had 22 different species, with the most prominent being a forraging kestrel (tårnfalk) and five arctic skuas (almindelig kjove). We had three light skuas and two dark, one in particular had a beatiful light colorscheme and have been around the area for a couple of days. We also had some nice Teals (krikand). Bent told me more ducks will show up during the week, as hunting season is about to start and that drives the ducks south along the coast.
After the morning observation we went back to the station for a glass of homemade sea-buckthorn juice. On the way we met Barbara who will be ringing at Skagen birding observatory next week. We showed her the station and she went with Lua and Lise for a couple of rounds and the station:)
Tomorrow the wind will be only three meters form direct south, so i am looking forward to that!
- SDP

Ringmærkning

The morning started of windy and the first birds we caught were recaptures including some familiar faces like a little female redstart who just always seems to be around! We got the first gold crest of the season, which was quite exciting.

Then things picked up when I ( Lua) was ringing a garden warbler and just happened to look outside at one of our garden nets. There a Sparrow hawk had been caught in the net, trying to get an easy meal out of the previously caught dunnock!!!

The tiny garden bird did survive the attack and after some rest it was very lively and happy to fly away!

Folk på stationen:
Lise Mastrup, Lua Koplin and Sverre Dahl Porsgaard

Observationer

The north-western wind strikes again! Another day with sharp winds from the great northwest meant roughly the same amount of birds as usual. Today i had just 25 oystercatchers, 8 turnstones, and 12 dunlins. All in all a very slow morning with just me at the observation post. I did however have four arctic skuas, one i defenitely recognised from yesterday. They were however quite docile today, hardly chasing the terns. In the early i enjoyed looking at more than a thousand scoters migrating north. The best moment today was definitely when an older white-tailed eagle flew over my head and roamed the area for a couple of minutes. What a nice looking bird, with its wonderful white tail! Another great, but slightly dull, morning in Blåvand! :)

In the evening Lise arrived at the station. We have been looking forward to her joining us at the station. Lise has been at the station in the spring, so she is already experienced in the area and will help Lua with the ringing for the next month. She is a doing a Danish triple. which means that she will be going for one month at Blåvand, Skagen and Gedser birding observatory. We look forward to working with her and sharing a daily life at the station:)
- SDP

Ringmærkning

As the weather conditions have slightly improved we have opened the nets in the morning and got a nice mix of species. The morning started with recaptured robins, two handsome male black-caps and one humble yellowhammer! The yellowhammer had two healed wounds on both of his wings, they looked like small porfurations, as well as a few growing feathers, a potential cat attack that this lucky bird managed to escape from! The last birds of the day were a bunch of young bullfinches that provided a really wholesome observation.

Two of the finches had been caught in the same net close together. After processesing and releasing the first individual, it decided to perch still in eye site watching my every move very closely. As soon as I was ready to release the second bullfinch, its friend was still loyaly waiting at the same spot. The second bird flew into the closest tree and as soon as it had landed, the first one joined immediatly! After resting together for a couple of moments, both flew off into the same direction, ready for more joined adventures!

Folk på stationen:
Lise Mastrup, Lua Koplin and Sverre Dahl Porsgaard

Observationer

With twelve meters per second from northwest, it would seem to be a cold and windy morning. But we (Thomas and I) took shelter behind a rosehip bush. Shelteret from the wind, the weather was actually almost kind of pleasent: The sea almost looked pink-ish when the sun rose in the early morning. The birds however did not come out much to play in the heavy winds. In total we only had 61 oyster catchers the entire morning, thats only 20 per hour! The terns and the black-headed gulls where having a hard time battling the wind. We did however enjoy two skuas (a light and a dark one from yesterday), who where liking the wind and chasing tired terns. We also had a decent marsh harrier flying over the beach looking for an easy meal.
The bird of the day for me however was a greedy cormorant. The cormorant had caught a flatfish of sorts, that was waaay to wide to swallow. It was struggling for a bit until an adult great blackbacked gull showed up and stole the catch! Then a juvenile blackback came and stole it again and tried to swallow the fish whole. No succes, instead it tried to impale the fish with its strong beak... also unsuccesful, but atleast vaery intertaining for a couple of minutes:)
- SDP

Ringmærkning

After a few days of intense wind, the morning conditions remained the same and it was not possible to open the nets. However, things started to look a bit better and around 10am some of the nets got opened and we got birds! Two gorgeous garden warblers and one radiant robin! All of these first year birds had not been caught before and were clearly annoyed about being handled for a short while, who wouldnt be?
 

After this trio I (Lua) watched a couple of collared doves and blue tits rest and hop around the nets, in hope they might find their way into the open nets, which they didnt. So the nets remained empty for the rest of the day, but the sun was warm and bright! 

Folk på stationen:
Thomas Kristensen, Lua Koplin and Sverre Dahl Porsgaard

Observationer

Todays was finally the day we had all been waiting for. With 11 meters per second from Northwest, this was decent weather for potential shearwaters. At six in the morning Henrik and i left for the morning observation. We were hopefull, even though the first interval was'nt that great. Then throughtouty the second interval we were counting common terns going north and looking through the gulls for interesting birds. Turns out the yellowlegged gull from earlier this month had returned to the beach once more!
We did not have a lot of waders at the shore today, but 16 turnstones (stenvender) did bring a lot of joy. Other than that we had a total of eight arctic skuas (almindelig kjove)

Arctic skua, light variation in the foreground

Then at 07.35 it finally happened! We saw a sooty shearwater (sodfarvet skråpe) going north against the wind. It was moving up and down beneath the waves at the reef. We got a great look at it, and followed it north with our scopes until we lost it. A wonderful and very lively bird, definitely a first for me. Another great day to be observing at the western most point of Denmark!
- SDP

Ringmærkning

The great and powerful western wind, which allowed for shearwater sighting, unfortunately meant no ringing for today. We did go for a nice walk in the area, when the millitary area finally opened up again. Not much to see except for a dead cetacean caught in a fishing net and some debris that the winds brought to the beach:)

Folk på stationen:
Henrik Böhmer, Lua Koplin, and Sverre Dahl Porsgaard