Observations/ Ringing /Little terns project : 

There were no birdwatching/ringing activities today because of the stormy weather ! So everyone could take a day-off and rest a bit ! And I (Clara) could take the time to pack my things whilst listening to music !

----- time to say bye bye ------ 

I suppose it's time to write my last blog post of the season and say goodbye to all (until next time). 

It’s already been two months since I arrived! Time flies (like a bird) at the observatory; it feels like a different world.
I must say that at first, I was stepping completely into the unknown, as this was my first experience at a bird observatory, working and living at a foreign station.

I’ve learnt so much over the past two months, with wonderful first sightings of birds such as arctic skuas, pomarine skua, black terns , the wryneck that Robert and Hanelie caught & others!

I’ll always remember those magical moments at sunrise, with the low-angled light and the birds beginning to migrate on the horizon. The marvellous spectacle of flocks of red-throated divers high in the sky, little terns feeding on the shore than an arctic skuas chasing the little terns, accompanied by the characteristic songs of  blavand, the skylarks and their tireless melodies, the yellowhammers, linnets and white wagtails and later in spring season the little terns !

Yes, of course, there were mornings that were tougher than others, when it was cold, when you were alone and there were few birds. But that’s all part of the experience and what makes it enriching. And then, over the course of those two months, we could always count on one another ! 

Thanks to the great atmosphere at the station, we were all able to push ourselves and help each other out as best we could :) - sometimes a windspan game could help also ! -

There were so many wonderful encounters, and I really do think this experience was as much about people as it was about birds!

A huge thank you to Henrik, Thomas, David, Bent, Hanelie, Jorn, Joseph, Alix, Morten, Robert, Mathilde, Rose, Morgan, Karin & Paula !  

Last picture in the dunes whilst it was still sunny ! I used to love taking the time in the afternoon to do the big walk around blavand and draw the birds and the animals i could spot ! That was such a pleasure. 

Bye bye, take care of each others and the birds and see u soon !!!!!!!!!


At the station: Alix Bortolussi, Clara Delahaye & Jorn de Jong

Observations:

It rained early this morning. Henrik and I waited for the showers to stop before going to the dunes. The number of migratory birds was good today - the migration trend is indeed slowing down for the season -.
We spotted 211 red-throated loons [rødstrubet lom], 87 northern gannets [sule] and 143 common terns/arctic terns [fjordterne/havterne]. 
We also saw 2 arctic skuas [almindelig kjove] - dark morph - heading north ! My last skuas of the season because i'm leaving n the 16th, so it was a nice bye-bye gift  :)) 

Todays observations can be seen here.

Flock of sanderlings [sandløber] in their breeding plumage and a crow at the back. Picture by Henrik Bøhmer

Ringing:

The nets had to be opened late this morning again due to the rain, but in the end Xenia and I still had a pretty good ringing morning. The total number of birds is slightly up today, with a rather big amount of recaptures which is interesting. The variety of species was the highlight of the day though, with some Bullfinches (Dompap), Wood Pigeon (Ringdue), or a beautiful female Goldfinch (Stillits).

Female Goldfinch (Stillits), Picture Alix

Xenia had a wish of catching some Lesser Whitethroats (Gærdesanger) and Common Whitethroats (Tornsanger), which she did, so that was very nice! They can be quite tricky to age at this time of year, so it’s always good with some practice.

Little tern project:

Today, i could finally do another observation for the Little Tern project. The weather wasn’t great, with strong winds of 8 m/s and quite a bit of cloud cover. This, combined with the fact that there were no little terns again, made for a long and cold observation. The only birds using the fence were three Common ringed plovers exhibiting roosting behavior.

Later in the morning, Joseph visited the exclosure to measure the sand drift that had build up over the past few weeks. After that was done we set up a total of 15 artificial nests at three locations. We distributed these across three sites, spanning five different habitat gradients. Every nest consists of 2 Quail- & 1 wax egg. The purpose of the nests is to see how quickly and by which animals they are preyed upon. I will be checking up on these every two days over the coming weeks. We also placed 3 wildlife cameras, one in every location, to hopefully capture some good footage.

Picture of an artificial nest we made with a wax egg in the middle. Picture by Jorn de Jong

At the station: Alix Bortolussi, Clara Delhaye, Jorn de Jong, Joseph Stephan, Henrik Böhmer & Xenia

Observation:

There was no standard observations due to the rain this morning. I could go out in the afternoon to do a walk in the beach and spot some species. 

So here are the observations of the afternoon. 

Ringing: 

This morning started out being rainy, so I unfortunately couldn’t open the nets at the standard time and instead had to open them at 07:30. With the standard time being compromised anyway, I thought I would take an easier session and only had the garden nets open for 4h.

This yielded very few birds, unsurprisingly, only 4 birds caught in total. The next few days looks rather uncertain weather-wise too, so I will see how that turns out!

A Willow Warbler (Løvsanger) caught today

Little tern project:

There were no observations for the Little tern project due to the bad weather and the army training.

At the station : Clara Delahaye, Jorn de Jong & Alix Bortolussi

Observation:

Not much to say today, the spring season is going slower and slower ;) 

Todays observations can be seen here.

Ringing:

Today was pretty windy, so I had to keep an eye on the nets and unfortunately had to close several of them during the morning as they became too exposed.

The first few rounds were interesting, as the first bird I caught for the morning was a beautiful female Red Crossbill (Lille Korsnæb) for the season! This was a new bird species ringed for me, and I had a lot of fun studying her and getting some practice on steel rings.

Red (Common) Crossbill female (Lille Korsnæb)

This female showed a brood patch, which is a patch of unfeathered skin on the underbelly made to facilitate the incubation of eggs, providing a warm surface. It was nice to see that we have some breeding pairs of Crossbills around! I hope to see some of their young when the time comes.

I also had the chance of catching another Starling (Stær).

Starling (Stær) 

Little tern project:

There were no observations for the Little tern project this morning due to the heavy wind and the army training.

At the station : Clara Delahaye, Jorn de Jong & Alix Bortolussi

Observation:

It was a really lovely day!

The morning started with the nice sighting of 12 grey seals [gråsæl] resting at the same time on the sandbanks. Then, over the three standard hours, there were plenty of red-throated loons [rødstrubet lom] and northern gannets [sule] on the count.
Finally, the observations ended with the call of the first cuckoo [gøg] of the season and, on the way back, the meeting with a common toad [almindelig tudse] on the dunes!

During the day, it was also a pleasure to see the house martins flying over the station :)

Highlights of the days :
Red-throated loons [rødstrubet lom] - 126
Northern gannets [sule] - 194
Common cuckoo [gøg] - 1 (heard)
Grey seals [gråsæl] - 12

Todays observations can be seen here.

A common toad [almindelig tudse] - Bufo bufo -  trying to be invisible... ! Picture by Clara


(Family ?) Gathering of grey seals [gråsæl] in the first hour of observations. Picture by Clara


Viola saxatilis subsp. curtisii - Dune pansy drawing. Picture by Clara 


Ringing:

Very slow morning with an average of 1 bird per round.

The highlight of today though is a gorgeous Sedge Warbler (Sivsanger) which is a pretty uncommon catch for Blåvand Fuglestation. This species favors reeds and swampy bushlands, which we don’t have very close to the nets at the ringing site. They winter in the south of the Sahara, and come in northern Europe to breed.

Sedge Warbler (Sivsanger). Photo Alix

Let’s hope tomorrow has a bit more birds in stock for me!

Little tern project:

Today was another slow day for the Little Tern project. Unfortunately, my wish from yesterday didn’t come true, because there were no little terns during today’s observation. Neither in flight nor resting on the shoreline. It seems they’ve chosen a different spot to nest this year. Hopefully I’m wrong and a few will return in the coming weeks.

At the station : Clara Delahaye, Jorn de Jong & Alix Bortolussi

Observations:

The highlight of this morning was spotting three arctic skuas – parasitic jaegers [almindelig kjove]. The first one was migrating south, whilst the other two were feeding near the shore before heading north.

I was really happy because this spring I’ve seen quite a few skuas flying over, and it was a first for me!
For my final week of observations, I’m still looking forward to spotting more of them – and why not another pomarine skua [mellemkjove] (we can dream, can’t we?) :)

Todays observations can be seen here.

Ringing:

My first ringing session alone went very well, though it was tiring to walk all the rounds alone, as the site here is quite big and spread out.

Not a big number of birds, but some highlights for me were a Starling (Stær) which was my first ever and it was really fun to study, as well as a partially leucistic Lesser Whitethroat (Gæardesanger).

Male Starling (Stær)

Partially leucistic Lesser Whitethroat (Gærdesanger), with some white feathers on the crown and back. Very interesting individual!

Towards the end of the standard time, the wind picked up quite a bit so the closing time fit very well as it was becoming a bit too windy for my liking for the birds comfort in the nets.

I have now done all the computer work needed for the day and will go have a nap!!

See you tomorrow for more little birds!

Little tern project:

Compared to the past few days, today was a fine day for observing the little terns. It was a bit cloudy and the wind had picked up to 7 m/s.  A total of 6 little terns were flying around and landed in the fence 10 times. All of the landings took place on the north side of the enclosure, which is noteworthy, given that all previous landings had mainly occurred in the middle of the fence. Hopefully in the next few days their numbers of Little terns keep going up.

At the station : Clara Delahaye, Jorn de Jong & Alix Bortolussi

Observation:

A sunny and slow morning on the dunes of Blavand :) There were still quite a few northern gannets [sule] resting above the reef! I’m trying to make the most of these lovely sightings and the bird station because I’m leaving soon – in a week’s time now.

This morning Hanelie, Robert and Morten left us. It was really nice to meet them. We started the season together with Hanelie; back then it was really cold and we used to wake up later too, haha! I really enjoyed the lovely time together at the station :)

Todays observations can be seen here.

Ringing:

This morning was the goodbye of my dear Hanelie, Robert, as well as Morten who had all been helping me and teaching me everything I need to know about the station since I arrived.

I took the last two rounds alone and will be continuing the ringing for the rest of the standard season alone as well. I am looking forward to seeing what I’ll be able to catch, and hope for some challenging and interesting species from time to time!

This morning the ringing was once again rather slow, but we had the chance of starting the first round with the first bird caught and ringed being a Northern Wheater (Stenpikker). A beautiful adult female.

Adult female Northern Wheatear (Stenpikker)

We then had our usual visitors such as Lesser Whitethroats (Gærdesanger) or Willow Warblers (Løvsanger).

I’m looking forward to my first fully independent ringing session tomorrow morning, as I feel I have been well prepared by my predecessors :)

Little tern project:

Observations : 

Not much to report today! It was quite quiet - with few wind -, though there were still some flocks of red-throated loons [rødstrubet lom] and common/arctic terns  [fjordterne/havterne] migrating north.

There have been fewer little terns fishing near the shore over the last couple of days; we hope they won’t fly off to another breeding ground!

Todays observations can be seen here. 

Ringing : 

This is my last blog entry today; tomorrow will be the big goodbye day. I will leave the station after nearly two and a half months, also Robert is leaving after two weeks, and Morten is leaving too. But Morten might be back later this spring, as he did not get as many blood samples of Long-distance migrants as needed. It is difficult to write a last blog, especially of this spring season, as it was a tough one for me. Now we are on 935 newly ringed birds for the season, the best day, which was in mid-April, brought 64 birds, this nice day was followed by two days in which we reached 40 birds, apart from that, numbers were very low and I can´t deny, that got me down. A very early Nightingale “Sydlig Nattergal” and a Grasshopperwarbler “Græshoppersanger” were a bit special birds this season – maybe rarities are coming now in the last weeks of the season, I will leave them for Alix and Xenia. Nevertheless, the season had some very nice moments. I especially remember a nice trip with Mathilde and Clara by Flextaxi to Nyeng, the birdwatching trips with my mother, Clara and Morgan around Easter, and the trip to Fanø to visit Joseph together with Clara and Jorn. And it was nice to meet some old acquaintances, in April Rose and now in May, Robert at the station. Maybe my favourite animal this season was actually not a bird, but a bat, Myotis daysceme, the Pond bat, that I found in the bunker together with many Myotis daubentoni, Daubenton´s bat. Daysceme was a new species for me. But Spoonbill “Skestork” and Grashopper Warbler “Græshoppersanger” were also great birds.

I nearly forgot to write something for today: We caught the first Icterine Warbler "Gulbug" of the season, that was the highlight of the day.

Beautiful Icterine Warbler (Gulbug)

Little tern project : 

There were no observations for the Little tern project today.

Moths of the day

Today 16 different species and one new for the location: the Shuttle-shaped Dart (Frønnet Landman, see picture). Tomorrow Hanelie and I will leave Blåvand Fuglestation. A pity that the birds were not really abundant this spring. We caught 48 different moth species, I do not know whether that is a low or a high amount, because I have never been at this station before.

Hope you liked what we were writing about the moths. Nowadays it is less difficult to figure out which species you see. There are 3 apps that can help you and they are not difficult to use. Arter is a Danish orientated app. Obsidentify is an European oriented app and Inaturalist a world orientated app. If they give the same species name one can be sure it is the right species. I think Arter and Obsidentify use the same kind ofalgorithms and Inaturalist a different one. If you start looking into moths a completely new world will be opened for you. In my garden in Gjerrild (Djursland) I now have  found almost 700 different species. Had no clue of the high diversity before I started.

Shuttle-shaped Dart (Frønnet Landman)

At the station : Robert Luttik, Hanelie Sidhu, Clara Delahaye, Jorn de Jong, Alix Bortolussi & Morten Jenrich Hansen.

Observation:

The first sighting was of a grey seal [gråsæl] resting in the waves, in front of my telescope – perhaps to say hello and wish me good luck?-
But the first two hours were fairly quiet and I was on my own. Yet, somehow, the last hour turned out to be good!
Numerous groups of common and arctic terns [fjordterne/havterne] flew past behind and in front of the reef. And during the last 10 minutes, I spotted a pale-morph arctic skua [almindelig kjove] heading north, then chasing a small tern, then it turned out it was being chased away itself by a herring gull !
Meanwhile, two fins broke the surface of the waves… belonging to two porpoise whales [marsvin]! It had been a long time since I’d seen any. We used to see far more of them at the start of the season from the automn spot.

Highlights of the day : 
Common tern/arctic tern [fjordterne/havterne] - 584
Parasitic Jaeger - Arctic skua [almindelig kjove] - 1 pale morph
Northern gannet [sule] - 101

Todays observations can be seen here.

Ringing:

Redpoll "Lille Gråsisken". Picture by Alix.

There was not so much happening in the gardens today. We caught another Woodpigeon "Ringdue", two Redpolls "Lille Gråsisken"and the usual ones, but only few of them. During the mornig, Morten went to town to send the bloodsamples to Copenhagen. 

Yellowhammer "Gulspurv", picture by Hanelie.

Little tern project:

There were sadly no observations this morning due to the military training.

Moths of the day:

Today we had slightly more species. In total 13 different species and one new for the location: the Golden-rod Pug (Gyldenrisdværgmåler, see picture). A rather inconspicuous species. In addition I have added a picture of the Small Chocolate-tip (Chocoladeplet).

Small Chocolate-tip (Chocoladeplet) and Golden-rod Pug (Gyldenrisdværgmåler)

At the station : Robert Luttik, Hanelie Sidhu, Clara Delahaye, Jorn de Jong, Alix Bortolussi, Morten Jenrich Hansen, Bent & co (his friends).

Observation:

Today was a rather quiet day for birdwatching. There was little wind and few birds... though there were still some northern gannets [sule] heading north and resting! – but not as many as on Monday. - 

So, as I had time to watch the herring gulls resting on the shores, I was able to identify and read a ring on an adult bird. It was a yellow ring on the gull’s right leg with a 4-character alpha code beginning with ‘V’: ‘VKXA’. This corresponds to the same ringing project carried out in Denmark as the two previous ones we had identified with Hanelie and then Jorn.

Yesterday I drew a common ringed plover [stor præstekrave] sitting on its eggs to send out some positive vibes.
In fact, the nest that Joseph and Jorn had identified inside the little terns’ fencing has been empty for a few days now – see photo below in the blog. The four eggs have certainly been taken by a predator. So I thought that drawing a picture might bring back the hope of seeing these same birds and others breeding again soon!

Todays observations can be seen here.


Common ringed plover's nest. Drawing by Clara

Ringing:

Ringing was very slow today; we caught 10 new birds. Alix was happy about a Woodpigeon “Ringdue” and a Treepipit “Skovpiber”, two new hand species for her.

Little tern project:

Today was a very slow day for the Little tern observation. In the two hours I was there, I only saw 2 Little terns flying, and one of them made a landing in the fence. Besides those 2 little terns, I have seen 5 Common ringed plovers walking and scraping in the fence, which was nice to see. That reminded me to go and check the nest of the ringed plover we saw on one of our first days, but sadly it was empty. I also couldn't find any traces in the surrounding area (probably because of the wind). 

The empty Common ringed plover nest, Picture by Jorn de Jong.

After checking for the nest, I noticed a part of the electric fence wiring was broken. I contacted Joseph about it and fixed it so the chances of predators coming in wouldn't be increased.

Moths of the day:

Today we had again 8 different species, but no new ones for the season. This time only a picture of the Muslin Moth (Grå Tigerspinder).

Muslin Moth (Grå Tigerspinder).

 At the station : Robert Luttik, Hanelie Sidhu, Clara Delahaye, Jorn de Jong, Alix Bortolussi, Morten Jenrich Hansen and Bent.