Started count at 445 now and around 515 Henrik joined. He has been on a  vacation to California for some time and has had a great time there! He saw a lot of great birds there, but unfortunately he didn't bring them here. The count was slow but still better than the day before. An okay passage of lesser black backed gulls, a few Guillemots a Serin, and three black throated divers was making it a great morning already! At some point Menno joined us but hecmissed the Serin… actually he was a bit unlucky because Henrik found a horned lark migrating over sea, which was the bird of the day I would say! But it was hard to find and Menno didn't get it, a shame.
not to forget, we heard Quail throughout the morning but because we have had an icterine warbler imitating one the previous days we were not sure if it really was a Quail but we heard it very clearly in the end. A good morning!

Herring and Lesser Black Backed Gulls Migrating. Photo from different day, taken by Bello

Menno could open some nets later on but we didn't catch much.

People at the station: Bello, Menno, Henrik
dofbasen link

First of all, sorry for the delayed upload of the blog. We tried some night catching, so we priotized to sleep some.

We had another first for the season: a Marsh warbler found its way into the nets. Besides that, it was a very quiet day ringing wise. The migration count was also slow, except for the lesser black backed gulls which passed by in good numbers.

In the lighthouse garden, there is a icterine warbler that first got to us by imitating a quail, but today it got to me by imitating a Rosefinch. Rosefinches are breeding in the area and also caught each season. Up until now, we did not catch or hear one.

The nightcatching was not very successful, we had a flyby tern, three flying waders flying over the shoreline and a group of gulls resting on sea. We did not manage to catch any of those unfortunately. Because of the very windy weather the coming days, we might try again the coming nights. 

Ringing totals:

Robin (1/0)

Marsh warbler (1/0)

Icterine warbler (1/0)

Garden warbler (1/0)

Chiffchaff (2/1)

Willow warbler (1/0)

Spotted flycatcher (2/0)

Great tit (0/1)

Common chaffinch (1/0)

Linnet (3/0)

Today the weather allowed us to open all the nets again. With the southeastern winds we hoped for some nice birds and good amount of birds. Unfortunately, it did not deliver anything. The seawatch was also quite slow, maybe tomorrow can be more result in some nice species with the southwestern winds.

The fence on the beach is working really well, because Bent found a few nestlings of ringed plover and the second tern started breeding.

Today we ringed the 1500 bird this season. Hopefully in the last three weeks another 100 can be added. And maybe with some nice species like rosefinch and red backed shrike! To beat the best year ever, 2009, we need to catch another 1500 birds up until the 14^th of June. I am afraid that we can not pull that off.

Ringing totals:

Dunnock (2/0)

Redstart (1/0)

Song thrush (1/1)

Icterine warbler (3/0)

Lesser whitethroat (0/1)

Common whitethroat (0/2)

Common chiffchaff (1/0)

Willow warbler (2/0)

Tree sparrow (1/0)

Chaffinch (1/0)

Greenfinch (2/0)

Linnet (1/0)

Lesser redpoll (1/0)

Bullfinch (2/0)

Yellowhammer (1/0)

People at the station: Bello, Bent and Menno

I came home from my cousins wedding last night so i slept a little longer this morning and rested a lot throughout the day. I went out shortly in the morning to see if there was any late migration, and shortly after i notice a tern that stands out similar size as sandwich tern but looked a bit bulkier and with more black wingtips, i saw it from behind mostly and was not close enogh to make pictures so i call it out in zello as possible gull-billed tern in hope someone else could find it and confirm or disconfrim if it was a gull-billed or not.
No one saw it i believe or it has just been a sandwich tern which i can see in the books has more black wingtips when worn a lot, still looked interesting tho.

Menno kept the nets open more than 15 hours today and caught a couple of siskens, a fox cup and an icterine warbler from last year! 

 
Male Sisken. Photo by Menno
we had some burgers for dinner and tomorrow will be hot at least the temperature so maybe we will see the first rosefinch or something else nice!

Today was a very windy day, because of that I couldn't open the nets. After I could not open I took my time to have some nice breakfast. When I was done eating and cleaning I went to do a bit of a seawatch. After two hours, and two great northern divers and a black throated diver I was done doing the seawatch and went to the fence for the little terns. One was already breading! Good to see that the fence works. The rest of the little terns were a bit flying around, hopefully they start breeding soon as well.

When I came back to the station, some swallows were flying low over the vegetation. Since the wind dropped, I decided to open some nets in the hope to catch them. Unfortunately, after I opened they decided to fly somewhere else. Besides two chiffchaffs and one icterine warbler nothing flew in. When the windspeed increased after lunch I closed again. Luckily I could use my afternoon off to work a bit on my internship.

Tomorrow it seems that the weather will finally improve, lets hope that it will result in some birds in the nets.

Ringing totals:

Chiffchaff (2/0)

Icterine warbler (1/0)

Today it was another day with bad weather. In the night, over the whole migration axis there has been rain. This resulted in almost no arrival of migrants to Blavand. That is also the reason why today was a rather slow day. It was funny that we caught a complete nest of greenfinches, although that is what I presume. Next to that, we also caught a juvenile linnet. We also caught another wood pigeon! I could feel that it gets easier to ring them, although this one was way more calm then the other one. This time Mikkel released it. After releasing it, it went preening in a nearby tree. A good sign that the ringing has almost no impact on the birds, when done correctly. We got also a nice recapture back, today we caught a common whitethroat back that was ringed in spring 2020. That are three returns to tropical Africa!

Mikkel with his new love – Photo by Menno

The rest of the weekend, the weather does not look very good. So Mikkel can go with an eased mind to a wedding.

Ringing totals:

Dunnock 0/1

Song thrush 0/1

Lesser whitethroat 1/0

Common whitethroat 2/1

Willow warbler 2/0

Spotted flycatcher 3/0

Starling 1/0

Greenfinch 4/0

Linnet 1/0

Redpoll 4/1

Wood pigeon 1/0

Today was maybe the worst day of the season. The nets could be opened at the start of the day, but did only six! new birds flew in…. Fog in the morning and rain in the afternoon are not the best combination for a good day. Because of the fog, the morning observations did not take place.

The only nice thing about today is that we caught our first juvenile bird. It is really funny to see this juvenile song thrush. It was also nice to see how it was still growing its primaries and tail. In song thrush this happens outside the nest, so they are less vulnerable for predators.

Picture of the juvenile song thrush – Picture by Menno

Ringing totals:

Song thrush     (1/0)

Icterine warbler (1/1)

Lesser whitethroat (1/1)

Common whitethroat              (1/0)

Blackcap           (0/1)

Chiffchaff         (1/1)

Great tit            (0/2)

Greenfinch       (0/2)

Redpoll             (0/2)

Bullfinch           (0/1)

Today we had a nice visitor. The sea was okay a few terns migrating, and at some point Menno wrote me if i saw the buzzard over sea, i quickly find it and hmm it looks maybe like a honey buzzard? it is struggling but reaches land and disappear behind some dunes but yes it was a honey buzzard, i take my phone to write back to menno when it suddenly pop up from behind the dune where i am sitting and is max 3 meters from me, a beautiful male i was so surprised that i didn't get good pictures but here is a butt shot.

Hvepsevåge. Photo by Mikkel Bello

The rest of the day was rather chill, not much happening.

People at the station: Bello, Menno

Today I expected to call Bent after the first round, because of high numbers of birds in the nets. Unfortunately, the nets were rather empty, probably because of a big front of showers south of us. Because of this, passerines are less likely to migrate. And that could be seen in the nets. Today Bent had a visiting elderly high school who came here to see something of the activities that are caried out here. After a few birds, they went to the fens for the little terns. The tour concluded at Skallingen, were Bent told something about the amazing nature there.

After the lunch, the rain disappeared so the birds came in. The highlights for me were two icterine warblers and spotted flycatcher (finally!).

After a very slow day Bello decided to get a more sleep in to be more rested the coming days.

We also hit some a new milestone, this season more than 200 chiffchaffs were ringed.

Today we had another two arrivals, in the form of a marsh warbler and reed warbler. We hope to get them in the nets in the coming days!

If so many people are standing around one bird in hand you would expect a mega, here it is just a dunnock (but probably a first for many as well) – Photo by Menno

Ringing totals: 

Dunnock (1/0)

Redstart (4/0)

Blackbird (0/1)

Song thrush (1/0)

Icterine warbler (2/0)

Lesser whitethroat (4/0)

Common whitethroat (3/1)

Garden warbler (2/0)

Chiffchaff (5/1)

Willow warbler (9/0)

Spotted flycatcher (1/0)

Pied flycatcher (1/0)

Starling (0/1)

Chaffinch (0/2)

Lesser redpoll (1/0)

Bullfinch (2/0)

Doflink: https://dofbasen.dk/search/result.php?design=table&soeg=soeg&periode=antaldage&dage=10&omraade=hiddenlok&hiddenlok=555209&obstype=observationer&sortering=dato=17-05-2022&searchmyobs=Vis+dato

People at the station: Mikkel, Menno, Bent and the visiting group

Det var egentlig i dag vi havde ventet at hittet skulle komme, med østenvind og varme, den kom dog igår. Jeg startede med at tælle 5:15 men til min skuffelse var der ikke en eneste trækfugl på nær 3 landsvaler på 1,5 time!! Derfor talte jeg alle de måger der var på stranden og jeg fandt en kaspisk måge. Menno ringede og ville have hjælp med en sanger som viste sig at være en løvsanger. Men efter gik jeg til mosen langs klitterne og talte i stedet, hvilket også var noget mere interessant da der var en del småfugle. 
Der var bla. mange Tornsangere, Stenpikkere og en del rødstjerter. Mursejlerne trak også pænt idag sammen med en del Gule Vipstjerter. 

Men ingen Makisanger... Der har kun været få twichere og så har jeg og Bent gået i mosen nogle gange men uden held. Den må være fløjet i nat. Bent fandt en Fiskeørn.

Vi har været trætte! I hvert fald jeg, da igår var noget intens, da birder danmark skulle overbevisis om at vi havde noget stort fik jeg løbet en del frem og tilbage for at få postet den nødvendige dokumentation, og så var jeg ude indtil aften. Så i dag var kroppen hel færdig, og efter to grundige runder i mosen var jeg slået helt ud. Menno virker også til at være træt så det er måske godt vi ikke skal holde ud så længe endnu, men det er nu det er spændende! 

En lille historie skal tilføjes. Da jeg sad og spiste frokost gik jeg hurtigt med Menno på netrundte, da jeg kom tilbage havde en Sølvmåge taget mit brød og havde smidt pesto over det hele. Så nu vil vi prøve at fange den på et tidspunkt og tage en snak med den. 

Rørspurv, 2k han. Foto af Menno
Menno havde en trættende men god dag med mange fugle, for en gangs skyld! Se listen nederst.

ringmærkningsliste. Nye/Genfangst
Dofbasen link, her

0/1  Gærdesmutte 
8/0  Rødsjert
1/0  Sivsanger
1/1  Gærdesanger 
3/0  Tornsanger 
1/0  Munk
9/1  Gransanger 
32/2 Løvsanger
1/0  Broget Fluesnapper
0/1  Sortmejse 
0/1  Musivt
1/0  Bogfinke
3/0  Tornirisk 
0/2  Lille Gråsisken
1/0  Rørspurv

61 new birds, 9 recaptures

Folk: Menno, Bello, Bent, Bjørn Frikke