Hello, its been a long time since I wrote the blog!
This morning Menno joined me on the sea-watch, and even though the migration still seemed not appearing at at all, we could enjoy an arctic skua at least and a Merlin just before the observation finished. Menno and I have a little competition going about who saw the most spices, and because I do the counting, I got a few spices on him. But with the Merlin (dværgfalk)  he just got a bit closer!  After the watch we decided to treat ourselves with some eggs and bacon and leftover sausages from the grill last evening.

At midday most of us were sleeping or resting, so when Signe was leaving Menno and I were the only one awake. Afterwards we went ringing and we caught the first Reed Bunting(Rørspurv) of the year! And I ringed my first bird, a Dunnock(Jernspurv).


Photo by Bjarne Manstrup. Reed Bunting (rørspurv)

In the evening we spend time playing card games and learning to count in several languages: Polish, Danish, Swedish, Russian, Chinese, German, English and Finnish.  Also, Merit made some very nice cookies for us!
After dinner we tried to guess bird songs and calls that we played for each other very fun. 

So I lost a bit track of time and it got pretty late before the last one of us came to bed, and I choose to postpone the blog writing for Saturday!


Dofbasen observations, here


People at the station; Agata, Leona, Merit, Signe, Menno, Mikkel, Maciej, Bent.

After few days with quite bright mornings, our alarms woke us up a bit earlier today. We are not complaining about that however, as sunrises please us way more than sunsets. Signe had her first opportunity of seeing gorgeusly colored sky from the lighthouse hill and she seemed really enchanted with that view, just like everyone is. Weather generally was summerish after noon, just like yesterday, so we were doing all the rounds with grat joy, even though the birds were not numerous. And also, like usually, most of them got caughtd during first few rounds. In terms of ornithological highlights, the most interesting individuals were a Wryneck and a Linnet with Belgian ring. However, we already extracted both of them in previous days. But of course that does not make them less valuable for us, as it is always good to look at all of their characteristics and discuss the identification again, especially when there are so many ringers around. We also banded a Pied Flycatcher, which was the first one of this species this year.
Seawatching today did not differ much from last few days. Mikkel (today joined by Agata) sighted some Gannets, Scoters, a lot of Sandwich Terns and Gulls (Lesser and Great Black-backed), and also few waders.
Besides our birding work, we are still using great weather (not so great for bird migration obviously). Leona and Merit even decided to try swimming in the Sea today, as water temperature reached 10 Celsius degrees. I, however, prefer the comfortable, dry warmth of the garden, so the day of my first sea swimming this year is yet to come. Another (big) advantage of the summer-like weather is that we can make a grill for dinner, and that's exactly what we did.

Pied Flycatcher - we hope it will catch a lot of flies this season. Photo: Merit

People at the station: Agata, Leona, Merit, Signe, Menno, Mikkel, Maciej

Complete list of birds caught today (ringed/recaptured):

Vendehals / Wryneck: 0/1
Gærdesmutte / Wren: 1/0
Jernspurv / Dunnock: 1/2
Rødhals / Robin: 9/1
Husrødstjert / Black Redstart: 1/0
Sangdrossel / Song Thrush: 4/0
Munk / Blackcap: 4/1
Gransanger / Chiffchaff: 2/1
Løvsanger / Willow Warbler: 1/0
Broget Fluesnapper / Pied Flycatcher: 1/0
Kvækerfinke / Brambling: 1/0
Tornirisk / Linnet: 0/1

Total: 25/7

This day enchanted us with sunny weather and cloudless sky. Although in terms of catching birds it wasn't the best weather, it managed to bring us two Wrynecks, a Firecrest and a Ring Ouzel, what was a really nice surprise. Today we ringed 25 birds. The most interesting birds that Mikkel saw, were 2 Arctic Skuas. After 11 am me and Maciej tried to see at least half of what Mikkel observed, but we sighted only Sandwich Terns, some Gulls (eg. Black-Headed Gulls). Today we also had a visitor - Erik Schaumburg, who came here to see the Wrynecks. I hope that he had a lot of luck and it was a successful "hunt". Today we also welcomed Signe in the station! In the evening we tried to observe a Bluethroat but it did not show up for us. Instead, we had opportunity to sight our first Gannet and a lot of other passerines. 

Today we had two first Wrynecks! Photo: Mikkel Bello

Ring ouzel first in this year! Photo: Maciej Wozniak

Wryneck (2/0)

Wren (1/0)

Dunnock (1/0)

Robin (3/1)

Chaffinch (0/1)

Ring ouzel (1/0)

Blackcap (2/0)

Chiffchaff (5/0)

Willow warbler (3/0)

Firecrest (1/0)

Blue tit (1/0)

Tree sparrow (1/0)

Greenfinch (1/0)

Lesser redpoll (3/0)

People at the station: Bent, Mikkel, Leona, Agata, Maciej, Menno, Signe, Merit

Ringing total (new/Recapture)

Wryneck (2/0)

Wren (1/0)

Dunnock (1/0)

Robin (3/1)

Chaffinch (0/1)

Ring ouzel (0/1)

Blackcap (2/0)

Chiffchaff (5/0)

Willow warbler (3/0)

Firecrest (1/0)

Blue tit (1/0)

Tree sparrow (1/0)

Greenfinch (1/0)

Lesser redpoll (3/0)

Dof link: https://dofbasen.dk/search/result.php?design=table&soeg=soeg&periode=dato&dato=21-04-2022&omraade=stor&stor=607&obstype=observationer&species=alle&sortering=dato

Sven Bødker var i går på besøg på fuglestationen med en flot gave i form af et maleri af vores logo fugl Strandskaden.
Det er malet af navnkundige Jon Fjeldså.
Blåvand Fuglestation siger 1000 tak

Today was a really busy day. We startet the ringing as usual but with our 2 new Members Agatha and Matje. Together we captured total birds of ... different species. The highlights were a belgian Linnet and that Agatha and me managed to flush a Songthrush in the Helgoland Trap. 

Bello had a quiet time on the seawatch with only a few birds migrating.

After the ringing Matje, Agatha and I went to pick up Merit. Now that there are so many ringers, we can split up easily and work in teams which is really nice and a lot of fun. 

Because Bellos carbattery died he asked around in the Parking lot if there was someone with a starter cable. Because he found no one, the six of us pushed the car up the hill towards the beach, to try and load the battery by going in the 2nd gear downhill. Soon when we pushed the car uphill we were joined by two germans. But it didn't work. So we spoke with the germans and it turned out: They had startercables!

Trying to load the carbattery photo taken by Merit

We then were able to start the car, so we went on a roadtrip to hopefully be able to listen to Eagle Owls and Tengmalm's Owls (Boreal Owl). When we arrived we first heard the eagle owl so we wanted to get closer but actually went further away from it. After an hour we went back to our original spot and were lucky. From that spot we could hear an Eagle Owl, a Boreal Owl and a Long-eared Owl at the same time!

Listening to the owls photo taken by Merit

Ringing totals (new/recapture)

Wren (0/1)

Dunnock (2/0)

Robin (1/4)

Common redstart (1/0)

Blackbird (2/0)

Song Thrush (1/0)

Blackcap (2/0)

Chiffchaff (4/0)

Willow warbler (2/0)

Coal tit (0/1)

Starling (1/0)

Tree sparrow (0/1)

Chaffinch (0/1)

Brambling (1/0)

Greenfinch (0/1)

Linnet (2/1)

Lesser redpoll (2/0)

Dofbasen link: here

Today the seawatch was a bit quiet, but some little gulls migrating north were a highlight. After the seawatch Henrik and Bello both walked a bit round to try to find a rare bird. Henrik found a lesser whitethroat, although it is not a really rare bird it was the first for the surroundings of Blåvand. So that made it a nice find. Next to that, in the bushes he found numerous willow warblers and robins.

Today in the nets, we had some robins. Next to that, we first saw a common redstart close to the ringing hut. The next round at the station we found the first one in the nets. Today the numbers were not that high, but the species compensated for that. We had two firsts for this season: common redstart and goldfinch. Besides those two gems, we also had a pair of bullfinches and a male firecrest.

Tonight we were joined by Agata and Maciej, two ringers who have stayed at Gedser previous this year.

Photo of the Redstart – Photo by Leona

Ringing totals (new/recapture):

Dunnock (2/0)

Robin (14/3)

Common redstart (1/0)

Blackbird (2/0)

Chiffchaff (7/5)

Willow warbler (2/0)

Firecrest (1/0)

Brambling (1/0)

Goldfinch (1/0)

Lesser redpoll (4/0)

Bullfinch (1/0)

36 new birds over 11 species

People at the station: Bent, Henrik, John, Svend, Leona, Bello, Agata, Maciej and Menno

Doflink: https://dofbasen.dk/search/result.php?design=table&soeg=soeg&periode=dato&dato=19-04-2022&omraade=stor&stor=607&obstype=observationer&species=alle&sortering=dato

Today we had 2 visitors from Germany over which joined us on the ringing rounds. It was very sunny today, with nearly no clouds covering the sky. We captured a variety of species, quite a lot of Robins (17) and a new Willow Warbler.

During the day, the first (female) Common Redstart of this season was seen by Bello in the bog. Also he saw 1 Blue Throat and 2 male Ring Ouzels. We hope that in the next few days one of this species will be caught in our nets.

On the seawatch the numbers were not that high, but Bello saw the first Osprey in Blåvand this season.

Female Common Redstart by Bello

Stonechat by Bello

Male Ring Ouzel by Bello

Ringing totals(new/recapture)

Wren (1/0)

Dunnock (3/0)

Robin (14/3)

Common Blackbird (1/0)

Common chiffchaff (5/1)

Willow warbler (1/0)

Goldcrest (0/1)

Coal Tit (0/2)

Blue Tit (1/0)

Starling (1/0)

Tree sparrow (0/1)

Brambling (2/0)

Chaffinch (1/2)

Greenfinch (0/1)

Linnet (1/0)

Lesser redpoll (1/1)

32 new Birds over 16 Species

Dofbasen link: here

People at the station: Bello, David, Menno and Leona

The numbers on the seawatch were not that high. Despite the low numbers, it was not a bad count. The first wimbrels were seen, next to that also 2 red kites, 4 white tailed eagles and the first light morph of artic skua.

The ringing was also quite nice. With 40 birds almost every round had some birds. It was not that busy, so every bird could be studied in great details. For the coming days (and the eastern winds) we are hoping to have the first lesser whitethroat, common redstart and bluethroat in the nets soon.

Ringing totals (new/recapture)

Wren (2/0)

Dunnock (1/0)

Robin (7/1)

Song thrush (1/0)

Common chiffchaff (9/1)

Willow warbler (1/0)

Tree sparrow (0/1)

Brambling (1/0)

Chaffinch (1/2)

Linnet (1/0)

Lesser redpoll (2/0)

28 new birds over 11 species

Doflink: https://dofbasen.dk/search/result.php?design=table&soeg=soeg&periode=dato&dato=13-04-2022&omraade=stor&stor=607&obstype=observationer&species=alle&sortering=dato

People at the station: Bello, Leona, Henrik, David and Menno

Vi havde håbet på bedre. Vinden var i løbet af natten gået i det sydøstlige hjørne, og især havde vi forhåbninger til at ringmærkningen kunne byde på lidt gode fugle. Men vi måtte se langt efter fugle i nettene. Det blev til 20 ringmærkede fugle i alt, hvoraf intet er udover det sædvanlige. 
De fangede en Gærdesmutte som var ringmærkede i februar 2019. Dermed en lidt ældre gærdesmutte, da de maks bliver omkring 7 år gamle. Den er igang med sit 4 år nu..  

Det var heller ikke meget bedre på morgenobsen. Det daglige ternetræk mod nord stoppede allerede efter omkring 200 terner. Der kom desuden et par hundrede bramgæs mod syd, og 2 almindelige kjover. I de allersidte minutter lykkedes at hive en Sortstrubet lom i fuld sommerdragt ud af de blå skyer, men ellers var det en sløv affære. 

Efter morgenobsen satte jeg mig ud foran stationen i håb om en rovfugl, da vinden jo sagde sydøst. Det blev til en enkelt Rød Glente som til gengæld kom rigtig godt lige henover vores hoveder. 
Rød Glente trækker syd over fuglestationen. Foto: David Manstrup

Ringmærkede fugle dags dato:
Jernspurv 1, Rødhals 4, Solsort 2, Sangdrossel 6, Gransanger 3, Bogfinke 1, Tornirisk 1.  

//David Manstrup

This morning the sun was rising 06:23 and Oliver, Jens, David and myself were ready 06:13, and we had two Arctic Skua shortly after, we had 3 in total. Henrik joined us around 06:30 and found a Great Skua and two 2k Caspian gulls on the beach. Then we heard a call that we thought could have been a serin, although we were not sure of it, but had recorded it and we confirmed it later. Lastly we saw the Great Northern Diver probably it has been in the area for some time now. Some nice species but very low quantity. 
Because of the slow migration Oliver and Jens decided to leave a day earlier than planned. 

Today we were joined by Xenia for ringing. We opened the nets and she arrived shortly after that. We managed to capture 20 new Birds and 30 in total. The highlights of today were a Collared Dove by the lighthouse and a Willow Warbler in the station garden.


Collared Dove by Mikkel Bello

In the evening David, Leona and I went for a sunset walk to the bog. We saw a few Reed Buntings a couple of Stone Chats, Wheatear, two Snipes and we heard a short phrase of the Blue Throat, and by the end of our journey we saw the first House Martin of the year. It was fourageing in the dunes in front of the lighthouse garden. We were not fortunate enough to see the Sunset.

Dofbasen link: here

Ringing totals (new/recapture)

European Collared dove  (1/0)

Wren (0/2)

Dunnock (2/2)

Robin (2/2)

Blackbird (2/2)

Redwing (1/0)

Common chiffchaff (4/0)

Willow warbler (1/0)

Tree sparrow (0/1)

Chaffinch (1/1)

Brambling (3/0)

Linnet (2/0)

Bullfinch (1/0)

The seawatch produced with both two great scaups and two artic skuas. There were also some numbers of terns.

After the seawatch, Jens and Oliver tried the stock dove for the second day and saw it. They also saw the known bluethroat and it give them some nice views.

Bluethroat – Picture by Oliver

The ringing was quite entertaining as well. Although a short shower forced us to close and reopen again. Just like yesterday a good number of chiffchaff, almost all had low fat and low muscle indicating that they just have crossed the north sea. In between the chiffchaffs their were also some with smaller wings. This might be an indication of the arrival of female birds. We also dubbled the count of blackcaps compared to yesterday, it’s a real joy to catch since they are very smart looking bird. Today Jonas also had an excursion guiding 25 persons around. Unfortunately, only 5 birds could be showed during the excursion. After that, we had some visitors from Germany and we also showed them around the ringing here.

Blackcap male – picture by Leona

Ringing list (new/recapture):

Robin (0/1)

Chiffchaff (9/0)

Blackbird (2/0)

Song thrush (2/0)

Redwing (1/0)

Dunnock (1/2)

Blackcap (2/0)

Tree sparrow (0/1)

17 new birds over 9 species

People at the station: Jonas with 25 people on excursion, Bent, David, Jens, Oliver, Bello, Leona and Menno