Patience pays

Doing the closing round at 10 p.m. sounded like a brilliant idea yesterday. However when alarm rang at 4.40 a.m. today we regretted it a bit, especially because there were no birds in nets after sunset. Getting up wasn't so difficult though, as we all are full of hope every morning that new day will finally bring us some bigger numbers of ringed birds. And even though we ringed only ... and some of the rounds were empty, we are not disappointed. For sure it is very helpful to try to take the best even from bad situation, and when we think longer about this passing day, we find more and more positive sides of it. First of all, we caught definitely more birds than yesterday, so it was already a success. Next little highlight was catching relatively many Lesser Whitethroats, so we had some more opportunities to practice ageing them. Moreover, we extracted also some Redpolls and a Chaffinch, so that are another species good for gaining experience. And what seems to be the most significant moment of the day: we caught a Barn Swallow! So now we are sure that keeping nets open until late evening is profitable, even if there will be days with empty closing rounds at 10 pm.
Besides ringing, the day passed really calmly today, so we could take a little nap during the day, I practiced some wood carving, Menno took care of his internship project, Mikkel (who had quite successful seawatch today, seeing a really nice migration of Gannets) had used time to train his martial arts, and after dinner and shopping me and Agata went on a lovely (birdwatching) walk to the dunes. Now we are quickly going to sleep, waiting what tomorrow will bring us.

 
Every species that is new for us obviously needs to be photographed. Photo: Mikkel Bello

Today's beauty - Barn Swallow. Photo: Maciej Wozniak

People at the station: Agata, Menno, Mikkel, Maciej

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

Landsvale / Barn Swallow: 1/0
Gærdesmutte / Wren: 1/0
Jernspurv / Dunnock: 0/1
Rødhals / Robin: 1/1
Gærdesanger / Lesser Whitethroat: 10/1
Munk / Blackcap: 1/0
Gransanger / Chiffchaff: 3/1
Løvsanger / Willow Warbler: 3/1
Bogfinke / Chaffinch: 1/1
Grønirisk / Greenfinch: 0/1
Tornirisk / Linnet: 1/0
Stor Gråsisken / Lesser Redpoll: 2/0

Total: 24/7