Yellow-legged Gull at Blåvandshuk!

An update on yesterday’s nighttour: There were many visitors that came to the tour and showed a lot of interest in birds and nature. We had several stopps and saw Red deer “Krondyr” and looked at the planets: Jupiter with its two moons, Venus and Mars. It was a beautiful night sky and we were very lucky with the weather.

First stop of the night tour. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

In the morning, Lise and I were the first who got up to open the nets. Lise was here at the Bird observatory for a short period last autumn. Now she has received her X-licence and was very much looking forward to the ringing day. It was a nice morning with nice company. But the birds did not play along. Lise and I walked rounds and rounds, checking the empty nets. Now we need Blackbird “Solsort” no. 90, I said to Lise at some point. All the last days I had this 2k male Blackbird “Solsort” at the Kratett nets. And no. 90 did us the pleasure. It was the first bird that we found in a net – at Kratett of course. So Lise could practice holding the bird. Next round, an adult followed the example of no. 90, which did not have a ring yet. We could see the difference between a 2k bird with a moult limit and an 3K+ with just one generation of feathers. We also looked at the different feather groups and discussed where to look for the moult limit. There were no more birds until closing time, so we just had a nice lunch and then it was time for Lise to leave back to Aarhus.

Todays ringing totals:

Blackbird/ Solsort: 1/1

It was a big farewell day, also Frida left to back to Copenhagen today, but both promised to be back at some point in spring, we are already looking forward to it.

Henrik again was the first at the Obs this morning. There was quite a good number of Gannets “Sule” today but the highlight was definitely a Yellow-legged Gull “Middelshavs-sølvmåge” that he found! He also took great pictures of the bird. Apart from the Marsh Tit “Sumpmejse”, which is a rarity at Blåvandshuk on a very local scale, this is the rarest bird that was found a Blåvandshuk this year. Congrads to Henrik!

Todays obserbations at Blåvandshuk can be seen here.

3K Yellow-legged Gull/ Middelshavs-sølvmåge, pictures by Henrik Böhmer

In the afternoon, John Frikke and Annete came to the Bird Observatory. Nationalpark Vadehavet, Johns working place, is very much involved in the Little Tern “Dværgterne” project, as the breeding sites of the terns are in the National park. So John and Joseph did some planning for the project and I benefited from it by learning a little more about the National Park and eating some delicious cake with them. Mange tak!

Karen enjoyed the birds at the beach most of the day and took some great pictures, as of these Sanderlings "Sandløber". Picture: Karen Koefoed.

At the station: Henrik Böhmer, Lise Manstrup, Hanelie Sidhu, Karen Koefoed, Joseph Stephan and Frida