Of birds and other animals at Blåvandshuk

Morning observations:

The weather was much nicer this morning at the observation, as it wasn’t that windy anymore. The Great Northern diver “Islom” is still resting in the water. It has been here for a few days now. I did saw a lot of Common scoter “Sortand” this morning!

Today’s observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

Yellowhammer "Gulspurv". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

To my great joy, the wind had slowed down a lot and it was perfect conditions for ringing again. I could open all nets and went on the rounds with a bag of freshly washed bird bags. I think all of these bags got used today, as I had quite many birds especially in the first two rounds. There was a little flock of lesser Redpolls “Lille Gråsisken”, one of them a recapture, ringed by Morten in 2023. Else I had a good number of Dunnocks “Jernspurv” and also Robins “Rødhals” and the biggest number of Chiffchaffs “Gransanger” this spring season, it was five of them. I recaptured a Wren “Gærdesmutte”, that was ringed by Merit in 2022, it is nice to see that these little fellows can live quite some years. My highlights of today were a Bullfinch “Dompap” and a Yellowhammer “Gulspurv”.

Bullfinch "Dompap". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

When it had slowed down in the nets, I had time to go to the observation spot because Marit had found the Great Northern Diver “Islom” again, it was resting in the water approximately at the same spot as the last days and I was happy that I have now also seen it.

 Besides birds I also had other animals in hand, that I found in the gardens, one was Xylocampa areola “Gedeblad-ugle", I had seven of them in the trap and on the wall by the trap in the lighthouse garden. Unfortunately no other moth species.

Another animal in hand was this beautiful Common toad “Skrubtudse”, that went out to sunbath.

Common toad “Skrubtudse”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

In the Helgoland trap I do not have birds do often (but today I actually caught a Robin “Rødhals” in it), but I could admire a Heath bumblebee “Hedehumle” which was feeding on the young catkins in the trap. I like these fluffy insects. Sometimes they a so busy with feeding nectar from flowers that you can gently strike over their fur. But that one already noticed me, when I came to take a picture with the phone, so no bumblebee petting today.

Heath bumblebee “Hedehumle”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Now in the evening, we are trying to catch owls with sound in both gardens, we did not have luck so far, but there is still the closing round…

On one round, we saw a very weird looking unidentified flying object in the night sky, this is no photoshopped picture and we are still wondering, what it was…

UFO in the sky over Blåvandshuk. Picture: Marit Nillissen

People: Marit Nillissen and Hanelie Sidhu