DMI´s April Joke

Morning observations:

This morning looked fine at first for the morning observation. But there was not that much migration going on. After 1,5hours the visibility got really bad, I couldn’t see the sea anymore! So unfortunately I headed back to the station after 1,5hours.

Todays observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

We were expecting a beautiful morning when we checked the weather on DMI yesterday evening. It showed sun from sunrise the whole day and nearly no wind. When I went out to open the nets at 5.30, there was a thin icy layer on the poles and frost on the ground and on some of the nets. It was a cold start of the morning. When it got light, it turned quite foggy soon and from the station, I could sometimes hardly see the lighthouse. There were very few birds flying in this weather. In the first round, I had a few birds, among them a beautiful Redwing “Vindrossel”.

Redwing "Vindrossel". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

The second round brought just some recaptures and after, a few zero rounds followed. At least I saw two Cranes “Trane” flying over the station garden and disappearing in the fog, that was quite nice. In the last two hours it cleared up but there were not many more birds flying, so I closed the nets. Bent had arrived at the station and came with me to the lighthouse garden to put up two nets that fell down this morning when I wanted to open them, as the stabilizing ropes just slipped down on the icy pole. Now I have all the nets again for tomorrow which is good.

Bent was planning on going for a walk on the beach, but there was fog over the sea again, so he just did a short walk and found a pretty adult male viper “Hugorm” in the part of the bog that was open, just on the other side of the station.

Adult male viper/ Hugorm ad han. Picture: Bent Jakobsen

Interviews Little Tern Project:

While Bent was out taking a walk, I gathered all the material that John F. gave me two weeks ago (flyers, nationalpark guides and uniform) as well as the printed versions of the interview sheet. The questions asked were discussed before with all the stakeholders of the project. 

Marit and Hanelie were kind enough to help me with the interviews to do the job in the most efficient way. We positioned us at the most northern entrance of the Nationalpark. We did 1h of interviews which resulted in a total of 41 tourists and 3 danish locals - that we asked 8 questions each, about their knowledge regarding dog leashes and their experience with the info signs as well as the fencing for the Little Terns.

Interviewing tourists; Photo: Hanelie

It was very fun and I am thankful that Marit and Hanelie joined. The Nationalpark Vadehavet uniform is fitting all of us quite well. Thank you John! :-)

For dinner Hanelie prepared a delightful vegetarian dish and salad that we enjoyed with every single bite - it carried us to our well deserved beds.

Let’s roll the dice and see what tomorrow’s got in store!

At the station: Bent Jakobsen, Marit Nillissen, Joseph Stephan, Hanelie Sidhu