Hede-takspinder on the wall!

Morning observations:

Today, Marit and I were fortunately able to carry out the observation in decent weather, with fine visibility and a few degrees above freezing from early morning. However, the improved weather didn't bring along many birds. Just like the past few days, it was very quiet bird-wise, and most of the migration happened far out over the sea. Apart from a few white wagtails “Hvid vipstjert” and barn swallows “Landsvale” passing through, it was hard to tell that spring migration was underway. So we're hoping that the migration picks up soon.
Throughout most of the observation, we had a pair of red-breasted mergansers "Toppet skallesluger" resting just off our position, close to the beach. And in the absence of birds, we could at least enjoy the large number of seals – both in the water and out on the sandbanks.

Todays observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

Another day with northwesterly winds, they are quite a killer for us here in Blåvand in spring.

Anne and I walked a lot and had very few birds – the good thing about that was, that we could enjoy the fire in the house, that Joseph had made. In the first round we caught a beautiful Redwing ”Vindrossel”, that got a ring, later, when Marit and Thomas had finished the morning obs and joined us for some rounds, we had a new Robin ”Rødhals”.

The beautiful underwing of the Redwing "Vindrossel". Picture: Anne Hjortlund Hansen

Otherwise just recaps. But one of the recaps, a beautiful Dunnock "Jernspurv", that we aged as 3K+ turned into a reason to celebrate later in the day, when I entered the data. Because I found out that Anne had called this bird when she was here in summer 2023! By then, it was a 1K, and Anne even found a picture of exactly this Dunnock "Jernspurv" in full juvenile plumage!

The moths:

I have seven different moths species at teh wall and in the trap today. One of them was new for the season and also new for me, it is a not common one: Phyllodesma ilicifolia "Hede-takspinder". There is a quite similar one, Phyllodesma tremulifolia, but it is usually more orange brown while ilicifolia is brown with gray-brown edges. The fringe of the wing is usually less contrasting to the color of the rest of the wing in tremulifolia than in ilicifolia. After some research I also found out, that tremulifolia appears more in southern European countries, while ilicifolia is found in the north. Nevertheless, on a European scale tremulifolia is doing better than ilicifolia. Phyllodesma ilicifolia ”Hede-takspinder” is a pretty moth, and we were all happy to see it.

Phyllodesma ilicifolia "Hede-takspinder". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu 

In the afternoon I wanted to see some more birds than we did in the morning and checked Reginevej. There was nothing out of the ordinary so I continued on my bike to Grønningen.

Landscape at Grønningen. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

I ckecked the horse fields, there were quite some White Wagtails ”Hvid vipsjert” and I found one Pied Wagtail ”Sortrygget hvid vipstjert”, the British subspecies yarelli, among them. This was nice, I continued a bit and saw a flock of about 80 Golden Plovers ”Hjeile” together with some Starlings ”Stær”. I was content with my trip and headed back to the station. On the road not far from the house I found a Starling "Starling", a car had driven over it. It was a ringed one and I didn't need to go back long in the archive to see that I had ringed it on the 20 ^th of March this year. That is quite sad, we had one great and one sad recap today... Let's see what tomorrow brings.

At the station: Thomas Kristensen, Marit Nillissen, Anne Hjortlund Hansen, Joseph Stephan and Hanelie Sidhu