A rarity for Blåvand! (but not for Denmark)

Observations:

Ringing:

With the winds finally calm enough to open all of the nets, we had high hopes of catching more birds than we've done these past few, very slow, days. The first few rounds were promising, in that we actually caught birds, and barely two hours in, we got a whole 5 birds at the Station Garden, which prompted us to call on Henrik so that he could come and observe Strummer at work. Up to this point, Strummer has had an X-license in Denmark, which means that they cannot yet ring independently, despite the fact that they have plently of experience handling and ringing birds in America. This has been because Henrik wanted to make sure that they can confidently identify and age/sex the birds we have here in Denmark, which he confirmed during the next two hours of ringing in which Strummer got priority for ringing/extracting birds. Satisfied with what he saw, Henrik then wrote a recommendation, and only about half an hour after sending an application to the danish Ringing Administration, Strummer finally got their C-license!

During the "exam", Strummer got to ring/handle some very nice birds, such as a Redpoll (Acanthis flammea/cabaret) and a Eurasian Treecreeper (Certhia familiaris)

Eurasian Treecreeper (left) and Redpoll (right). Picture: Strummer

After standard, three guided tours showing ringing here at Blåvand Bird Station were on offer, however no-one showed up at the sign advertising this, so we ended up just going normal rounds for another three hours. At around 12, Henrik and I (Alba) began to close the nets, starting at the Lighthouse Garden. In the middle of this, I began to hear familiar bird calls, and just as it clicked which species it was from, Henrik had called it out to the other volunteers. Soon after, everyone else had gathered in the Lighthouse Garden in the hopes of seeing or hearing the culprit: a Marsh Tit (Poecile palustris). These small tits are quite common in a lot of places in Denmark, but very rare out here at Blåvands Huk, and Henrik exclaimed that this was the first one he had ever heard out here. By the time the rest had arrived however, the bird had seemingly moved on, so we continued closing the nets. Just as we went down to the nets at Krattet, I saw that there was a bird hanging in the 18 meter net, and as I went past it in order to get to the opposite pole, I realized that the little Marsh Tit had not escaped us after all, and was indeed hanging in the net! 

After carefully extracting it, we went up to the lab where Strummer got the honour of ringing it. They only just saw the species for the first time in their life the day before, so they were very excited to get to ring one! I myself have ringed and handled quite a few at the CES site at Rungstedlund, so I will admit that a lot of the excitement went a bit over my head, but it was a very fun experience nonetheless. 

Marsh Tit, a rare bird for Blåvands Huk. Picture: Leon

Throughout the whole day, we caught a whole 32 birds (24 new and 8 recaptures) and had great species variety. Hopefully the next few days will feature similar numbers/variety of birds!

At the station: David, Nico, Miguel, Lois, Alba, Strummer, Ida, Johan, Leon, Anton and Henrik