Observation

The morning observation was, once again, filled with experienced birders, totalling 7 observers. And it paid off! At close to eight o'clock, Henrik said, with a great deal of excitement "was that a kingfisher? I think that was a kingfisher!". The kingfisher (isfugl) was only heard, not seen, but this afternoon Henrik confirmed, after reviewing the sound, that is was a kingfisher! Only the fourth kingfisher to be encounteret at Blåvandshuk in 62 years.

The temperature for the morning was 14 degrees, wind 4 m/s east/south east. Other than the amazing news of the kingfisher, it generally was a good morning observation. The migration of the smaller birds has indeed begun and we totalled over 70 species in the four hours we were observing. This included 3000+ meadow pipits (engpiber), 1500+ chaffinches (bogfinke), 5 spoon bills and 70+ sparrow hawks (spurvehøg).
We also had a myrriad of smaller bird migrating in the not-so-strong wind. Including but DEFINETELY not limited to Tree pipit (skovpiber), kestrels (tårnfalke), red-breasted merganser (toppet skallesluger), TWO OSPREYS, a green sandpiber (svaleklire) and even four greater spotted woodpeckers (stor flagspætte)! And ofcourse the usual array of common waders like redshanks, turnstones, red knots, dunlins, bar-tailed godwit and oysrecatchers:)

After the morning observation, Henrik, Henrik, David, Thomas and Anders hung around the station for a while for a cup of coffee and a chat. It was Mathildes bithday today, so Mathilde and Lise baked a (very delicious) banana cake. In the afternoon Sverre, Mathilde and i went for a walk to the sabine bunker, since the military wasn't using the firing range. We enjoyed the nice weather and found a slowworm (stålorm) on the way. 

- GBJ

Observation

Quiet wind today. Quit birds (at least observation-wise). Only three meters per second from direct west. The wind was not mighty enough for the larger waders to move, and coming from the wrong direction for the smaller waders. Luckily we had some pipits flying over. Three tree pipit (skovpiber) and 50 meadow pipits (engpiber) flying over our heads this morning. Besides from that the barn swallows were migrating, and we had four wagtails throughtout the day. Two yellow and two white. As usual i had a dunnock (jernspurv) telling me of from the rosehip bush, today ot was however joined by a chaffinch shouting into the air. Beautiful birds but kind of annoying when they are shouting for hours on end. Around eight i had two greater spotted woodpeckers (stor flagspætte) flying south form the observation spot. They seemed to be heading towards the ringing garden by the birding station! The best sighting of the day was however a curlew (storspove) flying straight south without a sound only five meters above our head! What nice bird, got a great look at that one, although mostly from behind:) After the morning observation Thomas joined us at the station. He went kratlusking in hopes of a little buntin (dværgværling). No luck, but we respect the effort. He stuck around for a couple of hours for the last rounds of the bird-ringing. Tomorrow him and Henrik will be joining the observation, so we hope for good luck and plenty of birds!

 

Ringmærkning

 

I morges, da mit vækkeur ringede kl. 5:15, vågnede jeg netop fra en drøm, hvor jeg sad i mine forældres køkken og kiggede ud på flagspætterne i deres have. Under morgenmaden snakkede vi om, om det mon kunne være tegn på, at vi ville få dem i nettene i dag.

 

De første par runder gik med de sædvanlige jernspurve, rødhalse og bogfinker, som vi efterhånden har lært godt at kende med hensyn til aldersbestemmelse. I fyrhaven var der igen i dag en invasion af sortmejser, så vi besluttede, at Mathilde og jeg skulle gå ned i stationshaven og tjekke nettene inden der gik for lang tid mellem runderne. Og her sad netop en stor flagspætte og ventede på os! Efter et opkald til Lua, kom hun og hjalp med at få den fri og i mellemtiden gik jeg tilbage til fyrhaven for at pille endnu flere sortmejser ud af nettene. Da jeg nåede ned til kratnettene fik jeg en glædelig overraskelse i form af endnu en stor flagspætte, som jeg med lidt besvær fik fri og ned til dens ven i stationshaven for at få en ring på.

 

To glade ringmærkere med hver deres flagspætte.

 

Senere på dagen havde vi sæsonens første fuglekonge og en skovpiber i samme runde. Hertil fik vi besøg af Gustav, som både hjalp med at skrive ned og tage billeder. Det er altid en god hjælp især på runder med mange fugle som i dag. Den lille fuglekonge sad fint i hånden med sin flotte krone og skovpiberen havde en imponerende stor og flot vinge af sin størrelse. Begge arter var gode at se i hånden og lære lidt bedre at kende.

 

Skovpiber.

 

Skovpiberens vinge.

 

Efter nogle timer med et godt antal af fugle i hver runde var det tid til at lukke nettene igen, men ikke før vi fik besøg af en stenpikker! Den kunne igen lokke nogle gæster til fyrhaven, Sverre, Gustav og Thomas, som også gerne ville se den flotte fugl tæt på. Vi kunne forstå på Thomas, at den kun ender i nettene et par gange hver sæson, så vi følte os heldige og meget tilfredse med en god afslutning på en god dag :) 

 

Stenpikker i solskin.

 

Til aftensmad ankom Luas mor, Gabi. Hun er på besøg i Blåvand i en uge og overnatter her på stationen indtil i morgen, så vi håber hun har lyst til at gå nogle runder med os :)

 

- Lise Mastrup

 

 

Folk på stationen: Sverre Dahl Porsgaard, Mathilde Lundt Larsen, Lua Koplin, Gabi, Lise Mastrup, Gustav Brandt Jelert

Observationer

Todays morning observation was easy going. We woke up to 17 degrees, 5 m/s winds coming from the south west and a low tide in the observation area. The bird of the day was a common murre (lomvie), which blessed us with its presence in the last interval of the standard time. It landed in the water and swam around a bit before dissapearing once again. We caught it in its winter plumage, and it was a new species for me (Gustav). We also had a quick shower, where we had to cover our scopes, put our bags in shelter of the rain in the bunker and wait it out. 15 minutes later, we were back, glued to our scopes once again. Due to the clouds, the visibility wasn't great for the first 30 minutes, making it hard to distinguish between the smaller wading birds. 

-GBJ

- Lomvie in its winter plumage (sorry for the poor picture...)

Ringmærkninger

Even though the weather forecast was not the best for this morning, we had quite a successful ringing session never the less!
Starting with a strong mix of our regular visitors, black caps( munk), robins( rødhals), donnucks ( jernspurv) and redchads ( rødstjerter). And finishing with an interesting collection of a wren (gærdesmutte), a common whitethroat (tornsanger) and loads of coal tits,(sortmejser) who are always fun! As we had a lot of individuals we took our time to teach and learn about how to tell males from females and first year individuals.
My personal bird of the day was a spectacular spotted flycatcher (grå fluesnapper)!

-LK

Folk på stationen: Sverre Dahl Porsgaard, Mathilde Lundt Larsen, Lua Koplin, Lise Mastrup, Gustav Brandt Jelert

Observation

Good afternoon my dear blog! Today we were quite a lot of people present at the observation spot, as Henrik and David joined us. Lise was also with us for the morning observation today, as the weather (9 m/s from SV) did not look to bright for ringing. So together the five of us set sail towards the small hole in the rosehip bush. Space was a bit tight, but we managed just fine in the decent weather. We had our hopes up for skuas and sheerwaters, but were only pleased by the former. In total we had a beuatiful even eight of arctic skuas (almindelig kjove) throughout our three hours. The loons were going at it today with almost 50 red throated going south. I was also pleasently surprised by three red-necked grebe (gråstrubet lappedykker) and 15 northern shoveler (skeand)!

Around 0800 Gustav spotted perhaps the most interesting bird today, a merlin sitting right on the beach for quite a while before flying south. It is the first merlin (dværgfalk) of the season, and we had it marked on our wishlist for this exact day, a marvelous mix of luck and determination gave it to us! What a wonderful little falcon, and a new species for me! Just a little while later we had a nice razorbill (alk) coming along the reef. I got a great look at the small black and white bird. A true cutiepie with a short and round body and a small beak. All in all another nice day in Blåvand. Tomorrow its just going to be Gustav and i again for the observation:)

- A merlin on the shoreline, first of the season

- SDP

Ringmærkning

Det er første skriv på bloggen for mit vedkommende. Jeg ankom til stationen i mandags som ny ringmærker – hvor jeg skal være i oplæring den næste halvanden måned. Jeg glæder mig allerede over udsigten til en spændende og lærerig tid her, som de første par dage har vist et udsnit af. Som ny i ringmærkning, er det utroligt spændende at opleve fuglene så tæt på og få fornemmelse for deres fysik og adfærd i hånden.
I dag var der dog imidlertid ikke de bedste forhold for ringmærkning, da der, lignende i går, var vind på omkring 9 m/s, og vi derfor ikke kunne åbne alle net. I løbet af formiddagen løb vinden dog noget af, så vi kunne åbne et par flere, og det gav faktisk to ekstra fugle omkring middag – en genfangst af en munk og en ny helt ung gærdesanger.  

- Jeg ringmærker min første fugl, en munk hun

På trods af en stille ringmærkningsmorgen, var jeg ved godt mod, for jeg ringmærkede mine første fugle i dag – en rødhals, munk og bogfinke. Lua hjalp med tålmodige anvisninger, og jeg føler mig allerede noget mere bekendt med finmotorikken, der skal til for at holde fuglene komfortabelt i hånden.
Jeg ser frem til en god tid på stationen.

- Mathilde

Folk på stationen: Sverre Dahl Porsgaard, Mathilde Lundt Larsen, Lua Koplin, Lise Mastrup, Gustav Brandt Jelert, David Manstrup og Henrik Böhmer

Morgen observation

The weather for the morning observation was nice and sunny, with some clouds. The wind came from the southeast at 9 m/s and we were hoping for an Osprey (fiskeørn). When we don’t have guests at the station, we use the “guest” space on our weekly planner for birds we hope to see that day, and today that bird was an osprey. Anders Myhrtue showed up at around 07:30 and lo and behold! He told us that there was an osprey in the area, and it was actually right in front of us, not even a binocular needed. That’s what happens when you spend too much time looking at the waders…The osprey was being chased by a very brave arctic skua (almindelig kjove). A little later Bent Jakobsen also joined the morning observation, pointing out a lot of raptors, which brought the total to nine sparrow hawks (spurvehøg), seven kestrels (tårnfalk), four marsh harrier (rørhøg), a white-tailed eagle (havørn) and a buzzard (musvåge)! A wonderful day for raptor watching

- The osprey made us so excited that we forgot to grab a picture, so here is a photo of Gustav with an osprey playing card instead

Besides the waves of raptors we also had a decent amount of waders. Most interesting was a total of 37 red-shanks (rødben), a quite decent amount. Furthermore we enjoyed more than 100 gannets fishing, which I think might have outfished some of the local cormorants.
After morning observation and the ringing we went picking sea buckthorns to make a vitamin shot. We made sea buckthorn juice, which is filled with vitamin A, C and E and rich in healthy fat. So now we are ready to brave the long and windy days! The words of our two nice morning observations travel fast. So this afternoon David Manstrup showed up at the station, to join us for the morning observation tomorrow. Henrik Will also be joining the observation, so we are looking forward to another great morning! We are secretly rooting for sheerwaters (skråper). - GBJ and SDP

Ringmærkning

Der er desværre ikke det store at fortælle om fra dagens ringmærkning. Vindstyrken var på omkring 9 m/s, så vi måtte holde flere af nettene lukkede. Vi havde bare 4 nye fugle og en enkelt genfangst af vores egne, men på trods af det har vi haft en hyggelig dag i blæsevejret. Mellem runderne brugte vi tiden på at læse op på fældningsmønstrene for nogle de arter vi fanger for tiden; havesanger og gærdesanger blandt andet. På en af de sidste runder havde vi en ung rødstjert. Efter vi havde nogle unge rødstjert hanner den anden dag, var det oplagt at øve os på kønsbestemmelsen af den her, som vi kunne se var en hun.

I morgen ser vejrudsigten noget lignende ud den i dag, men vi krydser fingre for at der alligevel er nogle fugle der lægger vejen forbi os :)

Blåvand fuglestation i solopgang.

- Lise Mastrup

Folk på stationen: Sverre Dahl Porsgaard, Mathilde Lundt Larsen, Lua Koplin, Lise Mastrup, Bent Jakobsen, David Manstrup og Gustav Brandt Jelert

I dag vågnede vi til masser af regn, hvilket i vores tilfælde betyder at der er fridag på programmet. Da vi hverken kan ringmærke fugle i det våde vejr eller artsbestemme på lang afstand igennem våde objektiver. Vi stod dog alligevel tidligt op for at dobbelttjekke at det nu rent faktisk var vådt. Vejrudsigten er mildest talt upålidelig da de fleste byger driver enten over eller under vores lille spids på blåvandshuk. Den var dog god nok, det var vådt... og ikke bare lidt vådt. Allerede kl 07 var gårdspladsen mere eller mindre dækket af et tykt lag vand. Intet som at gå ud med skraldet iført regnponcho og gummistøvler. I alt faldt der er sted omkring 30mm regn henover dagen.
Vi sov derfor længe og brugte dagen på at gøre huset hovedrent (primært sandudrivelse og udsmidning af løse fjer), lave fuglequiz og se film. Sådan en våd mandag som i dag, kan man virkelig få terpet både vadefugle og sangere. Det var dog også både tiltrængt og velfortjent med en fridag med tid til at være i køkkenet og få både hygget og læst op:)

Hen mod eftermiddagen dukkede først Gustav og derefter Mathilde op på stationen. De er begge to frivillige på blåvand fuglestation i henholdsvis tre uger som observatør og halvanden måned som ringmærker. Vi har set meget frem til at modtage dem på stationen, hvor vi nu er i alt fem unge fuglekiggere de kommende tre uger. Det er dejligt at have stationen fyldt med liv og godt selskab. Imorgen ser vejret meget lovende ud for både ringmærkning og morgenobsen, så vi satser derfor på at de får en god og fuglefyldt velkomst! Vi glæder os meget til at præsentere dem for området og det rige fugleliv og gode vejr her på 'Hukket:)

Fuglebøgerne åbne, varm kakao i koppen, E.T. på skærmen og regnvejr udenfor - det må vidst være opskriften på en perfekt fridag :)

- LM og SDP

Folk på stationen: Lua Koplin, Sverre Dahl Porsgaard, Lise Mastrup, Mathilde Lundt Larsen & Gustav Jelert

Morgen observation:

I started the morning watch at 6:30 in “the hole,” where I had really good shelter from the rather strong SE wind, which was blowing at around 10 m/s. I didn’t have high expectations for the day’s observation, which only made the outcome even more enjoyable – because today, a good number of birds and a wide variety of species showed up.

In fact, there was so much going on that at times I found it a bit difficult to keep up – both with writing things down and trying to spot birds moving in all directions. It’s been a long time since I’ve had that feeling on an obs, so it was super exciting.

Especially all the different wader species and the very large flocks of Eurasian Wigeon were a real treat. With 58 wigeons passing in two flocks in one short period, there was definitely plenty to look at.

On top of that, a couple of Red-throated Divers also passed by – which is always a highlight to see.

So, with 12 different species of waders and everything else, it turned out to be a fantastic day. The 12 wader species were:

• 118 Oystercatchers
• 34 Common Ringed Plovers
• 2 Golden Plovers
• 7 Grey Plovers
• 82 Red knots
• 85 Sanderlings
• 5 Dunlins
• 17 Bar-tailed Godwits
• 1 Curlew
• 5 Common Redshanks
• 2 Greenshanks
• and 13 Turnstones

With a total of 371 waders, 5 Arctic Skuas, and a beautiful 1st calendar-year Marsh Harrier trying to migrate, it turned into a really good southeasterly wind day.

THK

Ringmærkning

With the weather warnings predicting high winds and some rain, it was a pleasant surprise to have this breathtaking sunrise to start another work day!

After that the morning went by quite slowly, which gave us a good opportunity to have a detailed identification and aging session with the few birds we did get!

Lise getting very confident at telling Chiffchaffs from Willow Warblers apart, which is something that can be challenging at times! We also got a beautiful lesser whitethroat, one of my personal favorite warblers!

Since the morning conditions were not the best and this evening seems more promising, we will be night trapping and hopefully be able to update you in the morning with something diffrent!

-Lua Koplin 

Folk på stationen: Lua Koplin, Lise Mastrup, Thomas Kristensen

Observationer

Ringmærkning

Mens Lua og jeg gik og åbnede net i dag fik vi lidt småregn, så vi valgte at holde krattet og et par standardnet lukkede. Resten af formiddagen holdte dog heldigvis tørt og vi startede dagen med et par rødhalse. De er allerede blevet blandt mine favoritter herude, de er så fine at have i hånden.

Dagens første fugl, en rødhals.

Det blev en stille dag med hensyn til antallet af fugle. Vi havde nogle gensyn med både solsort og løvsanger fra de forrige dage og fangede også en ung dompap, som vidst blev forstyrret midt i sin morgenmad. Den havde i hvert fald næbet fyldt med bær, så jeg håber den fandt tilbage til dem efter vi slap den fri igen. Senere på formiddagen havde vi et par rødstjerter. Selvom de stadig var ungfugle kunne vi tydeligt se at de var hanner, for de orange og sorte farver var ved at komme til udtryk. 

Rødstjert 1k han. Dens karakteristiske sorte hals og orange bryst er så småt på vej.

Efter standardtiden sluttede holdte vi nettene i stationshaven åbne indtil eftermiddagen bød på regn, i håb om lidt flere fugle. Det blev dog ikke til mange flere, men til trods for det har det været en god dag og vi har nydt sensommersolen :) 

- Lise Mastrup

Folk på stationen: Lua Koplin, Lise Mastrup, Thomas Kristensen og Sverre Dahl Porsgaard

Observationer
Hello dear blog and loyal readers! Today was still warm, still slightly windy with wind from southeast. As always i had high hopes for the morningsibservation. I was specifically looking out for migrating loons and dabbing ducks, as they have both been somewhat decent the last couple of days. So at six AM i set out for my daily walk into the rosehipbush. The first half an hour was decent with two skuas, a light going south and a dark resting for a little while. I did howver already notice that the tide was quite high, and thus not a lot of resting gulls or waders. The common- and sandwich terns was however quite busy this morning, most going north or forraging in the area. Some gannets were also starting to show up for their favorite dinnerplace a couple hundred meters from the shore. By the time i went home roughly 90 gannets where eating fish or resting quite close to where i was seated. I could see them without telescope or binoculars, and had a fantastic view seen through my scope. I do love the diversity of gannets in the different stages of age and moulting. As always a nice sight!:)
The loons and ducks did however disappoint. Besides my usual scoters i only had a single teal duck and three red throated loons! Not a lot at all. The waders however... were also lacking.In total 18 oystercatchers (!), 4 turnstones, 6 red knots, 21 sanderlings and 3 red shanks. Not a very exciting morning if i a being completely honest. The view however was wonderful, and if birds would have shown up i would have had them in the most wonderful morning light.

Ringmærkning

With the end of August also came what I believe to be one of the last nice summer days! With nice warm weather we also had a nice variety in bird species! The morning started with a nice mix of Robins, Bullfinches and Chaffinches. Later on we got a nice streak of Yellowhammers and Redstarts!

-Yellowhammer in hand

Later we got a cute pair of Coal Tits and a few Willow Warblers, as well as one young Black Bird and beautiful Black Caps!

At around 9:30am Sverre joined Lise and I for  a few net checks and got to ring his first bird, a wounderful first year Bullfinch!

-Sverre´s first ringed bird, a young Bullfinch

Then, as we were packing up and going on our final net check round, a nice little surprise, a Sparrow Hawk looking for her morning snack in the form of a traumatised Redstart!

On our way back to the observatory I let a few present visiters know that we would be releasing the sparrow hawk fairly soon. Turns out word got around quickly and when we came back to the parking lot of the station with the ringed bird in hand, we had a nice sized group of motivated people and lots of exited children waiting for the release! This made a great chance for a little demonstration and biodiversite awareness talk from my part. Since I speak german I was able to also share some fun facts about this incredible bird with the youngest of our spectators, who seemed to quite enjoy a close look at the beautiful hawk!

-Lua Koplin

 People at Station: Lua Koplin, Lise Mastrup and Sverre Dahl Porsgaard