Morning observations:

In the early morning, the fog refused to lift from the banks of Blavand. From the top of the dunes, all we could hear were the cries of the herring gulls, the horizon was shrouded in a thick veil of mystery. Few birds were to be seen, whilst the toads, for their part, were out in force.
We therefore decided to take a fresh look at the birds species we know so well at Blavand. Here is the drawing of the day.

Eiders "Edderfugl" by Clara

Today´s observations of observers in the area can be seen here.

Ringing:

Goldcrests "Fuglekonge" by Xenia

Yesterday's sunny weather did not last til today. It was already quite foggy when we opened the nets, and the fog only deepened over the next few hours. Today, Xenia joined the ringing. Unfortunately, the bad weather also did not bring many birds. My highlight was a recapture of a  Yellowhammer "Gulspurv", a pretty adult male that Bent ringed in 2023.

Yellowhammer "Gulspurv" by Xenia

With its bright yellow, it brought some light in the grey day! Some Goldcrests “Fuglekonge” were around, but it was also some recaptures from yesterday.

Paula with a Robin "Rødhals" by Xenia

But we had some nice talks over some tea at the station, and after it was mostly an indoor day for us, as the fog did not clear…

In the late afternoon, the first members of DKU, the DOFbasn quality assurance, arrived for their meeting this weekend.

At the station: Paula Feuchtmeyer, Xenia Salomonsen, Thomas Kristiansen, Henrik Böhmer, Hanelie Sidhu, Clara and DKU

Yesterday’s hopes turned into reality. The clear night delivered exactly what we had been wishing for – finally some more birds again!

By the end of the ringing session, we had ringed a total of 27 individuals from 12 different species.

The highlights of the day were two European goldfinches “stillitz”. These beautiful birds never fail to impress and it’s always nice to see one up close in the hand.

European goldfinches “stillitz” by Hanelie

Another nice moment came with the capture of a redwing “vindrossel”. Unlike their relatives – the often caught blackbirds “solsort” and song trushes “sangdrossel” – redwings a rather rare.

a redwing “vindrossel” posing in front of the lighthouse by Paula

We wrapped up the successful day together at the station, now with one more person living at the house with us. Clara joined us last evening and will be staying to carry out observations this season. We are looking forward to a great season together!

At the station: Henrik Bøhmer, Paula Feuchtmeyer, Hanelie Sidhu, and Clara Delahaye

Gransanger by Paula

The morning started a bit windy and according to DMI it would stay like that for the next five hours. So we had a reduced number of nets open, but actually, the wind turned out to be lower than expected. Nevertheless, the birds did not come. We only caught three birds in the whole five hours, two of them Chiffchaffs “Gransanger” – at least a little spring feeling. Also the adders “hugorm” start coming out, when the sun manages to get through to Blåvand. So let´s hope for some more spring with more birds in the next weeks.

adder “hugorm” by Paula

Gransanger 2/0

Gærdesmudde 1/0

We also received a recapture letter of the Dunnock “Jernspurv” with foreign danish ring, that we caught some days ago. At Hanstholm Fyr at the ringing site of the Nordvestjysk Ringmækergruppe. Always exciting to get back recapture letters.

We are hoping that that the clear night will bring us some birds tomorrow.

Is this spring sun on my belly? We are looking forward to your arrival at Blåvandshuk, spring! Picture by Hanelie

At the station: Paula Feuchtmeyer and Hanelie Sidhu

So far, spring has always only been a short guest at Blåvand.

Looking at the forecast yesterday, we were expecting at least a dry day, okay to have the nets open the standard five hours. But it turned out different. The morning was punctuated by showers, some light but others quite heavy. A few nets, particularly in the Leutturm garden, had to remain closed due to the wind. Unfortunately, we couldn’t carry out our usual routine in this weather, and although the Songthrush "Sangdrossel" was singing all day, there was very little activity; we each managed to ring one bird – a Robin "Rødhals" for Paula and a Blackbird "Solsort" for me.

Rødhals 1/0

Solsort 1/0

At the station: Paula Feuchtmeyer and Hanelie Sidhu

The new week started with nice weather. Luckily, the rain stopped in the morning, which meant we could open the nets as usual. However, there were unfortunately not a lot of birds moving in the nets. During the later morning net checks we even had a few rounds with no captures at all.

A really nice moment came when we were able to welcome back an old friend of Hanelie´s – a Great Tit “Musvit” that she ringed here in autumn 2024.

There is also exciting news form the station garden. Henrik managed to set up an audio recorder running BirdNET-Pi and installed it next to the ringing lab outside in the garden. The automated system continuously records the surrounding soundscape and uses artificial intelligence to identify bird species based on their calls and songs. The system analyses the recordings in real time. This means that from now on we can follow bird activity in the garden whenever we want.

At the obs Henriks highlights were three different Grebe species: A Red-Necked Grebe “Gråstrubet Lapedykker”, a Slavonian Grebe “Nordisk Lappedykker” and a Black-Necked Grebe “Sorthalset Lapedykker”!

A deer at sunset close to the lighthouse garden by Hanelie

After, he went on a long beach walk to look for dead birds for a project of DOF. We are curious about what he found.

At the station: Henrik Bøhmer, Paula Feuchtmeyer and Hanelie Sidhu

Goldcrests "Fuglekonge" by Hanelie

Another morning with low winds, which brought some birds in the nets for Paula and me. The last two days, we had surprisingly many Bullfinches, “Dompap”, today it was again three new and one recapture from last autumn.

Bullfinch "Dompap" by Paula

Another exciting event in the ringing was a Dunnock with a foreign Danish ring, so we are excited to find out where it is from. Later in the morning, Bent and his wife came to show their grandson some birds. Unfortunately, the round they followed, we only had one Bullfinch “Dompap” in the net, a recapture from a previous round. Nevertheless, a nice bird to see.

Around closing time,  the sky cleared up, and it was a really nice and sunny afternoon. Paula and I decided to climb the lighthouse and enjoyed the great view.

On top of the lighthouse by Hanelie

Henrik and Thomas went to the obs this morning, luckily they had a clear view, but nothing special to report.

At the station: Henrik Böhmer, Thomas Kristiansen, Paula Feuchtmeyer, Hanelie Sidhu and Bent Jakobsen with family.

After several windy days, we were happy to enjoy a much calmer one today. Finally we were able to open the nets as usual and run the station under regular conditions again. The first hours of the morning went pretty good and we were able to ring several birds. As the morning went on, activity slowed down. During the later rounds, only a few birds found their way into the nets. The weather also changed over the course of the day: while the morning started out fairly clear, later it got really foggy.

One of our highlights of the day was the first Redwing “Vindrossel” of the season, which we were very happy to see.

Redwing "Vindrossel" by Paula

We were also excited to welcome our first Chiffchaff “Gransanger” of the year.

Chiffchaff "Gransanger" by Paula

With the arrival of this small guest, it truly felt as if spring might finally be on its way. Let’s hope it’s a sign of the warmer days to come!

Thomas, Henrik and David were lucky the fog came a bit later in the morning, so they had a decent view over the sea in the first hours after sunrise. The highlight at the obs was definitely and Iceland Gull “Hvilvinget Måge” which was migrating north.

Iceland Gull “Hvilvinget Måge” by Henrik

In the afternoon the fog got so thick, that I could not see the station anymore when I went up to the lighthouse garden to put some birdfood at the nets at Krattet. These four nets do not belong to the standardized ringing so we can use food at that place. Usually, they catch quite good but so far not many birds have found their way to the Krattet, so we are hoping to lure them a bit with food.

Later, I followed up on a tip by Sverre that there were bats in one of the bunkers I had not explored so far. And sure enough, I found ten Daubenton´s bats “Vandflagermus”.

Daubenton´s bats “Vandflagermus” by Hanelie

After crawling out of the bunker I skipped and hopped happily through the dunes and the thick fog back to the station.

At the station: Paula Feuchtmeyer, Thomas Kristiansen, Henrik Bøhmer, David Manstrup and Hanelie Sidhu

This morning it was no question whether to open the nets. The wind reached up to 16 m/s, gust was even higher and rain beat against our windows. A day to enjoy some more sleep.

Although later I regretted a bit to have stayed in bed as Henrik saw some Little Gulls “Dværgmåge” at Grønningen, maybe we could also have seen some from the beach.

Besides ringing I will also work on a project about ringing data of some long distant migrant passerine species this time so Henrik and I discussed a bit on that.

Later, Paula, Henrik and I went on a walk to the Sabine bunker and back through the bog. The wind had slowed down and now it was too late for the Little Gulls “Dværgmåge” unfortunately, but we saw some Caspian Gulls “Caspisk Måge” of different age classes, as well as the usual Sanderlings “Sandløber”, Purple Sandpipers “Sortgrå Ryle”, Ringed Plovers “Stor Præstekrave” and Turnstones “Stenvender”.

2K Capian Gull "Caspisk måge" next to a Herring Gull by Henrik

3K Caspian Gull "Caspisk Måge" by Henrik

4K Caspian Gull "Kåspisk Måge" by Henrik

In the bog it was rather quiet, besides some Skylarks “Sanglærke” and three Mitlethrushes “Misteldrossel”.

Some amphibians were on the path as this nice Moor Frog “Spidssnudet frø”.

Well camouflaged Moor Frog "Spidssnudet frø" by Hanelie

Tomorrow looks good for ringing again, so lets hope for some birds in the nets!

At the station: Henrik Bøhmer, Paula Feuchtmeyer and Hanelie Sidhu

The morning today began with clear skies, but because of the wind, we could not open the nets in the usual way. The station garden offers a bit more shelter, that’s why we could open a few nets here. But after two hours the wind icreased a lot, so we decided to close those nets as well.

We didn’t have a lot of hope to get something in the nets today, but despite the limited netting time, we were still able to ring two Goldcrests “Fuglekonge”. We also catched one old friend - a recapture of a Blackbird “Solsort” Hanelie ringed a few days ago.

Fuglekonge 2/0

Solsort 0/1

With plenty of free time after the short ringing session, I decided to go for a long walk along the coast. After two skylarks "sanglærke" accompanied me for a while along the dunes, I encountered a few herring gulls “sølvmåge” by the sea that seemed to be enjoying the sunshine just as much as I was.

a herring gull “sølvmåge” enjoing the sun (by Paula)

At the station: Henrik Bøhmer, Hanelie Sidhu and Paula Feuchtmeyer

With mostly 10 m/s it was too windy to open the nets this morning. Later, the rain also started.

I stayed inside the house, enjoyed some more sleep and did some work for university that took with me from the last semester. Paula enjoyed her day at Tirpitz museum.

The recapture report of the Greenfinch with Norwegian ring arrived. It was ringed last September in Sørby in Norway as a 1K bird. Probably it went to Denmark or maybe Germany in autumn to  winter in a milder climate and is now on the way back to its breeding grounds in Norway. Here is a map of where it was ringed and recaptured.

Map of the ringing and recapure site of the Greenfinch with Norwegian ring.

The next days do not look good for ringing. Tomorrow is going to be windy and the day after looks very rainy. But let´s hope for the best; maybe it turns out better than the forecast says.

At the station: Paula Feuchtmeyer and Hanelie Sidhu