Morning Observation
Finally, a change from the usual northwesterly winds — this morning brought wind from the southeast instead. This gave Levi, Marit, and me high hopes for today’s observation session. During the morning, both David and Bent also joined us at the observation spot, so we weren’t the only ones expecting a great day.

From early on and throughout the session, the scoters “Sortand” were active, but aside from them, there wasn't a significant migration today. The only other species we saw in decent numbers were terns. However, what we lacked in numbers, we made up for in diversity. A good variety of species passed by us today — including tufted ducks “Troldand”, common eiders “Ederfugl”, greylag geese “Grågås”, and brent geese “Knortegås”. And of course, the absolute highlight of the day: an Egyptian Goose and around 100 Red Knots migrating past us. It was wonderful to see the large flock of knots slowly making their way north.

Today's observations can be seen here.

Blue sky over the observation spot. Picture: Levi van den Os

Ringing
Morten and Emma ran the ringing today, and just like us at the observation post, they were also ready for a day with many birds in the nets. After a somewhat slow start to the morning – perhaps due to the slight fog hanging low over the ground – the birds also really started moving. After the observation, I joined the ringing and went along for the last two rounds of the standard time. After that, we closed Fyrhaven and Krathaven, and then Morten and, on several rounds also I, continued rounds in Stationshaven, where there were still birds.

When Morten closed the last net around 19:00, we had reached a total of 41 ringed birds and 5 recaptures. So that must be said to be a good day’s result. The vast majority of the birds today were long-distance migrants like willow warblers and redstarts, and this meant that Morten could take a lot of blood samples from these birds.

The highlight of the day came well after the standard rounds, when Morten and I did a quiet round with only two birds in the net – but one of them made Morten very happy. Morten quickly took it out of the net and everyone at the station was called into the lab, where Morten showed us the first wood warbler in our nets this year.

In addition to this highlight, we also had a willow warbler with a Swedish ring, which is always great – it’s exciting to see birds with rings from other stations.

Everyone is eagerly waiting to see what Morten has in the bag. Picture: Levi van den Os

Wood Warbler "Skovsanger". Picture: Thomas Kristensen

At the station: Emma Gray, Joseph Stephan and Frida Soeltoft, Thomas Kristensen, Morten Jenrich Hansen, Levi van den Os, Marit Nillissen, David Manstrup  

Morning observation

Today Thomas nor Marit were able to join me for the morning observation, which meant counting a lot of birds I'm normally not that familiar with. Emma however, came to the rescue, helping me with the counting this morning! This was just her second time joining the obs, but she picked the counting up very fast. While she was responsible for the divers "Rødstrubet lom", I did the other common migrators. Later however, we basically switched which species we were counting as Emma was having a blast counting the common scoters "Sortand". During the obs Emma noticed a black, tern like bird fly across her scope view. This was none other than a black tern "Sortterne"! Overall we had a good morning observation with a large amount of scoters.

Today's observations can be seen here.

Ringing

The ringing was in comparison quite slow. There were in total 18 birds ringed and 4 recaptures. Marit and Kyle checked the lighthouse garden, while Morten looked after the station garden. After the standard time the lighthouse garden was closed. But with the nets in the station garden still open, Morten caught the first spotted flycatcher "Grå fluesnapper" of the season!

Spotted flycatcher "Grå fluesnapper". Picture: David Manstrup

Blackbird "Solsort". Picture: Kyle Tittse

“Kystfugle” Project:

After some hard days of work, it’s finally time to celebrate!

We’ve made great progress with the fences in Blåvand and Rømø.

Even though the Little Terns seem to be arriving a bit late this season, we’re still hopeful that their numbers will increase in the coming days.

Over the last few days, the first Dwarfs (Little Terns) and Peckers (Ringed Plovers) have been pairing up on the beach - which means we can expect the first eggs within the next seven days!

Yesterday, Kim F. and Ulf B. visited the station to install the last missing pieces for the fence in Blåvand. 

The electricity is now running through the wires, the decoys are being offered fish, and the fence is ready to be elevated in case of a king tide.

Electric Energy System - Kim and Fritz; Photo: Joseph

The second fence along the first line of dunes is up, the poles are equipped with spikes to prevent perch hunting, the first sand drift measurement has been completed, and daily records of location and activity are ongoing.

Anti perch hunting spikes; Photo: Joseph

Sand Drift Measurement; Photo: Joseph

We’re also counting dogs - both on and off leashes. Fifteen artificial nests (made up of 30 quail and 15 wax eggs) were placed along a gradient from bare sand to dense vegetation, accompanied by three trail cameras to estimate predator density, identify which species are involved, and understand the environmental factors affecting predation rates.

Artificial Nests; Photo: Joseph

And last but not least: the concrete tubes are patiently waiting to be cut and decorated with sand.

Our bones and muscles are extremely sore - but our souls are soothed. We’re looking forward to tomorrow, hoping to see more Little Terns mingling inside the fence.

A huge thank you to everyone involved in making this project happen!

Special thanks to John F., Kim F., Ulf B., Thomas B., Christoph M., and Henrik B. for supervising with precision and patience.

We’re off to a great start, and I’m excited to keep you updated in the next blog posts and share the first maps and results!

At the station: Emma Gray, Joseph Stephan and Frida Soeltoft, Thomas Kristensen, Morten Jenrich Hansen, Levi van den Os, Marit Nillissen, David Manstrup

Morning observation

As usual Thomas, Levi and I went to the morning observation. Henrik also joined today. The migration was alright. It was better then the other days we had. We had a decent amount of Red-throated divers “Rødstrubet lom”. Our highlight of today was a Black tern “Sortterne”, which was migrating to the north. It was a nice morning!

Todays observations can be seen here.

Ringing

Emma helped Morten out today with the ringing. It was a quite slow day with only 19 birds in the nets. But we did catch two Wood pigeons “Ringdue”! Emma was really happy with the pigeon and took a selfie with one of them. She also got some company from a Moor frog in the Lighthouse garden. We caught some long distance migrating birds such as the Willow warbler “Løvsanger” as well, so Morten could take some bloodsamples again.

Emma with a pigeon. Picture: Emma Gray

Wood pigeon. Picture: Emma Gray

Moor frog at the Lighthouse garden. Picture: Emma Gray

News from the station

This evening, Henrik spoiled us with some delicious dinner. He made us loaded fries with some Danish toppings, such as sausage, bacon, curry sauce and homemade cheddar sauce. It was really tasty! Later this day, Frida arrived, she will stay at the station a couple of days.

At the station:  Emma Gray, Joseph Stephan and Frida, Thomas Kristensen, Morten Jenrich Hansen, Levi van den Os, Marit Nillissen and Kyle Tittse

Morning observation

Marit and I were at the observation spot at 5:30 AM, expecting a slow day with very little migration. However, the migration actually turned out to be quite decent today, with a good number of birds and several different species. Throughout the observation, we had quite a few resting birds. For example, we had a cuckoo “Gøg” that sang its beautiful song for us the entire time, and also a white-tailed eagle “Havørn” resting on the beach along with lots of gulls and several waders – mostly sanderlings “Sandløber”.

Today's observations can be seen here.

Ringing
Today, the wave of birds continues from yesterday. The lighthouse garden consistently had at least 1 bird each round today, with some species that excited our far-flung New Zealander. While Morten is here and collecting blood samples, the station nets stay open most of the day. Even the lighthouse garden stayed open for an extra hour after standard time today to ride the wave of bird luck. Closing round saw the addition of a female Yellowhammer “Gulspurv“ ringed as a juvenile in June 2022 (and she looked gorgeous). We also had 5 redstarts “Rødstjert” showing off their beautiful plumage. Female power was strong in the linnet’s “Tornirisk“ today as we had two delightful females.

Yellowhammer “Gulspurv“. Picture: Emma Gray

Redstart “Rødstjert”. Picture: Emma Gray

Wren “Gærdesmutte”. Picture: Levi van den Os

Linnet “Tornirisk“. Picture: Morten Jenrich Hansen

News at the station
Many people visited the station as two school groups joined us today. Bent was teaching the high school about nature and showed them a willow warbler “Løvsanger”, a wren “Gærdesmutte” and a redstart “Rødstjert” in hand. The other school group was on a biology field trip. Joseph stepped into an assistant teacher role and answered questions about the station, and showed the students the fence for the Little Terns (hopefully they start nesting within the next few days).

Bent showing the group the redstart. Picture: Levi van den Os

The day was quite warm, and the new phrase of sun’s out, shorts on was applied today (much to Marit’s dismay). You can take the kiwi out of New Zealand, but you can't take the New Zealander out of her.

At the station: Emma Gray, Joseph Stephan, Thomas Kristensen, Morten Jenrich Hansen, Levi van den Os, Marit Nillissen and Kyle Tittse

Morning observation
Lo and behold, it was finally a way better day! With the last couple of days being quite bad for the observation and the ringing, it was quite a surprise to suddenly have such a good day again. While Thomas and I didn't see any very surprising birds, except for a very close flying arctic skua "Almindelig kjove", we did have quite a large amount of birds compared to the previous days! Particularly the resting bird count was high with some 400 common gulls "Stormmåge" and 100 sanderlings "Sandløber".

Today's observations can be seen here.

After the observation I joined the ringing until closing, where I got to ring another willow warbler "Løvsanger" and practice with changing positions in the hand. Bent was also at the station this morning, which resulted in this nice photo that Emma took of the birders in their natural habitat! :)

Some serious birders out there (and a house martin)!  Picture: Emma Gray

Ringing
Today I joined the ringing instead of the obs. The weather forecast looked better than the other days, so we had good hopes. Kyle joined me until 09:00 in the morning of the ringing. After that, Emma and Levi joined me. We had some couple of good rounds, where we got 5 birds each round only in the Lighthouse garden. Eventually it started to slow down. We got some finches today, the Chaffinch “Bogfinke”, Greenfinch “Grønirisk” and a Goldfinch “Stillits”. Another nice bird we got in the nets was a Great tit “Musvit” who was not happy with me, as it was biting me all the time while I was trying to get it out of the net.

Finch #1, a chaffinch. Picture: Marit Nillissen

Finch #2, a goldfinch. Picture: Marit Nillissen

Finch #3, a greenfinch. Picture: Marit Nillissen

At the station: Emma Gray, Joseph Stephan, Thomas Kristensen, Morten Jenrich Hansen, Levi van den Os, Marit Nillissen and Kyle Tittse

Morning observation

The wind was a bit hard today with 10 m/s. We were hoping for a good migration day, but it was very slow. It was just Thomas, Henrik and me today, as Levi wished to sleep in. We didn’t see many species, we mostly saw the birds we usually see at the obs such as the Common scoter “Sortand” and Northern gannets “Sule”.

Todays observations can be seen here.

After the morning observation, Kyle (my boyfriend who arrived Sunday) and I went for a walk around the area. I showed him the Lighthouse garden and the bunkers. We even saw a Sand Lizard “Markfirben” very closely!

Sand lizard. Picture: Marit Nillissen

Ringing

The ringing was also quite slow today. In total there were 10 birds in the nets. We caught a Great tit “Musvit” who was ringed here at the station in 2021! We also caught a Lesser whitethroat “Gærdesanger” who was ringed on the Isle in Fanø last spring in April 2024! Other than that, we had a nice Siskin “Grønsisken” which we don’t catch that often.

Siskin. Picture: Morten Jenrich Hansen

The old Great tit. Picture: Morten Jenrich Hansen

At the station: Levi van den Os, Emma Gray, Joseph Stephan, Thomas Kristensen, Morten Jenrich Hansen, Marit Nillissen and Kyle Tittse

Morning Observation
Levi and I started the observation at 5:30 AM in about 4°C and with a wind direction that didn’t exactly point towards an exciting day. But we hoped for the best. Unfortunately, there was almost no migration at all, and most of the observation was spent staring out over a completely empty sea. The day’s highlights weren’t great, but a couple of shelducks “Gravand” flying directly overhead and four common eiders “Ederfugl” migrating over the sea will have to do for today.

Today's observations can be seen here.

Morning at the obs. Picture: Levi van den Os

Ringing
With the wind starting from the northeast, we had expected a decent day for ringing, but the wind direction shifted slightly westward again, making it yet another quiet day in the nets. Even though Morten, as on most days, kept the nets open in the station garden after the five hours of standard time, not many birds were caught. Only 11 birds were ringed, and there were 7 recaptures. However, two small but lovely stories came out of it.

The first was that we caught a regular visitor in the nets – a great tit “Musvit” that was first ringed at the station in the summer of 2023 and has since been caught in the nets nearly 30 times. This clearly shows that it's a frequent guest in the garden and doesn't seem to be bothered by being caught once in a while.

The second story is about a chiffchaff “Gransanger” we’ve caught three times in a short span – on May 1st, 2nd, and 5th. What’s remarkable about this chiffchaff is how much fat it has gained. It went from being rated a 2 on the fat scale the first time, to a 3 already the next day, and today it’s at a 5. That corresponds to a weight gain from 6.8g to 8.4g – which is quite significant for such a small bird.

Redpoll Picture: Morten Jenrich Hansen

At the station: Joseph Stephan, Emma Gray, Thomas Kristensen, Morten Jenrich Hansen, Marit Nillissen, Levi van den Os

Morning observation
Unfortunately, yesterday’s amazing 'Diver Day' cast a shadow over today’s observations. With winds reaching up to 10 m/s from the north, hardly any birds felt like migrating. Numbers were very low, with the common scoters "Sortand" only reaching the low hundreds during the last two time intervals. However, we did spot a white-tailed eagle "Havørn" resting nearby.

Today's observations can be seen here.

The strong winds of today visible towards the north. Picture: Levi van den Os

Ringing
Just like the observation today, the ringing was also very slow. We only caught a total of 8 birds, 2 of which were recaptures. Along the birds caught was a tree pipit "Skovpiber" and quite a special lesser whitethroat "Gærdesanger". This specific lesser whitethroat was also caught in 2022 on May the 4th! A small fun fact to brighten the slower ringing day.

Tree pipit. Picture: Morten Jenrich Hansen

At the station: Joseph Stephan, Emma Gray, Thomas Kristensen, Morten Jenrich Hansen, Marit Nillissen, Levi van den Os

Morning observation

We had a good day at the morning observation today. We saw 5 Arctic skua’s “Almindelig kjove” and around 600 Red-throated divers “Rødstrubet Lom”. It was a great migrating day for these birds! We also had some terns migrating again. Other than that, we didn’t see many different species. Hopefully tomorrow will also be good!

Todays observations can be seen here.

Morning at the obs. Picture: Levi van den Os

Ringing:

It was a very slow day for the ringing. In total we caught 10 birds, including a Hawfinch “Kernebider”! This was the second Hawfinch for this season. It was a female again. Miraculously, Morten didn’t even get bitten by it! He is a really experienced ringer.

Hawfinch. Picture: Thomas Kristensen

At the station: Levi van den Os, Joseph Stephan, Emma Gray, Thomas Kristensen, Morten Jenrich Hansen, Marit Nillissen

Morning observation:

Levi, Marit, Henrik, and I went up to the observation post, ready for a day that would hopefully bring something good. Visibility in the morning wasn't perfect, but observation was definitely possible. After a quiet hour, Marit went down to help Morten with the ringing, and shortly after, something started moving. Unfortunately, it wasn’t birds, but a large raincloud that quickly swept in over us. We decided to leave the post and return to the station, where we helped quickly close all the nets. After some waiting, the raincloud drifted away around 8 o’clock, and we went back out to continue the observation. Even though it was outside standard hours, we stayed until 9:30, hoping that migration would pick up. It didn’t really, but during the morning we had a decent number of Red-throated Divers “Rødstrubet lom” and quite a few terns. And after we returned, once the rain had stopped, three White-tailed Eagles “Havørn” were resting on a sandbank.

Today's observations can be seen here.

Henrik and Thomas at the observation spot. Picture: Levi van den Os

Ringing:

I started this morning at the morning observation. At around 6:30, Morten asked me If I could help with the ringing, so he would have more time for collecting the blood samples from the long distance migrating birds. I checked the nets in the Lighthouse garden and Morten checked them in the Stations garden.  At 07:00 is started to rain, so we had to close the nets really quick. The observers also came down to help with closing. At 08:00, we could open the nets again and Emma decided to join as well. We kept the nets in the Lighthouse garden open until 11:00, while the Stations garden stayed open all day again. Our highlight from today was a Lesser Whitethroat "Gærdesanger" who was ringed in Israel. This bird has made quit a trip to get here in Denmark!

Lesser Whitethroat from Israel. Picture: Marit Nillissen

After the obs, Levi joined for one round. He could ring a female Blackcap ‘’Munk’’. He also practiced at handling the birds in different grips with help from Morten.

At the station: Levi van den Os, Joseph Stephan, Emma Gray, Thomas Kristensen, Morten Jenrich Hansen, Marit Nillissen