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

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

Today was a very foggy day at Blåvand. For observations, a catastrophe, it can be okay for ringing, but also the night was rather foggy, and there was no movement at all.

View out of the window. Where is the lighthouse?

We caught one new Blackbird “Solsort” and recaptured two birds from previous rounds. Otherwise, we walked a lot to see empty nets.

Such days are not so exciting, but at least I got some of the work done that I still have to do for uni from the previous semester.
Paula and I had talked a bit about different feather groups as well as moult yesterday evening, and we used the foggy day to watch SSCs video about moult and aging of European Passerines. The weather for the next few days won´t be great, but it looks like the next week will bring some better weather!

At the station: Paula Feuchtmeyer and Hanelie Sidhu

Yesterday I (Paula) arrived at the station to join the ringing team. Coming from the southern of Germany I am really excited for the danish birdlife.

It felt like I brought some good weather with me: the morning started off a bit foggy, but as the day went on it cleared and turned into a sunny day. There weren´t many birds in the nets, but that meant there was plenty of time for Hanelie to show me around and explain everything. Because of that, I was able to ring my very first bird today – a Song Trush "Sangdrossel".

Later we realized that I wasn´t the only new arrival at Blåvand. Along with me, we also welcomed the first Bullfinch "Dompap" and the first Yellowhammer "Gulspurv"of the season.

First Bullfinch "Dompap" with the first Phigalia pilosaria "Fjer-måler" of the season in Blåvand in the background. Don´t worry, we did not feed it to the bird ;-)

Yellowhammer "Gulspurv"

All it all, it was a great first day at the station, with sunshine, lots of new impressions, and several different bird species.

Paula blowing fat on a Yellowhammer "Gulspurv"

At the station: David Manstrup, Sverre Dahl Porsgaard, Paula Feuchtmeyer and Hanelie Sidhu

Morning observations:
When Böhmer arrived today he was all smiles. On his way to the morning obs he had seen a wolf! A wonderful grey creature, beautiful from ears to tail. We  did the morning obs, which primarily consisted of 47 bar-tailed godwits (lille kobbersneppe), and then went for a walk in the heath area. We all wanted to see a wolf, but found nothing but potentiel footprints. Still a nice walk with the songlarks singing us hello.

A wolf seen and photographed by HBØ

After the quick mammal detour we looked for wagtails, and as the fog cleared out throughout the evening i enjoyed a nice walk in the dunes. Tomorrow i will leave the station again to go back to the east coast. I really enjoyed spending the weekend in the beautiful area, all be it a bit foggy. Until next time! And as always another great day in Blåvand with good company:)
- Sverre

Ringing:

Ringing numbers are very low at that time of the year, but for that, it was okay conditions.

In total I had 14 new birds and 3 recaptures, with that it was the best day so far here for ringing this season.

I mostly had Blackbirds “Solsort” in the nets, one male had some white feathers, but only around the eyes.

Blackbird "Solsort" with some leucistic feathers around the eyes

I had two Wrens “Gærdesmutte” in the nets today, let´s see, there should also come some more.

I like the little bright Wrens "Gærdesmutte", even in hand although they are so figety.

At the station: Henrik Bøhmer, David Manstrup, Sverre Dahl Porsgaard, Thomas Kristensen and Hanelie Sidhu