Today the day started with some rain, so I was able to sleep a bit longer than usual. After the rain stopped, I opened up at 9. The first round was a very promising round with 8 birds. Unfortunately, that was almost all there was for today.

Ringing totals:

Dunnock 2/0

Blackbird 0/1

Song thrush 1/1

Icterine warbler 0/1

Lesser whitethroat 2/2

Chiffchaff 1/3

Treecreeper 1/0

Total: 7/8

People at the station: Menno

Today it has been one of the more quiet days since the start of this month. Because of this Sven, Bjorn and me were able to dig out the tern fence. During the process we saw a Hummingbird hawk sitting on the searocket.

The pictures of us working will follow later

Ringing totals: 8/6

Dunnock 2/0

Lesser whitethroat 1/0

Common whitethroat 0/1

Chiffchaff 0/2

Willow warbler 1/0

Crested tit 0/2

Great tit 0/1

Bullfinch 3/0

People at the station: Sven, Bjørn and Menno

Today was a slow day, despite the southern winds. I hoped for some more birds with the southern winds but the birds did not cooperate. The best birds were nuthatch and tree creeper, it is nice to catch them!

In the afternoon, there was a long period of rain. This made me close the nets earlier than I would like.

Ringing totals

Dunnock 1/0

Stonechat 1/0

Lesser whitethroat 0/1

Chiffchaff 1/2

Willow warbler 1/1

Crested tit 3/0

Blue tit 1/0

Great tit 1/1

Nuthatch 1/0

Tree creeper 1/0

Chaffinch 1/0

Greenfinch 1/0

Linnet 1/0

Bullfinch 1/0

Yellowhammer 1/0

Totals 16/5

People at the station: Bent and Menno

Nuthatch 

Treecreeper

Today it was a bit slower then yesterday. But with some nice numbers of juvenile tree sparrows it was quite entertaining. Around the Fuglestation tree sparrows are the dominant species, but in Blåvand there is one breeding spot with house sparrows. Today I was lucky enough to catch a house sparrow, probably a young out of that breeding colony. The difference in size was quite obvious.

It turns out to be a good breeding year for crested tits in the nearby woods, since we still catch some new juveniles. These birds are exploring the surroundings, also caught post juvenile dispersal. Once they found a spot where it is suitable to breed, they will settle down there and are very likely to stay there until they die.

Today I got some company of Bent, Sven and Joakim. We had 2 crested tits during our communal round. Because Joakim lives in the east of denmark he really liked those. Afterwards they went for a look at the little tern colony and found a dead gannet on the beach. Because of the current Avian Flu outbreak, we collected it. At some places the Avian Flu is really hitting the bird population. In the Netherlands for example 25% of the breeding population of sandwich terns died. In total 5000 birds were collected on a total of 20000 breeding birds.

Ringing totals:

Dunnock 2/0

Song thrush 2/0

Lesser whitethroat 0/1

Common whitethroat 1/0

Blackcap 1/0

Crested tit 5/0

Coal tit 1/0

House sparrow 1/0

Tree sparrow 6/0

Linnet 1/2

Redpoll 1/0

Total 21/3

Bird of the day, House sparrow. 

Today it was possible to open all the nets again for the whole day. After two days with only limited opened nets, it was really nice to open everything again. It started really nice with a juvenile robin. After many adult/2k birds, this was only the first time we caught a juvenile. Because robins are quite agrassive, the juveniles must have no red breast because the males would attack them otherwise. Besides the juvenile robin, two juvenile common whitethroats flew in the nets. The crested tit had a good breeding season in the nearby woods, because we catch plenty of them. Despite their cuteness, they can be quite annoying jhnwith their picking and talent of grabbing a lot of net firmly. Speaking about tits, I caught the second marsh tit in the history of the station. Next to that, we caught a tree pipit. This was the first for the season, normally they are caught earlier.

With 38 birds in total, it was quite nice to be busy during the morning.

Ringing totals:

House martin 1/0

Tree pipit 1/0

Dunnock 1/0

Robin 1/0

Song thrush 0/2

Icterine warbler 0/1

Lesser whitethroat 2/1

Common whitethroat 3/3

Willow warbler 1/0

Firecrest 1/0

Marsh tit 1/0

Crested tit 4/2

Great tit 0/4

Coal tit 1/0

Tree sparrow 2/0

Chaffinch 2/0

Goldfinch 1/0

Siskin 2/0

Linnet 0/1

 Firecrest

 Marsh tit

 House martin

 Goldfinch

 Tree pipit

Today was a very ordinairy day at Blåvand. The ringing was not very spectacular, but some new plumages of the birds was very nice to see. Two sisken were a bit challenging to age, but after some closer looks it became clear what age it was. The challenging part of this bird was that it already had moulted all the wing feathers, but not the tail. This made me doubt a bit, but after I checked the lesser coverts it became obvious which age it was.

Bent came over today and did his round again. Unfortunately, he did not find another Moltoni’s warbler or another new bird for Denmark. During his coffee, he had a possible Serin flying over.

Ringing totals:

White wagtail 1/0

Blackbird 1/0

Common whitethroat 1/0

Chiffchaff 1/1

Crested tit 0/3

Tree sparrow 1/1

Chaffinch 0/1

Siskin 2/0

Linnet 2/0

Lesser redpoll 3/1

People at the station: Bent and Menno

Today it was windier then yesterday, so even less nets could be opened unfortunately. Luckily I managed to catch 11 birds with 9 new birds. So the big milestone of 1800 birds ringed is reached. Tomorrow, on the last official day of this season I will try my best to get as much birds to get an even better season total. This total could never be reached by the ringers who joined us this season, so thanks that you have joined the ringing campaign here at Blåvand.

In the afternoon, the winds increased to much so I had to close the nets. In the afternoon the board had a meeting.

Ringing totals:

Dunnock 1/0

Common Whitethroat 1/0

Chiffchaff 4/0

Crested tit 3/1

Great tit 0/1

Today was a bit windier then yesterday, so not all the nets could be opened today. Luckily the predicted rain around 7 did not drop down on us. A highlight of the ringing was another collared dove. This is already the 4^th this season, doubling the former record. During all the years the Fuglestation was established only 10 have been caught. The explanation of the many catches this season could be that this species is expanding and breeding somewhere in the area. This is also very likely since the bird we caught today was a 1^st year female.

The seawatch was not as good as yesterday, but a great skua and fulmar were seen during the observation. There were not that many birds, but the three observers (Henrik, David and Bello) were not bored afterwards.

Today was a really busy day, since Sven and John Frikke also visited the station. John Frikke brought another cake, which is always very appreciated. Next to that, he brought the termal camera, so next autumn the nightcatching should be more successful than our tries this season with no result.

Although the business around the station in the morning, the afternoon was quiet. After Bello took me on a shopping trip he went back to Århus again. He will probably join the autumn season here again.

Tomorrow I could hit a 1800 ringed birds this season so far. I only need 8 birds, but with the weather looking similar to today I hope that it is possible. The average of the spring total is 1683 birds, so that is a 100 more than average.

Ringing total:

Collared dove 1/0

White wagtail 1/0

Black redstart 1/0

Blackbird 1/0

Lesser whitethroat 0/2

Common whitethroat 1/0

Chiffchaff 0/1

Willow warbler 0/1

Crested tit 4/2

Great tit 1/0

Greenfinch 1/0

Redpoll 1/0

Yellowhammer 1/0

Today was a very nice catching day. It was pretty warm and without too much wind. Although the wind is not coming from the best direction, it was southsouthwest where anything with east is preferred. In the standardized time, an adult male black redstart, another reed warbler ( still waiting for that Blyth/Paddyfield…) and a house martin. But the best species was caught after the lunch in the form of a female red backed shrike. Although there are 2/3/4 breeding pairs in the close by bog, we did not catch one yet. In the mourning I was very jealous on Gedser where they had a male yesterday, and we managed to catch one. What striked me the most was the starling like tail, such a shame that I am associating this species with the RB shrike. Unfortunately, Bello was on the road with his car again (on that later on more), but David managed to take some nice pictures ( for now, my phonepic is added). The rest of the day was slow, but keeping the nets open up until dinner definitely rewarded itself. And the barred warbler at Skagen was another bit of motivation.

So now on to Bello and his car. Three days ago it got repaired, the accu generator needed to be replaced. Since then, it works better according to Bello, so that is really nice. Bello wanted to ride some around in the area where the wolf has been seen this spring. So Bello took a sandy road and taught that it would be fine. But the further he came, the looser the sand became. So after some time he got stuck and digged the car in. With David around, he could help him. When David arrived, they could not manage to get it out so they were in need to call a truck to pull it out. Luckily it succeeded and the car is at the station again. End good, all good.

Ringing totals:

House martin 1/0

Jernspurv 2/0

Black redstart 1/0

Stonechat 1/0

Reed warbler 1/0

Lesser whitethroat 0/2

Common whitethroat 3/1

Chiffchaff 1/1

Crested tit 3/1

Great tit 0/3

Red backed shrike 1/0

Starling 1/0

Tree sparrow 2/0

Chaffinch 1/0

Lesser redpoll 1/0

New birds/ recaptures: 19/9

Red backed shrike female

Black redstart adult male, the first one this spring

Juvenile stonechat

Juvenile Tree sparrows, if you look carefully you see some bars on the feathers. These are called 'Fault bars' and these are basically weak points in the feather caused by a food shortage. Because all the feathers grow at the same time, you can find them on the flight feathers. In tree sparrows all feathers will be moulted in late summer and then the feathers will be of better quality. Growth bars look a bit stupid, but in the nest birds are most vulnerable so get them out as soon as possible is more important than the quality of the feathers. When feathers are made of really bad quality and will break off, the bird will start moulting it.

I was in Aarhus today so Henrik was alone this morning at the observation.
He found a Cornbunting and a 2k Mediterranean Gull. I have been looking for the Med gull the whole season so im a little sad i was home when it finally turned up. 

Menno caught a White Wagtail and in the evening he joined Ulf on the beach ringing Little Terns.
David joined us in the evening and wil stay this weekend so tomorrow we have a full team for the sea watch.
Ulf Bertelsen som står for Dværgterne undersøgelserne ankom omkring middag, og kørte på stranden for at tjekke Dværgternerne. Han kunne berette om 3 par med unger, 5 liggende på rede og et par kurtiserende. Så det er indtil videre en succes med vores udhegning.


1st picture, White Wagtail, 2nd and 3rd, Little Terns: all photos by Menno



People at the station: Menno, Henrik, Mikkel, David og Bent