Today was another day with rain in the morning and so, the nets did not open until later in the day. Of course, we want to be able to have the nets open for as long as possible each day, but the positive side of rain in the morning is that we do not have to get out of bed at 4 o’clock in the morning and we can sleep in a little bit. After weeks of early mornings I won't complain about this!

Between the rainfall of the morning and afternoon, Morten opened the nets in the station garden and managed to ring 8 birds and 1 recapture. The lighthouse nets did not open today, but for a good reason! Today the renovations of the lighthouse keeper’s residence has officially been finished and so two new exhibitions have opened. To celebrate, an opening party was organized.

The two new exhibitions are an updated version of the visitor center "Horns Rev Wind Farm Visitor Center" and a newly built "gate" to the Wadden Sea National Park. The gate is part of the national park's "Welcome to Wadden Sea National Park" project. 

Last night after dinner, Henrik and Lucas went for a walk in the area and to all our surprice they spotted a wolf! After all the talks about the animal being in the area it is very exciting to some actual footage from an individual!

The wolf Henrik and Lucas found lastnight.

Tonight, we shared one last dinner with the five of us together. Tomorrow Lucas, Mallory and Morten will all three leave for home. Micheal and I will hold down the fort untill the new volunteer arive in a few weeks. It was a pleasure to get to know each and every one of them and I wish them the best!

Since Mallory won’t post another blog before leaving the station, Mallory wanted to share goobye present of a picture of a “big” rainworm she was very excited to find after dinner (for scale: foot size = 41).

People at the station: Lucas, Mallory, Michael, Morten and Maxim

With birdbanding, this was the worst day I've had until now. At the station garden we had 2 new birds and 1 recapture, with the best catch a collared dove, and 1 new icterine warbler at the lighthouse garden. During the ringing, we went out a lot looking for birds, and in special the turtle dove that has been hanging around for the last few days in the area. I finally got to see it too and managed to take some photo's of it as well.

After the ringing I went out for reading some rings of the gulls/terns. unfortunately, when I arrived at the gulls and terns, there where some people who disturbed the group of birds which I was photographing and unfortunately I wasn't able to read all the rings that where there. I managed to get one sandwich tern with a colour ring (G-3C9), and it turned out to be a bird ringed in north Ireland.

I also got the life history of one of the caspian gulls back, and it was ringed in Berlin in June 2022. In the warm afternoon I photographed some of the house martins that are gathering mud for their nests at the parking lot, and after that I tried reading some tree sparrow rings. Eventually I managed to read 2 rings of which one I haven't seen before, ringed in 2022 by a formal Dutch intern, Menno. 

We had a good closure of the day with Henrik taking us out for diner in Blåvand, it was good food and most importantly, very fun!

En regnfuld dag med ca 15mm nedbør fordelt over hele morgenen og det meste af eftermiddagen.
Vi fik gjort lidt rent i huset og Mallory forkælede os med at bage en blåbærtærte til at trøste os midt på dagen.

Best Georgia style blueberry-pie!

Jeg havde gjort et spagt forsøg på at åbne net i halvanden time i stationshaven mellem kl 9 og 10:30, hvor der var et ophold i regnbygerne, men uden at have held til at fange en eneste fugl i det tidsrum.
Det gav mig dog en fin art, da jeg mellem netrunderne gik en tur omkring Vesterled og genfandt Turtelduen, som Anders havde i går.
Fuldstændig samme oplevelelse som han havde – den fouragerede på jorden ved stien, blev med det samme jeg viste mig skræmt op og fløj lavt over klitterne mod nordsiden af Fyrbakken.
Denne gang lykkedes det dog Lucas at se fuglen igen en halv time senere, da han så den flyve ud fra krattet nordvest for Fyret.
Mens han ledte efter duen havde han en af de hårde lige ved og næsten obs med en potentiel ny art for Hukket.
Han så en mindre vadefugl komme flyvende fra kystsiden og ind over Mosen, hvor den så ud til at gå ned i den aller nordligste del eller i vådområdet lidt længere mod nord.
Lucas umiddelbare id af fuglen var en Stribet Ryle, som han kender til hudløshed hjemme fra staterne, men udfordringen var bare, at han jo ikke stod hjemme i Californien, men på Blåvandshuk, så den obs går desværre ikke igennem DOFbasens kvalitets kontrol, da der er for lidt dokumentation for så sjælden en fugl herhjemme.
Arten er set et par gange tidligere så tæt på som Grønningen, men mangler altså stadig herude.

Desværre var der skydning og ingen adgang til Mosen, så det var først efter kl 20, at kuglen blev sænket og jeg gik en tur rundt om Mosen og tjekkede i det lille håb om, at den skulle raste dernede.
Desværre uden held, men det blev da til 3 Rødben, 5 Viber, 1 Dobbeltbekkasin, 1 Gravand, 2 Skeænder og de 6 unger fra Gråand kuldet er ved at være store.

Efter kl 16 holdt regnen op og vi prøvede igen med åbne net i begge haver indtil kl 20.
Det gav mærkning af 2 Gulbuge, 1 Broget Fluesnapper og genfangst af 3 Gærdesangere, så vi endte alligevel med at få et par fugle i hænderne i dag.

Folk på stationen: Lucas, Mallory, Maxim, Michael og Morten

This morning was painful - it had been forecasted to rain for the past several days and we have been dreading it, but today was the day it finally came. A few of us woke up early to confirm it was actually raining, and unsurprisingly it was just as predicted. Over the next few hours we watched the weather and it continued to rain with force. Fortunately, by midday it began to clear and we opened the nets.

The nets were alright during the midday and produced a few new captures including 3 Icterine Warblers, a Linnet and a Blackcap. The nets further produced another nice bird: a Dunnock, which was ringed in Germany. We have already captured it this spring, but this time it showed a brood patch which confirmed it is nesting in the area. We totaled the day with 8 recaptures and 5 new birds.

The main highlights of the day came from those not staying at the station: Rune and Anders. In the morning hours during the rain, Rune found a singing Bluethroat around the Mosen. Later in the day, Anders got a quick look at a European Turtle-Dove behind the station which we were unfortunately unable to refind. 

Monday, 27 May at Blåvand Fuglestation started slowly. Precipitation overnight and a damp, overcast morning set the scene for a nearly fruitless session of ringing. 

Most captures were controls, though Morten did ring a family of greenfinches. 

When there isn't much ringing to be done, our attentions are drawn to other activities such as observations.

A House Sparrow near the station where Tree Sparrows reign was a nice departure from the norm. 

Some Red-throated Divers as part of the tail end of migration.

A Glaucos Gull spotted on the beach. 

The amount of birds where impressive today. not the amount that got in the nets or during observations, but the numbers that where able to avoid the nets. With 9 ringed birds and 1 control in both gardens, this wasn't the best day of the week, although, 2 mentionable birds where caught, another hawfinch and a wood pigeon.

I also wanted to mention a little flashback to yesterday evening, I tried catching a pair of red-backed shrikes again. I setup the nets and waited for a very long time. After 2,5 hours of nothing in the nets, I decided to replace one, just to see if it was a good spot to try this morning, because I'd given up my hopes for the night with 1 hour of light left. After I set it up, I walked around to see if I could find the shrikes, nowhere... But when I was standing on one of the high dunes, I suddenly saw... A bird in the net! It appeared to be 2 and it was the pair I was after, so still a little bit of luck!

It was a pretty weird day for me, because after the succes of yesterday, I was out for more. The first time in 3 weeks that I didn't participate in the ringing (wich appeared to be a good timing considering the amount of birds). Unfortunately, 3 hours of roaming around with 4 poles and some nets, a hammer and ringing equipment didn't pay off. A moment I went to the beach and counted the breeding pairs of the little terns, there are at least 21 breeding now, almost the same amount as was found last breeding season (23 pairs).

Vi kunne arbejde med alle net åbne fra 04:30 til kl 13, hvor det blev tid til siesta for os.
Der var ikke fanget en eneste fugl siden kl 10 og det trækker tænder ud, at gå rundt til tomme net hver halve time, så sofaen og sengene kaldte på os til en times eftermiddagshvil.
Totalt fik vi i standardtiden sat ring på 17 fugle og genfanget 4 af hvor egne fugle.
Diversiteten af arter var ganske god, da de 21 fugle var fordelt på 12 forskellige arter.
Solsort, Rødhals, Rødstjert, Gulbug, Gærdesanger, Tornsanger, Havesanger, Gransanger, Tornirisk, Lille Gråsisken, Bogfinke og Karmindompap.

Den sidste art blev dagens fugl, da det er den første vi har i hånden i år.

Michael forsatte med tjek af klitten og stranden efter standardtiden var gået og satte ring på et nyt kuld unger af Stor Præstekrave ved terne hegningen.
Der er altså god ynglesucces for de præstekraver, når ræve, hunde og mennesker ikke har adgang til rederne.
Michael kunne også berette om nu minimum 20 Dværgterner på rede indenfor hegningen.

Ellers var det lidt andet end fugle, der gjorde dagen ekstra god for Michael og jeg, da vi fik opstøvet nogle eksemplarer af den i Danmark sjældne guldsmed Rødåret Hedelibel.
Der var mindst 2 hunner og 6 hanner i området fra klitten ved p-pladsen og ned til den sydlige del af Mosen.
I Naturbasen og på Arter.dk er arten hidtil i år kun fundet her og på Amager Fælled, så vi føler os lidt heldige at have så mange individer omkring os.



Folk på stationen: Lucas, Mallory, Maxim, Michael og Morten

The month of May has been relatively uneventful for the most part. Because of the low numbers there are little expectations at the moment for what the day will bring. For the most part we stay positive and joke about unrealistic numbers we will catch or what rarities we might find. In the end, there are a multitude of factors that influence the outcome of things and so, we might as well take it as it comes.

The mild weather of today did not bring out the birds to the nets. In total 11 birds were caught, two of which were controls. We did however have two interesting species in the nets. First a Sisken, a bird we have not had too often in the nets this season, and just in the “neck” of time Mallory’s hope for a Wryneck was fulfilled when one ended up in the nets right before closing time.

Sisken

Wryneck

During morning observation Lucas spotted a Long-tailed duck, which was the only exiting news from the observations. Lucas received his x-ringing license and will know be able to get some experience ringing before heading to Skagen later this summer.

With Morten's return to the station is afternoon, tomorrow we will continue with the usual program where Morten will focus on sampling in the station garden and Micheal, Mallory and I will focus our attention on the lighthouse garden.

The rain that started during the night seemed to determined to keep our nets closed today. It was still going at the usual 4 a.m. wakeup time and persisted into the mid-afternoon. 

While we occupied ourselves with other work, we could hear the Bee-eaters overheard, though the overcast conditions didn't allow us to see them.

The rain finally stopped, and around 16:00 we were able to safely open the nets in the garden station and catch at least a few birds, including: Common Whitethroat, Spotted Flycatcher, Pied Flycatcher, Chiffchaff, Icterine Warbler, Linnet and Lesser Redpoll. 

Hopefully we'll catch the Wryneck that's been hanging around in the garden, even perching on the nesting box. 

Tomorrow's forecast seems promising for a statisfying day of ringing. 

After a very productive few days, the wave of “green species” on DofBasen finally began to slow down today.

While Morten and Henrik were both at home; Michael once again spearheaded the ringing operation with Mallory and Maxim assisting. Comparatively slow to yesterday, we caught 14 individuals (12 new birds and 2 recaptures). The major difference between yesterday and today seemed to be the weather, today the wind was once again quite strong but unfortunately a rain system seems to be making it ways to our area which forced us to close the Lighthouse Garden nets a bit early today. That said, on one of our final rounds of checking the nets in the station garden, we discovered the River Warbler (Flodsanger) in the net for its third consecutive day. Other highlights of the day include Lesser Redpoll and several Spotted Flycatchers (a continued trend from yesterday afternoon where we caught 5 Grå Fluesnapper).

Morning observations were very slow this morning and produced only a few Red-throated Divers moving north, but the most exciting bird of the morning was a very late Common Murre (Lomvie) flying north.

Last, Antonio departed today. We wish him well and safe travels.