The weather today was similar to yesterday weak westerlies (shifting to WSW in the evening) with disperse showers alternating with sun and good lighting conditions for counting.

Many Terns are already using the Blåvand area while foraging and resting during the day, so the first hours after sunrise and the last before sunset are good opportunities for counting them while they come from the south and return, respectively. Over 4000 Common, 45 Arctic and 600 Sandwich Terns were counted during the 3h census in the morning, and over 6400 Terns in total were estimated to be present along the day (but could be even more!). More Arctic Skuas were also seen these last days.

Three Greater Scaups southwards in the late evening count were a good sighting, during an otherwise quiet observation period, at least for two migrants.

Ringing

Unfortunately it continues to be a very slow time ringing here at Blaavand, with fewer than ten birds caught for the day.  The highlight of the day  was another Treecreeper (Trælober), a sepcies which has been a frequent capture this season.

Observations:

Eastern and southern winds from the last couple of days were replaced by weak westerlies, with a small rain front just southwest of Blaavand for most of the day. 

These conditions proved to be very good for Oystercatchers. Over 1300 were counted, but the real number of birds passing during the whole day could be even higher. There were some other waders on the move, but with much lower counts: Bar-tailed Godwits, Red Knots, Sanderlings...

Close groups passing just over the shoreline allowed good photographic opportunities to study ageing, sexing and intra-species variation in some features.

Ringing:

The eastern winds of yesterday have left us and the north-western winds have returned. These are not the ideal conditions for ringing, which is reflected in the fact that we only caught 8 birds today. It did not help that we had to close the nets after only 3 hours due to rain, and the looming threat of heavy rain showers on the weather radar kept us from opening them again, thus ruining the standard time :(

During the little time we did get to ring, Johan had the opportunity to show his visiting father how ringing is done, as well as showcase his skills at extracting and handling the birds, which have improved greatly during the two weeks he's been staying so far. Johan will be leaving us for the weekend, but will return come Sunday, so hopefully he gets to enjoy sleeping in for a couple of mornings. 

After the nets were closed, Henrik talked with Strummer about a call he had recorded shortly before, which was confirmed to almost certainly be from a grackle! So out we went to try to find it, but it was no use, since it was nowhere to be seen, probably already having flown further inland. We really hope to see it again some-time in the near future, especially since most of us have never seen a grackle before.

The captures of today:

At the station: Alba, Johan, Strummer, Ida, Henrik, David, Lois, Nico, Miguel, Leon, Anton

Observations:

Easterlies since the early morning, along with clear skies, good visibility and no precipitation proved to be good conditions for shorebird migration.

Over 550 Red Knots, 100 Redshanks, 250 Bar-tailed Godwits, 26 Greenshanks and 200 Oystercathers helped to build up the numbers in the migration wader counts. Ducks also gathered good numbers, with over 3000 Common Scoters, 12 Eiders or 2 Shovelers. A couple of Red-necked Grebes migrating south were very nice for the Spanish observers.

A couple of Caspian Terns proved to be a good sighting, but the main highlight of the day was an adult Pectoral Sandpiper migrating south with three Sanderlings, that briefly stopped just by the shore. Six observers were lucky enough to see this 1st for Blåvand!

Ringing:

Today marked a record in captures for recent days, with 25 birds newly ringed and 4 recaptured. The highest numbers were in Tree Sparrows: it appeared that many juvenile birds had flown from their nest. We caught two new species for this season, a Garden Warbler (Sylvia Borin) and a Eurasian Blackcap (Sylvia Atricapilla). As the weather was very nice, we kept the nets up for some time after the standard period, during which Strummer and I made efforts to catch a very interested Wood Pigeon (Columba Palumbus), but we unfortunately failed. Strummer also came very close to luring a Wood Pigeon into the Helgoland-trap, but it was always too smart.

One of the juvenile Tree Sparrows (Passer Montanus).

A molting Greater Whitethroat (Curruca Communis).

 
An Oak Eggar (Lasiocampa Quercus) in the moth trap that Leon and Anton set out last night.

Today's totals:

At the station: Alba, Johan, Strummer, Ida, Henrik, David, Lois, Nico, Miguel, Leon, Anton

Observations:

Ringing:

With the winds finally calm enough to open all of the nets, we had high hopes of catching more birds than we've done these past few, very slow, days. The first few rounds were promising, in that we actually caught birds, and barely two hours in, we got a whole 5 birds at the Station Garden, which prompted us to call on Henrik so that he could come and observe Strummer at work. Up to this point, Strummer has had an X-license in Denmark, which means that they cannot yet ring independently, despite the fact that they have plently of experience handling and ringing birds in America. This has been because Henrik wanted to make sure that they can confidently identify and age/sex the birds we have here in Denmark, which he confirmed during the next two hours of ringing in which Strummer got priority for ringing/extracting birds. Satisfied with what he saw, Henrik then wrote a recommendation, and only about half an hour after sending an application to the danish Ringing Administration, Strummer finally got their C-license!

During the "exam", Strummer got to ring/handle some very nice birds, such as a Redpoll (Acanthis flammea/cabaret) and a Eurasian Treecreeper (Certhia familiaris)

Eurasian Treecreeper (left) and Redpoll (right). Picture: Strummer

After standard, three guided tours showing ringing here at Blåvand Bird Station were on offer, however no-one showed up at the sign advertising this, so we ended up just going normal rounds for another three hours. At around 12, Henrik and I (Alba) began to close the nets, starting at the Lighthouse Garden. In the middle of this, I began to hear familiar bird calls, and just as it clicked which species it was from, Henrik had called it out to the other volunteers. Soon after, everyone else had gathered in the Lighthouse Garden in the hopes of seeing or hearing the culprit: a Marsh Tit (Poecile palustris). These small tits are quite common in a lot of places in Denmark, but very rare out here at Blåvands Huk, and Henrik exclaimed that this was the first one he had ever heard out here. By the time the rest had arrived however, the bird had seemingly moved on, so we continued closing the nets. Just as we went down to the nets at Krattet, I saw that there was a bird hanging in the 18 meter net, and as I went past it in order to get to the opposite pole, I realized that the little Marsh Tit had not escaped us after all, and was indeed hanging in the net! 

After carefully extracting it, we went up to the lab where Strummer got the honour of ringing it. They only just saw the species for the first time in their life the day before, so they were very excited to get to ring one! I myself have ringed and handled quite a few at the CES site at Rungstedlund, so I will admit that a lot of the excitement went a bit over my head, but it was a very fun experience nonetheless. 

Marsh Tit, a rare bird for Blåvands Huk. Picture: Leon

Throughout the whole day, we caught a whole 32 birds (24 new and 8 recaptures) and had great species variety. Hopefully the next few days will feature similar numbers/variety of birds!

At the station: David, Nico, Miguel, Lois, Alba, Strummer, Ida, Johan, Leon, Anton and Henrik

Obervations:

Just after sunrise, the wind was blowing directly and quite intensely from the west. As the hours passed, it became more and more weak, and shifted to southwest around midday. 

This change motivated some seabirds to appear, such as a Guillemot, some tens of Northern Gannets and more Arctic Terns, for example. The first juvenile Little Gull and Kittiwake of the season were seen, adding a small surprise to the otherwise quiet morning count.

Around 5:00 p.m. some Red Knot groups started migrating south, making 77 adult birds southwards until 18:00. As conditions are right, we're hoping for good numbers tomorrow!

Ringing:

Ringing was fairly slow. Even though we had 122 meters for most of the day the total amount of birds caught were 4 individuals spread out over 2 lesser whitethroats (Curruca curruca) and 2 icterine warblers (Hippolais icterina) . The 2 icterine warblers (Hippolais icterina) were respectively 1K and 2K+, so they were quite educational when it came to evaluate feather condition for me as a newer ringer. 

2K+ Icterine warbler (Hippolais icterina) with very worn feathers.

Other notable events included preparing for the winter by splitting wood for the stove. Another new experience for myself and the spaniards where Henrik also proved a capable instructor (no shins were hurt in the process)

At the station: David, Nico, Miguel, Lois, Alba, Strummer, Ida, Johan, Leon, Anton and Henrik

Ringing

With such high winds today, opening nets was out of the question. Despite that, the attempts were made tonight to go nightcatching (even with sub optimal conditions, it was Albas and my first night with the updated provision on our license so we wanted to use it) but the number of amber hunters meant nothing was to be found on the beach.

Observations:

Today, wind turned again to west and northwest direction, and wader numbers declined again. Still, the intensity was moderate to almost calm during the morning standardised count, allowing a continuous northward movement of terns. In fact, the total numbers of birds moving north were really good: over 3200 Sandwich (Thalasseus sandvicensis), 1300 Common (Sterna hirundo) and 80 Arctic Terns (Sterna paradisaea) were seen during the day! 

Ringing:

With mild winds coming predominantly from the west, we were able to open almost all of the nets, though we did not expect to catch a lot of birds. And indeed we did not, with only 10 birds caught during standardized ringing, of which 7 were new birds and 3 were recaptures. Unlike the numbers of birds, the species diversity was nothing to compain about, with a whole 8 different species being repressented. Of these, the Icterine Warbler (Hippolais icterina), the Crested Tit (Lophophanes cristatus), the Redpoll (Acanthis flammea/cabaret) and the first Coal Tit (Periparus ater) of the season, all young birds from this year, were the highlights for us.

Crested Tit recapture.

List of the birds caught today:

Later in the day, two young birders from DOF UNG, Leon and Anton, joined us at the station, and they will be staying here for the coming week and a half, which lands us at a whole 10 people staying at the station. 

Observations

The moderate southwestern winds provided a notorious improvement in wader numbers, but were still far from the expected numbers in this time of the season.

Nevertheless, some nice mixed groups of arctic waders passed by in the first two hours of daylight. Up to 94 Red Knots, 68 Bar-tailed Godwit or 177 Sanderlings, 21 Oystercatchers or 3 Grey Plovers were counted. There were still good numbers of terns and gulls resting and feeding around Blavandshuk. Many Caspian and the "Viking" Gull were still present, and an adult Mediterranean Gull was also seen.

Ringing

Today was a very slow day for ringing, we only caugt 9 birds (4 new individuals, 5 recaptures). We managed to open nearly all the nets, but even with so many nets open the numbers stayed low.

A pretty 1CY Robin (Erythacus Rubecula).

Today's ringing totals:

After standard time was over, we decided to close the nets and focus our attention on doing some yardwork in both gardens. Up at the lighthouse, we trimmed a lot of bushes, cut the grass and managed to remove a handful of the roses that are overgrowing the gardens and paths. In the station garden a couple of rose bushes were removed as well. 

Strummer working the heavy equipment, cutting down every rosebush in their way.

Miguel cut the grass beneath the nets.

Lois trimmed all the bushes around the paths, while Johan cut down the higher branches that we couldn't reach.

Alba, Ida and Nico removed roses from the paths.

Nico was locked in, fighting the invasive species encroaching on the nets.

At the station: David, Nico, Miguel, Lois, Alba, Strummer, Ida, Johan & David Manstrup

The day started with the same moderate northwest wind and cloudy skies, as in the previous days. Since midday, the wind began shifting to the southwest, promising an improvement in the conditions for detecting shorebird passage.

The morning migration count was quite slow, but five juvenile Mediterranean Gull saved the day. The Yellow-legged and the "Viking" Gulls were still present. In the afternoon, a Short-eared Owl passed flying eastwards, over the dunes close to the station. Also a Wood Warbler was detected nearby.

A short seawatch in the last few hours of the day proved the improvement of wader movement, with some groups passing close to shore (mainly adult Red Knots - 73).

Sanderlings migrating south by the shore.

Ringing

Ringing was incredibly slow, with less than ten captures for the day and only one of those coming before the final hour.  One recaptured Great Tit (Musvit) kept us interested for the first four hours and a flock of Tree Sparrows (Skovspurv) was a nice way to end the day.

Observations:

Northwest winds were still blowing strong today, but the almost absence of rain allowed to do the migration census in standard conditions.

Wader migration was still a bit slow today due to northwesterlies, except for Oystercatchers: the 332 going South made a good number for the day (in only a few hours of counting!). Some juveniles (at least 4) are now on the move. A Red-necked Grebe flying North with two Common Scotters in the morning count was a good start.

One of the most notable sightings of the day was a nice 3k/3cy "Viking" Gull (Larus argentatus x Larus hyperboreus) seen resting on the shore.

Some juveniles are showing up: the first juvenile Dunlins were seen in the evening resting at the beach, as well as the number of juvenile large gulls is slowly increasing - mainly Caspian and Herring Gulls.

Ringing:

Ringing came with a steady stream of birds throughout the standard time. With stronger winds at net open, we started with only a few nets, but opened more as the day bore on, and we kept the nets in the garden up for a few hours after standard time. 

Notable occurences included a Short-toed treecreeper (Passer montanus) and a whole 3 distinct birds in the Helgoland trap! This included a new European Stonechat (Saxicola rubicola) and two common Whitethroats (Curruca communis), 1 recapture and 1 ringed.

The whole day included 14 ringed birds, 8 recaptures over 12 different species.

Strummer ringing the short-toed treecreeper. Picture: Alba Holmberg

People at the station: David, Nico, Miguel, Lois, Alba, Ida, Johan, Strummer