A busy ringing day!

Vejr: først mest mørkt og gråt med tungthængende skyer og enkelte smådryp. Ret blæsende, først fra sydøst, senere mere fra omkring syd og tiltagende en anelse. Temp. omkring 14-15 grader. Moderat sigt.

Det var noget gråt og mørkt fra morgenstunden, og med en frisk sydøstenvind håbede vi på at der kunne komme et pænt antal ænder. Ænder kom der, men, foruden sortænder, kun lidt over 100 i alt, hvoraf over halvdelen var pibeænder. Det blev ikke til mange lommer, kun 13, og ej heller mange knortegæs, kun 6.

Det var også lidt sløjt med småfuglene i begyndelsen, men efterhånden som det blev lidt lysere, kom der en fin mængde engpibere, så vi nåede over 1200 af dem. Antallet af bogfinker er endnu ret småt da kun omkring 80 kom forbi; enkelte kvækerfinker var der imellem. Ellers havde vi bl.a. 1 hedelærke, 4 bjergvipstjerter, 3 skærpibere og 2 skovpibere.

En flok strandskader på 9 kom trækkende samt 1 strandhjejle og 4 almindelige ryler.

Tre falkearter kunne vi også præstere med: tårnfalk, dværgfalk og sidst, men ikke mindst den herude fåtallige lærkefalk. Ellers 1 spurvehøg som dagens eneste øvrige rovfugl.

Vejret i morgen kommer vist til at minde om i dag med skyer inkl. lidt smådryp og vind fra omkring syd.

Folk: Bent, David, Rose, Daniel, Merit, Luke, Michael.

Today was our busiest day yet this season with 177 new birds this morning, and 193 total for the day, a big step up from our 100 the other day!

The weather was overcast and grey, good weather for mist-netting as the nets are less visible. Bent was out at Nyeng and messaged us to say he could come help if needed, knowing the conditions meant we could catch a lot of birds. In our first net round in the station garden we got 21 birds, and whilst I ringed them Daniel went up to the lighthouse garden. There were also a lot of birds there, so we called in Bent to help with extracting. We got in a good rhythm with Daniel and Bent going round extracting whilst I went between the two labs ringing the birds. Merit had joined us today, and was a big help with writing down the data and sorting new rings, which allowed me to get through the birds more quickly.

By 1100 things had quietened down a bit, so Daniel could do some ringing and we could do net rounds together, whilst Bent left us to it.

The bulk of the catch was once again Robins, Chiffchaff, Goldcrest and Dunnock with highlights including a Meadow Pipit and a Lesser Whitethroat, a bird we haven’t caught many of during migration this year.

Lesser Whitethroat. Photo: Luke Nelson

We got some nice bird sightings too, with Daniel and Bent getting good views of a Hobby close by them as they were leaving the lighthouse garden, and Merit and I seeing a White-tailed Eagle passing on our way to the station.

It was a very different ringing experience for Merit, previously joining us after the observations on some slow ringing days when she was here in the Summer. She got to see some new species in the hand including many Goldcrest.

We closed the nets around 1300 as the gusts were picking up and we were quite tired and hungry! After a rest we opened the station nets again late afternoon as there were still a few birds flitting about the garden. We got 8 new birds and recaptured some from earlier which we now hat the time to measure.

It was good day and we worked well together as a team to get through all the birds efficiently, maybe the influence of having two Germanators (Daniel and Merit).