Korsnæb og spurvehøg ringmærket

Vejr: overskyet og diset med jævn sydøstlig vind. Temp. omkring 8 grader. Moderat sigt.

Der lå et tungt skydække over Blåvands Huk, og sigten var ikke specielt god. Vinden var i sydøst, og det var ikke alt for koldt. Rose havde denne morgen også sluttet sig til mig.

Der trak ikke meget ift. hvad jeg havde forventet mig i sydøstenvind, men det er nok også fordi det er ved at være slut for i år. 1600 stære trak ud; 4 silkehaler i flok kom trækkende over os; 4 ringduer trak ind. En snespurv/lapværling kaldte i det fjerne, men den blev aldrig set og kunne ikke blive sikkert bestemt.

Der kom over 500 sortænder, 10 fløjlsænder og 16 rødstrubede lommer som Rose har taget sig af at tælle de seneste par dage; en pibeand trak i en bue bagom os over land.

Kun én rovfugl blev set, en blå kærhøg.

Der skete lidt mere interessante ting i nettene, først med to små korsnæb og lidt efter en spurvehøg.

Spurvehøg. Foto: Michael Brunhøj Hansen

Spurvehøg der blinker. Foto: Michael Brunhøj Hansen

Sidst på eftermiddagen blev Oliver og Emilia som var her i august måned hentet i Blåvand; de skal blive her en uges tid; det bliver hyggeligt!

Folk: Bent, Emilia, Oliver, Anders, Joshua, Emma, Rose, Luke, Michael.

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It was a more overcast and windy start this morning, but the first round again yielded good number of thrushes, mostly Blackbirds. I did the next net round whilst Anders, Emma and Joshua were ringing, and got an exciting bird in the nets: a Black Redstart! After seeing them around the past couple days it was nice to catch one, and it was the first we had all seen in the hand. One or two are usually caught in October, but they seem to be migrating later this year perhaps due to the mild autumn this year not making migration as urgent. I thought perhaps we wouldn’t catch any this year, so was very pleased today. It seems a long time since we caught a Common Redstart, and it was nice to see a bird which was similar but different, and very beautiful.

Black Redstart. Photo: Anders Brinkmann

Mid-morning we caught the second star birds of the day: two Crossbills! Anders and Joshua found them low down in the net by the pond in the station garden. Most likely they were coming down to drink, they don’t get a lot of water from their diet of seeds form pine cones and need to find somewhere to drink, so pools and ponds are often a good place to get good views or catch Crossbills. We caught a male and female, which was great to see the differences between the sexes. They’re stunning birds, with their outrageous curved beak and lovely plumage in autumn colours.

What have we here? Photo: Anders Brinkmann

Female and Male Red Crossbill. Photo: Anders Brinkmann

We also caught the second Sparrowhawk of the season, a young female. Emma and Anders found it in the net, and Anders got to ring his first Sparrowhawk, and got a talon in his thumb for his troubles. Emma talked Anders through how to handle and process the bird, as Emma and Joshua had caught many during their time at Gedser, so was useful to have them here.

Emma extracting the Sparrowhawk. Photo: Anders Brinkmann

Success! Photo: Anders Brinkmann

Sparrowhawk. Photo: Anders Brinkmann

November has far exceeded my expectation so far, I thought there would be few birds and few people around. Instead we’ve has some of our busiest days, several special birds and the station is busier than ever. This evening Emilia and Oliver arrived to join us for the week, returning after volunteering here for two weeks in August. It’s nice to have some friendly faces return at the end of the season, and now we are 8 volunteers here tomorrow!

Today is the start of the last week of the season unbelievably. It feels both that it’s gone really quickly but also that I’ve been here for ages, and sad that it’s coming to an end. But still a week to go and plenty of opportunity of new surprises in the nets and much hyggelige times to be had. 

Setting the table for 8! Photo: Luke Nelson

Michael having a hyggeligt time. Photo: Luke Nelson

 

Species	Ringed	Recaptures
Sparrowhawk (Spurvehøg)	1	0
Wren (Gærdesmutte)	2	0
Robin (Rødhals)	3	4
Black Redstart (Husrødstjert)	1	0
Blackbird (Solsort)	19	2
Song Thrush (Sangdrossel)	1	0
Redwing (Vindrossel)	3	0
Blackcap (Munk)	4	0
Chiffchaff (Gransanger)	2	0
Goldcrest (Fuglekonge)	6	1
Great Tit (Musvit)	0	3
Tree Sparrow (Skovspurv)	1	0
Chaffinch (Bogfinke)	1	0
Red Crossbill (Lille Korsnæb)	2	0
Total	46	10