Many eyes to birdwatch

Another sunny but cold morning began for us today at the Blåvand Fuglestation. Henrik and I took care of the nets like yesterday, while David took over the observation of the migration. There was not so much going on, though. He saw three Arctic Skuas (Almindelig Kjove) and some Cuckoos (Gøg), but in general no high numbers in migrating birds.

Today we were able to ring a few more birds than yesterday. A special highlight were three Icterine Warblers (Gulbug). One of them was a recapture from Belgium! Unfortunately we can't say yet when it was ringed. It could be that it was ringed last autumn in Belgium, but possibly also only a few days ago.

The Icterine Warblers are just beginning to reach their breeding habitats. This individual may be breeding near here soon or moving a bit further towards Sweden or Norway. When I put up the nets this morning, I was greeted by three little Song Thrushes happily running around in the fyrhaven. One of them ran into the net this morning. These are the first firsyears birds of this species. Between rounds David, Henrik and I also had time to sit in the garden and drink coffee. I was told stories about all the rare birds they had comfortably observed from these benches :)

Today's ringing data:

In the afternoon we got two guests: Lars and Thyge. Lars will stay at the station for the weekend. Morten also came back today. So, all in all we had a lot of eyes to watch birds today! In general there was a lot of activity at Blåvandshuk today, the parking lots were full and people were milling around. Also we got a few visitors at the station. There was a girl with her grandma, who watched from the lighthouse how a Starling got tangled in the nets. Concerned, they came to us. I took the family to Fyrhaven and was lucky that there were two birds in the nets this round. So they could watch the ringing and also Klara was glad that the birds were well!

Fiolk på stationen: Henrik, David, Morten, Lars, Thyge og Amelie