The official start of a ringers career on a quiet day

Yesterday afternoon I received my X ringing licence from the National Museum of Natural History in Denmark!

Since it was going to be another cold day, Morten and I were prepared for low capture counts. In total five bird were caught, all in the early morning with the last bird captured around 9 o’clock.

One of the five birds, a great tit, was a control. The newly caught birds: a green finch, dunnock, robin and black bird. The green finch and dunnock I ringed myself with Mortens supervision. My first ringed birds! I have been handling birds in the past view days already and ringing was not overly difficult, but it was not as easy as Morten makes it seem. Of course, Morten checked all the measurements I made and it appeared I was a little off with the wing measurements (1 or 2 mm), but Morten reassured me that this is a common error with beginners.

With enough time between net checks, Morten and I went to check the sea again in the morning. We spotted the usual gulls, sanderlings and oystercatchers, but today there were quite a view scoters at sea. A white-winged scoter grated us a visit on the beach so we could take a good look at it.

It looks like we have to wait a day or two before the temperature will rise again, so I don’t suspect tomorrow’s capture rate will be much higher than today, but who knows what our avian friends might have in store for us!

People at the station: Morten and Maxim