A few firsts

Observation

Good afternoon my dear blog! Today we were quite a lot of people present at the observation spot, as Henrik and David joined us. Lise was also with us for the morning observation today, as the weather (9 m/s from SV) did not look to bright for ringing. So together the five of us set sail towards the small hole in the rosehip bush. Space was a bit tight, but we managed just fine in the decent weather. We had our hopes up for skuas and sheerwaters, but were only pleased by the former. In total we had a beuatiful even eight of arctic skuas (almindelig kjove) throughout our three hours. The loons were going at it today with almost 50 red throated going south. I was also pleasently surprised by three red-necked grebe (gråstrubet lappedykker) and 15 northern shoveler (skeand)!

Around 0800 Gustav spotted perhaps the most interesting bird today, a merlin sitting right on the beach for quite a while before flying south. It is the first merlin (dværgfalk) of the season, and we had it marked on our wishlist for this exact day, a marvelous mix of luck and determination gave it to us! What a wonderful little falcon, and a new species for me! Just a little while later we had a nice razorbill (alk) coming along the reef. I got a great look at the small black and white bird. A true cutiepie with a short and round body and a small beak. All in all another nice day in Blåvand. Tomorrow its just going to be Gustav and i again for the observation:)

- A merlin on the shoreline, first of the season

- SDP

Ringmærkning

Det er første skriv på bloggen for mit vedkommende. Jeg ankom til stationen i mandags som ny ringmærker – hvor jeg skal være i oplæring den næste halvanden måned. Jeg glæder mig allerede over udsigten til en spændende og lærerig tid her, som de første par dage har vist et udsnit af. Som ny i ringmærkning, er det utroligt spændende at opleve fuglene så tæt på og få fornemmelse for deres fysik og adfærd i hånden.
I dag var der dog imidlertid ikke de bedste forhold for ringmærkning, da der, lignende i går, var vind på omkring 9 m/s, og vi derfor ikke kunne åbne alle net. I løbet af formiddagen løb vinden dog noget af, så vi kunne åbne et par flere, og det gav faktisk to ekstra fugle omkring middag – en genfangst af en munk og en ny helt ung gærdesanger.  

- Jeg ringmærker min første fugl, en munk hun

På trods af en stille ringmærkningsmorgen, var jeg ved godt mod, for jeg ringmærkede mine første fugle i dag – en rødhals, munk og bogfinke. Lua hjalp med tålmodige anvisninger, og jeg føler mig allerede noget mere bekendt med finmotorikken, der skal til for at holde fuglene komfortabelt i hånden.
Jeg ser frem til en god tid på stationen.

- Mathilde

Folk på stationen: Sverre Dahl Porsgaard, Mathilde Lundt Larsen, Lua Koplin, Lise Mastrup, Gustav Brandt Jelert, David Manstrup og Henrik Böhmer