Another slow day at the station

Observation:

Today was a rather quiet day for birdwatching. There was little wind and few birds... though there were still some northern gannets [sule] heading north and resting! – but not as many as on Monday. - 

So, as I had time to watch the herring gulls resting on the shores, I was able to identify and read a ring on an adult bird. It was a yellow ring on the gull’s right leg with a 4-character alpha code beginning with ‘V’: ‘VKXA’. This corresponds to the same ringing project carried out in Denmark as the two previous ones we had identified with Hanelie and then Jorn.

Yesterday I drew a common ringed plover [stor præstekrave] sitting on its eggs to send out some positive vibes.
In fact, the nest that Joseph and Jorn had identified inside the little terns’ fencing has been empty for a few days now – see photo below in the blog. The four eggs have certainly been taken by a predator. So I thought that drawing a picture might bring back the hope of seeing these same birds and others breeding again soon!

Todays observations can be seen here.


Common ringed plover's nest. Drawing by Clara

Ringing:

Ringing was very slow today; we caught 10 new birds. Alix was happy about a Woodpigeon “Ringdue” and a Treepipit “Skovpiber”, two new hand species for her.

Little tern project:

Today was a very slow day for the Little tern observation. In the two hours I was there, I only saw 2 Little terns flying, and one of them made a landing in the fence. Besides those 2 little terns, I have seen 5 Common ringed plovers walking and scraping in the fence, which was nice to see. That reminded me to go and check the nest of the ringed plover we saw on one of our first days, but sadly it was empty. I also couldn't find any traces in the surrounding area (probably because of the wind). 

The empty Common ringed plover nest, Picture by Jorn de Jong.

After checking for the nest, I noticed a part of the electric fence wiring was broken. I contacted Joseph about it and fixed it so the chances of predators coming in wouldn't be increased.

Moths of the day:

Today we had again 8 different species, but no new ones for the season. This time only a picture of the Muslin Moth (Grå Tigerspinder).

Muslin Moth (Grå Tigerspinder).

 At the station : Robert Luttik, Hanelie Sidhu, Clara Delahaye, Jorn de Jong, Alix Bortolussi, Morten Jenrich Hansen and Bent.