Sparrowhawk and friends

Ringing

After many slow days of ringing, our luck finally seemed to break.  In the lighthouse, I had over 15 birds in just the second round, by far our best single round of the season, and Alba had 8 and 5 during the first two runs in the station.  What followed was a consistent stream of birds, with about five per round in the fyrhaven. 

Robins (Rødhals) were the primary bulk of the day with 26 caught (still all 1Ks unfortunately) but we also had a good deal of Dunnock (Jernspurv) and Chiffchaff (Gransanger).  

After the early rounds started to slow down, I took a minute to open the krat, hoping to catch something interesting.  Sparrowhawks (Spurvehøg) and Jays (Skovskade) were flying around the area so I was hoping we'd get lucky and catch one of the long awaited season firsts.  After a few rounds of 1-3 birds, I was heading over the hill to check krat when I saw a large bird caught at the far end of the long net.  I threw down my net stick and sprinted to catch it, luckily making it before the bird was able to escape.  I extracted it and brought it down to the station so we could give it a steel ring and make sure everyone saw it.  A quick look at the wing length and plumage characteristics easily identified the bird as a first cycle male, leaving plenty of time for pictures before we continued ringing. 

Just one hour later, I was in almost the exact same spot on the hill down to the krat when I saw a second sparrowhawk stuck, making for a lovely suprise! Alba was able to ring this bird and we did a quick demonstration for a group of families already at the nature center. 

We ended the day with 66 new birds and one recapture, by far our best day of the season.