Still no Storm-petrels for Me...

Ringing: Cancelled due to strong winds and rain.

Observation: Today Johan and I (Anton) decided to go all in on the seawatch. With quite strong winds from the north and northwest, we knew that that would be our best bet for seeing anything interesting (especially Storm-petrels) at obs today.

The morning started with Johan finding a single Skua - unfortunately, it was raining quite a bit, and the sun wasn’t even up, so visibility was too low for us to be able to identify what species of Skua it was. No worries, though; we ground on, hoping another Skua, or maybe even a Shearwater or Storm-petrel, might fly by.

During the day, there were few birds because of the strong winds. We did, however, see over 700 Common Scoters (Melanitta nigra), 76 Northern Gannets (Morus bassanus) and 48 Red-throated Loons (Gavia stellata). We were also lucky enough to see a couple of Merlins (Falco columbarius) and a few Hen Harriers (Circus cyaneus).

Near the very end of the obs, Johan managed to spot the day's second proper seabird - this one a Sooty Shearwater (Ardenna grisea). Another pretty decent bird, but not really what we had dreamed about when looking at the weather report yesterday.

As obs ended, Johan decided to go straight home, while Mathilde and I decided to stay a little while longer. This led to both a Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris) and a Black-throated Loon (Gavia arctica), and on our way back to the station, a probable Little Bunting (Emberiza pusilla) flew right over us (I damn myself for not using a microphone today!).

Phone-shot of the Horned Lark. Credit Mathilde Sif Eiby

Johan, Mathilde, and I decided to end our day with a final evening seawatch, hopeful that the wind had finally blown a Storm-petrel close to shore. Our dreams of Storm-petrels were, however, shattered, but I did manage to find two Sooty Shearwaters more. So overall it was a good way to end yet another day in Blåvand!

Today's observations

Other things: All of our recent guests have left the station today/yesterday, and with Storm still gone, it feels quite empty at the station. We will, however get a good amount of guests over the comming weekend, which I am looking forward to.

At the station: Strummer Edwards, Mathilde Sif Eiby, Anton Ræbild Jensen, Johan Them Steffensen