Vild søndag med MEGA

Som nævnt i gårsdagens blogindlæg ville i dag formodentlig blive bedre end i går, og det blev minsandten også tilfældet. Vinden var gået i sydøst, og vejret var godt med lune temperaturer og skyfri himmel. DMI havde om morgenen et varsel ude for hele landet om tæt tåge, dog var der lidt mosekonebryg i den første time som ikke forstyrrede det fjerneste.

Hvis antallet af bogfinker og pibere var højt de forrige dage, så blev dagens antal meget højt. Den første halve time havde vi over 1500 engpibere og over 800 bogfinker, og i løbet af en 1½ time trak der over 16000 bogfinker og 1800 engpibere. Dagens total for begge arter blev næsten 25000 bogfinker og over 4300 engpibere!

Morgenobsen blev brat afbrudt da Lisa havde fanget en fugl hun ikke helt kunne nå at bestemme da der var mange fugle i nettene og det var endnu mørkt da solen knapt nok var stået op, så hun sendte mig et billede af den. Den mindede overfladisk om en lille fluesnapper, men meget hurtigt blev det fastslået af Mathias og Andreas at der var tale om en BLÅSTJERT, så vi ilede op i Fyrhaven hvor ringmærkerne (Lisa og Xenia) havde meget travlt med at få fugle ud af nettene og havde brug for en del hjælp hvilket vi også var villige til at bevilje dem. Blåstjerten er den første SU-art for Blåvand dette efterår (hvis vi ignorerer brilleand og amerikansk sortand).

Staarup-brødrene holdt stand på obs.-stedet mens vi var væk og havde talt fuglene mens vi var væk, men begge fik dog et (kort) glimt af blåstjerten.

Der kom herudover en trækkende rødtoppet fuglekonge, 13 skærpibere, 190 jernspurve, 21 hedelærker.

I morgen bliver det også østenvind, men vinden bliver noget kraftigere, op til 8 m/s.

Lisa Flam:

MEGA DAY!!!

I have to admit, this was a stressful morning.

I was expecting a nice day: good weather, SE wind and clear sky- Perfect. After having over 60 birds yesterday we were positive we would have over 100 birds (spoiler alert- we did.) But I wasn’t expecting 80% of them would be on the first round, and I didn’t think it would include a MEGA rare birds.

I started the day with Mathias helping me open the nets until Xenia arrived and joined me, he decided to go observe the migrating birds today after 3 days of ringing.

We decided to go out for first round a bit earlier than usual due to our expectation.
Most of the strong days so far did have most birds on the first 2 rounds but they were strong throughout the whole day.

Today was just unbelievable. David and Mathias had to come help out with getting the birds out from the nets, Michael and Andreas Pedersen were moved around (under my orders) to go get more bags and give them out to us, meanwhile Henrik Brandt joined and went back down to the Station Garden with Xenia for 2^nd round.

While having so much help I needed someone to write the information on the birds I was ringing, and Gorm Wæhrehn volunteered immediately. Amazingly enough he understood the system right away and was a huge help on a crazy morning like this. Thanks a lot!!

I really appreciated all the help I was getting; everyone understood the situation and were following my requests, they were all doing their best. It mad it possible for me to ring all the birds as fast as I could.

After this crazy amount of birds, it seemed like the birds were all gone! Less than 30 birds were cough between 9:00-13:00.

We had 106+3 birds from 16 different species! Including Chiffchaff (gransanger) (27), Dunnock (jernspurv) (23) Blackcap (munk) (12), Wren (gærdesmutte) (9), Chaffinch (bogfinke) (9), Common Redstart (rødstjert) (3), Goldcrest (fuglekonge) (5) and RED-FLANKED BLUETAIL (BLÅSTJERT) (1).

Foto: David Manstrup - Blåstjert!

I will say that I enjoy common birds as much as rare ones. I have been like that since I started birding and ringing.

I do have some dream birds (Firecrest (rødtoppet fuglekonge) was one of them, Goldcrest as well, Waxwing (silkehale), and yes, also Red-flanked Bluetail.) Goldcrest was obvious that I’m going to ring, also Firecrest was promised by Bent. But no one was prepared, especially me, for this amazing bird in the nets.

I want to thank all the helpers today, Xenia, Henrik, Mathias, David, Andreas, Michael, Kim, Bent and Gorm.