Black scoters!

Black Scoters!

The ringing day at Kabeltromlen started quite slowly yesterday. Amelie, Angus, Oluf, and Michael kept the nets open until the early afternoon and ended up catching 80 birds. Among them was a beautiful Eurasian bullfinch (Dompap) and a Songthrush (Sangdrossel), of which we expect more this autumn.

I went migration counting with Martin and Knud. It was a slow morning for the seabirds as well, so we spent the extra time practicing our ageing skills of Northern gannets (Sule) from juvenile, second, third, and fourth year to the adult phase. I also had the opportunity to practice more bird calls, as there were a few passerines flying overhead.

In the afternoon, Martin and I saw two Black Scoter (Amerikansk Sortand) males from the beach in Hirtsals. They are common in parts of North America, but here in Denmark we only see the occasional vagrants, so it is always exciting to see them when they come over the Atlantic. I had never seen a Black scoter before, but even to my untrained eye the difference between the Common scoter (Sortand) and the Black scoter was very obvious. We kept an eye out for a female Black scoter as well, but they are much more difficult to identify than the males, so we couldn’t tell.

In the evening, the moon showed itself in a beautiful reddish hue:

This morning it was too windy and rainy to go ringing at Kabeltromlen, but not for migration counts. Martin, Amelie, and I joined Knud at World’s End 3 – fortunately, we went prepared with our rain gear.

In the last hour of counting, the clouds broke up and we were rewarded by glorious sunshine. It is amazing what difference a few rays of sunlight can make. We didn’t see a lot of activity over the water, either, but we saw more Northern pintails (Spitsand) and Northern shovelers (Skeand).

Today, we unfortunately had to say goodbye to one of our volunteer members, Angus. He showed his passion for birds each time he was out in the field and was always willing to share his extensive knowledge about them with us. We will miss him, his British humor, as well as his skills in night catching. We wish him all the very best for the future, which hopefully contains many exciting bird observations and experiences.

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen) for 09/23/2020 (no ringing on 09/24/2020):

Blåmejse - Blue tit: 26

Dompap - Eurasian bullfinch: 1

Fuglekonge - Goldcrest: 2

Gæ­rdesmutte - Eurasian wren: 1

Grå Fluesnapper - Spotted flycatcher: 1

Gransanger - Common chiffchaff: 6

Gråsisken - Common redpoll: 4

Jernspurv - Dunnock: 2

Løvsanger - Willow warbler: 1

Munk - Eurasian blackcap: 3

Musvit - Great tit: 7

Rødhals - European robin: 4

Rødstjert - Common redstart: 1

Rørspurv - Reed bunting: 5

Sangdrossel - Songtrush: 1

Sortmejse - Coal tit: 15

Total: 80

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området

People: Martin Grienenberger, Amelie S. Zeller, Angus R. W. Barnett, Christina Stinn, Simon S. Christiansen, Michael Fink Jørgensen, Oluf Lou, Jørgen & Igor, Knud Pedersen, Lene & Stig