Night-time adventures and few birds around.

Hi everyone,

As you probably know, we tried our luck once more with night catching yesterday evening. Unfortunately, it was another failed attempt. However, we did find many Jack Snipes (Enkeltbekkasin) in the area of Hirtshals we were out. They were simply too reactive and escaped from a couple of meters away. Hanelie and Simon did manage to get very close to one and almost caught it, but it was half a second too fast for them. But this is still good news for future night catching excursions which are sure to happen. Meanwhile, Robbe who stayed at the station to get some rest faced a change of plans. After trying out the station’s guitar, he locked himself out of the flat while going out to place the guitar back. Unluckily for him, we were all in Hirtshals so no hero was there to rescue him right away. He, therefore, had to stay in the hallway for a little bit but Bent and Åse arrived not so long after as they left earlier than us and he could go to bed.

Now for today, I have a feeling it has both been a long and a slow day at the same time. Once again, I have had to step away a bit from the station’s activities due to my master’s assignment, but I will soon get back to it. All the activities were nevertheless taken care of perfectly thanks to Robbe, Alice and Hanelie. The earliest bird this morning was Hanelie who joined Knud for morning observations at Nordstrand. It was again a rather calm over the sea as well as across land, apart from some groups of finches (finker), Sandwich Terns (Splitterne), and a White-Tailed Eagle (Havørn). Afterwards, they decided to walk to the Cormorant Lake where they saw around 50 individuals, many of which were on nests. It looks like the breeding season is starting for them so we might start monitoring them soon.

Later on, Alice and Robbe also went out, but they headed to World’s End 2 together with Thomas. They got the chance to practice more with the laser binoculars although they weren’t many birds large enough for it, so it turned out mainly into a Wood Pigeon (Ringdue) shooting session. Simon also tried laser shooting for a little while after being out in a field at sunrise where it was unfortunately rather calm.

Bent and Åse used this sunny day to go wander around the lighthouse where they also saw little birds. When everyone got back to the station, we had lunch and we got to meet Robbe’s friend David. They met as Erasmus students in Odense the previous semester and he came to visit the area for a few days. After a quick “evening” meeting at around 4 pm, Robbe and David went for a walk. They manage to find some native plants identified by Robbe who is also a botanist and has much to teach us about plants.

(Erophila verna)

(Tussilago farfara)

In the meantime, Hanelie, Alice and I were cleaning the bikes to get rid of some of the salt that can accumulate quickly and to oil the chains. Teamwork made that task rather fast, and we could move on to other activities. Hanelie is working on some social media posts for the station so you should keep an eye out. If you haven’t seen them yet, there have been recent posts on both the Facebook and Instagram accounts of the station. Alice and Robbe are now preparing a dinner that already looks promising. And I am, yet again working on the flamingo assignment to finish it as soon as possible.

Last but definitely not least, we have some very exciting news to share. Hanelie was meant to be leaving us in two weeks but, after some arrangements with Simon and her university, it has been agreed she will stay until mid-June! You will therefore be blessed with more blogs and adventures from our always energetic dead bird expert.

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

Sum of the Raptors in the area based on observations typed into Dofbasen the same day

Tomorrow, we will practice our laser shooting skills some more and morning observations will take place as usual. Unfortunately, as Simon is occupied during the morning by meetings, there won’t be any ringing for the second day in a row.

Have a nice evening everyone.

Marion

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Robbe Cool, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Marion L'Huillier-Hunsinger, Thomas Kjær, David, Bent and Åse.