Let it happen!

The second day of the festival started for me way before the tents opened. From the moment the rain moved away, I went to Worlds end 3 to start the morning observations. Later in the morning, Manuel joined me as well. A lot of birds that got blown into Kattegat yesterday, tried to escape today. Although this was still difficult with the strong winds, we could observe almost hundred kittiwakes “ride”.

And even though it was too windy for ringing, we still opened the nets and catch 6 birds. But the birds we caught were worth it. We got the help from Merit Link who came here with Dof Ung. We had a lot of visitors and some young bird enthusiast really enjoyed the ringing.

After taking a rest, entering data and enjoying the lovely tea Hanelies mum sent us, it was time for the highlight of today. Together with Dof Ung, we competed 1,5 hours to see as many species as possible. Divided in 4 teams, we ran out into the fields to practise the most hardcore birdwatching possible.

Run, STOP, check bird, shout species name, make sure everyone sees the bird, repeat… We couldn’t think about anything else.

A crazy amount of bird was seen by all of us but at the end of the contest, only one team could win, and that was our team. A big thank you to everyone that joined the game and special thanks to my team to find no less than 43 species in this short amount of time. Some nice species were seen by the teams such as marsh warbler “Kærsanger”, golden oriole “pirol” and a grey plover “strandhjejle”.

Hereafter, we treated ourselves with a nice ice cream. Hanelie and Leona took care of the groceries while Manuel and I saw a resting golden plover “hjejle” from our living room. A nice species for our precious garden list!

Simon, Lisa and guests were at Kabeltromle too. Simon and Lisa joined the ringing. Simon went back to the station to have a meeting with Sigrid and Niels about the bird station. After the bird race, Simon, his mum and Lisa enjoyed their afternoon at Blink. The guests continued their day in the church. Not to pray but for a nice accordion concert.

Alice left for three days to explore the region. Packed with all my camping equipment, she will walk to the south towards new adventures.

Tomorrow will be cold weather for the time of the year again. We decided to do the Fulmar survey and make the 10km walk on the beach. Let’s hope we don’t only find dead birds but also living birds. With the northerly winds, some of us will probably dream about a Ross gull coming from Norway.

Today’s observations in DOFbasen from observers in the area

 Raptor summary of the raptors entered on DOFbasen today

Ringing(Kabletromle):

grønsisken: 1

Gærdesmutte: 1

Grå fluesnapper: 1

Munk: 1

Kvækerfinke: 1

sivsanger: 1

Total: 6

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Manuel Tacke, Leona Gottschalkson, Robbe Cool, Lisa Vergin, Gustav Nyberg, Merit Link, Sigrid Andersen, Niels Eriksen, our guests Marianne and Kurt