Ringing Ringed Plover Chicks

Hi everyone,

Today's adventures began at 3:30 in the morning, when some of us awoke to begin opening nets for ringing. However, the possibility of some rain on the forecast forced us to delay opening by another hour or so. It never did end up raining (save for a short drizzle several hours later), but it's always best to err on the side of caution in the interest of the birds! Myself, Nathan, Alice, and Esben left the fuglestation at 5 am to our ringing site at Kabeltromlen. Today was Nathan and I's first day of ringing here at Skagen, so Esben and Alice showed us the lay of the land and the local methods for opening mist nets. Rita and Hanelie arrived about an hour later to assist with the first round of net checks.

The ringing today was not exceptionally busy, but, it being my first time birding in Europe, I personally was quite excited to see species like Icterine Warbler "Gulbug" and Lesser Redpoll "Lille Gråsisken" up close.

We closed up the nets at 11 o'clock, but instead of returning home, decided we would attempt to ring Common Ringed Plover "Stor Præstekrave" chicks nearby on the beaches of Grenen. We managed to capture and ring 3, while the adults tried to distract us with their "broken wing" displays, effectively saying "Don't eat my chick, eat me! I'm easy injured prey!"

Roaming the beach searching for chicks camouflaged and huddling amongst the pebbles, I stumbled across the corpse of an Atlantic Puffin "Lunde", and we additionally came across an ill-looking Sandwich Tern "Splitterne", perhaps suffering from bird flu.

Overall, it was a wonderful day, and a very exciting introduction to ringing here at Skagen Fuglestation.

Ringing Totals

Common Ringed Plover "Stor Præstekrave" : 3

Dunnock "Jernspurv": 1

Reed Warbler "Rørsanger": 2

Icterine Warbler "Gulbug": 2

Lesser Whitethroat "Gærdesanger": 3

Common Whitethroat "Tornsanger": 4

Blackcap "Munk": 1

Willow Warbler "Løvsanger": 1

Blue Tit "Blåmejse": 1

Great Tit "Musvit": 2

Lesser Redpoll: "Lille Gråsisken": 1

Reed Bunting "Rørspurv": 1

Total: 22

Max

Observations of the day from birders in the area on DOFBasen

People: Esben E. Hansen, Rita DeLucco, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Nathan Delmas, Max Laubstein