1st Day of EuroBridWatch !

Hi everybody,

Today is the first day of the 30th Eurobirdwatch, an annual event held on the first weekend of October and set to provide a snapshot of Europe's birdlife at a time when most of the birds are in motion. Eurobirdwatch is the largest event of the BirdLife partnership in Europe and Asia, aiming at raising awareness of the need to save migratory birds, and how important it is to protect bird habitats, breeding areas, stopover sites and flyways. Today, 60 birdwatchers located in Denmark have turned their scopes and binoculars to the migratory birds, providing detailed bird counts to be compared with other places as well as with previous years. Between 9am and 12am, 8600 birds of 34 species have been detected. Here is our contribution!

Braving the wind, Diana and Hanelie went observing at Nordstrand while Prescillia stayed at Cormorant Lake ; both had visitors for EuroBirdWatch event, who seemed very enthusiastic about bird watching with us. Aksel & I went to World End 3, starting the day with a beautiful pink sunrise; we were quite successful at protecting ourselves from the wind, but our stuff ended up being buried beneath a good pile of sand by the end of the morning. On her way back, Hanelie also quickly went by Stald Grenen. Although no rarities were detected, nor any record number of migrating species, we still enjoyed watching 19 migrating species including tufted ducks Troldand and crossbills Korsnæb, but also many resting species such as pintails Spidsand as well as the 36 snowbuntings Snespurv feeding at World End 3 !

Back home we cleaned the flat and took a well-deserved nap after these last intense days, while Prescillia cooked crepes for dinner. Simon had a productive meeting about the “Birds for all” project, a socio-scientific transgenerational project during which grandparents would take children out on nature tour, with help of provided media support; let’s hope some of these kids will someday volunteer here at the station !

We also had news from a robin Rødhals ringed at Kabeltromlen on the 12^th of September, that traveled all the way to Lopik in Holland, more than 700 km away, within 12 days! Although we are happy that this recapture makes us learn more about bird migration, the bird was sadly recovered dead after it flew into a window; to all those reading our blog, this is a good reminder that you, too, can make your home safer to local and migrant birds by placing stickers on your windows.

Tomorrow morning Aksel and Hanelie will go observing at World End 3 while Diana, Prescillia, Simon, Lisa and their friends Sabina and Jannick will ring at Kabeltromlen; you are welcome to join!

Cheers,

People at the station: Diana Sciandra, Hanelie Sidhu, Solenn Boucher, Prescillia Lemesle, Aksel Munkholm, Lisa Vergin, Simon S. Christiansen, their friends Sabina and Jannick and our guests Bent and Åse.

Today’s Observations in the area on DOFBasen