Buskrørsanger & Lille Rørsanger!!!

Where to start… what a day! Today started like a typical day, it was overcast and cooler and Zach headed to World’s End for morning observations, whilst Michael and I headed to Kabeltromlen to open the nets for sunrise. Visible migration was rather slow, the highlights being two (Strandhjejle) Grey Plover and one Stenpikker (Northern Wheatear).

Michael and I headed for our first round as usual which wasn’t particularly busy but Michael came back to the table saying he’d extracted an Acrocephalus warbler, of which he wasn’t entirely sure of the species. He took it out the bag and my immediate thought was Buskrørsanger (Blyth’s Reed Warbler). It had a cold-toned, greyish mantle with no rufous on the flanks, rump or underparts and the head had an obvious, pale supercilium. We took all the required measurements and wing formula, then double and triple checked our measurements. We were absolutely thrilled to confirm it was a Blyth’s Reed Warbler- a new species in the hand for both myself, and Michael. Zach arrived at the ringing site at just the right time to collect some much-needed mosquito spray and we gave Simon and Lisa a wake-up call at 4:45am to give them the good news!

Buskrørsanger (Blyth's Reed Warbler).

After releasing the bird, we were all in extremely high spirits as we carried on ringing thinking the day couldn’t get any better. Overall, we caught 23 birds, and the nets weren’t extremely busy so we decided to close around 9am. I went to close one of the nets that runs through reeds when I spotted a small looking Acrocephalus at one end. As soon as I approached the bird, I saw a prominent, pale supercilium and dark crown and knew exactly what it was. I was surprised by how obvious this species was in the hand, but I couldn’t quite believe what was happening- we’d just caught a Lille Rørsanger (Paddyfield Warbler) on the very same day!

We quickly closed the rest of the nets and undertook the same process of ringing the bird and taking a full suite of measurements and wing formula before phoning Simon and Lisa (again!) who put the news out. They swiftly arrived alongside Dante, who had been birding the area, and a few local birders. This was also a new species for all of us volunteers at the station and was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone present before being released. We were then lucky enough to see the bird in the field, moving through some Hawthorn bushes.

Lille Rørsanger (Paddyfield Warbler).

The Blyth’s Reed Warbler is only the second individual caught by the station whilst the Paddyfield Warbler is the fifth caught by the station but only a 20^th record for Denmark. It seemed like fate that we caught both these species the morning after I gave my presentation on Acrocephalus identification and ageing, and it gave us an amazing chance to put these skills into action. We now think we should do more presentations on rare species identification and ageing to see if this luck works again!!!

In the afternoon, Dante, Zach, Michael, and I headed out to the Aarhus University radar station to help Thomas move it off the sand-dunes ready to be taken back to Aarhus. This sounded much easier than it turned out to be… After nearly 2 hours of pushing, getting stuck in the sand, sweating in the boiling sun and being bitten by horseflies, we finally managed to shift it, only after attaching it to two pick-up trucks! Thanks you to Thomas, Troels & Snäphor for having us out there, we've all really enjoyed watching raptors with you all.

The whole process was made slightly better by the fantastic views of the Steppeørn (Steppe Eagle) and three Havørn (White-tailed Eagles) which circled nearly over our heads as we laboured. Back at the station, we entered data and completed various admin tasks and are now looking forward to an evening celebrating our fantastic day, ready to get up and do it all again tomorrow! It’s days like these which make it even more fun to be out!

Shifting the Aarhus University radar station off the dunes- much more difficult that it sounds!

A full list of today's observations can be found here.

Skagen Fuglestation: Zach Pannifer, Michael Colley, Dante Shepherd & Lauren Evans

Kabletromlen Ringing Totals:

Buskrørsanger (Blyth’s Reed Warbler)- 1

Lille Rørsanger (Paddyfield Warbler)- 1

Gransanger (Chiffchaff)- 1

Rørsanger (Reed Warbler)- 4

Løvsanger (Willow Warbler)- 3

Lille Gråsisken (Lesser Redpoll)- 2

Bogfinke (Chaffinch)- 2

Tornsanger (Common Whitethroat)- 1

Munk (Blackcap)- 7

Skovpiber (Tree {Pipit)- 1

Total: 23