A 'tick' bunting and the Sandhill Crane again

Hanalie and I just about managed to drag ourselves up at 3:30 this morning and out to Kabeltromlen to open the nets but it is getting harder every day! It is the last time Hanalie will ring with us this spring as she migrates south to Gedser Fuglestation today. We all hoped for some really good birds before she left and we were in luck! We had the first Garden Warbler (Havesanger) of this spring's ringing season.

After hearing them singing loudly in the reedbeds we were then very happy to catch our first Sedge Warbler (Sivsanger).

And later in the morning we caught our first Common Whitethroats (Tornsanger). Interestingly, the very first Common Whitethroat (Tornsanger) we caught was a recapture, an adult male first ringed back in 2022.

Magnus and Isis had a fairly quite morning at World's End 1. A second calendar year female Pallid Harrier (Steppehøg), a Shag (Topskarv) and a White-billed Diver (Hvidnæbbet Lom) were the highlights. As time went on it got foggier and foggier making it difficult to see far out to sea. However, the morning's excitement increased when a 'tick' bunting was heard at World's End 1 and seen flying towards Kabeltromlen. Magnus immediately sent a Zello message to Simon Jr who called out 'shhh' and everyone at the ringing went completely silent. The bird flew over and Simon managed to get a sound recording of its call. This will be analysed along with some distant photos taken to identify the species as either Little Bunting (Dværgværling) or Rustic Bunting (Pileværling).

The day got even better when we heard over Zello that the Sandhill Crane (Prærietrane) was on the move from Jerup, heading north with a flock of Common Cranes (Trane). Everyone at Kabeltromlen was prepared with their scopes and binoculars and before long the flock was spotted, 16 Common Cranes (Trane) and one Sandhill Crane (Prærietrane). They headed out over Grenen and over the sea and may have been found later in Sweden.

And it didn't stop there! A Steppe Eagle (Steppeørn) was also seen circling over the town.

There was a great atmosphere at Kabeltromlen all morning; it was busy with lots of different birders and turned into quite a party with cake and chocolate (tak for that!) and lots of interesting conversations.

The only downside to the morning was Hanalie leaving the station to continue the season at Gedser Fuglestation. We hope she has an amazing time and sees lots of great birds whilst she is there. Thank you for your lovely message in the guest book, we will miss you!

When we finally got back to the station we had a delicious lunch of leftovers from Dorte and Anders’ cooking last night. This was followed by cake and chocolate mousse from Mathilde and the people at Blink. It was delicious, tak!

The afternoon was busy too with cleaning the apartment, entering lots of data, analysing the bunting sound spectrogram, fixing bikes, having our ‘mid-stay’ talks with Simon Sr, and food shopping. We also welcomed Séan, our newest volunteer from Ireland, who will stay here for the rest of the season. Welcome back to the station Séan!

Ringing (Kabeltromlekrattet):

Total: 65

Ringing (Jennes Sø):

Total: 15

Ringing (Nordstjernevej):

Total: 2

Todays observations from observers in the area.

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

People: Séan Walsh, Hayley Land, Isis Khalil, Hanelie Sidhu, Magnus Houen Lauritsen, Simon Kiesé, Simon S. Christiansen, Jørgen Hulbæk, and our guests Dorte and Anders Østerby.