West winds Wading back

Today was yet another windy day so ringing was cancelled and I decided to do a loop towards the beach going through Storsig, Ellekattet, and then Grenen to see what species would be around today. Around the forest there were many Common Chiffchaff, a couple Spotted Flycatcher and some Crested Tits. On the beach there was a large roosting flock of Common Terns and joining them some early returning Dunlin and Sanderling moving along the beach.

House Sparrow roosting on the roof photo Andrew Jacobs

Crested Tit foraging in the forest photo Andrew Jacobs

Sanderling strolling the shore photo Andrew Jacobs

The others went out a bit later towards the forest on the south side of Storsig and also had similar species of forest birds.

In the evening we went down to the beach where it has being blowing west for quite some time now a massive number of Common Terns and Sandwich Terns were swirling offshore by the hundreds with this we figured that it would likely attract some Skuas which it did bring in both two light morph and two dark morph Arctic Skuas which chased the terns quite a bit. A young Long-eared Owl was seen flying out very high over the terns and the water, dispersal in action.

Pair of Arctic Skua chasing a Sandwich Tern photo Andrew Jacobs

Now we prepare for CES ringing and the last day of standard spring season ringing!

Highlights:

Arctic Skua 4 Almindelig Kjove

Sanderling 2 Sandløber

Dunlin 2 Almindelig Ryle

Spotted Flycatcher 2 Gråflusnapper

Common Tern 690 Fjordterne

Long-eared Owl 1 Sovhornugle

Observations from today on DOFbasen

People: Lucas Corneliussen, Cora Köberle, Tue Baaner, Hanelie Sidhu, Andrew Jacobs and our guests Anne and Jesper.