The autumn ringing season started!

From today on it is early mornings for all of us every day, as also the autumn ringing season started. Rose and I went to Kabletrommle for ringing while Emma went to Verdens Ende III for the migration count.

While opening we heard the Grashopper Warbler “Grasshoppersanger” again. It was very active this morning. For the first round, we were joined by Daniele, an Italian ringer and Simon.

It was a nice morning and Roses first full ringing morning of passerine ringing, she has mainly ringed seabirds before. In total we caught 56 new birds, mainly first calendar year birds. Highlights were an Icterine Warbler “Gulbug”, a partially leucistic Lesser Whitethroat “Gærdesanger”, which had some white feathers on its head.

Lesser Whitethroat "Gærdesanger" with white on its head.

Also a juvenile Willow Warbler “Løvsanger”. It is mainly juvenile Chiffchaffs “Gransanger”, that we catch, so it is important to be careful and always check the emarginations on the primaries, only five in the Willow Warbler and six in the Chiffchaff “Gransanger”. This should always be a routine in these two species, but especially at that time of year it is very important, as the juvenile Willow Warblers “Løvsanger” can have Chiffchaff-like dark legs, which will get lighter when the bird gets older.

Juvenile Willow Warbler "Løvsanger".

Ringing Kabeltrommle

After ringing, Rose and I fixed the wader hanger and then went back to the station.

Emma had a very slow sea migration count today. Very few birds were migrating but there was still one highlight, a Black Guillemot “Tjeist”! And she had some passerine highlights: She saw a Kingfisher “Isfugl” and there was a bird with a weird call. Emmas guess was Penduline Tit “Pungmejse” and luckily, she had a recording of the call. It was indeed a Penduline Tit “Pungmejse”, which is quite rare out here, it is not seen yearly in Skagen.  I wish we would have it in the net!

While we were still at Kabletrommle and Emma took a nap after the count, the Long-legged Buzzard “Ørnevåge” had been seen again. It was the same bird as yesterday, Knud again managed to take very good pictures. Also Simon saw it today, yesterday he had missed it.

When we all met at the station, we decided to look for it together and went to North beach on top of the bunker. We saw some raptors but did not manage to find the Long-legged Buzzard Ørnevåge”.

At the end we decided to explore the inside of the bunker and after going back to the station. While it was very hot outside today and the last days, it was refreshingly cool inside the bunker.

Juvenile Løvsanger

Highlights Morning Observations:

Pungmejse

Isfugl

Tjeist

 

Highlights in the field:

Ørnevåge

Today´s observations by obsers in te area can be seen here.

Later in the afternoon, our new guests, Louise, Nor and Mikkel arrived at the station. Mikkel is working for Ørneclubben, the kids group of DOF.

After data entry we had the evening meeting with Simon. Now we are looking forward to another exciting day in the field, hopefully this time with Long-legged Buzzard “Ørnevåge” for us.

At the station: Rosemary Frikke, Emma Fabre, Hanelie Sidhu, Simon S. Christiansen, our Italian guests Daniele Lavicoli and Ornella Cobianchi and the guests in the apartment Louise, Nor and Mikkel Østergaard