Lille Sheriff's goodbye Tit Party

Last night the four of started our group bonding by going out hand catching at the beach. We went to Grenen on the sandworm track and walked around for a while, but all we saw were three Red Knots (Islandsk Ryle) who flew away before we even got close. After a little bit we gave up and stopped by the kiosk to catch a few House Martins (Bysvale) and house Sparrows (Gråspurv), which we brought back to the lab and Selina ringed her first bird! We then delivered the Bysvale back to the kiosk and called it a night.

This morning I went with Selina to open the nets at Kabeltromlen and show her the route where all the nets are. We were joined by Lille Simon, who seems to have finally caught up on sleep just in time for a night of storm petrel catching, and Youri and SSC also joined us. We had a very good day with three different types of tits (Musvit, Sortmejse, and Blåmejse), a few Robins (Rødhals), one adult female blackbird (solsort) looking quite scrappy in wing and tail moult, and a very fine adult Gærdesanger specimen. We also had over 100 sortmejse flying overhead as well as a Havørn (White-tailed Eagle) which passed by very close several times.

Janna went out observing with Knud, where they had a still morning over the sea. Highlights included Lille flagspætte (Lesser spotted woodpecker), Rørhøg (Marsh harrier), Sølvhejre (great egret), and 6 Kaspisk måge (Caspian gulls). Janna even found time to age the resting Sule while Knud read some gull rings.

After lunch together and a swim with Janna, I went to the shop for provisions and Selina went to explore Skagen town while the others went out birdwatching. Lille Simon went to the beach for is final seawatch, and although he wasn’t able to get the nice gull photos he wanted, he was happy to see a carrion crow (Sortkrage) on the beach.

Janna went out along the boardwalks and had a nice time looking at dragonflies, adders, frogs, wheatears (stenpikker), and many passerines flying around.

Then we joined together again for a delicious dinner cooked by Janna, followed by crumble she made with some apples donated from the garden of our guests Helle and Johan. Now we will set out the storm petrel (stormsvale) and nightjar (natravn) nets so Lille Simon can forfeit his last night of sleep to see what we can catch. Janna and I put out a makeshift moth trap (which has nothing on Hanelie’s) so we will check this for a few hours to see if any moths can be tempted.

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Solsort 1

Musvit 1

Rørsanger 3

Rødhals 3

Jernspurv 3

Løvsanger 1

Gærdesanger 1

Sortmejse 5

Tornsanger 6

Munk 4

Blåmejse 1

Gransanger 4

Bogfinke 1

Total 34

Highlights from World’s End 3:

Lille flagspætte

Rørhøg

Krikand

Islandsk ryle

Kaspisk måge

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area.

People:

Selina Veng, Janna Ouedraogo, Sarah Partridge, Simon S. Christiansen, Youri Van der Horst, Simon Kiesé, Knud Pedersen, and our guests Helle and Johan.