Calm day with a nice surprise

Gabriel and Sarah did another night shift to keep an eye on the storm petrel and nightjar nets for us. The nets had to be checked again for a last round late in the night. They moved along the beach, focused on the nets, trying to detect every movement in there. Did you see that? There's a bird in the net! We got a Storm petrel (stormsvale)! Gabriel and Sarah sped up, getting closer to the net. Wow, there it is! But wait, it looks a bit different. No, this isn't a Storm petrel. It's a cute little Robin (Rødhals). Between the joy of finding a bird and the disappointment that it wasn't a Storm petrel, the Robin was of course measured, ringed and released again. Have a good time, little friend!

I heard this story in the morning after I woke up tired and the others had just returned from their last round of net checking. They went to bed, while Janna, Oscar and I went to Worlds End III. There was no ringing today at Kabeltromlen due to the strong wind. Michael Ancher had slightly better wind shelter in Jennes Sø, where he saw a nightjar (Natravn) in the net in the morning! Unfortunately, the bird flew out again when he tried to approach it.

During the migration count, we had a very quiet morning with little bird activity. However, this gave us more time to observe and study the birds that were here. For example the Kittiwakes (Ride) are always nice to seee. Twice, an unidentified skua (Kjove sp.) briefly appeared in the distance before immediately disappearing again among the waves. The same thing happened with a possible Fulmar (Mallemuk), also extremely far away.


Beautiful sunrise at Verdens Ende III

Later, our guests Karen Marie and Søren joined us for the migration count. Suddenly, a Goldeneye (Hvinand) flew in. We haven’t seen any of them the last two weeks. Even though it was difficult to see it among the Common Scoters (Sortand) and kept flying around, we had enough time to show it to our guests. Unfortunately, a heavy rain shower was approaching, so we couldn't count the last 1.5 hours and headed home before the rain started. Noon passed, some took a nap and others did some relaxed work. Sarah, Janna and I went for a quick swim despite the strong waves and wind.

We had to say goodbye to Oscar, who is already leaving after just one week. Even though it was only a short stay, it was such a nice time! He now has to focus on his master's thesis, in which he will work on the colours of bee-eaters, among other things.

Afterwards, Janna, Gabriel and I walked from the Sandormen Track to Skarvsøen. There were several passerines active in the bushes, which is always exciting to watch. At the small lake, we spotted three Spotted redshanks (Sortklire) flying around and calling. Suddenly, we heard a sharp call of a flying wagtail. As I had studied the calls in detail just a few days ago, I immediately noticed that these calls sound very much like a Citrine wagtail (Citronvipstjert)! Janna managed to see the bird landing, so we got some nice views of it sitting in the vegetation. That definitely deserved a high five between all of us! It was again a 1K bird so maybe the same as some days ago at Grenen.


Juvenile Citrine Wagtail (Citronvipstjert) at Skarvsøen, what a nice surprise!

We came a bit late to our evening meeting and then had a delicious dinner together with our guests and the new volunteer Amira, who we had welcomed just before.

No ringing today at Kabeltromlen

Ringing (Jennes Sø)

Gransanger 1
Løvsanger 1
Blåmejse 7
Musvit 3
Gråsisken, Lille (ssp. cabaret) 6

Total 18

Highlights from todays observations

Citronvipstjert (at Skarvsøen)
Skægmejse (at Skarvsøen)

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

People: Gabriel Axelsson, Florian Hatt, Janna Ouedraogo, Sarah Partridge, Óscar Pachá Guerras, Amira Nuseibeh, Simon Christiansen, Michael Ancher and our guests Søren and Karen Marie