A Russian Spy

Blue Tit with a Russian ring!

After some rainy mornings, it was a nice change to have a good sunrise today as we opened the nets at Kabeltromlen. We (Mara, Sarah and I) were a little nervous and excited that we would again catch lots of Great Tit (Musvit), but only caught one today, and instead there were lots of Blue Tits (Blåmejse), almost 50 in total! Normally, we would find this a bit annoying because Blue Tits especially love to bite our fingers in exactly the places that hurt the most, but today we were joined by an extra special visitor, a Russian Blue Tit! It had a ring inscribed with MOSKVA, meaning it was first ringed somewhere in Russia. We’re looking forward to finding out exactly where it’s come from, but also a bit suspicious that it arrived in the nets on its own (whereas most Blue Tits arrive in flocks). Could it be a Russian Spy?! The rest of the ringing morning was quite quiet except for a Firecrest (Rødtoppet Fuglekonge) during the last net check, a very handsome male bird.

A stunning male Firecrest

The observers (Florian and Miles) had a strong start to their morning with over four Great Northern Divers (Islom), a little Auk (Søkonge), a flock of over Coal Tits (Sortmejse), and 4000 Razorbills (Alk), as well as some good numbers of Snow Bunting (Snespurv) on the beach, and five Whooper Swans (Sangsvane) passing overhead. Migration slowed down later on in the morning and they were glad to escape the cold and wind and come home to a delicious cake gifted to us by our guest Lars (thank you!). It was so delicious that it’s almost disappeared completely already. We then visited the lighthouse shop to peruse the selection of bird-themed bits and bobs, and Mara bought some beautiful bird posters.

Miles observing at World's End 3

After a laughter-filled group lunch, we all parted ways for a couple of hours. Florian went out birdwatching in town and spotted a Hawfinch and a flock of Brambling, and then bumped into Miles in the industrial area, so they joined forces to bird their way around the area. Janna also returned to the observatory this afternoon, only four weeks after she left! It’s brilliant to have her back and she was so excited to be here again that she immediately went out birdwatching too!

Meanwhile Mara, Sarah and I received a call from Simon that our new Kabeltromlen (ringing table) had been delivered and that we should take it to the ringing site. With rain forecast to arrive in the next hour, we hurried out to find it and, surprisingly, had a lot of fun rolling it down the track. We tried to recruit Florian and Miles to help us by pretending that we’d seen a mystery pipit, but they didn’t fall for it. We were asked if it had a red rump and when we said yes, Florian sneakily exclaimed that there wasn’t any pipit that fitted that description. Oops.

Rolling the new Kabeltromlen to the ringing site

After our evening meeting, Mara cooked us a delicious dinner of potato and broccoli tray bake whilst Mara, Janna and Florian educated me on the best German pop music. Now, we’re getting ready for a movie night; we’re watching the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie!

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Highlights from World’s End 3:

Today’s observations from the area can be found here.

People: Mara Glane, Florian Hatt, Sarah Partridge, Amira Nuseibeh, Miles Scheuering, Knud Pedersen, and our guest Lars.