A Terrific Team Twitch

It was windier than expected as Lise, Florian and I headed out to ring at Kabeltromlen this morning, and so we decided not to open some of the more exposed nets. This did mean we had much fewer birds than usual but amongst them some gems in the shape of two Firecrest (Rødtoppet Fuglekonge). One of the two Firecrests was a bird ringed here almost exactly a year ago on the 8^th November 2024, so it’s exciting to see it has survived a full year!

Because we had such few birds we had time to appreciate each one, including a beautiful Song Thrush (Sangdrossel) with its characteristic upside-down heart-shaped dark markings on the breast. We also did some observing between net-checking rounds and heard an interesting call from one individual bird flying over amongst a flock of Common Crossbill (Lille Kornsnæb). Luckily, Florian had his recorder on him so we'll try to figure out what the mystery bird might be by inspecting the spectrogram later. Eventually, the wind became too strong and cold, so we closed the nets and retreated back home again for some well-earned lunch and some delicious leftover coconut chocolate cake baked by Lise.

The observers, Miles and János, were kept busy this morning at World’s End 3 with just the two of them there, but they thoroughly enjoyed it. The best bird was definitely a Sooty Shearwater (Sodfarvet skråpe) spotted by Miles, which was quite close by and flew back and forth, even briefly resting on the water; a really cool observation! They also saw two stunning Shorelarks (Bjerglærke) hopping around on the beach, as well as a lovely diversity of other species including Black Throated Diver (Sortstrubet Lom) and Black Guillemot (Tejst).

Then, we were all determined to try and see the Hume’s Leaf Warbler (Himalayasanger) so we cycled to the spot where Florian had first heard it calling at sunset yesterday. Almost immediately we all spotted it darting aroundin the bushes, showing extremely well and calling nicely and regularly too. Listen to it here:

It was a lifer for Miles, Lise and I, and even Simon said it was the best Hume’s Warbler he’s ever seen!

As we stood admiring it, János also spotted a Siberian Chiffchaff (Sibirisk Gransanger) in the same bush; what are the chances! That now means we’ve had a Dusky Warbler (Brøn Lovsanger), Hume’s Leaf Warbler and a Siberian Chiffchaff all within 1km and 24hrs of each other!

Afterwards, János and Florian continued birdwatching and found lots of Bearded Reedlings (Skægmejse) calling around cormorant lake and surprisingly many chiffchaffs about which is nice for this time of year. Meanwhile, Miles and Lise headed to the shops in town, and Simon was in a Bird Observatory board meeting all day, but did manage some birdwatching beforehand of course. Overall, it was another absolutely terrific day, full of twitches, tasty treats and top birds!

Link to today’s observations from the area

People: Miles Scheuering, Lise Mastrup, János Schadl, Florian Hatt, Amira Nuseibeh, and Simon S. Christiansen.