Birding and a Birthday

I had decided to go ringing today, as the ringing season is slowly coming to an end. So I wanted to take advantage of one of these last chances. It was very nice of János and Amira to go out early to open the nets. That meant I could sleep a little longer. As a result, I was still at home when Lise came in for breakfast and discovered the card we had written for her. Because today was her birthday! Happy birthday, Lise!!! As an activity for the morning, she had chosen the migration count, where she went with Mathilde, Miles and Knud. In general, it wasn't super busy, but there were still some nice birthday species. A Black-throated Diver (Sortstrubet Lom) and a Long-tailed Duck (Havlit) were nice to see, as well as three Little Auks (Søkonge)! Also worth mentioning, of course, are a good number of Light-bellied Brent Geese (Lysbuget Knortegås) and a Red-necked Grebe (Gråstrubet Lappedykker)! It was still cold, but as the wind wasn't so strong, it was still comfortable without a boiler suit. However, those who had one with them enjoyed a particularly cozy migration count today.


Professional bird counters

At the same time, a relaxed morning of bird ringing took place but still with a good number of birds. Interestingly, over half of all caught birds were recaptures. It was great for me to see a Redwing (Vindrossel) up close and extract a Dunnock (Jernspurv) from the net, which are getting scarce in ringing here.


Dunnock (Jernspurv)

When Amira announced that she had a Reed Bunting (Rørspurv) in a bag, János and I joked that it must be a Black-faced Bunting (Gråhovedet Værling). So the suspense increased until Amira actually took a Reed Bunting (Rørspurv) out of the bag. This was of course also a highlight of the day and it had been quite a long time since the last one had appeared in the nets here. Once again, a Firecrest (Rødtoppet Fuglekonge) appeared, yet another recapture. But it wasn't just the birds we caught that were the highlights today, but also a flock of Water Pitpits (Bjergpiber) flying overhead and Woodlark (Hedelærke)! The company was also quite good as Lise and Mathilde came by to help for one round after the obs and even Simon showed up for a while, despite having to cycle to Kabeltromlen as his car was in for repairs. Unfortunately, we forgot the banana chips we had promised him here.


Fresh hairstyle of a Firecrest (Rødtoppet Fuglekonge)

When the ringing was finished, I stayed outside to make the most of the last two hours of daylight. I was hoping to photograph Sanderlings (Sandløber) in the evening sun, but the sun disappeared behind some clouds before the light got really good. The atmosphere was still great and on the way back I even saw a Goshawk (Duehøg), so this was a nice evening trip.

In the meantime, Mathilde and Lise had baked for all of us a banana cake! It was so good! After a delicious dinner (with lots of olives) prepared by Amira, everyone could even have a second piece of the cake :)

Link to today’s observations from the area.

People: Miles Scheuering, János Schadl, Florian Hatt, Amira Nuseibeh, Lise Mastrup, Simon S. Christiansen, Michael Ancher, and Mathilde Lundt Larsen