Pigeon day!

We were all up again at 04:30 to try and catch the Snow Buntings again. We also brought a speaker to try and bring in Twite as none of us had ever seen them in the hand before. Unfortunately, it was very windy which meant the birds could see the net.

János, Alvin and I then stayed at Grenen to do the morning migration count. The conditions were good, so the number of birds migrating was highest it has been since the start of the spring. We counted 15,000 Wood Pigeon (Ringdue), which is unusually high. As well as 3,000 Jackdaw (Allike) and 2,000 Chaffinch (Bogfinke). One of the scarcer species that we saw during the morning was a female Pied Wagtail (Hvid Vipsjert) that has come here all the way from the United Kingdom.   

Wood Pigeons (Ringdue) and Stock Doves (Huldue)

During our morning count Julian and Alix continued to set up the nets. They worked very efficiently and managed to set up most of the nets by lunch time. In the early afternoon Alvin and I joined them to finish setting the nets ready for our first standardised ringing session on Friday. We can’t wait to get started. Julian and Alix had a couple nice sightings as well. They heard the first singing Bittern (Rørdrum) of the spring as well as this lovely Moor Frog (Spidssnudet Frø) which will soon start to think about breeding.  

Alix setting up nets

Moor frog (Spidssnudet Frø) at Grenen

Because the nets were finished earlier than expected we were all able to head back to the Grey Lighthouse for some down time. János had very kindly prepared his famous hot chocolate which we all greatly appreciated. In the late afternoon János and I thought it would be worth opening the net in the lighthouse garden as there were some thrushes about. We managed to catch one 2K male Blackbird (Solstort) which is hopefully a good sign for good birds to be caught in the garden in the future.

We are all looking forward to the next few days as the weather is looking good and our standardised ringing begins!

Highlights of today: 

15,000 Wood Pigeons (Ringdue)

1 Pied Wagtail (Hvid Vipstjert)

70 Snowbuntings (Snespurv)

Highlights of the ringing at Nordstjernevej:

Dunnock (Jernspurn) - 2

Great Tit (Musvit) - 2

Blue tit (Blåmejse) - 1

Chaffinch (Bogfinke) - 1

total: 6

Highights of the ringing at Fyrhaven:

Blackbird (Solstort) - 1

 Link to today’s observations in DOFbasen from observers in the area

Summary of todays raptor migration on DOFbasen

People: Alvin Johansson, János Schadl, Alix Bortolussi, Julian Helbig, Dylan Daunt, Simon S. Christiansen, Michael Ancher