Lots of fat tits!

It was a slightly later start for János and I as we have decided to stop catching the Snow Buntings in the early morning as a lot of the birds have left to their breeding grounds. We were walking to Grenen for the migration count when János shouted "Glaucous Gull!" (Gråmåge). I was flying by itself straight over Kabeltromlem. We called Alvin and the others at the ringing so they could see it and luckily the bird flew straight over their heads. A lifer for all three of them!

Migration was nice with lots of auks passing including 2500 Guillemots (Lomvie). Not many passerines were migrating over Grenen so our main focus today was on the sea. One and a half hours into the count I spotted a winter plumage Puffin (Lunde). It flew Northwest and then landed on the sea. A similar behaviour to the previous birds in the last weeks. Is it the same bird? Then János got a call from Simon asking for help… The nets were filled to the brim with Blue Tits (Blåmejse)! 

Alix, Alvin, Simon and Julian were doing the ringing this morning. They had a slow start with a few nice birds including Dunnock (Jernspurv) and some Northern Long-tailed Tits (Nordlig Halemejse). Then at 08:30 the sound of Blue Tits was everywhere. So it wasn't as huge surprise when they found lots of them in the net. Situations like this require a lot of good communication, concentration and teamwork. Everyone did a great job to keep birds under as little stress as possible and were very efficient in all the aspects of ringing. It also helped that all of the tits were very fat! Most of the tits were in the fat score range between 4 and 6 which means they are ready to migrate and are very strong and healthy. This was really nice to see, and it showed us that the birds were all doing very well. These Blue Tits (Blåmejse) come from places like Norway and Sweden which was proven by a couple of really nice recaptures. In the morning we caught one Swedish ringed bird and two Norwegian ringed birds. It has been very enjoyable for me to witness tit migration as it is something that never happens in the UK. It was really cool thinking that these birds will be in Northern Scandinavia very soon!

Dunnock (Jernspuv)

Blue Tit (Blåmejse) white a partly white tail

Julian ringing a Long-tailed Tit (Halemejse)

János had to leave me by myself to do the rest of the migration count to help out with the tits. It definitely made me realise that it is always nice to have someone with you in the field. Especially if the migration is quiet. Luckily for me, there were still some nice birds for me to see like a winter plumage Grey Plover (Strandhjejle), a female Scaup (Bjergand) with Common Scoters (Sortand) and lots more Guillemots (Lomvie).

After the very busy morning we all needed a bit of a break. We came back to the lighthouse and had some lunch and put in the migration data for DOF Basen. Later in the afternoon Simon gave all of us a nice talk about the Ethics of ringing which came at a great time given todays events. It also helped us reflect on how well we did this morning, and we have all learnt how to be even better for the next time something like this happens.

In the evening János and I tried to catch some Moorhen (Rørhøne) at a local pond. We think that we will be able to catch them in the coming days as we were able to get very close to them. After, we came home to a very nice and warm curry that Julian made which was very tasty. Tomorrow the weather doesn’t look the best but we still hope that we will be able to go out counting and ringing.

Total: 174

Total: 11

Highlights from the observations:

Puffin (Lunde) - 1

Black-throated Diver (Sortstrubet Lom) - 2

Marsh Harrier (Rørhøg) - 1

Goshawk (Duehøg) - 1

Scaup (Bjergand) - 1

Grey Plover (Strandhjejle) - 1

Glaucous Gull (Gråmåge) -1

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

Summary of today's raptor migration in DOFbasen

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