Alix, Alvin and I went out for the morning ringing session. We were unsure about how the weather would be, but it seemed okay enough for us to open the nets. The first couple hours of ringing were really slow with only a couple birds. Though this meant that we could cut back some of the buckthorn that has grown in places it shouldn’t have over the last couple years. All three of us ended up with thorns in us but I guess that made cutting the bushes more satisfactory in the end. By 9am the weather had gotten a lot worse. The wind increased and there was steady rainfall. In these sorts of conditions, we have to close the nets to ensure that no birds get too wet whilst laying in the mist nets. Kabletromlen is also good for watching migratory birds. We saw some nice species like Hawfinch (Kernebirder) and some Red Crossbills (Lille Korsnæb).

Me holding my buckthorn bush trophy!

János and Julian were doing the migration count this morning. But unfortunately for them, the only animals getting soaked were them. Even during the rain, we have to continue our migration count to make sure the data from the counts over the spring are as good as possible. When it is rainy, very few songbirds migrate. So, the main focus for them was towards the sea where thousands of seabirds were passing including Guillemots (Lomvie), Kittiwakes (Ride), Gannets (Sule) and Common Scoters (Sortand). They also had a brief visit from the Glaucous Gull (Gråmåge) which is always nice to see.

Glaucous Gull (Gråmåge) flyby 

At lunch we had a surprise visit from a local who said they had found a Gannet (Sule) washed up on the beach. But this time it was carrying some jewellery. All the way from the UK! Very few Gannet rings have been re found in Denmark from the UK. The two most recent have been from colonies in Scotland. Including from one of the world’s largest Gannet colonies called the Bass Rock. We will also be able to find out how old this bird was. There are so many interesting questions. Where is this bird from? Was it ringed as a chick? We will let you know all this information as soon as we find out about it. This also shows how important the collection of rings from washed up birds is. So much amazing information can be found out from just one ring.

In the early afternoon Simon picked up our next short-term volunteer called Shuyu. She has come from Aarhus and will be staying with us until Tuesday. Let’s hope that we can have a good day of weather when she is here.

In the evening we had another wet spell, so we decided to go and try catch some Jack Snipes. Unfortunately, there were very few birds around, so all our efforts were not rewarded. But hopefully we will catch a few more birds in the coming evenings.