Windy morning, calm afternoon

Alvin and Alix were up early this morning for the ringing. It was quite windy, so it meant that they had to decide which nets to open. In the end they opened 16 out of the 26 nets we have a Kabeltromlen. The number of birds caught was very low but they still caught a Chiffchaff (Gransanger), Robin (Rødhals) and Wren (Gærdemutte). During the ringing Alvin also saw the one of the Black-winged Kites (Blå Glente) from the previous days. We have all really enjoyed their presence recently.

Julian, Saxe, János and I were at the migration count this morning. It was pretty quiet but there were still a few birds moving of note. The highlights were three Shags (Topskarv), one Arctic Skua (Almindelig Kjove), Little Tern (Dværgterne) and 17 Fulmars (Mallemuk). I decided to head home early to finish my session on UK seabirds for the team that I will hopefully be giving at some point this week. After the migration count a Lapland Bunting (Lapværling) was heard migrating at Grenen, so János and I decided to go out to try and hopefully find it resting on the beach. We had no luck so that probably means it migrated out to sea.

Gannets (Sule)

Sandwich Tern (Splitterne)

After lunch we said goodbye to Saxe as he had to head back down south to continue with school. It was really nice to have him, and we look forward to seeing him again later in the spring.

In the afternoon János and I went for a local walk around Storsig, Ellekrattet and Grenen. We were rewarded when I found a male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (Lille Flagspætte) very close to us in Ellekrattet. It was also close to a Great Spotted Woodpecker (Stor Flagspætte) which meant we could make some nice size comparisons with it. This sighting was by far my best sighting of this species and hopefully it sticks around so we can get some nice photos. At Grenen we also had a really nice feeding flock of 16 Barn Swallows (Landsvale) and one Sand Martin (Digesvale). This was our first larger flock that we have seen this spring, and we look forward to seeing way more.

We then came home and had a really nice dinner that Alix had made. Tomorrow, the wind drops and turns slightly to the South so hopefully it produces some nice birds.

Alvin and Alix posing

People: Alvin Johansson, János Schadl, Alix Bortolussi, Julian Helbig, Dylan Daunt, Simon S. Christiansen, Saxe Lind Christiansen, Søren