Cloudy morning

This morning Julian, Alix and Alvin were at ringing. The winds were coming from the Southwest today, so it meant we were hoping for better numbers of birds. Unfortunately, the cloud cover was higher than usual, so it meant the migration was a lot worse than we would’ve expected. Ringing totals were good in the first couple rounds with birds like Sparrowhawk (Spurvehøg) and Lesser Whitethroat (Gærdesanger) caught. Then the number of birds slowed down because the team had to close a lot of nets due to the high winds.

Lesser Whitethroat (Gærdesanger)

The first flowering plants of the spring

Ringing set up                    

This morning János and I were at the migration count. We too had less birds than we hoped but we still had a few nice species like Waxwing (Silkehale), Yellow Wagtails (Gul Vipstjert), Wood Sandpipers (Tinksmed), Rough-legged Buzzard (Fjeldvåge) and Little Ringed Plover (Lille Præstekrave). Hopefully the next few days will be better with higher numbers of migrating passerines.

Me at the migration count

We have had a few more tiring days so we all had a quieter middle of the day than normal so we could catch up on some much need sleep.

After a shopping trip I decided to go for an afternoon birding trip to the harbour and a couple other sites. I had a much nicer time than expected with some nice birds including 13 Common Sandpiper (Mudderklire), 2 Purple Sandpiper (Sortgrå Ryle), a Turnstone (Stenvender) and a Caspian Gull (Kaspisk Måge). It was really nice to see and hear the Common Sandpipers (Mudderklire) as we have not had many this spring so far. On the way home I stopped at Batteriskoven to try my luck for some spring migrants. I was able to see a couple birds including a male Redstart (Rødstjert) and Pied Flycatcher (Broget Fluesnapper). In the coming days we hope to see out first Wood Warblers (Skovsanger) of the spring here.

Black Kite (Sort Glente)

During my outing Alix and Alvin were enjoying some time outside doing some wood carving. Which was the first time they had done something like that. János aslo went outise to look at the sea and he saw a big group of 70 Fulmars (Mallemuk) following a couple of fishing boats on the sea from the Grey Lighthouse.

For dinner we had gnocchi bake made by Alix. It was very delicious and we look forward to eating the leftovers tomorrow. 

Highlights from today:

Ringing from today (Kabeltromlen)

Gransanger - 2
Gærdesanger - 1
Løvsanger - 2
Gærdesmutte - 1
Munk - 8
Sangdrossel - 1
Spurvehøg - 1
Total: 16

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

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