Red-breasted Flycatchers ringed!

This morning János and I were at the ringing. We were hopeful for a good session as the winds were finally coming from the South again after a week of West winds. When we were opening, we heard lots of singing birds including Marsh Warblers (Kærsanger), Cuckoos (Gøg) and Icterine Warblers (Gulbug). The first round of the ringing can often be the best one, and today that was the case. I was lucky enough to find two Red-breasted Flycatchers (Lille Fluesnapper) in the nets including a stunning adult male. We can tell it is an adult because of the orange colouration on its throat and upper breast. Only a couple Red-breasted Flycatchers (Lille Fluesnapper) are caught in Skagen every year and this adult male was the first one with an orange throat to ever be caught by the station. Making this bird even more special! The second bird was a second calendar year which are still very pretty birds. The rest of the session was good with higher numbers of birds caught in previous days.

Red-breasted Flycatchers (Lille Fluesnapper) – 2cy left, adult male right.

Many people came to see these two special birds.

Julian and Olga were at the migration count and had some nice species including a Great Northern Diver (Islom), Fulmars (Mallemuk) and some of the more common species. Their highlight though was a very close Harbour Porpoise (Marsvin) that showed very well for them. Usually, they are difficult to see well as they are often far out so it will have been a real treat to see one so close.

Female Fox Moth (Brombærspinder) in the moth trap today.

We were hoping that the afternoon would be a bit better for birds, but it seemed the rarer birds haven’t quite reached Skagen yet. A few nice species seen though was a Red-footed Falcon (Aftenfalk), a Bee-eater (Biæder) and a Quail (Vagtel). Migration hotspots further south in Denmark and in Germany have been seeing a lot of really cool species so we hope that we get a share of them!

Cloudy afternoon

Even though the birds weren’t as good as we hoped it was still very nice to be outside in the warm weather. We have experienced a lot of cold winds this spring so we all really appreciate these nicer spells of weather. Tomorrow, the winds look a bit stronger from the West, but we still hope to see some nice species.