Blyth's Reed Warbler and Red-backed Shrikes for Julian's birthday

It wasn’t raining when we woke up this morning, but the rain came when we were opening the nets and it stayed for the whole day. Under this situation, we had to go to the rounds more often to prevent the birds to get too wet. So you have just finished one round and you are about to start the next one, which makes bird ringing a nice training for our legs.

Dawn at Kabeltromlen before the rain started

We couldn’t ring at Kabeltromlen as usual if we did not want all our material and folder to end up completely wet. Therefore, we turned the tent into a cozy lab for ringing and blood sampling.

Ringing in the tent

We were expecting a good day for birds today. Especially, Julian was very excited because it was his birthday and he wished interesting birds on the nets as a present. And he wasn’t wrong.

The rain gave us satisfactory results: 10 blood samples, 67 ringed birds and nice species. We caught two beautiful males Red-backed Shrikes (Rødrygget Tornskade), one of them had peculiar white spots on the wings.

The two male Red-backed Shrikes

Dylan had been at the migration counting, but on the contrary, today it wasn’t a very interesting morning for migration. He saw a Temminck’s Stint (Temmincksryle), but not much more interesting. So, he decided to join the ringing afterwards. And when he joined the rounds, he found a Warbler on the nets and immediately noticed it was different from a Marsh Warbler (Kærsanger) and a Reed Warbler (Rørsanger). The colour was more similar to a Marsh Warbler, but the wings were much shorter. He came back to the tent very excited, and after taking the measurements, we could assure it was a Blyth’s Reed Warbler (Buskrørsanger)!

Blyth's Reed Warbler. The wing is shorter than in other Warblers, especially P2.

We also had a Marsh Warbler and a Reed Warbler on the same round, so we could compare the three species and show the differences to the excited public that came to see the new species. We were even able to record the Blyth’s Reed Warbler’s sound.

The three Warblers together

Showing the Blyth's Reed Warbler to the public

We ringed for longer today, so we were tired when we arrived home, but very happy.

In the afternoon, Dylan was interviewed by some students that are doing a school project and that are interested in knowing about young birdwatchers in Denmark.

Also, Dylan and I did data entry. It is interesting to mention that yesterday we caught a Reed Warbler that had been ringed in Norway in 2023, and since then it has been recaptured in Skagen once a year.

János and Simon went birding and Alvin and Kirsten went shopping. We have received a donation for the collective from Jan Eske Schmidt and Jørgen Hulbæk. Thank you so much! We appreciate it a lot! This type of donations helps us to improve the station. By the way, the lamp we have in the living room does not work anymore, so if someone has one that doesn’t use it would be well received here.

After finishing the tasks, we celebrated Julian’s birthday eating the delicious chocolate cake that he made. Happy birthday!

Julian's birthday

 

Highlights from the observations:
Temminck’s Stint (Temmincksryle)

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):
Rødrygget Tornskade - 2
Gulbug - 10
Buskrøsanger - 1
Kærsanger - 11
Rørsanger - 8
Gransanger - 8
Havesanger - 4
Munk - 7
Gærdesanger - 4
Tornsanger - 7
Grå Fluesnapper - 2
Rødhals - 2
Bogfinke - 1
Total = 67

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

Summary of today's raptor migration in DOFbasen

People: Alvin Johansson, János Schadl, Julian Helbig, Dylan Daunt, Olga Fernández Enríquez, Simon S. Christiansen, Kirsten