Refreshment within Reach

Today, waking up early did in fact work out for us just as planned, and we biked to Skarvsøen at 02:40 to open nets for another session of CES. Along the way, we heard a Quail (Vagtel) singing from Ellekrattet – maybe it’s time for me to go out “quailing” again tonight… There was almost no wind today, and we caught quite a few birds, especially on first and second round. We had many newly fledged birds among them like Chiffchaffs (Gransanger) and Lesser Whitethroats (Gærdesanger). And also the very first ringed bird in active primary moult of the season: A Blackbird (Solsort) moulting its inner three primaries.

Freshly fledged Lesser Whitethroat (Gærdesanger).

Blackbird (Solsort) in active moult of primaries.

At one point, I saw a Water Rail (Vandrikse) fly under one of the nets. What a shame it didn’t go in, it’s one of the species that all of us would love to see in hand, after hearing them squeak, and grunt, and screech in the reeds almost every day. Whilst ringing, we also enjoyed watching all the young birds in and around the lake, like the Red-necked Grebes (Gråstrubet Lappedykker) and all the baby Cormorants (Skarv). We had many wading birds like Greenshanks (Hvidklire), Curlews (Storspove), Wood Sandpipers (Tinksmed) and more fly over us, as autumn migration has already started for them. Simon also came by to join us for a bit. He has been on the radio this morning talking about birds and drones on radar. In the end, we got very warm in the sun, and after the six hours done, we felt we needed a good refreshment. So after closing nets, we packed our stuff and walked up to Nordstrand to go for a swim there. What a privilege to have the refreshing sea always in reach! Swifts (Mursejler), Honey Buzzards (Hvepsevåge) and a White-tailed Eagle (Havørn) were circling high up in the blue sky as we enjoyed our bath in the waves of Skagerrak. Back at the station, we met Simon, and did some planning with him, since we won’t see him tomorrow. After lunch, I went for a little walk around the lighthouse before taking a good nap. After that I went for a longer round through Storsig, but couldn’t find anything interesting. Alvin made a whole wok pan of fantastic gnocchi for dinner, and as a desert we had some lemon sorbet I made, topped with water mint that I picked at Skarvsøen yesterday when cutting the reeds there.

Lemon sorbet with water mint.

People: Alvin Johansson, Alix Bortolussi, Julian Helbig, Simon S. Christiansen