In anticipation

This day started at a rather unusual time, or not, if you are at the Bird Observatory! Around midnight, Brian and I where still on the beach of Grenen, trying to catch waders. Unfortunately, we weren’t lucky so instead enjoyed a nice night walk, admiring the view of the lighthouse in the dark. At sunrise, our usual tasks called: Brian, Juliane and Knud attended to the migration count at World’s End 3 and Simon K., Páll and me were ringing birds at Kabeltromlen. It was my first time at this legendary site so I was shown all the nets and was excited to ring my first birds – hopefully many are still to come! There was also a slight breeze of wind, forcing us to leave some nets closed. Still, we caught surprisingly many birds with a strong second round of 15 individuals, including two Icterine Warblers (Gulbug) and many juvenile birds.

Icterine warbler (Gulbug)

Above us, some passerines were busy: Redpolls (Gråsisken), Common Crossbills (Lille Korsnæb) and a Tree Pipit (Skovpiber) flew over our heads while we were ringing. Checking the nets, a couple of Common Snipe (Dobbeltbekkasin) flew away startled. We used the spare time in between net checks for some seatwatching, getting an impression of what Juliane, Brian and Knud where dealing with a few hundred metres north: Migration was again slow with little to no activity on the sea. Some nice birds were still around though, like a Golden Plover (Hjejle), a Whimbrel (Småspove), three young Mediterranean Gulls (Sorthovedet Måge) and even a Yellow-legged Gull (Middelhavsmåge) on the beach.

Yellow-legged Gull (Middelhavsmåge)

Our guest Søren Roed also joined both the count and later the ringing to get an impression of what we are up to every morning. After this sleepless night and busy morning, we went back to the station and admired a stuffed stone-curlew (Triel) in the exhibition. You should check it out! All took a nap and got some rest before entering the data of the morning. I also went into town to get some groceries for the next couple of days that are going to be busy again. Until the evening, we took things slow to be prepared for what’s to come this night: We are going to try to catch and ring storm petrels (Lille Stormsvale)! If you want to find out whether we caught one of these magnificent birds, check out the blog tomorrow!

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

People: Brian Browne, Simon S. Christiansen, Simon Kiesé, Søren Roed, Juliane Rößler, Knud, Pedersen, Jule Tappe, Páll Vang Kjærbo