The shrike strikes!

This morning held some nice surprises for all of us! Brian and I biked to Kabeltromlen before sunrise, opening up the nets and meeting Simon, Sophie and Páll around 4:50 am. Luckily, the wind was a lot less stronger than predicted allowing us to open all the nets for the usual timespan. We managed to catch 20 birds in total, including two adult Icterine Warblers (Gulbug), a Yellowhammer (Gulspurv) and a Willow Warbler (Løvsanger).

Between the rounds, we had already spotted a Red-backed Shrike (Rødrygget Tornskade) perching on the net poles. And then in the very last round, also Brian’s last round at Kabeltromlen ever, it was finally in the net! He ringed it and the bird was admired by all of us. What a beautiful sight!

Red-backed Shrike (Rødrygget Tornskade).

Meanwhile, Simon K. and Knud were busy doing migration count at World’s End 3. While there was little migration on the sea, they were kept busy by resting birds on the beach. 800 Terns (Terne sp.), including 100 Arctic Terns (Havterne) were counted! This is an impressive high count and the highest number of Arctic Terns counted at Grenen since 2020. The three of them also found a lot of colour rings in all colours of the rainbow from dark blue to red in species like Common Tern (Fjordterne), Sandwich Tern (Splitterne) and Mediterranean Gull (Sorthovedet Måge). In total, about 30 rings were read! They could have easily continued but had to stop due to rain, just as we did at Kabeltromlen.

Common Tern (Fjordterne) with colour ring.

After having finished the last data entries, it was time to say goodbye. After almost a month at the station, Brian left for new adventures. Thank you for your contribution to the bird observatory! But we also welcomed Mio! He will stay until the end of the season in December.

There was another reason to celebrate today since it was the birthday of Søren, our current guest at the lighthouse. He cooked a delicious meal for all of us and Sofie made a scrumptious cake. This was not the end of the day though, because some cleaning tasks still awaited us. Now, our optics are free of sand and salt and are ready to use tomorrow! But now, it is time to use the rainy evening for an early night.

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

People: Mio Brix, Brian Browne, Simon S. Christiansen, Simon Kiesé, Knud Pedersen, Søren Roed, Jule Tappe, Páll Vang Kjærbo, Sofie Bugge Kobberø.