A record day for the books

Loyal readers of this blog might know already what happy new I get to announce to today… Even though we all went to bed totally exhausted last night, there was more than one good reason to get up after midnight: We caught not one, but two European Storm Petrels (Lille Stormsvale) marking the fourth and fifth of this season. This is the station’s record since never before, so many Storm Petrels have been caught in one season.

The first bird was found in the net at around 1 am, the second about an hour later. With tired eyes, we all admired the mysterious birds that just made history! Cora also got to ring her first Storm Petrel so it was an exciting night for everybody.

One of two European Storm Petrels (Lille Stormsvale) we caught very early in the day.

Late in the night (or early in the morning), Mio replaced Simon Sr. with the night shifts and later, he and Cora closed the nets before going to World’s End 3 for migration count. There were not many birds around but some Arctic Skuas (Almindelig Kjove) and to Black-throated Divers (Sortstrubet Lom) brought nice variety.

In the meantime, Simon Jr. and I were on our way to Kabeltromlen, opening nets and getting ready for another morning of ringing. We caught two Pied Flycatchers (Broget Fluesnapper), some Acrocephalus warblers and our usual favourite: Common Whitethroats (Tornsanger).

Mio used the time to look for passerines, visited us at Kabeltromlen to join for two rounds and set up an audio recorder. Later, he looked at Gulls (Måger) at Grenen with Cora.

After the morning tasks, data entry and quality assurance awaited us, followed by a much sought-after nap.

Cora and Mio decided to go birdwatching at Nordstrand and Skarvsøen, where they saw many Common and a couple of Velvet Scoters (Sortand, Fløjlsand). Also, the Spoonbill (Skestork) that we wrote about a couple of days ago is still there, today joined by a Spotted Redshank (Sortklire).

While most of us were sleeping, our guests Brigitte and Ole drove into town to buy the ingredients for dinner tonight. And they really cooked!

After this super successful day for each of us as well as the station, we all enjoyed a delicious meal in the lighthouse garden, perfected by a dessert of koldskål and champagne to celebrate the record.

Also, with the arrival of Johanna, our team expanded today and will be enriched by her for the next two weeks.

Then it was time to prepare for another night of catching birds: Setting up the Nightjar (Natravn) and Storm Petrel nets.

While writing this blog, I was interrupted since I had to check the nets and I can tell you already that we have been successful with catching two Nightjars so far. Let’s see what else the night brings and if we can expand our Storm Petrel record tonight!

 

 One of the Nightjars (Natravn) we caught very late in the day.

Link to today's observations in the Dofbasen from observers in the area.

People: Mio Brix, Cora Köberle, Jule Tappe, Simon Kiesé, Simon S. Christiansen, Ole Jørgensen, Brigitte Jørgensen, Jeppe Madsen, Lisa Vergin, Johanna Ventjeer.