Leaving no stone unterned

Our day actually started yesterday...wait! That sounds weird, but that is what happens when we are doing night catching. Like this night at Grenen, where we were very successful. We caught two Common Terns (Fjordterne), one Red Knot (Islandsk Ryle), two Turnstones (Stenvender) and an Oystercatcher (Strandskade) on our way back. And already now you know why I chose that blog title. At this point, big credits to Páll, who gave us this brilliant title!

This young Turnstone (Stenvender) isn’t leaving a single stone unturned. Photo by: Pauline Nähring

And this young Common Tern (Fjordterne) will always tern around in the direction where it has to migrate. Photo: Mio Brix

In the morning, before we went to the count and ringing we unfortunately had to say goodbye to Hannes, who left in the morning back to Kiel in Germany. Have a good trip back and hopefully see you here again at some point! It was very nice with you!

Jule and Páll opened the nets at Kabeltrommlen in the morning and were joined by Pauline and Simon for the first round. And directly in this first round, they already got 8 birds, and one of them was a Wheatear (Stenpikker)! Just one round later, they caught a second one and one of them was even an adult male!

Adult male Wheatear (Stenpikker). Photo: Pauline Nähring

Such a good start to the ringing day, and there wasn’t a single round without a bird. This is how it should be! And we are all waiting for some very good ringing days. Maybe these days are the first sign that they are coming closer and closer?

Laura, Knud and I didn’t have a single hour without a migrating bird at World’s End 3 either! Okay, this is way easier to achieve than in the ringing, but you know my attempts to find good (or less good) linking sentences from the ringing to the count...

At the count, we had a bit more going on than the day before, with some more Arctic Skuas (Almindelig Kjove) and Great Skuas (Storkjove). One of the Great Skuas (Storkjove) was a juvenile (1K) that stayed stationary for quite some time and was very close to the beach. Later, the third skua species also turned up: At least one young bird was seen. For Laura, it was the first time seeing this species, and she was already amazed by seeing all the Gannets (Sule) flying and diving. And there are still a lot of Terns (Terner) and Gulls (Måge) on the beach, so Knud went down after the count and he did a lot of pictures. And while doing and doing pictures he took this amazing picture: 

Adult Sandwich Tern (Splitterne) looking up in flight. Photo by Knud Pedersen

After our good count, Laura and I went to Kabeltrommlen and helped to close the nets there. In this round, we also got to see (and I also got to ring) three birds, including one very beautiful young Lesser Redpoll (Lille Gråsisken).

After the count and ringing, there came our daily routine. It’s called DLN: Data entry, Lunch and Napping. After DLN, we were welcomed to join Martina and her high-school class for a BBQ in the lighthouse garden. It was very delicious, and it was nice to talk to the students!

When it got dark, Jule and I showed some of the students the thermal camera, and we were able to find two Nightjars on the path. Unfortunately, they didn’t fly into the Nightjar nets, which Anna and Pauline had opened.

Observation Highlights:

Long-tailed Skua (Lille Kjove)-1

Great Skua (Storkjove)-7

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Total: 34

Ringing Grenen: 

Turnstone (Stenvender)-2

Oystercatcher (Strandskade)-1

Common Tern (Fjordterne)-2

Red Knot (Islandsk Ryle)-1

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

People: Mio Brix, Hannes Schäfer, Knud Pedersen, Zoe Pauline Nähring, Jule Tappe, Laura Tamminen, Simon S. Christiansen, Knud Pedersen, Páll Vang Kjærbo, Kurt Håkonsson and Marianne Mølgaard