Filling the gaps with facts

 The day started with Me, Jule and Sarah opening nets over at Kabeltromlen. Unfortunately, the weather did not look very promising due to stronger wind and light rain. During the first round we got to strengthen our extracting skills by taking out some wrens (Gærdesmutte). Those pinecones with legs really love to get all tangled up and poke through all the holes. We were also joined by Simon, Odin and our guests. Jesper and Karen got to see how we age the wrens by taking a look at their greater coverts.

Overall, it was quite a slow and quiet day. We got to ring a beautiful male reed bunting (Rørspurv) during our last round. In Estonian, their name is “rootsiitsitaja” which also means reed bunting, or reed tweeter but if you cut the word near the middle, “Rootsi itsitaja” the meaning changes to Sweden’s giggler!

 

A closer look at the reed buntings (Rørspurv) or "Swedens gigglers" tail. Photo by Jule Tappe

 

Over at Worlds End 3, Luis and Mio observed loads of resting and migrating gannets (Sule) and scoters (Sortand), as per usual. They also saw an Arctic skua (Almindelig kjove) and a few smaller raptors. Did you know Arctic skuas (alongside other skua species) are huge kleptoparasites? That means they will often attempt to steal food from other birds, like terns (terne) or gulls (måge). We often see that during our observation aswell!

 

A kittiwake (Ride) with a colored ring, located on the left. This bird was ringed in Sweden! Photo by Luis Q. Langfeld

 

Afterwards we ate a lovely lunch of fried and seasoned potatoes with some mushrooms and egg by Sarah. I decided to take a longer nap today, I’ve been feeling very tired as of last week haha. Sarah and Jule went shopping with Jesper and Karen and then went to check out our bikes to see if any could be repaired. As it turned out, one of the bikes had the wrong size tire on! That will be sorted very soon.

 

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

People: Jule Tappe, Mio Brix, Laura Tamminen, Luis Q. Langfeld, Simon S. Christiansen, Odin, Sarah Partridge, Jesper and Karen Marie Olesen, Manuel Tacke