Staying at KAB forever

This morning, I jumped out of bed. Okay no, that’s lie. But Sarah and I did get up early to open nets at Kabeltromlen. During sunrise, there were already many birds in the bushes and we had high hopes for the morning. For the first round, Mio joined (who later switched with Cora again) and Mette and Lone also came to help out. Some of our hopes held true: There was a beautiful Common Snipe (Dobbeltbekassin) in the first round and many, many Wrens (Gærdesmutte).

Common Snipe (Dobbeltbekassin) in the ringing today.

Unfortunately, as many birds as we hoped found their way into our nets, but more nice individuals were ringed by us, among them a male Greenfinch (Grønirisk) and a 2k+ male Redpoll (Gråsisken).

Male Greenfinch (Grønirisk).

Redpoll (Gråsisken). The red hue on its breast shows that it is a 2k+ male.

There was also a flock of Bearded Reedlings (Skagemejse) flying around Kabeltromlen and we really wanted to catch them. So after our standardized ringing, we put up sound for them and Redpolls up. While we were unsuccessful for Bearded Reedlings, we were able to catch some Redpolls, so the extra hours at KAB ended up being worth it.

Except for the birds in the net, we got to observe a good amount of Common Buzzards (Musvåge) accompanied by two Red Kites (Rød Glente). There was also an overflying Water Pipit (Bjerglærke).

The real excitement was going down at World’s End 3 though. Luis-Marie, Cora and Knud were busy counting over 8000 Razorbills (Alk) in only four hours. And in between these masses of birds, there were some treasures hiding: They saw a Great Northern Diver (Islom) and a Puffin (Lunde). Later in the count, two Nutcrackers (Nøddekrige) also attempted migration, but changed directions again once they came too close to the sea. After 4 hours of counting, the observers joined the ringers at Kabeltromlen.

In the early afternoon, we got back to the station and had a late lunch. Then, it was time for office work: Data entry, picture archive, social media. Mio and Cora went grocery shopping with our guest Lars (thanks for driving!) and I cleaned the lab.

Now, after our daily evening meeting, Luis-Marie is cooking dinner and the station is slowly but steadily calming down. But not entirely! We will try to go nightcatching again today, since it was so successfull yesterday (check out the blog post)!

Also, this is my last blog post for SKAF since I will be leaving on Sunday. I was at the station for a little over three months and this is my 21st blog post in my time here. It has been a great joy to write these texts for all of you readers out there and bring the excitement and joy of being volunteer at the station a bit closer to you! So thank you, and hopefully see you soon!

People: Mio Brix, Cora Köberle, Luis-Marie Gourmelon, Sarah Partridge, Simon S. Christiansen, Jule Tappe, Knud Pedersen, Jeppe Madsen, Jørgen Kabel, Mette Møller Christensen, Lars and Lone