Goodbye Morten (almost)

With the arrival of our new volunteer Michele, we were able to do some ringing and also visit the cormorant colony for the biweekly survey.

Morten decided to take the cormorant survey today. He counted 148 nests, though sadly the predation is starting to gather pace, with 8 of those nests no longer being occupied. However a vast majority of the remaining nests now have chicks and Morten spent a pleasant couple of hours counting the numbers of those he could see, with the largest nests (so far) containing three chicks. He also refound an old friend of his, a colour ringed cormorant who has been present at the colony for the past 3 years and get good photos of his red ring, for recording purposes. He also saw a single male garganey at the lake, as had 4 days before, suggesting perhaps that the female is sitting somewhere else quietly incubating.

Whilst he was doing this Michele and I were ringing at Grenen. We had an interesting (though not stellar) couple of hours early on, with a couple of bullfinch, and some nice comparisons between reed and marsh warblers. Some interesting movement of blackcaps was noted along with some interesting variations in age amongst them, everyday is a school day when you’re ringing out here! As we decided to close the nets a call came through on Zello, that a Rustic bunting had been seen flying over us to Ellektattet (obviously we didn’t know anything about this until it was well past) and we decided we’d stay open for a little while to see if this would herald a ‘fall’ of interesting migrants.

It didn’t. But it did herald a rise in the mosquito numbers! We closed shortly after as we only caught one new bird in almost two hours. Morten had even worse luck at the observatory garden, with zero birds being caught.

Our guests spent their day in town enjoying the ‘tourist’ attractions of Skagen, and Simon was on the way back from Aalborg. Later in the day we started preparations for a BBQ for the friends of the observatory, as a way to say goodbye to Morten, who after two years here is leaving to take up an opportunity elsewhere. Many people attended, and we were entertained by a migrating short eared owl, and some porpoises in the bay. The midges soon became unbearable, and the festivities moved into the observatory. Everyone had a good time, and Morten was seen off in style.

Ringing Totals:
Robin – 1
Chaffinch – 1
Bullfinch – 2
Marsh warbler – 2
Reed warbler – 1
Whitethroat – 2
Lesser whitethroat – 1 (+1 retrap)
Blackcap – 5
Garden warbler – 1