More windy days

The strong winds are starting to get annoying not only for the ornithologists but also for the birds. The ornithologists can benefit from birds being blown off course but in fact we would really like to go out ringing again but the winds make it impossible to open the nets. Hopefully tomorrow.

After the red-throated diver (rødstrubet lom) from last week that stayed for a few days probably exhausted and could apparently gather enough strength to leave again, last night I found a black guillemot (tejst) on the beach just outside the lighthouse. It also seemed exhausted but we could not catch it so hopefully it will recover on its own.

This morning I went out to look for Sandwich terns (splitterne) again, however, I couldn’t find any. Not even feeding. I assume that the fact that the sandy beach has decreased so much with all the water being blown our way and the ever increasing number of tourists at the beach, the sandwich terns do not find enough peace to roost here any more. We hope that they will come back when the strong winds stop.

In the afternoon we had a bird ringing tour despite the strong winds and there were a lot of people, also children. We were lucky enough to catch a single bird during the tour so they could also experience the actual ringing of a bird. It was a great experience for them, I am sure.

Afterwards I went to the cormorant (skarv) colony for the weekly monitoring. We had half feared that more nests might have been predated, however the chicks on the western side were all alive and are by now almost the size of the adults. Some are only distinguishable from immature birds by the brown feathers on their throat, head, and underparts. The wings seem almost fully grown and they also start to leave the nest and climb around the trees a little bit. Soon they will probably start to learn to fly!

Apart from the outdoor activities our email inbox was quite exciting today: We got news on two birds! Finally we heard from the Gannet (sule) that we caught injured on north beach 2 weeks ago. It was ringed as a chick in July 2014 at the west coast of England.

Another notice was regarding a willow warbler (løvsanger) that Michael ringed as a juvenile bird probably on migration in August 2018. It has been found dead in Norway three weeks ago.

Ringing at Fyrhavn:

Tree Pipit - Skovpiber - 1

Folk: Martina Hillbrand, Simon S. Christiansen, and Amandine Doré

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