Great day of birds and ringing at Blåvand

Even though we weren’t able to ring until later in the morning we still found some great things on our morning migration surveys! 

We continued to have great movements of Oystercatcher (Strandskade) and also had decent numbers of our other migratory shorebirds, including some good looks at Bar-tailed Godwit (Lille Kobversneppe). We also had singles of Curlew Sandpiper (Krumnæbbet Ryle) and quite a few Ruddy Turnstone (Stenvender). 

The waterfowl numbers were also very impressive, with over 1000 Scoter (Sortand). We also had a very close flock of 1K Shelduck (Gråvand) and a few Teal (Kirkland). 

The skuas were definitely the highlights of the day. We had good numbers of both dark and light morph Arctic Skuas (Almindelig Kjove) and we were lucky enough to spot a Pomarine Skua (Mellemkjove). Ole and Andreas identified it from far out and it flew south to harass the terns on the point. 

One of the many Arctic Skua (Almindelig Kjove) spotted during our survey yesterday.

Ole and I also checked the gulls after the survey was complete, even though we didn’t see anything particularly interesting we got great looks at some more Oystercatcher (Strandskade) and Arctic Skua (Almindelig Kjove).

At around 10 Bent arrived to open the nets for a few hours. We caught a good number of birds for how late we opened the nets, the highlight of which was definitely a trio of Goldinch (Stillitis). All of them were young birds but it is still exceptional we have caught this many this early in the season!