This morning it was no question whether to open the nets. The wind reached up to 16 m/s, gust was even higher and rain beat against our windows. A day to enjoy some more sleep.

Although later I regretted a bit to have stayed in bed as Henrik saw some Little Gulls “Dværgmåge” at Grønningen, maybe we could also have seen some from the beach.

Besides ringing I will also work on a project about ringing data of some long distant migrant passerine species this time so Henrik and I discussed a bit on that.

Later, Paula, Henrik and I went on a walk to the Sabine bunker and back through the bog. The wind had slowed down and now it was too late for the Little Gulls “Dværgmåge” unfortunately, but we saw some Caspian Gulls “Caspisk Måge” of different age classes, as well as the usual Sanderlings “Sandløber”, Purple Sandpipers “Sortgrå Ryle”, Ringed Plovers “Stor Præstekrave” and Turnstones “Stenvender”.

2K Capian Gull "Caspisk måge" next to a Herring Gull by Henrik

3K Caspian Gull "Caspisk Måge" by Henrik

4K Caspian Gull "Kåspisk Måge" by Henrik

In the bog it was rather quiet, besides some Skylarks “Sanglærke” and three Mitlethrushes “Misteldrossel”.

Some amphibians were on the path as this nice Moor Frog “Spidssnudet frø”.

Well camouflaged Moor Frog "Spidssnudet frø" by Hanelie

Tomorrow looks good for ringing again, so lets hope for some birds in the nets!

At the station: Henrik Bøhmer, Paula Feuchtmeyer and Hanelie Sidhu

The morning today began with clear skies, but because of the wind, we could not open the nets in the usual way. The station garden offers a bit more shelter, that’s why we could open a few nets here. But after two hours the wind icreased a lot, so we decided to close those nets as well.

We didn’t have a lot of hope to get something in the nets today, but despite the limited netting time, we were still able to ring two Goldcrests “Fuglekonge”. We also catched one old friend - a recapture of a Blackbird “Solsort” Hanelie ringed a few days ago.

Fuglekonge 2/0

Solsort 0/1

With plenty of free time after the short ringing session, I decided to go for a long walk along the coast. After two skylarks "sanglærke" accompanied me for a while along the dunes, I encountered a few herring gulls “sølvmåge” by the sea that seemed to be enjoying the sunshine just as much as I was.

a herring gull “sølvmåge” enjoing the sun

At the station: Henrik Bøhmer, Hanelie Sidhu and Paula Feuchtmeyer

With mostly 10 m/s it was too windy to open the nets this morning. Later, the rain also started.

I stayed inside the house, enjoyed some more sleep and did some work for university that took with me from the last semester. Paula enjoyed her day at Tirpitz museum.

The recapture report of the Greenfinch with Norwegian ring arrived. It was ringed last September in Sørby in Norway as a 1K bird. Probably it went to Denmark or maybe Germany in autumn to  winter in a milder climate and is now on the way back to its breeding grounds in Norway. Here is a map of where it was ringed and recaptured.

Map of the ringing and recapure site of the Greenfinch with Norwegian ring.

The next days do not look good for ringing. Tomorrow is going to be windy and the day after looks very rainy. But let´s hope for the best; maybe it turns out better than the forecast says.

At the station: Paula Feuchtmeyer and Hanelie Sidhu

Today was a very foggy day at Blåvand. For observations, a catastrophe, it can be okay for ringing, but also the night was rather foggy, and there was no movement at all.

View out of the window. Where is the lighthouse?

We caught one new Blackbird “Solsort” and recaptured two birds from previous rounds. Otherwise, we walked a lot to see empty nets.

Such days are not so exciting, but at least I got some of the work done that I still have to do for uni from the previous semester.
Paula and I had talked a bit about different feather groups as well as moult yesterday evening, and we used the foggy day to watch SSCs video about moult and aging of European Passerines. The weather for the next few days won´t be great, but it looks like the next week will bring some better weather!

At the station: Paula Feuchtmeyer and Hanelie Sidhu

Yesterday I (Paula) arrived at the station to join the ringing team. Coming from the southern of Germany I am really excited for the danish birdlife.

It felt like I brought some good weather with me: the morning started off a bit foggy, but as the day went on it cleared and turned into a sunny day. There weren´t many birds in the nets, but that meant there was plenty of time for Hanelie to show me around and explain everything. Because of that, I was able to ring my very first bird today – a Song Trush "Sangdrossel".

Later we realized that I wasn´t the only new arrival at Blåvand. Along with me, we also welcomed the first Bullfinch "Dompap" and the first Yellowhammer "Gulspurv"of the season.

First Bullfinch "Dompap" with the first Phigalia pilosaria "Fjer-måler" of the season in Blåvand in the background. Don´t worry, we did not feed it to the bird ;-)

Yellowhammer "Gulspurv"

All it all, it was a great first day at the station, with sunshine, lots of new impressions, and several different bird species.

Paula blowing fat on a Yellowhammer "Gulspurv"

At the station: David Manstrup, Sverre Dahl Porsgaard, Paula Feuchtmeyer and Hanelie Sidhu

Morning observations:
When Böhmer arrived today he was all smiles. On his way to the morning obs he had seen a wolf! A wonderful grey creature, beautiful from ears to tail. We  did the morning obs, which primarily consisted of 47 bar-tailed godwits (lille kobbersneppe), and then went for a walk in the heath area. We all wanted to see a wolf, but found nothing but potentiel footprints. Still a nice walk with the songlarks singing us hello.

A wolf seen and photographed by HBØ

After the quick mammal detour we looked for wagtails, and as the fog cleared out throughout the evening i enjoyed a nice walk in the dunes. Tomorrow i will leave the station again to go back to the east coast. I really enjoyed spending the weekend in the beautiful area, all be it a bit foggy. Until next time! And as always another great day in Blåvand with good company:)
- Sverre

Ringing:

Ringing numbers are very low at that time of the year, but for that, it was okay conditions.

In total I had 14 new birds and 3 recaptures, with that it was the best day so far here for ringing this season.

I mostly had Blackbirds “Solsort” in the nets, one male had some white feathers, but only around the eyes.

Blackbird "Solsort" with some leucistic feathers around the eyes

I had two Wrens “Gærdesmutte” in the nets today, let´s see, there should also come some more.

I like the little bright Wrens "Gærdesmutte", even in hand although they are so figety.

At the station: Henrik Bøhmer, David Manstrup, Sverre Dahl Porsgaard, Thomas Kristensen and Hanelie Sidhu

Morning Obervations:

Kaspian Gull "Kaspisk Måge" by Henrik

I (Sverre) went to the obspoint at 7, shortly followed by Thomas, Henrik and David. The weather looked quite dull and foggy, so with an intense overcast we set out to brace the elements yet again. With a sight of less then two kilometers it was easy to miss a lot of the migrating seabird, but Henrik quickly found a peregrine falcon (vandrefalk) going south. Half an hour later we had a white-tailed eagle (havørn) over the ocean followed by one behind os over land. Twelve bar-tailed godwits (lille kobbersneppe) resting on the beach were also enjoyed in the slight morning sun.

David, Sverre and Thomas at the obs by Henrik

After the obs we went for a walk on the beach, where the gull-enthusiasts quickly located eight caspian gull of varying age. Followed by a walk through the bog area and back along the beach we can confirm that the stonechats (sortstrubet bynkefugl), songlarks (sanglærke) and ringed plowers (stor præstekrave) have returned to Blåvand for the spring season. As always another great day in Blåvand, and i am excited to be back at the station for a couple of days! :)
- Sverre

Ringing:

The overcasted weather helped to get birds in the nets! This morning it it took longer to get light. Some minutes after opening time the rain stopped and there were just very few drops, so I could open the nets. There was nearly no wind and when I came down from the lighthouse garden, I already heared a Songthrush “Sangdrossel” singing close to the station.

Songthrush "Sangdrossel"

I also found a three of them in the nets today. Now, in the afternoon it got foggy and a bit rainy and some of the birdbags are washing in the machine, the most caught species so far is the Blackbird “Solsort”, and they usually make the bags quite dirty.

At the station: Henrik Bøhmer, David Manstrup, Thomas Kristensen, Sverre Dahl Porsgaard and Hanelie Sidhu

The first ringing days in March were actually not that bad for it being so early in spring. But now it is very slow with birds in the nets. Today I had 4 new and one recapture.

Henrik was out observing and in the bog. The highlight were eight resting Caspian Gulls “Kaspisk Måge”.

4K Caspian Gull "Kaspisk Måge by Henrik

In the afternoon I cleaned up a bit especially in the ringing labs. Now David arrived and is on a walk in the bog and later Sverre from the autumn team will come for a weekend.

At the station: Henrik Bøhmer, Thomas Kristensen, Sverre Dahl Porsgaard and Hanelie Sidhu

The morning started sunny and cold with low southeasterly wind. The weather was too good to give a good ringing day. I had many zero rounds. In one net finally I found three birds! All female Greenfinches “Grønirisk”, one with a ring. I already caught some Greenfinches this season, so I was expecting it to be one of mine from the last days. But when I had a closer look, I saw that it had a Stavanger ring from Norway! What do you think, did the other birds also come from Norway or did they make friends somewhere on their way?

Greenfinch "Grønirisk" from Norway

Some Mistle Thrushes “Mistledrossel” were around the station Garden today. Between the rounds, I sat on the bench in font of the lighthouse lab and one landed on top of a tree just in front of me. Let´s hope for some more birds in the next days - maybe a Mistle Thrush in the net?

At the station: Henrik Bøhmer, Hanelie Sidhu

My favorite color today was definitely orange. This morning was again beautiful and sunny but also cold, there was frost on the nets when we opend, Joseph helped me today before he went to the obs. Orange because auf the great color of the Bramblings “Kvækerfinke”, I caught three of them today.

Brambling "Kvækerfinke" by Hanelie

At the obs Josephs highlight were some Teals “Krikand” that could not really decide in which direction to fly so they flew in circles very close to him. Bent visited us at the station later in the morning. After closing the nets it was soon time for Joseph to leave back to Fanø, but there was still time for a quick grocery tour and as I had a chauffeur today I could not resist to buy some firewood, the house is still cold from winter and there is nothing that gives a more pleasing warmth than than a fire in the oven, which was my third orange joy today.

Fire by Hanelie

The second was the beautiful orange breast of the Stonechats “Sortstubbet bynkefugl”, which I from time to time see in the bog on top of the bushes close to the road on my way to the lighthouse garden!

Stonechat "Sortstubbet Bynkefugl" by Joseph

At the station: Bent Jakobsen, Joseph Stephan and Hanelie Sidhu