Morning observations:

Hopeful for another morning like yesterday, Thomas, Emma and I went to the observation spot like usual. There was quite a lot of wind this morning, so we placed ourselves a bit more secluded from the wind. The morning started off quite slow unfortunately, which didn’t give us much hope compared to the day before. We focussed however and waited for the migration to ramp up.
Over time the birds actually sort of started to show up. These were still not high numbers at all though and we didn’t get many different species. A quite nice surprise though was that the birds were flying very close to the shore. We saw multiple sandwich terns “Splitterne” and gannets “Sule” showing off their identifying features, which was quite a sight!
Another thing that was very impressive to see was the huge amount of resting scoters “Sortand” right in front of us. We counted around 3500 this time! Later during the obs David also joined us. And while he didn’t really have anything to look at in the air, he was able to search in between the common scoters for any other scoter species. He however didn’t find any.
But even though the numbers this morning weren’t great, we still had a great time talking to each other about a whole array of topics! We’ll see what tomorrow and the last week of observations will bring, but let’s save that for the next blog.

Today´s observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

I went out later than usual when I am opening on my own because it was raining util a little after 4:00. Luckily it did not look like there would be more rain coming so I went out and hurried with opening the nets. It was still a bit windy, I could not open all and managed to have all standard nets open just five minutes after the usual opening time. Content with myself I waited for the first round. The birds were not impressed though; first round was a zero round. In the second round, I got two recaptures, one of them was yesterday´s Barred Warbler “Høgesanger”. It was very well on time, yesterday it was in the net at the same time, not the same net though but very close to where I had found it yesterday. The Barred Warbler “Høgesanger” is doing well at Blåvandshuk, it had gained one gram of weight since yesterday. The conditions last night were not perfect to move on, it was windy and rained in parts of the night, that is probably why it was still here. David, who had not seen it yesterday, could now also admire this nice bird.

I got two more 1K birds today, a Chaffinch “Bogfinke” and a Linnet “Tornirisk”.

Linnet/ Tornirisk 1K. Picture: Marit Nillissen

Other birds have still large brood patches, I assume their young are not so far yet. As for example the female Hawfinch “Kernebider”, that flew in together with her male later this morning.

Hawfinch male and female/ Kernebider han og hun. Picture: Marit Nillissen

The moths:

The unfavorable weather conditions that probably made the Barred Warbler “Høgesanger” stay here also did not make the moths fly much. I found only four in the traps today. There is a lot of rain today, so I won´t put on the light tonight.

Eupithecia nanata/ Smalvinget lyngdværgmåler, a quite pretty one of the pugs. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

At the station: Marit Nillissen, Thomas Kristensen, Emma Gray, Joseph Stephan, Levi van den Os, David Manstrup and Hanelie Sidhu  

Morning observation:

Marit and I were ready at the observation spot at 5 a.m. for what could turn out to be a really good day, as it was the day after a very windy one. Around the middle of the first period, Henrik joined us. The morning started off really well with a good number of migrating birds. And among the many passing birds, there were two particularly lovely ones – a pale Arctic skua “Almindelig kjove” and a red-necked grebe “Gråstrubet lappedykker”.

The morning went from good but fairly calm to something quite different when Hanelie came up to us with a bag containing a bird. After she told us she had a barred warbler, it didn’t take long before we were all on our feet looking at the amazing bird. An absolutely beautiful, large warbler. We took lots of photos and thoroughly enjoyed the moment. Afterward, Hanelie took the bird with her again, and we returned to our observations.

With fresh energy and warmth in our bodies on this otherwise chilly morning, we were ready to continue. However, it seemed as if migration had slowed down a bit, and we started to wind down again. But the great thing about sea-watching is that anything can happen at any moment. And it did, when Henrik spotted a Fulmar “Mallemuk” over the sea – fairly close and slowly moving north. A bird I had really hoped to see this spring season. I quickly got my scope on it and enjoyed watching the stunning bird glide over the sea while Henrik described its ID features to us. It was a truly wonderful experience.

On top of that, it felt like Mother Nature had decided to reward us today, as more fantastic birds kept appearing – kittiwakes “Ride”, guillemots/razorbills “lomvie/alk”, and even a yellow wagtail “gul vipstjert”. Finally, a morning where time just flew by, and we had plenty to talk about when we returned to the station to join the others.

Today´s observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

When we walked the first round today, we did not find any birds in the nets. That was not very promising.

In the second round, we had three birds in the nets, one of them a recapture.  

After taking out the last bird out of the seven-meter net close to the parking in the station garden, I told Emma that we had caught a rarity. It was a Barred Warbler “Høgesanger”.

Barred Warbler “Høgesanger”. Picture: Emma Gray

There was a lot of time as we had so few birds, so we brought the birds to the observers, as the spring observation spot is very close. Henrik said the Barred Warbler “Høgesanger” is very rare in spring out here, later we looked it up and there was never caught one in spring at Blåvand in all the years, all in the autumn season.

In total, the day gave three new birds and three recaptures. I am hoping for a few more tomorrow.

The moths:

Also, not many moths this night but I also had just one light on. I found three species in the trap and caught a very small and active one on the grass, there are many of these now, but it is a bit difficult to take a picture, I have tried before, and they do not want to keep still. It was Elachrista argentella which was a new species for me.

Elachrista argentella. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

At the station: Henrik Böhmer, David Manstrup, Joseph Stephan, Levi van den Os, Emma Gray, Marit Nillissen, Thomas Kristensen and Hanelie Sidhu

When my first alarm woke me up at 2:40, it was 15 m/s. It went up to 20,1 m/s at 4:00. It was a day to enjoy the comfortable bed and warm blanket a bit longer. But after I had woken up I could not fall into a deep sleep again, as the wind kept howling very loud outside and it started raining a bit. Nevertheless, I spent the whole stormy morning in bed. In the early afternoon, we cleaned the house and after, I took the lawn trimmer out of the bike shed. I needed to get a bit familiar with it first, Joseph and Emma helped me to get it started, then I went up to the lighthouse garden and trimmed the gras under the nets. The invasive beach rose, which is blooming quite beautiful now is also very good in spreading. I had discovered some cheeky young bushes that started to grow in the net lines. It is very difficult to stop the beach rose from spreading and to get rid of it, but for now, I trimmed it away – until next time.

I also did some data check and folded the freshly washed and dried bird bags, so some work was done on this slow day. Tomorrow looks better.

A Roe deer/ Rågyr in the lighthouse garden, looking at me. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

At the station: Levi van den Os, Marit Nillissen, Emma Gray, Joseph Stephan and Hanelie Sidhu

Morning observation:

When Thomas and I left the station, we noticed the already high amounts of winds of the coming "storm" tomorrow. This didn't break our spirits though, as we bought some nice new comfy chairs for the station and we sat in a more secluded spot away from the wind.
We started the observation off slow with only three different species in the first time interval, but this quickly changed and after Henrik joined, the migration was going along in a nice pace. While we didn't have large numbers, apart from the higher amount of scoters "Sortand", we had quite a bit of variation. We saw a nice amount of common guillemots "Lomvie" and also a couple of arctic terns "Havterne" flying by.

Overall a very windy and not very exciting day, but a very comfy one in the new chairs :).

Today´s observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

I could just open a few nets due to the wind today. These caught nice birds though: In the first round I had a 1K Redpoll “Gråsisken”, another one was following in a later round.

1k Redpoll/ Gråsisken. Picture: Levi van den Os

I had two nets at Krattet open and caught a Ring Ouzel “Ringdrossel”. As there were not many birds and I had a lot of time, I brought the bird to the happy observers.

Ringouzel/ Ringdrossel. Picture: Thomas Kristensen.

Later in the morning, a Barn Swallow “Landsvale” was in the net. The other had newer seen one in hand and were quite amazed.

Barn Svallow/ Landsvale. Picture: Marit Nillissen

All in all, it was a slow ringing day, but it had some nice highlights.

It is very windy outside now and tomorrow morning, even windier weather is forecasted. That means, the nets will stay closed (unless the wind decides to magically stop during the night, I will wake up at opening time anyway and check).

The moths:

Due to the wind, there were not many moths in the traps today. I will show Charanyca trigrammica “Firestreget ugle”. It is a rather common but quite nice one, I think.

Charanyca trigrammica “Firestreget ugle”

At the station Henrik Böhmer, Bent Jakobsen, Marit Nillissen, Emma Gray, Thomas Kristensen, Joseph Stephan, Levi van den Os and Hanelie Sidhu

Morning observation:

Today, unfortunately, there weren’t many observations, and it wasn’t even because of a slow migration day that the numbers were low. When Marit and I got up to the observation spot, everything was really fine, with okay visibility and even an incredibly warm wind that made it pleasantly warm from the morning. So we hoped that this would be a good day with both nice weather and a good number of birds.

It was now the 20th of May—the day when you’re supposed to have the best chance of seeing the most species in Denmark. But after 20 minutes of morning observation, the fog came rolling in over us almost without warning, and within 10 minutes we couldn’t see anything. We hoped it would disappear just as quickly as it had come, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

After a little while, we decided to go back to the station and wait for it to clear up. Just before 6 o’clock, we went back up again full of hope—both because there had been a fairly big clearing, and because we need a minimum of 2 hours within the 3-hour time window to call it standard. So we hoped we could just make it.

But even though there was clearly some clearing, we could still only see about 500 meters out over the sea. We waited there a bit and walked around to see if we could find a spot. But eventually, we gave up and went back to the station.

So in the end, it didn’t amount to more than 20 minutes of morning observation and a count of resting birds on the beach today.

Today´s observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

Not many birds today but a little surprise in first round: The first 1K Song Thrushes "Sangdrossel" were in the nets today! They were the first 1K birds this year that we ringed, it is rather early that they are already out of their nest I think. During the morning, I could sometimes see them flying around.

1K Song Thrush "Sangdrossel". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

The moths:

Not as many moths as yesterday but still a good number. Scotopteryx mucronata “Junimørkvingemåler” was new for me and is not so common.

Scotopteryx mucronata “Junimørkvingemåler”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

At the station: Thomas Kristensen, Emma Grey, Levi van den Os, Marit Nillissen, Joseph Stephan and Hanelie Sidhu

Morning observation:

Today Thomas and I, as always, hoped for an exciting morning observation. While we didn’t get any unusual species, we did see two larger flocks of shelducks “Gravand” and mergansers “Toppet skallesluger”, which was a nice change. Thomas’ dad also joined us this morning for the observation which was nice. The numbers today were not that great, but still better than the previous couple of days. During the obs we did have a very curious yellowhammer “Gulspurv” landing right in front of our feet. They didn’t really seem to care that we were sitting there.

Today´s observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

Again not a busy day but some nice species in the nets. The team was happy when I came down from the lighthouse garden after closing with a Bluethroat “Blåhals” and a Spotted Flycatcher “Grå Fluesnapper”.

Bluethroat "Blåhals". Picture: Emma Gray.

Spotted Flycatcher "Grå Fluesnapper". Picture: Emma Gray.

Marsh Warbler "Kærsanger". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

The moths:

Quite many moths today, I ran out of tubes to put them in. Two new species for me, see pictures.

Delotote bankiana "Tyvebånd-dagugle". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Hadena bircuris "Brun nellikeugle". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

At the station: Levi van den Os, Thomas Kristensen, Marit Nillisen, Emma Gray and Hanelie Sidhu

Morning observations:

Thomas and I were hopeful for some good migrating birds, but it was just the usual species. Even though it was slow, we still had a highlight of the day! We saw two Arctic skua’s “Almindelig Kjove” light morph flying by! We also had quite some Oystercatchers “Strandskade”.

Today’s observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

I had the nets open for 8 ½ hours today. Including recaptures I caught 2,7 birds per hour. That is not so much, but the birds were well distributed over time, I had few zero rounds. A new Collared Dove “Tyrkerdue” was a bit exciting, before this spring, I had not caught these in Denmark.Some Linnets “Tornirisk” were in the nets, always a nice bird in hand.

Linnet female/ Tornirisk hun. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Tornirisk male/ Tornirisk Han, picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Quite some birds had brood patches, I especially noticed it in the Linnets “Tornirisk” and Lesser Whitethroats “Gærdesanger”.

The moths:

In the time between the rounds, I was not bored as I had many moths in the traps today. The others were especially amazed by Smerinthus ocellata “Afterpåfugløje”. It is a nice, big and quite common one that is starting to fly around that time in the year.

Smerinthus ocellata “Afterpåfugløje”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Phibalapteryx virgata “Snerremåler” is not so common and quite pretty, so decided to show that one as well.

Phibalapteryx virgata “Snerremåler”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

At the station: Emma Gray, Thomas Kristensen, Marit Nillissen, Levi van der Os and Hanelie Sidhu

Morning observations:

Levi and I once again took our place at the observation spot today, ready for three hours of migration counting. But there wasn’t much migration to count, as almost all the birds chose to rest today. Even the scoters “Sortand” weren’t moving much. Fortunately, a couple of large flocks—around 550 individuals in total—chose to rest right in front of us, so we spent the morning scanning through them.

The morning actually started off well, with a good number of terns arriving in lovely flocks of around 40 birds, and a couple of red-throated divers “Rødstrubet lom” also passed by early on. So we had some hope it would continue like that, but the numbers quickly dropped off, as mentioned.

The few gannets “Sule” that were around this morning also didn’t feel like heading north today and chose instead to rest and perform their delightful head-dives to catch something to eat—hopefully before heading north tomorrow.

Todays observations can be seen here.

I found another flower starting to bloom in the garden: Liljekonval "Convallaria majalis". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

The ringing:

Although the nets were open before the standart opening time, I did not find any birds in the first round. Second round brought a Willow Warbler „Løvsanger”, several yero round were following until a round with four Lesser Redpolls ”Lille Gråsisken” saved the day a bit. Before closing, I got one new Lesser Whitethroat ”Gærdesanger” and two Blackbirds ”Solsort” more.

Lesser Whitethroat "Gærdesanger". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

The moths:

Luckily, I had company by some moths, that needed to be identified and I also caught two dayflying ones, that I caught with a glas. Else, it would have been a very slow morning. I had thirteen different species, one needed to remain a slash species. There were tree new for me and several new for the season. Sideridis turbida ”Prikliniet strandugle” is not so common.

Sideridis turbida ”Prikliniet strandugle”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

At the station: Marit Nillissen, Levi van den Os, Thomas Kristensen, Emma Gray and Hanelie Sidhu

When I came back to Blåvand some days ago, I was surpised and amazed, how green it is now in Blåvand. The Scotch broom "Cytisus scoparius" is flowering yellow. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Morning observations:

Henrik joined me for the observation today, however the migration was very slow. We had a very low amount of scoters "Sortand" with not much variation. We did see an arctic skua "Almindelig kjove" flying past though, which was probably the highlight of the morning.

Today's observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

It was a slow morning today, just five new birds were ringed, the number of recaptures was higher, eight. My highlight was to ring a new Robin “Rødhals”, it is a while ago, that I had one in hand.

Robin “Rødhals”, Picture: Marit Nillissen.

After closing, I saw two mating Sand Lizards “Markfirben” in the lighthouse garden.

Mating Sand Lizards/ Markfirben. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

The moths:

I only had three different moths species in the traps today. Actiontia polydon “Lilla perikonugle” was a new species for me.

Actiontia polydon “Lilla perikonugle”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

In the afternoon, I went to the bog and found a caterpillar of Malacosoma castrensis “Redespinder”.

At the station. Marit Nillissen, Henrik Böhmer, Thomas Kristensen, Joseph Stephan, Levi van den Os, Emma Gray and Hanelie Sidhu

Morning observations:

This morning was again really slow. We started off with quite some migrating Common terns “Fjordterne”, but as time went on, migration decreased. In the last time interval, we got 120 Common scoters “Sortand”, which is very low. The migration season is coming to an end. Thomas and I did have a good chat, so despite the slow migration, it was a nice morning.

Todays observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

It was a slow morning with more walking than work at the nets or in the lab. But there was also a surprise in the net, we caught a Thrush Nightingale “Nattergal”.

Nattergal "Thrush Nightingale"

At nine a german family came to the station who wished to see the ringing. They were lucky, I had some birds and could show them a Wren “Gærdesmutte”, two Chaffinches “Bogfinke” a Chiffchaff “Gransanger” and explained about ringing and the activities of the station.

The moths:

Not many moths today but I had one new for the season, Spilosoma lubricipeda “Almindelig tigerspinder”.

Spilosoma lubricipeda “Almindelig tigerspinder”.

At the station: Thomas Kristensen, Marit Nillissen, Joseph Stephan, Levi van den Os, Emma Gray and Hanelie Sidhu