This morning Amanda and I set off to open the nets at 4:00, and after that had a good breakfast. The wind had gone down a lot since yesterday, and we were hoping for a day with a bit more birds than what I had yesterday morning.

Some of the first birds we caught in the early morning were little fledglings Tree Sparrow (Skovspurv). These first captures set off the theme of the day because we caught quite a few fledglings of different species today!

We had the pleasure of getting the first fledgling Song Thrush (Sangdrossel), which had the most adorable short tail and wings! That little cutie was old enough to be out of the nest, but still practicing their flying skills and most definitely still taken care of by their parents.

Freshly fledged Song Thrush (Sangdrossel), note the short wings and very short tail feathers!

We also had fledgling Dunnocks (Jernspurv), as well as the first two fledgling Chaffinches (Bogfink) which were siblings (female and male) so we could see the difference of coloration of both sexes in chaffinches at this age.

Young Dunnock (jernspurv)

Another highlight of the day, which was not a ‘baby bird’, was this female Blackcap (Munk) which we recaptured with a ring from Belgium! Getting foreign recaptures like this is always very thrilling, and fun to get some more life history from the bird when the reports come back from the original ringers.

Female Blackcap (Munk) with a ring from Belgium.

Belgian ring

This afternoon, Amanda and I will try to find the Woodchat Shrike (Rødhovedet Tornskade) which Alvin and I had found around a week ago, as it would be a new species for Amanda for Denmark! If we don’t find the shrike though, perhaps we can find another interesting bird in the area!

This morning was still windy from the south / south west, and just on the limit of being too much to ring. Because of that some nets had to stay closed because they were too exposed.

During the 5 hours of standard time, the number of birds was unsurprisingly very low.  

Luckily Henrik was at the station as well and could keep me company in between rounds!

One of today’s very few birds was this beautiful Common Whitethroat (Tornsanger).

Beautiful adult male Common Whitethroat (Tornsanger)

Later this afternoon Amanda arrives to join me on the ringing for the weekend, and I’m really happy and excited about that! It has been a while since we last ringed together, back in Copenhagen.

The day tomorrow looks good weather-wise, with much less wind and even some easterly winds in the afternoon! We might consider keeping the nets open for longer than the standard time during the afternoon to try to take advantage of those winds, which usually bring good birds. Henrik has a feeling that we will catch something rare tomorrow based on the weather, and I could easily see that happening! Let’s hope we have a nice surprise!

Tune in to tomorrow’s blog to hear all about it :)

Today the weather was once again not adequate to ring in the standardized morning hours unfortunately, due to rain and strong winds.

In the afternoon also came some rain in heavy showers, and I got caught in one of them when I was out birding in the dunes! 

I did see some nice birds while being out though, including a lot of Barn swallows (Landsvale), Red-Backed Shrikes (Rødrygget Tornskade), Linnets (Tornirisk), Yellowhammers (Gulspurv), Reed Buntings (Rørspurv), lots of Starlings (Stær) where I tried to look for Rosy starling (Rosenstær) but didn't find any. 

Let's hope tomorrow will be better!

This morning was unfortunately rainy and I could not open the nets to conduct a safe ringing session. 

I took this opportunity to have a slower morning, and could use the rest of sleeping-in a little later than usual! Even though ringing is an activity I really love, it is a tough schedule to sustain for long periods of time, especially in the summer days when the sunrise is very early. So when there are some days when the weather is bad, I take all the rest I can get!

I did try to have the station garden nets open in the afternoon when the weather cleared, and had them open for around 3 hours. However, not a single bird was caught despite some birds being around! I then took some time to study some bird species from the various books the station bookshelf has to offers. 

This morning was also a goodbye, because Jorn reached the end of his internship stay and left this morning to go back home to The Netherlands. After 9 weeks, working on the little tern project with Joseph, monitoring the nests and little tern population in the Blåvand Lighthouse area, as well as working on his school assignments and reports, it was time for him to have some holidays at home with his friends and family! I wish him all the best, and will miss having him around! 

Artificial Little Tern nest with wax egg, and quail eggs. The goal was to monitor predation, as well as testing out various nesting terrains regarding to the sand drift, camoufflage, and preference of the birds.

And by the way, thank you Jorn for the amazing Frisian treats you left for the station! I have been enjoying them so much as well as learning about your culture.

Tomorrow's weather looks uncertain as of now, and I will keep monitoring it closely. But there is a possibility that the nets have to stay closed for at least a part of the morning because of rain and strong winds. We will see! 

People at the station: Alix Bortolussi

This morning was extraordinarly slow despite a change of wind direction and some cloud coverage, which are usually signs for a decent amount of birds in the ringing session.

At the 4 hour mark I had only had 4 birds in total, so I was getting a little desperate ahahah!

One of these birds though was an interesting capture, because it was already ringed from Spain! A little Chiffchaff (Gransanger) travelled all the way to Blåvand to come and breed here. This individual was a female currently breeding, which could be seen by the presence of a brood patch. My first foreign recapture since arriving in the beginning of May!

Chiffchaff (Gransanger) with Spanish ring recaptured today

After that, on the last two rounds I had a small wave of a few birds, for example two beautiful Bullfinches, a male and a female.

Male Bullfinch (Dompap)

When I came back to the station after closing the nets and ringing the last birds, Bent was visiting and we spotted a Weasel carrying a dead mouse! The little guy had had some luck and found itself a big dinner. It was both curious and shy of us, and I managed to snap a few pictures with my phone.

Our resident Weasle

Tomorrow morning might have some rain coming, so I will see how much ringing I can safely conduct!

The morning went well with some nice visits of Spotted Flycatchers (Grå Fluesnapper), some more Icterine Warblers (Gulbug), the first Dunnock (Jernspurv) fledgling and the first Starling (Stær) fledgling!

It is a lot of fun to see the ‘baby’ version of common species, and often they can look very different from their adult plumage!

Young Dunnock (Jernspurv), fresh out of the nest! Picture Alix Bortolussi

Young Starling (Stær). Picture Alix Bortolussi

I tried to leave the nets open a little longer than the standard time required because yesterday we had a small influx of birds at the end of the morning, but I had no luck today and the last two rounds were very scarce.

The Great-Tailed Grackle has unfortunately not returned to his usual spots around the lighthouse, and there were today again multiple disappointed bird watchers during the morning to see it. I wonder if it will come back!