A quiet day in Blåvand

Morning Observation
Levi and I started the observation at 5:30 AM in about 4°C and with a wind direction that didn’t exactly point towards an exciting day. But we hoped for the best. Unfortunately, there was almost no migration at all, and most of the observation was spent staring out over a completely empty sea. The day’s highlights weren’t great, but a couple of shelducks “Gravand” flying directly overhead and four common eiders “Ederfugl” migrating over the sea will have to do for today.

Today's observations can be seen here.

Morning at the obs. Picture: Levi van den Os

Ringing
With the wind starting from the northeast, we had expected a decent day for ringing, but the wind direction shifted slightly westward again, making it yet another quiet day in the nets. Even though Morten, as on most days, kept the nets open in the station garden after the five hours of standard time, not many birds were caught. Only 11 birds were ringed, and there were 7 recaptures. However, two small but lovely stories came out of it.

The first was that we caught a regular visitor in the nets – a great tit “Musvit” that was first ringed at the station in the summer of 2023 and has since been caught in the nets nearly 30 times. This clearly shows that it's a frequent guest in the garden and doesn't seem to be bothered by being caught once in a while.

The second story is about a chiffchaff “Gransanger” we’ve caught three times in a short span – on May 1st, 2nd, and 5th. What’s remarkable about this chiffchaff is how much fat it has gained. It went from being rated a 2 on the fat scale the first time, to a 3 already the next day, and today it’s at a 5. That corresponds to a weight gain from 6.8g to 8.4g – which is quite significant for such a small bird.

Redpoll Picture: Morten Jenrich Hansen

At the station: Joseph Stephan, Emma Gray, Thomas Kristensen, Morten Jenrich Hansen, Marit Nillissen, Levi van den Os