Difficult northwesterlies

Observations: 

Taking over for the Totos today was no easy task. Not because of the amount of birds, that was a rather modest affair. But there was an incredibly large amount of water in the ocean. It was extremely difficult to count and it took up most of the standard time. Me and Johan were in complete awe of how much water an ocean really can hold on a good day!!!

Jokes aside the obs was a rather dull time. Very few waders and much less of anything else. Just about 50 oystercatchers, a flock of turnstone and a 1cy Mediterranean gull was the most exciting mentionables. As it was Johans first time counting we talked a bit about the process and discussed ageing waders and such. After some time Johan went back to drive the Totos to Oksbøl so they could start the journey home, thank you for a nice time guys!

After standard I checked the beach, not many gulls were resting and the number seemed to decrease exponentially with every dog-walker that appeared on the beach. Quite many of the gulls were however Caspian of adult, 3cy and 4cy ages. Also 7 wheatears foraging in the sea waste was nice.

(3cy Caspian gull preening reveals it worn outer primary that will soon be shed and replaced in its current active moult. The Caspian gulls will soon seem very short winged as they are moulting the outer primaries.)

In the afternoon I attempted some birding in the bog, it delivered with quite some migrant willow warblers, lesser whitethroats and some resting stock doves

Todays observations

Ringing:

With Jonas and Johan abandoning us for observations (and Ida no longer being at the station :'( ) it's just Strummer and me manning the nets for the next while until Henrik finds someone else to do the counting. Splitting up the two gardens between us, we spent the five hours of standard time catching on average less than 1 bird per hour each, with Strummer catching 3 birds while I got 5. Like yesterday, the Pied Flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca) dominated the numbers, but otherwise the highlight was a cute male Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) which still had some brown feathers in its crown.

Today's captures:

At the station: Lois, Nicolas, Miguel, David, Strummer, Alba, Jonas, Johan