Another amazing day at Blåvand

Ringing

For the second day in a row, we processed around 50 birds here at Blåvand!!! Today was not only filled with lots of migrants but also quite a few nice species we have not been catching in our nets lately.  The day featured a consistent flow of birds between the two gardens, with our bulk species being Blackcap (8 birds, Munk), European Pied Flycatcher (6 birds, Broget Fluesnapper), and Redstart (6 birds, Rødstjert).  Among the Redstarts we caught, there was also a beautiful DCB male which is always wonderful to get in the hand.

For me, by far the most exciting bird of the day was a Great Spotted Woodpecker (Stor Flægspatte) which I caught in the krat.  Despite being very tangled, this was a rather well behaved individual which kept the pecking and screaming to a minimum while I extracted it.  Once we got it to the station, it began behaving far more like a standard Spotted Woodpecker, pecking and screaming during the entire ringing process.  

This individual was experiencing its FPF so we were able to see the transition from the juvenile crown feathers to the deeper red of the formative adult like feathers behind the crown.  

Besides the woodpecker we had many other wonderful captures including our first Blue Tits (Blåmejse) of the season and three Chaffinch (Bogfinke) in the Fyrhaven.  

Obs

While observations were conducted by the wonderful talented Johan today, the standard period was so abyssmal he was far too distraught to write the blog post himself so I am relaying that there were no highlights and he hopes for better days soon.