Ringing leaving no birds for obs on the beach

Ringing

After many days of intermittent non-standard ringing, today conditions finally cleared up for us.  With relatively low western winds, we were able to open all the nets and catch to our maximum potential.  Up in the lighthouse, for the first time this season I was consistently catching 6-8 birds in the early rounds.  Even better, these were clearly migrants, mostly being Willow Warblers (Løvsanger) and Blackcaps (Munk).  Eventually, I had to close because of a small shower for around thirty minutes, with the ringing slowing down considerably after I reopened nets. 

In the station, Alba was having great success (Very nice!) catching Willow Warblers and even three Chaffinch (Bogfinke)! With my two Chaffinch in the lighthouse, we certainly had our best day of the season for them.  Two nice Bullfinch (Dompap) undergoing their preformative moult were also a nice highlight, the male feathers growing in are always a fun suprise.

For me, the highlight of the day was breaking a streak that has been ongoing for almost a month now.  Ever since it has been just me and Alba ringing (so we alternate gardens every morning) I have caught fewer birds than her regardless of the wind conditions, net meters, or gardens we are operating. Even when we are operating the same nets for non-standard, there is a markedly different capture rate between the two of us. After this went on for a few weeks, we officially started calling this a curse. After weeks of pain and no birds, this streak was finally broken, with the lighthouse catching 32 to the stations 28!

For obs, Johan described it as "boring with lots of Gannets (Sule)." To pass the time, Johan had a deep conversation with one of the military members stationed by the lighthouse.  

Todays observation