Morning sun at the obs. Picture: Levi van den Os

Morning observation
This morning it didn’t look great in terms of visibility. There was an enormous amount of fog and we couldn’t see the lighthouse from the station. Then, as if by some miracle, the fog vanished within seconds! So Henrik, Thomas and I went to our spot right away to start counting, while Marit helped with the ringing.
We sat down at around 6:00 and we already had a bunch of red-throated divers “Rødstrubet lom” right away. But, after a couple of minutes and still in the first time interval, we heard and saw a European serin “Gulirisk”! Seeing this happen so early—despite our late start—we knew it was going to be a good day. Throughout the observation we also saw a merlin “Dværgfalk” and a couple of black-throated divers “Sortstrubet lom”.

Today's observations can be seen here.

Thomas, Levi and Henrik at the obs. Picture: Marit Nillissen

After the obs I joined the ringing for a bit. We didn’t end up with a lot of birds though. I however did get to ring my first greenfinch “Grønirisk” today!
After the ringing we had an amazing experience just sitting in the warm spring sun for the entire afternoon while eating a delicious carrot cake that Emma made yesterday.

Ringing
This morning I helped Morten with the ringing. I checked the nets at the lighthouse garden while Morten was checking out the nets at the stations garden. We caught a female Chaffinch “Bogfinke”, which was a new ringing species for me!

Female chaffinch. Picture: Marit Nillissen

At around 10:00, a group of dutch people arrived for a tour that Henrik gave. I joined the tour to do the translation of some bird species. After that it was time for closing the nets.
The nets at the stations garden stayed open until 18:00. We caught a Chiffchaff that looked very much like an Iberian chiffchaff “Iberisk Gransanger”! We took a feather and a sample of the feces to check for its DNA if it really is the Iberian chiffchaff.

Possible Iberian chiffchaff. Picture: Thomas Kristensen

After the ringing we sat in de garden all day enjoying the sun. Emma and I made a Dalgona iced coffee which we drank with a nice piece of carrot cake on the side.

Dalogna coffee with carrot cake. Picture: Marit Nillissen

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

Morning observation

This morning, Emma decided she wanted to join the morning observation, because she wanted to gain some experience in observing. Levi decided to sleep in, so it was Thomas, Emma and me today. The migration was better than the other days. We had some higher numbers than normal, but the variation in species was quite low.

Todays observations can be seen here.

It was fun to have Emma at the obs today. She even found out that she had a ‘’super talent’’: she can look with both of her eyes through the scope. She can use her right eye for the counting and her left eye for looking at the details. Thomas and I also tried, but didn’t succeed.

After around two hours, Thomas left because he had to drop off Hanelie at the train station. She will be helping in Gedser Bird Station for 1,5 week, so Morten is taking over the ringing here in Blavand. After the obs, Emma and I joined the ringing to help Morten out. After standard time, we closed the nets in the Lighthouse garden. The nets in the Stations garden were open all day.

Thomas and Marit at the morning obs. Picture: Emma Gray

Ringing

Hanelie and Morten opened the nets this morning. She joined the ringing for a few rounds before she had to go to Gedser. Morten continued the ringing.

After standard time, the nets in the Station garden stayed open until 17:00. Morten caught some really nice birds, like a Tree sparrow “Skovspurv” which was ringed in 2019! He also caught a European Serin “Gulirisk” which we very rarely ring out here. In the last 40 years it is ringed less than 5 times here at Blavand. Also, one of the recaptured Greenfinches “Grønirisk”, Morten has ringed it himself in June 2022.European Serin. Picture: Marit Nillissen

Morten also started taking blood samples of the long distance migrating birds such as the Willow warbler and the Lesser Whitethroat. With these blood samples, we can check if these birds have the West Nile Virus, which is coming from Africa.

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

The ringing:

When Emma and I opened the nets today, the weather looked okay, but while we waited inside, deep fog crawled on land from the sea. For the ringing it was okay, but the observers could not do their job. Thomas did a resting bird count though, but he could not see much.

Todays observations can be seen here.

Both Levi and Thomas joined me and Emma for some rounds. There were not many birds, but Levi and Thomas got a few to extract and ring.

Lesser Whitethroat "Gærdesanger". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Extracting a bird. Picture: Emma Gray

News of the station:

Julia left home to the Netherlands today, maybe there will be another opportunity, that she visits again. Also, Joseph left to Rømø in the morning, to put the painted wooden pegs, which are used as coordinate system for the observations of Little Terns “Dværgterne” in the fenced area on Rømø. Tomorrow, he will be back. And I will go to Gedser tomorrow later in the morning for about one and a half week but will come back to Blåvand after and stay here for the rest of the spring season. Later today, Morten will arrive and be ringing here for about two weeks.

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

Morning observations:

Marit, Thomas and I went on the morning observation today. Winds were coming from the southwest, so we were hoping on some good numbers. After we sat down, the migration started immediately. While it was mostly common scoters “Sortand”, it was a big change compared to the days before, with more than 600 in the first time interval. For the other species however it wasn’t as good. We didn’t see a lot of sandwich terns “Splitterne” or gannets “Sule”, and the amount of common terns “Fjordterne” was also not great. We did get a lot of sun though, which was nice.
After filling in all the data for the observation I joined the ringing once again. Unfortunately though, due to the nice weather and southwestern winds, the birds weren’t very keen on flying into the nets when I was present. I did get to ring my 5th bird though!

Todays observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

Today was the first day the nets already needed to be open at 4.45. Sunrise is getting earlier and earlier and the sun was soon out and we had again beautiful weather. Too good for to have a good ringing day, it was very slow but we caught the first Reed Warbler “Rørsanger” for the season.

Reed Warbler "Rørsanger". Picture: Emma Gray

Marit and Julia joined for the last rounds, unfortunately they did not provide many birds, but Julia could see the ringing and two birds in hand.

At the station: Emma Gray, Joseph Stephan, Levi van den Os, Thomas Kristensen, Hanelie Sidhu, Marit Nillissen and Julia

Morning observations:

Levi, Henrik, and I went on a morning observation. It was a very quiet morning with almost no bird migration. During the first few intervals, there was a bit of activity before it completely died out in the final hour. The highlight of the day was probably some of the different waders we got to see up close, or a flock of five yellow wagtails “Gul vipstjert” that passed right over us. And of course, the many Caspian gulls “kaspisk måge” that Henrik pointed out to us.

Todays observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

This morning, we had bright blue sky and sun from sunrise on. Although the wind direction, southeast is what we want, we did not get many birds in the morning. In the first round, Emma and I were surprised by two White Wagtails “Hvid Vipstjert”, a male and a female, which were together in one net. Probably a pair.

Female and male White Wagtail "Hvid Vipstjert". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Henrik gave a tour for a Dutch family and at 10:00, we went on a round with them. Apparently our guests brought us luck, as it was the best round of the day, we had several Willow Warblers “Løvsanger” and two Chiffchaffs “Gransanger” as well as a pretty male Linnet “Tornirisk”.

As that round was so good, we kept the nets open for a bit longer and Levi got to ring some more birds.

Levi and a female Blackcap "Munk". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

We also got a little big! Surprise bird in a net at Fyrhavn, a Woodpigeon “Ringdue” got caught!

Wood Pigeon close up; Photo: Joseph

In the afternoon it was gardening time for me, I removed all the pinecones close to the nets and moved the lawn in the station garden and exchanged a wooden peg in the lighthouse garden.

Hanelie, equipped with safety glasses and ear protectors mowing the lawn. Picture: Joseph Stephan

Tomorrow will be garden day two and I will continue in the lighthouse garden and cut some more branches.

“Kystfugle” Project:

Thomas and I headed to the fence around 10 AM to check on the optimized areas and see if we could read any colour rings on the shorebirds. Additionally, we tried playing Little Tern calls for the first time.

We had two speakers with us, which we placed just outside the electric fence, one aligned with the most southern and one with the most northern optimized area. The birds reacted very well to the sound and always chose the closest optimized area to the speaker (in this case, the southernmost and northernmost areas) to land. It seemed like they were quite intrigued by their artificial friends, sometimes even offering fish to them.

 Little Terns and decoys; Photo: Joseph

We managed to read three colour rings on the Little Terns, which we were quite excited about! Hopefully, we will get an update about their origin soon.

After Thomas left for the bog, I stayed for another half hour and was blessed by a beautiful male Bar-tailed Godwit in summer plumage. It landed in one of the optimized areas and started foraging. After approximately ten minutes, it made its way south - and so did I.

Back at the station, I finished painting the wax eggs (30 in total), which are going to be used to measure predator density and evaluate parameters affecting predation. 

painted wax eggs; Photo: Joseph

A huge thanks to Frida, who helped me sculpt them, and to Julia, who helped me achieve the right brown shade.

At the station: Henrik Böhmer, Joseph Stephan, Emma Gray, Thomas Kristensen, Hanelie Sidhu, Marit Nillissen and Julia

Sunrise in the fog. Picture: Marit Nillissen

Morning observations:

Levi, Thomas and I went to the obs again as usual. Henrik also joined us which was nice! The weather conditions were a bit weird; the visibility was okay when we went to the obs, but after 30minutes it went really bad. We decided to stay to see if it was get any better. After 45 minutes, the visibility was getting good again so we could continue our morning observation!

The migration was really quiet, we mostly saw Common scoters “Sortand” and some Red throated divers “Rødstrubet lom”.

Todays observations can be seen here.

After the morning observations I went to join on the ringing for 1 round, because I was going to pick up my friend Julia from Esbjerg who will stay with us for 4 days!

We also said goodbye to Anne, she is going back home to Copenhagen. Hopefully we will see her again soon!

The ringing:

Lesser Whitethroat/ Gærdesanger. Picture: Anne Hjortlund Hansen 

The morning welcomed us with fog and frost on the nets and net poles. It was quite cold and hard to believe that we´ll have May soon! The morning was rather slow but we did not have a single zero round and ended up with in total 20 new birds. The sun finally managed to break through later in the morning and when we were closing, there was no fog, blue sky and bright sun.

Redstart male/ Rødstjert han. Picture: Anne Hjortlund Hansen

Anne left us after the ringing, it was very nice three weeks – hopefully another time again!

The moths:

I did not have many different moths today, some might have already flown away because I checked the traps quite late today, a long nap was the priority after ringing today. There were not any new ones today. But yesterday, I had a really nice new one that I did not put in the blog, so I would like to show it now. It is called Small Chocolate-tip in English, Chokoladeplet in danish.

Clostera pigra/ Chokoladeplet. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

"Kystfugle" Project:

Today was another very productive day for us. Levi and I painted the letters and numbers onto the poles for the coordinate system. Afterwards, I sprayed a protective coating to enhance their durability.

poles for the coordinate system; Photo: Joseph

Around 2:30 PM, Emma, Levi, Thomas, and I headed to the beach with a handcart full of 45 poles (for the coordinate system), 18 Little Tern decoys, 1.5 kg of cockles (Hjertmusling), 2 hammers, and a map outlining the master plan for the coordinate system and the optimized areas.

heading to the fence; Photo: Levi

When we arrived at the predator exclosure (fence), the Ringed Plovers and Little Terns were already waiting for us, greeting us with their graceful calls.

Emma and I began hammering in the poles for the coordinate system, while Levi and Thomas went to look for a dead seal north of the fence.

After three and a half hours of hard work, we managed to complete the task. The coordinate system was set up, and the optimized areas - consisting of the decoys, shells, man-made scrapes, and driftwood - were arranged. The only thing missing inside the optimized areas are the hideouts (concrete tubes with a 20 cm diameter, 30 cm length, and coated in sand), which are meant to provide additional shelter for the chicks and prevent them from wandering into the dunes.

setting up the coordinate system and the optimized areas, on the last photo you can see the very last pole; Photos: Levi, Emma & Joseph

The effort clearly paid off. Just ten minutes after finishing, the first two Little Terns approached the decoys and rested beside their artificial friends. It was a beautiful moment! After months of planning and preparation, I finally got to see the Little Terns up close - accepting the decoys and their new home.

the first two Little Terns (first from the left & right) resting with their artificial friends (the two middle ones); Photo: Emma

Furthermore we (Emma) found the first Ringed Plover nest with 4 eggs between the rope fence („Perimeterhegn“) and the electric fence on the western side.

Ringed Plover nest & Ringed Plover nest with discoverer; Photo: Emma & Joseph

Tomorrow, I’ll check the fence and spend some more time observing while playing some Little Tern calls via the speaker. The official start for the data collection (records of location and activity) is the 1st of May.

We can’t wait for it! :-)

At the station: Joseph Stephan, Emma Gray, Levi van den Os, Anne Hjortlund Hansen, Henrik Bøhmer, Thomas Kristensen, Marit Nillissen, Julia, our guest Kristoffer Hansen

Morning observations:

Today, Marit, Levi, and I were joined by David and Henrik during the morning observation. Already from early morning, it was clear that it would be a lovely warm day, and despite the slightly chilly wind, the sun managed to warm us up nicely during the session. It was great to feel the sun and the sense that we are truly heading toward summer.
Although the weather was pleasant for us, the calm northwesterly wind was not ideal for migration – it turned out to be a very quiet day with very few birds. Even the most common species, the scoter “Sortand”, was only seen in very small numbers.
However, we did get to see a decent number of terns “Terner”, which were the only birds still migrating in somewhat larger numbers. We are hopeful that the upcoming change in wind direction will help kickstart the migration again.

Today’s observations can be seen here.

The ringing:

It was a sunny but rather quiet morning today. The most exciting of the morning was that both Emma and Levi, who received their X-licences yesterday got to ring their first birds at Blåvand.

Bluetit "Blåmejse" - one of Emmas first birds ringed at Blåvand. Picture: Anne Hjortlund Hansen.

Levi extracting a bird out of the net. Picture: Anne Hjortlund Hansen

In the afternoon at the station…

Anne had told us quite a bit about her ornithology course at university, where she learned how to do Skin preparation of Birds. I was quite interested in that and Anne proposed to teach me on a dead Blackbird “Solsort” in the freezer. That is what we spend a big part of the afternoon on and we are quite content with the bird as my first try. It is not perfect, but the next bird will be better!

Anne and Hanelie doing skin preperation on a dead Blackbird "Solsort".

"Kystfugle" Project:

Today marked the first day Emma and I worked together on the project - I couldn’t ask for a better teammate!

We were quite efficient, cutting and painting all 90 wooden poles (each measuring 60 cm) for the coordinate systems, which will be placed in the predator exclosures at Blåvand and Rømø.

These coordinate systems will be used alongside records of locations and activities to help answer some of the key questions in my bachelor thesis.

Additionally, the poles will serve as rulers to measure sand drift during the breeding period.

preparing the poles, Photo: Hanelie & Emma

Tomorrow, Emma and I are heading to the beach to hammer in the poles for the coordinate systems, and to place the Little Tern decoys, driftwood, and “cockles” (Hjertmusling).

In the following week, I’ll head to Rømø to prepare the optimized areas there.

The wax eggs for measuring the predator density at Blåvandshuk and Lakolk Strand are also finished - they just need to be painted to make them look like the real deal.

I am looking forward to complete all the preparations and finally start monitoring the diving dwarfs (Little Terns) and the peaceful peckers (Plovers)!

A heartfelt thank you to Henrik Böhmer, who delivered the wood and provided the perfect tools for the job!

At the station: Joseph Stephan, Emma Gray, Marit Nillissen, Levi van den Os, Thomas Kristensen, Bent Jakobsen, Henrik Böhmer, David Manstrup, Hanelie Sidhu, Anne Hjortlund Hansen and our guest Christopher

The ringing:

The morning welcomed us with fog. After a good day, a rather slow day followed, we had 19 new birds of 11 species. Nevertheless, the morning had its highlights. After I took out a Collared Dove “Tyrkerdue” out a net in the station garden, Anne saw a female Hawfinch “Kernebider” in the same net even before the next round. It was taken out right away and Anne was really excited to ring the big finch with the powerful bill. She even took a little wound from that experience. Did you know that a Hawfinch “Kernebider” exert a pressure of over 140 pounds per square inch. This is a pressure equivalent of a thousand times its own body weight.

Collared Dove "Tyrkerdue". Picture: Anne Hjortlund Hansen

Hawfinch "Kernebider". Picture: Anne Hjortlund Hansen

As it was so foggy, Marit and Levi could not do the morning obs today, as the visibility was too bad. Thomas did not come to the station this morning, as he went on a field trip to Mandø. He chose a good day to not to be here.

The moths:

I had nine different moths species today, Cerula vinula “Hermelinskåbe” was on the wall again and I caught a small one that was flying during the day and landed on one of the nets, Epinotia pygmaeana “Dværggrannålevikler”, it was a new one for me.

Cerula vinula “Hermelinskåbe”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Epinotia pygmaeana "Dværggrannålevikler". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

News from the station:

In the afternoon, Joseph came back from Copenhagen with a lot of new energy for the little tern project.

We had a pizza evening for dinner, Levi ordered pizza for us and Thomas also came for dinner.

At the station: Levi van der Os, Marit Nillissen, Emma Gray, Anne Hjortlund Hansen, Thomas Kristensen, Joseph Stephan and Hanelie Sidhu

Morning observations:

The weather looked good for the observation today. Levi, Thomas and I were hopeful for some birds, but unfortunately the migration was slow today. Luckily the visibility was good, so we could finish the whole morning observation. We did saw some Sandwich terns “Splitterne” and Common terns “Fjordterne” again.

Today’s observations can be seen here.

After the observation I joined the ringing, which was more successful. We even caught a Common nightingale “Sydlig nattergal” and I got the opportunity to ring it! In total I got three new ringing species today!

The ringing:

I just entered the data and saw that we had 18 different species in the nets today, that is great, spring is coming to its peak in Blåvand. We did not just have the first Lesser Whitethroats “Gærdesanger” for the season, but also the first Common Whitethroats “Tornsanger”.

Lesser Whitethroat "Gærdesanger". Picture: Anne Hjortlund Hansen

Common Whitethroat "Tornsanger". Picture: Anne Hjortlund Hansen

And the day brought more surprises. Marit joined us in the ringing after the obs. And out of the last net of Krattet, she took a Common Nightingale “Sydlig Nattergal”!

Common Nightingale “Sydlig Nattergal”. Picture: Anne Hjortlund Hansen

Besides the appearence, you can also look at the lenth of P1 to differenciate Common Nightingale "Sydlig Nattergal" from Thrush Nightingale "Nattergal". I found a wing picture of a Thrush Nightingale I caught in Gedser last year. Common Nightingales have a very long P1 which has at least the same lenght of the primary couverts or a bit longer, while P1 in the Thrush Nightingale is very short, way shorter than the primary coverts.

The bird was announced on Zello and there was one birder close enough to come and see it. After showing the bird when I released it, it headed right to the nets again. I wanted to go and get it out again, but I did not find the Nightingale “Nattergal” in the net, but a .

Wryneck “Vendehals”. Picture: Marit Nillissen

This was also very much appreciated and there was now one more bird to show. We had the nets open for a little longer and in the last round, we had a nice Tree Pipit “Skovpiber” in the net.

Tree Pipit "Skovpiber". Picture: Marit Nillissen

In the afternoon, we all went on a walk together to explore some bunkers. And we found some nests of Stock Doves “Huldue” in some of the bunkers. So far, the parents are still on the eggs, but soon the chicks will hatch, and we might ring them!

We walked back on the beach and there was another surprise for us: We saw some Little Terns “Dværgterne” sitting in the fenced area!

And another good message waited in my e-mail postbox for me: A recapture letter from the Robin “Rædhals” from Norway! The bird was ringed at the 03.09.2024 in Norway at Ørin Feltstatjon. Now it is probably on its way back to its breeding grounds in Norway, after spending the winter a bit further south. The ringing site in Norway is 935,1 kilometers away from Blåvand. Imagine the distance this little bird flew just on its own wings. And this is just a short-distance migrant.

The Robin "Rødhals" from Norway - where it was ringed and recaptured.

What a successful day at Blåvandshuk!

At the station: Thomas Kristensen, Emma Grey, Marit Nillissen, Levi van der Os, Anne Hjortlund Hansen and Hanelie Sidhu

Morning observations:

After a server crash of four days we’re finally back with the daily blogs! The blogs of the previous days will be uploaded over time as we catch up, so don’t forget to take a look!

Today’s morning observations were quite good compared to the previous days. After two days of bad visibility, we finally had a full obs of three hours with good visibility. There was a decent amount of scoters “Sortand” today and we saw a single common murre/razorbill “Lomvie/Alk”. The most surprising part of the obs however was the large amount of red-throated divers “Rødstrubet lom” today. They flew in beautiful flocks of 10 to 15 birds above, across and under the horizon. Overall, a welcoming change compared to the foggy days before!

Todays observations can be seen here.

In the evening, we had a very fun movie night! We watched “The Big Year”, which was very appropriate for the station and had such a heartwarming and fun story!

The ringing:

We did not catch as many birds as yesterday, but we had some nice ones. On the wish list on the board, Anne had written that she wanted to catch some finches. And here they were, we had a beautiful Goldfinch “Stillits” as well as a pretty Brambling “Kvækerfinke”.

Goldfinch/ Stillits. Picture: Anne Hjortlund Hansen

Brambling/ Kvækerfinke. Picture: Anne Hjortlund Hansen

In the closing round, I saw a Robin with I ring in a net in the station garden. I wanted to check if it was one of today´s, but it had a Norwegian ring!

Robin/ Rødhals from Norway. Picture: Anne Hjortlund Hansen

I was really happy about that catch, it is not always the rare birds, that make me happy, but also recaptures, especially from long-distance migrants, that already have a ring and you can see in the database, that they were ringed one or two years ago and came back here from Africa to breed. Or recaptures from other countries! So now we are very much looking forward to the report of that bird, to see when and where it was caught.

The moths:

I did not have many different moths in the traps, just six species. I will show Gymnoscelis rufifasciata “Rødbandet dværgmåler”.

Gymnoscelis rufifasciata “Rødbandet dværgmåler”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

At the station: Emma Gray, Anne Hjortlund Hansen, Thomas Kristensen, Levi van den Os, Marit Nillissen and Hanelie Sidhu