An incredible and sunny day at Blåvand

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