WWW- White Wagtail couple and Wood Pigeon No. 2

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