A visit form Israel

Morning observation:

Levi, Marit, Henrik, and I went up to the observation post, ready for a day that would hopefully bring something good. Visibility in the morning wasn't perfect, but observation was definitely possible. After a quiet hour, Marit went down to help Morten with the ringing, and shortly after, something started moving. Unfortunately, it wasn’t birds, but a large raincloud that quickly swept in over us. We decided to leave the post and return to the station, where we helped quickly close all the nets. After some waiting, the raincloud drifted away around 8 o’clock, and we went back out to continue the observation. Even though it was outside standard hours, we stayed until 9:30, hoping that migration would pick up. It didn’t really, but during the morning we had a decent number of Red-throated Divers “Rødstrubet lom” and quite a few terns. And after we returned, once the rain had stopped, three White-tailed Eagles “Havørn” were resting on a sandbank.

Today's observations can be seen here.

Henrik and Thomas at the observation spot. Picture: Levi van den Os

Ringing:

I started this morning at the morning observation. At around 6:30, Morten asked me If I could help with the ringing, so he would have more time for collecting the blood samples from the long distance migrating birds. I checked the nets in the Lighthouse garden and Morten checked them in the Stations garden.  At 07:00 is started to rain, so we had to close the nets really quick. The observers also came down to help with closing. At 08:00, we could open the nets again and Emma decided to join as well. We kept the nets in the Lighthouse garden open until 11:00, while the Stations garden stayed open all day again. Our highlight from today was a Lesser Whitethroat "Gærdesanger" who was ringed in Israel. This bird has made quit a trip to get here in Denmark!

Lesser Whitethroat from Israel. Picture: Marit Nillissen

After the obs, Levi joined for one round. He could ring a female Blackcap ‘’Munk’’. He also practiced at handling the birds in different grips with help from Morten.

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