Nearly Grackle!

Ringing:

The morning started out really slow for Alvin and I, we had a few 0 rounds in a row which was a little bit disappointing as Alvin was leaving around 08:30 to catch his train back to Skagen.

After a round, as we were walking down from the lighthouse garden to go back to the station, we saw the Great-Tailed Grackle fly really low into the lighthouse ringing garden and thought, what if it’s in a net now?!

We RAN back up to the nets and THERE IT WAS, IN THE NET. We ran towards it, but right as we tried to catch and secure him in the net, he managed to escape from us. What a crazy experience.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work out for us this time, and he flew off happily having fooled us. What a privilege it would have been to be able to see this beautiful bird in the hand, and document and measure it. Maybe in the next few days! It seems to really like the lighthouse garden and its surroundings.

Great-Tailed Grackle, the net escapist!

After that crazy moment, Henrik had a juvenile Wood Pigeon (Ringdue)  in the station garden and Alvin could ring his last bird before leaving for the train station. A very cute fledgling Wood Pigeon, missing their characteristic ‘ring’ around the neck at this age.

Young Wood Pigeon, notice the lack of ring around the neck which is a characteristic trait of juvenile birds!

A very sweet way of ending Alvin’s stay, and after that Jorn Alvin and I set off to the train station and said goodbye. Alvin has had such a fantastic time during his stay here and would really love to come back in the future. During such a short period of time he has had the chance of experiencing a few of his dream birds, such as the Woodchat Shrike he found and the Greenish Warbler he noticed by a single call around the nets. It was lovely ringing together and I had such a fun time too!

My only wish is that we could have caught the Great-Tailed Grackle before he left ahahah!

In the late morning, Henrik could conduct his first ringing guided tour, a new activity he has implemented for the station! With a nice group of around 8 adults and 3 children, Henrik could take them on a personal and guided tour around the ringing gardens and nets, and of course walk them through the ringing processes and show the guests some beautiful birds up close.

These tours are available without any pre-booking, and have 3 different time slots of 10am, 11am, and 12pm, being 1h long each and are being conducted whenever the informational sign is out by the lighthouse parking lot. Really fun!