Many cool species!

Ringing: What a special day of ringing! Not a crazy amount of birds, but we also didn't reach the standard 5 hours, due to the rain. We ended up with 43 birds of 13 different species - and what cool species!

One of the first rounds I was walking through the station garden, I suddenly came upon four Bramblings (Kvækerfinke) in one net! I immediately notified Strummer and Johan, who quickly came and joined me, so we could appreciate all four wonderful individuals together - all male, three certainly young, and one potential adult. 

The ringing team with three young male Bramblings of today. Picture by Strummer Edwards.

One of the young male Bramblings. Aged on the clear moult limit, in the feather group called the greater coverts in the middle of the wing, contrasting between the new darker feathers and the paler young feathers. Sexed on the pure orange lesser coverts, the feather group half covered by my thumb. Picture by Mathilde Sif Eiby.

What a great start to the day! I even caught a fifth Brambling later in the day together with three of my favourite bird, the Yellowhammer (Gulspurv). One female on it's own, and two males in the round after - one certain youngster, and one potential adult. 

The two male Yellowhammers from today. The one on the right is the young one, significantly paler, and with more pointed tailfeathers. Pictures by Anton Ræbild Jensen.

I also came across the third Yellow-browed Warbler (Hvidbrynet Løvsanger) of the season, that I immediately called Johan for, as it was time for him to ring one. His sister by chance came to visit the station at that exact moment, so the first ever species she's seen being ringed was that one! 

When Henrik and Anton came back from obs, they told me they'd seen a potential subspecies of the Lesser Whitethroat (Gærdesanger / Curruca curruca) called Blythi (Curruca Curruca Blythi), and next round Strummer calls me to tell me they caught it up at the lighthouse! There's only five other confirmed records ever of this subspecies in Denmark, one of which was in Blåvand. We took pictures and sampled some DNA, so we'll have the definite answer at some point.

Today's potential Curruca Curruca Blythi, with a more sandy color. Picture by Strummer Edwards.

Today's numbers:

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Observation: Today was supposed to be kind of a mixed bag with rains coming and going and milder winds from the northwest, the west and the southwest - safe to say, I (Anton) expected a slow day with maybe decent numbers of passerines.

Aaaaand, that is what we got. The Chaffinches/Bramblings (Fringilla coelebs/F. montifringilla) were moving as usual with about 200 flying by. We also saw over 250 Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) and even 11 Rock Pipits (Anthus petrosus). Pretty okay, but not mindblowing.

The big highlights were one Hen Harrier (Circus Cyaneus), one Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus) and a pretty good 1019 Meadow Pipits (Anthus pratensis)! Of course, we also saw the Eastern Lesser Whitethroat at obs, but only shortly before it vanished up towards the lighthouse.

Today's observations

At the station: Strummer Edwards, Mathilde Sif Eiby, Anton Ræbild Jensen, Johan Them Steffensen