A sunny dip... of the pine bunting

Hey hey! 

 

 

The morning started off slow with strong winds and a thick cloud cover. Daniel and Jonas headed out to the beach for the migration count. Unfortunately it was quite slow with three black throated divers (Sortstrubet lom) being the highlight. However, they were happy to see kittiwakes (Rissa) and many northern gannets (Sule), too. Meanwhile, Michaela and I were getting ready to go to the ringing area to set up more nets. Our guests Mette and Jesper kindly offered to drive us and all the nets and poles there, which has saved us a lot of time! Four nets were set up while bitterns (Rørdrum) and water rails (Vandriksen) were calling around! Mette and Jesper then walked to the dunes where Jonas, Daniel and Knud were observing the sea and joined them there.

 

Everyone came back to the station around 10:00 and opened the garden nets. Eventually, two yellowhammers (Gulspurv) were caught, but as we were ringing them we got the news of the pine bunting (Hvidkindet værling!!!) being resighted at Rødhus. After ringing the yellowhammers (Gulspurv), Simon, Daniel, Jonas and I set off to twitch it, while Michaela went to see a doctor. Then on the way we picked up Jørgen who's celebrating his birthday today (Happy birthday!!) and went hoping to get to see the pine bunting as his birthday present! By the time we reached Rødhus, the sky was blue and the sun was warming us up.

 

 

We spent three hours walking around the area, but unfortunately the pine bunting (Hvidkindet værling) didn't show again. However, we got to see a lot of beautiful yellowhammers (Gulspurv), bullfinches (Dompap), crested (Topmejse) and coal (Sortmejse) tits as well as some mistle thrushes (Misteldrossel) and heard a collared dove (Tyrkerdue)! While sitting down for a rest, I cleaned Jonas's binoculars and he realized you can actually see quite well through them once you remove the three layers of dirt!! So, despite dipping the pine bunting, we had a nice sunny day out in a lovely area!

 

Meanwhile, back in Skagen, Michaela did some grocery shopping, took a nice long walk in the sun back from the city to the observatory and then spent the rest of the afternoon fixing a net.

 

It was a little hectic but fun start of the week! :) 

 

 

 

Ringing (Fyrhaven)

 

Gulspurv - 2

 

Sum: 2

 

 

Folk:  Simon S Christiansen, Daniel Bloche, Jonas Pedersen, Knud Pedersen, Michaela Berduogo, Mette, Jesper, and Laima Bagdonaite