The beginning of the ringing season at Kabeltrommelkrattet.

Good evening bird enthusiasts,

After a cosy evening at the café, we all got up bright and early today. Hanelie and Alice especially as they had to go open the mist nets as the ringing season has officially started! Nevertheless, morning observations are also still on the planning, so Robbe and I also got up before sunrise to go to Nordstrand. The migration was rather slow today both over land and sea apart from the first hour of the day. We still had a nice time and, contrarily to the birds, we appreciated the little amount of wind and the sun keeping us relatively warm. As they weren’t that many birds, we had the time to both check out big flocks coming by such as some Eurasian Teal (Krikand) or even a more unusual flock of 18 Common Snipe (Dobbeltbekkasin). At around 9 am, we also spotted a very small bird following two Common Guillemot (Lomvie). After taking a good look at it and checking our bird guide to make sure, we concluded it was either a Little Auk (Søkonge) or an Atlantic Puffin (Lunde) which is very exciting! Unfortunately, it was too far to be able to distinguish between the two or be fully certain of the identification. Due to the slow day, we stopped the migration count an hour early and decided to go have a look at the cormorant lake to see if we would have more luck with resting birds. We had also heard a Eurasian Bittern (Rørdrum) multiple times in the previous hours and we were hoping to catch a sight of it. This did not happen today, but we will stay persistent. On the lake, many cormorants were resting, including some on the nests but it is still uncertain if they will breed there this year. We also saw Goldcrests (Fuglekonge), Reed Buntings (Rørspurv) and Eurasian Wrens (Gærdesmutte) resting.

In the meantime, Hanelie and Alice had already opened all the nests, 19 in total. During the first round, they caught quite a lot of birds including Common Blackbirds (Solsort), Goldcrests (Fuglekonge), Dunnock (Jernspurv) and one Reed Bunting (Rørspurv). Simon joined them and rang most of the birds to begin with in order to demonstrate and detail how every step is done. They also saw a Eurasian Woodcock (Skovsneppe), Eurasian Sparrowhawks (Spurvehøg) and Common Buzzards (Musvåge) while touring Kabeltrommelkrattet. The second round was also rather successful, and after that, each round got a bit quieter. But this gave Hanelie and Alice the chance to ring as well and discuss with other passing-by birders. Overall, this was an exciting first ringing day, especially for Hanelie who had been trying at the station’s garden for a while but usually only got 2 or 3 in one morning. Simon also had the first sighting of a European Serin for this season! Now the goal for the next few days is to get more habituated to Kabeltrommelkrattet as they realised today you can easily get a bit lost and hopefully catch other species as well.

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

Sum of the Raptors in the area based on observations typed into Dofbasen the same day

In the afternoon, we were all busy with a big clean-up of the flat and parts of the station. Simon also used this free afternoon to clean his place as well as his car. Therefore, we have now removed a couple of pounds of sand which seems to appear everywhere even though we take precautions to limit it. We also got the chance to enjoy a nice dessert made by Robbe which was mainly a mascarpone cream with red berries. It was very tasty and was appreciated by everyone as snacks seem to be something we all agree is important.

Tomorrow, Alice, and I will open the nets but as it is forecasted that it will be a foggy morning, the others will also join us later. If the weather clears up a bit, Hanelie and Robbe will have the chance to accompany Thomas Kjær to test out the laser binoculars, which will be at the centre of the radar project. For now, it is time for us to go to bed but see you tomorrow for another blog promising many updates.

Ringing (Kabeltrommelkrattet):

Gærdesmutte – 8

Jernspurv – 3

Rødhals – 10

Solsort – 5

Gransanger – 5

Fuglekonge – 13

Sortmejse – 1

Blåmejse – 1

Musvit – 1

Bogfinke – 1

Rørspurv – 1

Total: 49

Good night everyone,

Marion

People: People: Simon S. Christiansen, Robbe Cool, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Marion L'Huillier-Hunsinger