A wolf in the nets, a pallid harrier, and the lighthouse crumbling !

But today is the first of April, it has been a full month since I am here, but it is also April's fool ! According to Simon it is the best day of the year, and we quickly understood why.

Between two rounds he left to the tent, then a minute later he came back running, asking us to come quickly with the stocks because an animal got caught in the net. He left running again so without thinking we grabbed sticks and went running after him, he told us to pass through the bushes while he would go the over way. After going as quickly as possible through the branches we met him at the net. No traces of an animal, he told us it must have just left, it was a wolf he said ! We could hardly believe it, but to make it more believable he faked sending a message on zello. Soon afterwards he told us we had been fooled ! We laughed a lot, it was really a good trick he pulled on us !

And throughout the morning we saw him fooling more people, he made Tomas believe there was a flamingo coming his way !

We also planned to trick Marion and Hanelie when we came back. They were at the morning observations at Nordstrand. So Simon was planning to make them believe we had to leave the lighthouse because the walls were craking, and we would help him in his plan !

Last round we did without Simon because he had to go back to the station. Egon Østergaard, chairman of DOF, passed by to get an introduction to night recordings. Overall in the morning we caught only twelve birds, four of them were recaptures. No special bird at the ringing today, but we all enjoyed this funny morning !

Soon after we got back to the station we heard a zello call that Simon translated for us, a Golden eagle (Kongeørn) was spotted at the roundabout ! This has been the bird that I am always missing since I am here, and I really did not want to miss it again ! So we ran outside to our bikes and cycled as fast as we could ! After some time looking around Jørgen joined us. And Robbe spotted the bird ! It was high in the sky, we could all get at good look at it. I have to say I am truly happy to have finally seen it ! We all were, even if it isn't the most uncommon bird here, it is still a very beautiful sight.

After that we felt quite lucky and decided to spend a little more time outside. We went on a walk to try to see a viper, unfortunately we didn't see any. But we still got to see Cranes (Trane), more eagles and a female ringed bullfinch (Dompap). Maybe it is the one I ringed a week ago ? Flowers are starting to bloom, spring is slowly coming here.

Hanelie and Marion have had a slow migration again, they were out with Knud, but they still got to see a Black-throated Loon (Sortstrubet Lom). They went to the cormorant lake afterwards to take a few pictures but they had forgotten the camera's battery. They stayed there a while chilling with tea and cinnamon rolls while planning the trick they would soon pull on us. Even the guests that they met there were informed of the plan. There they observed 50 cormorants (Skarv) and Red-necked Grebes (Gråstrubet Lappedykker), and also a viper on the way back.

Salix sp.

We met Hanelie and Marion when we came back from our walk, and they told us that we missed a pallid harrier ! We would discover later that it was another April's fool, even Simon was tricked.

Simon also began explaining that we had to leave soon the lighthouse for a full month because of the repairs. The girls were not easily fooled, it was actually Robbe that was tricked once again, he believed Simon's story even thought we had talked about it earlier ! Twice we had been fooled today, but we really wanted to play a bit more so when he left the room we added a little rhum in his glass of water... Fooled again !

Simon left us in the beginning of the afternoon, he will be back on Sunday, so we wish him a very nice weekend !

Later this afternoon Hannelie, Robbe, and I went to the small woods next to the roundabout. It was a chill walk, we saw many Goldcrests (Fuglekonge) and a few other passerines.

Marion had preferred to stay home to sort out her lodging situation and prepare dinner, she made us some delicious filled peppers that we enjoyed with our guests. Robbe spent his evening with some friends and family that came to visit.

Bent and Åse spent their last day here, and enjoyed the very nice weather by the lake where they heard many birds singing. We were very happy to have them here and hope they will have a nice journey back home.

Have a good evening,

Alice.

Today’s ringed birds:

Goldcrest “Fuglekonge”: 1

Dunlin “Jernspurv”: 2

Robin “Rødhals”: 1

Wren "Gærdesmutte": 2

Blackbird “solsort”: 2

Total : 8