Ringing and Skulling

God Aften!

Unfortunately, this blog will begin with the sad news of a unsuccessful night attempting to catch the Storm Petrels (Stormsvale) and Nightjars (Natrvan). Although the last few attempts have now simply resulted in the sleepless nights for the unfortunate soul that has the night duty, we still plan to continue and hope to bring you more records of Storm Petrels. We will continue to attempt these catches in the night till around the 10^th of September. Lars Bo Jacobsen, Rasmus Matthiesen-Juhl and Anders Rasmussen also attempted some Great Snipe catching at Herredsenge this night where the snipes had been sited previously, but also, unfortunately, was unable to secure any on this occasion.

In the morning, Me and Elena took to Kabeltromlen while Hanelie went observing out on Worlds end 3. On the way to open the nets me and Elena were treated to a Nightjar (Natravn) flying around above the Sandworm track and two low flying, calling Cranes (Trane) whilst we opened the nets. The ringing throughout the morning remained relatively slow, but this allowed me to spend more time helping Elena get into depth about moult strategies and sexing of the species we encountered throughout the day. Highlights of the ringing include a juvenile Whinchat (Bynkefugl), Spotted (Grå fluesnapper) and Pied flycatcher (Broget Fluesnapper) and some new adult Common Whitethroats (Tornsanger).

Spotted Flycatcher (Grå Fluesnapper)

Whinchat (Bynkefugl)

During the ringing, we also managed to test out the new pop-up `photo-lab’ which will allow us to take more standardized images when photographing birds for aging and sexing for our Digi-guide.

In the Morning observations, Hanelie had some good Common Scoter (Sortand) movement, along with plenty of Greenshank (Hvidklire), Snipe (Dobbeltbekkasin), Golden Plover (Hjijle) and Whimbrel (Smorspove).

In the afternoon, Simon used some free time to demonstrate the aging methods of skull ossification which can be used in the autumn to identify juvenile species often harder to age based on plumage characteristics alone.

After the skulling session, we went down to the beach and played some Volleyball closely followed by a swim and the weekly shop.

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Whinchat (Bynkefugl) 1

Willow Warbler (Løvsanger) 2

Reed Warbler (Rørsanger) 2

Spotted Flycatcher (Grå Fluesnapper) 1

Pied Flycatcher (Broget Fluesnapper) 1

Marsh Warbler (Kærsanger) 1

Blackcap (Munk) 3

ChiffChaff (Gransanger) 1

Common Whitethroat (Tornsanger) 1

Total: 13

Observations of the day in DOFBasen from observers in the area

People: Max Laubstein, Frank Osterberg, Hanelie Sidhu, Elena Turac, Simon Christiansen, Knud Pedersen, Karin, Alfrida