Vagtel Surprise

Good evening,

The events of today's blog actually begin in the late hours of the 27th, as Frank, Hanelie, Simon, and I walked around fields near Lindenborg, SW of Aalborg, in search of great snipes (tredækker).  We saw several common snipes (dobbeltbekkasin), but all flushed before we could succesfully catch them.  Furthermore, not one great snipe could even be seen amongst them.

However, the night was far from a failure.  Like last time we searched around these fields, we incidentally caught a Eurasian skylark (sanglærke) and a corn bunting (bomlærke).

Processing a sanglærke

The highlight came when Frank, Hanelie, and Simon (I stayed at the car for the last check) checked the last field, and found and caught a pair of common quail (vagtel)!  Getting to see these birds in hand was truly special, and easily made up for the lack of snipe.

Male & Female Common Quail

Common quail, and all other European, Asian, and African quail, pheasants, and partridges, belong to the family Phasianidae (except for 2 African species: Nahan's and Stone partridge).  Unlike what the English names suggest, "quails" in the Americas belong to an entirely different, and quite-distantly related family called Odontophoridae. 

The subspecies of Common quail found here, C. c. coturnix in particular is highly-migratory, breeding throughout the western Palearctic, and wintering in the Afrotropics and parts of the Indian subcontinent.  Quite an incredible journey for such an awkwardly-shaped bird, that at first glance seems like it would be a poor flier.

In the afternoon and evening, we welcomed our 3 new guests, Henrik, Pia, and Jan, did some cleaning, and untangled a tangled mist net. 

Tomorrow, Elena and I will head to World's End 3 to do a seawatch, and Hanelie and Frank will go to Kabeltromle to ring.

Farewell!

Max

People: Max Laubstein, Hanelie Sidhu, Frank Osterberg, Elena Turac, Simon Christiansen, Karin, Pia, Jan, Henrik.

Ringing totals (Lindenborg) :

Eurasian skylark (Sanglaerke): 1

Corn bunting (Bomlaerke): 1

Common quail (Vagtel): 2

Observations of the day in DOFBasen from observers in the area