Ringing at the lighthouse

Today, again, we were a little bit fooled by the weather forecast: I woke up at 3am to look at the forecast which promised rain half an hour later, so I decided to wait for an hour, before we open the nets. Then at 4 I woke up again, and the weather forecast said the same, although I am quite sure it hadn’t rained in the meanwhile. Seeing that there had been many rain clouds everywhere between us and any place birds could be coming from right now (Sweden and Norway mainly), I decided to not take the risk of having nets open in the rain and just leave the ringing for today. The local birds we can still catch another time and this night is a better night for migration, so tomorrow I am hoping for at least some migrating birds at Kabeltromlen. The problem with having the nets open when it is raining is, that birds caught in the net cannot use their plumage to stay dry, because some feathers might be pushed to the side by a string of the net, so that a part of their skin is exposed. So when it starts raining, we always have to close the nets and make sure we take the birds caught very quickly, before they get too cold. In case of doubt it’s always safer to just not open them. The safety of the birds being more important than any data that might be missed.

So, I went back to sleep for a little while, while Simon junior and Sean went to World’s End 3 to do a migration count. They managed to observe a group of 15 fulmars (mallemuk) closely, which was quite nice. Other than that, however, there was not so much to observe. Even the shorebirds that had been on the beach for the last few days, had left. Not a lot of terns or gulls either. Talking about gulls, there was a mystery gull on the beach, which was maybe a yellow-legged gull (middelhavssølmåge) herring gull ssp. omisus (sølvmåge ssp. omisus) the species still being debated. We would highly welcome good pictures of it if anybody observes it.

The rest of the day was spent doing miscellaneous tasks that we had not managed to do the last few days. Sean went to Skarvsøen and did the cormorant count, I went to Kabeltromlen to fix some ringing equipment and then to the beach to look for ringed gulls, and Simon did some computer work.

During all that time we had the nets in the lighthouse garden open in the hope of catching something. We did have luck with a great tit (musvit) early on. Then nothing for long hours. Then, when all of us just came back from our various works we met out in the lighthouse garden and chatted a little with a German bird watcher who had come by for a visit and for discussing the above mentioned gulls. While we were there, a tree sparrow (skovspurv) came to sit in one of the bushes, where also the yellowhammers (gulspurv) are now busy carrying food for their young. Simon really wanted to catch it, so he played the tree sparrow call with his phone from the other side of the net. The sparrow did not seem very impressed, but just as Simon gave up, sure enough, the sparrow flew right into the net towards the place where Simon had played the call before. So we got to ring that one as well – a bird we do not often catch around here.

When entering the rings of the gulls I read at the beach, I found an old friend, that I have already read last year: JA688. The thing that is so cool about this bird is, that it has been ringed in 2008 as a chick in Norway, so it is 15 years old now! On the picture it is the ringed gull in the back, the one that is preening:

The next few days will be a little bit mixed, with various kinds of weather waiting for us: Tonight should be a good night for migration if the rain clouds over southern Sweden and Norway do dissolve like the weather forecast promises. So we hope for a good morning ringing tomorrow at Kabeltromlen. Then later tomorrow we expect quite strong winds coming from the west and we really do hope that they might bring some good sea birds with them, that we normally don’t get to observe close to the shore. So, Saturday will be observation day. And then Saturday night we will try to catch storm petrels again, hoping that some might have been blown our way with the strong winds. As usual, you are welcome to sit around Saturday night and wait if we get lucky.

Ringing Fyrhaven

Musvit (great tit) - 1

Skovspurv (tree sparrow) - 1

Total: 2

People: Seán Walsh, Martina Hillbrand, Simon Kiesé, Simon S. Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Peter Kristensen, Lise, Tine and Elinor

A link to today's observations from volunteers and local observers.

A link to the results of the latest NocMig-Recordings on Trektellen.