Early Birthday Party

Before it was time to celebrate, we went out – early as always – to follow our passion in the field. The earliest ”birds” of the days were Isis and Hayley, who went to Kabeltromlen for the daily ringing session. Only the early singing Bittern (Rørdrum) made their early start some concurrence. A bit later but still before sunrise, Hannes, Magnus and I passed the ringing area to start our count from World’s End 1.

The ringing was good, even if the numbers were not to high. Two Chiffchaffs (Gransanger) made it feel like summer, while three cute nordic Long-tailed Tits (Nordlig Halemejse) with their snowball-like head reminded of the coldest time of the year. Look how cute they are!

In the meanwhile, the count was pretty slow but we still got good species! Due to Hannes effort we could proof that there were two different Glaucous Gulls (Gråmåge) roosting on the beach. A small flock of Parrot Crossbills (Stor Korsnæb) was also nice. One odd gull landed on the beach. It’s size, body coloration with paler whitish primaries reminded us of a Glaucous Gull, but the face looked weird and the bill was blackish instead of the pink one with a black tip, Glaucous would show. The general impression fitted well for a ”Vicing Gull” – a hybrid between Glaucous and Herring Gull, but the bill pattern is untypical for those. Hopefully someone will find the bird again and take some pictures of it! It’s very obvious, you would not miss this bird!

Since Hannes and I went out with the thermal last night (it was worth it – we saw 3 Jack Snipes (Enkeltbekassin) and 6 Woodcocks (Skovsneppe)) we were all a bit tired, but now, after completing the standardised count, it was time to make a break and eat something.

Then Magnus familiy showed up. His birthday is in five days, but this was the only opportunity for his family to visit him, so they decided to celebrate earlier with a nice brunch. Fortunately, we were all invited. The danish food was super tasty and we had a very nice time with them. We also found out, that ”Hayley does not look like a pig” in reference to the danish pig Yorkshire – the area where Hayley is from. The weather was great, too, so we could sit outside. A really nice break from the hard work.

After a short session of data entry Knud came to pick us up and go with us to Skarvsøn to cut some reeds. To keep some parts of the area open does not just help us to count the birds on the lake, but also saves the open areas some wildfowl need. A Bittern (Rørdrum) motivated us with its deep voice and surprisingly a Kingfisher (Ijsfugle) flew by. This species is scarce up here, so it was very appreciated. After around one hour we finished the task.

Ringing (Kabeltromlekrattet):

Total: 30

Ringing (N/V):

Total: 16

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.

People: Hannes Schäfer, Hayley Land, Isis Khalil, Magnus Houen Lauritsen, Simon Kiesé, Knud Pedersen.