Sound experience

I'm impressed! I've expected mid May to be tough, since there are many nice birds and the sun rises early, so there is not so much time for sleep. Indeed my average per night is with a bit over 5 hours still okay, but way less than I would need back home. But in anyway I feel very good. Maybe it's the good weather and the fresh air, maybe the good company. In anyway, I'm impressed even in the lack of sleep we were able to set our alarm for midnight to go nightcatching. Even if we did not suceed, it was nice. We heard a Thrush Nightingale (Nattergal). I tried to get closer, but the way to the bird seemed endless. Finally it was 1,3 km away from the point, we heard it first. That´s crazy, isn't it? Since this blog is dedicated to the voice of birds, you can listen to my recording of the bird now:

With the same weather like the previous days, the strong migration of Yellow Wagtails (Gul Vipstjert) finally stopped. Therefore new songbirds arrived, which we could experience mostly in the ringing. Some Garden Warblers (Havesanger), Icterine Warblers (Gulbug) and Reed Warblers (Rørsanger) could be ringed. A highlight was a Sedge Warbler (Sivsanger), which also got equipped with a new ring. Two Marsh Warbler (Kærsanger) sang in the area and completed the picture of summer. 

At World's End 1 another nice Songbird showed up. For me the first of the year - a male Rosefinch flew over and surprised us with its song in flight.

 A young Great Nothern Diver (Islom) and a Little Ringed Plover (Lille Præstekrave) passed by. Otherwise you could have called the count slow - at least in comparision to the great previous days. Over 5000 roosting Scoters (Sortand) were still great!

When a Crossbill (Korsnæb) passed by, the first impression was, that the calls sound less clicking that Common Crossbills (Lille Korsnæb) usually do. Even experienced birders struggle with the identification of the call by ear - at least if you are not really used to it. In flight it did not look so heavy billed, so we were looking forward to check the sound recording I made to make sure, we identify it right. Sound recordings are really great! We could proof, it is a Common Crossbill (Lille Korsnæb), call type N8.

 This call type "N8" is one of the most common ones of Common Crossbill in nothern Europe. Here it is usually disturbed:

Thanks for this great knowledge to Ralph Martin, who researched on this topic, made this map and shared the results public on his Blog AVESRARES - reed here about Common Crossbill (N8).

I hope you liked this trip into the world of bird sound recording and analysis. It is a very fun topic and recently we were able to document two interesting birds with my recorder during the count: a Little Bunting (Dværgverling), a Red-thorated Pipit (Rødstrubet Piber) and a Citrine Wagtail (Citronvipstjert) yesterday.

At 1 am, Hayley and I had a guided tour for a family from the netherlands. We showed them some nice birds at Nordstrand on the way to Skarvsøn. The highlights were Cormorant (Skarv) chicks and that all 9 Mute Swan (Knopsvane) chicks were still alive. Also both Red-necked Grebes showed up nice. Since the mid days sun hid some birds, we listened to some of the typical songbirds, which breed in the area.

On the way back, some more raptors showed up and we could see a young Pallid Harrier (Steppehøg) and a Montague's Harrier (Hedehøg) in the distance. Fortunately, a Osprey (Fiskeørn) was closer. Like every Saturday, we cleaned the apartment and the lab. Otherwise data had to be entered, I had a nice phone call and played a bit guitar. It's important to keep your bird-life-bird-sleep-bird-work-balance!

Ringing (Kabeltromlekrattet):

Total: 25

Also Michael ringed at

Jennes Sø:

Total: 6

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: Seán Walsh, Hayley Land, Isis Khalil, Magnus Houen Lauritsen, Simon Kiesé, Simon S. Christiansen, Karen Marie Holk, Michael Anker.