Our passion keeps us awake

Yesterday evening, Simon Kiesé and I fell into the trap of checking data from our morning observations during spring. A task that got us so excited, that we ended up doing it until 11 PM. And since we were awake for so long, we decided not to go to bed, but instead go night catching on the beach, hoping for terns, gulls or waders. We had a cup of black coffee before we headed out. Sean joined os as well.

The night team. Photo: Simon Kiesé.

Unfortunately were the gulls and terns super jumpy and shy, while the waders were out of sight. Or except for one wader. Ringed Plover (stor præstekrave). We were lucky to locate a clutch of chicks with their parents. We ringed the chicks first, before we went for the adults.

Ringing Ringed Plover chick. Photo: Simon Kiesé.

Adult Ringed Plover. Photo: Simon Kiesé.

Seven Ringed Plovers were ringed, before it got brighter, and we decided to head back. We were in a bit of a rush, because we needed a bit of breakfast, since it’s been eight hours since we had dinner.

Ringing Ringed Plover chick. Photo: Magnus Houen Lauritsen

I offered to open nets alone, so Sean and Simon could get some breakfast, which we agreed on. It took me about an hour to open the nets - just in time for me to be able to get back to the station, having breakfast for 10 minutes, grab the equipment for counting and head back out to Worlds End 1 together with Lucas, where we did four hours of morning observations. It was rather slow - maybe due to the westerly winds.

It was oddly slow in the ringing as well. Only eight birds were caught, which is around one third compared to recent days.

Both ringers and observators packed their stuff and went back to the station, where two school classes from Frederikshavn had booked a tour. It was super exciting to teach them about ringing and they were super easy as well, since they were calm and wanted to learn about birds. Especially when Simon Kiesé caught a 2, calander year Common Whitethroat (tornsanger). It made us forget about how tired the three of us were at that point.

One of the classes at the beach. Photo: SSC

After guiding the two school classes, we finally got some needed rest and sleep, before senior woke us up for the evening meeting approximately 5 or six hours later. And shortly after that, we had dinner, with Rika as the chef.

A bit of football was watched, before we again headed for bed, called it another successful day, and could let the silence fall upon the northernmost bird observatory in Denmark.

/Magpie/Krøllebille/Magnus/MHL.

Ringing (Kabeltromlekrattet):

Blackcap	Munk	5	RI
Reed Warbler	Rørsanger	1	RI
Garden Warbler	Havesanger	1	RI
Chiffchaff	Gransanger	1	RI

Subtotal: 8

Ringing (Sandormesvinget):

Ringed Plover - Stor præstekrave - 7 RI

Subtotal: 7

Ringing (Den Gamle Fyrhave):

Common Whitethroat - Tornsanger - 1 RI

Subtotal: 1

Total: 16

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

Sum of observations of raptors on DOFbasen from today.

People: Lucas Corneliussen, Seán Walsh, Magnus Houen Lauritsen, Simon Kiesé, Rika Pydde, Jesper & Anne.