Celebrating the End of the Spring Season Ringing

After a night with only low winds, we had some refreshed hope for our final day of the Spring ringing following the standard protocol.

Simon and I departed the Grå Fyr at 03:00 to go to open the nets for ringing. There were nice weather conditions this morning and when Seán joined us, the mood was good and energy levels high (... no comparison to the ringing yesterday, where the tiredness from the nightly excursion was heavily noticeable ).

 Our outdoor "office" in the morning sun

Since I just recently joined, let me quickly introduce myself: My name is Rika and I am joining the station as a stand-in for a few days. I started ringing birds at CES Vestamager and CES Rungstedlund this year and I am trying to get as much hands-on experience as possible. Therefore, I am very grateful for the opportunity to join the volunteers a Skagen Fuglestation.

We had very low expectations for this last ringing day, especially after the low number of birds in our nets on the previous day. The wind on the day before had also made the extraction of birds from the nets very challenging. However, this day started good, with varied species of birds in the first round and no big extraction challenges. The second round brought us back to Kabeltrommen empty-handed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part one of today's ringing team: Seán and Simon enjoying the sun

Part two of today's ringing team: Rika with a recaptured Chiffchaff

 

One slightly unusual capture today was a very small bird, that on first sight seemed to show the facial features and some coloration features of a Willow Warbler. However, based on the measurements and the indents on the outer webs of the primary feathers (emargination), which were only present on Primaries 3 to 6, we identified the bird as a Chiffchaff.

Chiffchaff with interesting supercilium

After catching a handsome male Common Chaffinch, we thought we had gotten the final bird for the day, but got an additional Chiffchaff recapture and a newly caught Reed Warbler thereafter. Unfortunately, the wind started picking up on speed, so we had to close the nets already at 07:45.

 

Thus, the Reed Warbler became the final bird of this season, and was ringed by Seán. It was time to put up those waders and get some food!

Last bird of the season: Reed Warbler

Return of the waders

The extremely active day and night of the past day (with nightly bird capturing on the beach and guided tours for school classes as you can read on the previous blog post) had left everyone on the team quite exhausted. And despite the effort to catch up on sleep during the day, we decided to take it slow and leave any extraordinary activities for the coming days.

On the last status meeting we had decided to celebrate the finalization of the Spring ringing season by meeting up in the evening, enjoying food and beverages and watch the match of Denmark playing against England at the UEFA European Football Championship together.

We enjoyed a nice meal prepared by Simon K. and then moved to the conference room to watch the match. Luckily, the game ended in a tie!

Dinner time

UEFA Champions League - Denmark against England

After the celebrations of the evening and he high number of activities and successes from the recent days, everyone is looking forward to a good and proper night of sleep, without having to leave the bird station at 3:00 in the morning for ringing.

The team is excited about the opportunities of the upcoming days that allow to plan for more flexible and unusual activities when early morning ringing is no longer required.

 

Ringing (Kabeltromlekrattet):

Reed Warbler (Rørsanger): 2

Icterine Warbler (Gulbug): 1

Common Chaffinch (Bogfinke): 1

Chiffchaff (Gransanger): 1

Total: 5

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area.

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