How old is it?

Hello everyone!

Today was a very windy day. Rosa and I got up bright and early to open the mist nets. With the nets up before sunrise, we set up the ringing station at Kabeltromlen with Simon and Asia and got ready to catch birds. As the sun reached the horizon, we started checking the nets. Almost immediately we noticed some of the nets were being blown in the wind quite heavily, allowing birds to see the nets and evade them. We made the decision to close the nets that were heavily impacted by the wind because they would be less productive, and it would keep birds that were caught from getting too tangled in the nets. Early in the session we caught a Song Thrush (Sangdrossel), a lifer for me! Later, we caught a Common Reed Warbler (Rørsanger), Lesser Whitethroat (Gærdesanger), Marsh Warbler (Kærsanger), Chiffchaff (Gransanger), and Lesser Redpoll (Lille Gråsisken). Simon also took us to see a local species of orchid that blooms during this time of the summer.

Pictured is a local orchid species (Sump-hullæbe) near Kabeltromlen

Lucas got up at 4:30 to head out to World’s End 3 for observations. The day was starting slow, but his spirits were heightened when he spotted a Black Tern (Sortterne) foraging over the ocean. He also noted a Litle Gull (Dværgmåge) resting on the beach.

 In the afternoon, Simon brought us all together for a discussion on Ethics in Ringing and on using moult to age birds. Concerning ethics, we discussed a variety of topics including the risk factors with ringing birds, considerations that ringers must make, and routines that ringers at Skagen partake in. In the second part of the discussion, we discussed different groups of birds’ molt strategies and how this can impact how we age the birds during different seasons. We practiced with a few examples as seen above in the image of Rosa and Asia describing the age of a bird by observing feathers on its wing.

Pictured above is Asia and Rosa describing the moult on the wing of a bird

We are expecting more windy weather for the next few days and hopefully that means we will be seeing more migrants and new birds to showcase here on the blog!

Ringing (Kabeltromlen)

Song Thrush (Sangdrossel) - 1

Chiffchaff (Gransanger) - 1

Lesser Redpoll (Lille Gråsisken) - 1

Marsh Warbler (Kærsanger) - 1

Reed Warbler (Rørsanger) - 1

Lesser Whitethroat (Gærdesanger) - 1

Total: 6

Link to observations in the area today

People at the station: Lucas Corneliussen, Joe Zeno, Rosa Hicks, Asia Kane, Simon S. Christiansen, Lærkebjørn, Michael Anker, Oluf Lou