CES SUCCESS!!

Another day, another CES visit. This was our eleventh visit of the year at our site and it was actually extremely productive today. We (Rosa, Andrew and yours truly) left the station at 04:30 AM to open the nets by 05:15 AM (we were a few minutes late, but oh well). The morning started out slow with only a few birds but we were hoping for more. Over the next few rounds we averaged around 4 birds in he nets each round but then around 08:30 during our fourth round we had a very large round of nearly 20 birds. This was one of the largest rounds in the past few months which was quite exciting. Birds are moving!!! Highlights from this morning included 4 Blåmejse (Blue Tit), 2 Rørspurv (Reed Bunting) and 13 Rørsanger (by far the most common bird at Skarvsøen). 

The day started out a bit different for Joe. He was supposed to leave today after booking a last minute flight back to California, however, our trusted and esteemed supervisor and dark night, Mr. Christiansen, overslept and forgot to pick Joe up to take him to the train station. So, Joe gets to stay at the station for a few extra days after all. Fortunately, he was able to get refunded for the majority of the ticket, so no harm no foul.

Ragnar also had a nice day on observation this morning. Despite a slow time with seabirds (havfugle), he had lots of migrating waders including Dværgeryle (Little Stint) and Temmincksryle (Temminck's Stint). Along with the waders, two Mediterranean Gulls (Sorthovedet Måge) on the beach were another nice surprise. 

Sorthovedet Måge (second from the left)

In the evening, we had our meeting and then decided to go to the beach and play volleyball. Thank god we were hired for our birding skills and not our volleyball skills because I think most of us would swiftly get fired. Tonight we are going out to Grenen to try and catch roosting waders! Wish us luck! And so, another day passes at Skagen Fuglestation. What will tomorrow bring? We will have to wait and see.

TRIGGER WARNING! (Ragnar's Sandy Toes - post Volleyball)

Vi Ses 

Ringing (Skarvsøen)

Blåmejse: 4

Rørspurv: 2

Rørsanger: 13

Kærsanger: 2

Tornsanger: 4

Havesanger: 2

Løvsanger: 2

Gransanger: 1

Gærdesanger: 1

Total: 31

Link to today's observations on Dofbasen

People at SKAF: Lucas Corneliussen, Rosa Hicks, Andrew Commins, Ragnar Smith, Simon S. Christiansen, Grethe and Stig