Ringed and tagged

Hej!

Today finally was the day! We got to use the tags that we where preparing the last night and looking forward to the past week. So before sunrise, as Thomas and I were opening the nets, we were excited about all the Blackbirds/Solsort we could here calling in the bushes. Together with Simon we managed to tag 5 Blackbirds today. They got a little backpack with an antenna, that was fitted to their size and weight. Now the route they take to and the location of their winter quarter can be uncovered and used for research. Hopefully they have a good and long trip!

Blackbird male first-year with a tag called "Sauron"

Otherwise we had some nice birds in the nets, 14 in total. One of them was a Bearded Reedling/Skægmejse which already had a ring. Turns out it was ringed here at Kabeltromlen last year on the 4th of November.

Bearded Reedling/Skægmejse recaptured a little over a year later

Because Emma joined us at Kabeltromlen today, to do the passerine migration count, Ragnar went alone to World's End 3. He was quickly joined by Knud and Jørgen and later by Erik. The had a quit morning until a Black Guillemot/Tejst that was unusually white got their attention. They suspected it could be a Mandtii's Black Guillemot. Erik managed to get some good photos of it, but it still needs to be decided if it is a Black Guillemot (mandtii) or "just" a normal one.

Three Pine Grosbeaks/Krognæb were also spotted at Grenen today. One was sitting on a mast close to the Radarstation, so we could see it with our scopes from Kabeltromlen. Check out this video made by the Finder Alex, where you can hear the excitement. Two flew over World's End 3 in the direction to the lighthouse and could be seen by all observers at the tip. So in the afternoon all of us got into Simons car and we drove to different places in Skagen with berry bushes to find them.

Because we were unsuccesfull with that we visited the harbour. Our goal was to attract the gulls with our tasty bread, but they were not interested in our offer. But we got to see a huge american ship and two Long-tailed Ducks/Havlit, all hanging around in the harbour.

Look at all those gulls!

After that we went and did some much needed shooping for food and snacks, to keep us through the week.

Highlights from the observations:

Pine Grosbeak/Krognæb - 3

wierd coloured Black Guillemot/Tejst

 Lapland Bunting/Lapværling

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Vindrossel - 1

Sangdrossel - 1

Solsort - 4

Rødhals - 3

Gærdesmutte - 1

Lille Gråsisken - 1

Skægmejse - 1

Blåmejse - 1

Lille Dompap - 1

Total = 14

Today’s observations on Dofbasen from observers in the area

People at the station: Thomas Weston, Emma Fabre, Ragnar Smith, Mara Glane, Simon Sigaard Christiansen, Lars & Lone