Migration is over, long live the breeding birds (and moths)

The wind picked up through the night, leaving the option to go ringing pretty much out of our hands. So we thought we’d try and find some birds. Alas the wind was very strong all morning and in a couple of hours out on Grenen and then staring into Kattergat hoping for some skuas, we saw very little. Morten left for home by midday, after some last minute goodbyes to some locals.

The wind dropped eventually though, and we managed to get out and see some things, I watched the bitterns flying back and forth, presumably to feed some well grown chicks, and one of the local marsh harriers hunting opposite the cormorant lake. Birds of prey were very thin on the ground, with only two buzzards being the others I noticed during the day. We tried to run an ‘English guided tour’ of the ringing and ringing facilities, but there was no interest at all, clearly people were elsewhere today, and who could blame them in that wind? We’ll try again tomorrow. Later in the afternoon, we helped Michel Ancher erect a new net at the CES ringing site, and took some time to admire the surroundings once we’d finished (see pic).

Michele was the cook tonight and he taught Simon and Thomas (our guest) how an Italian makes REAL carbonara! After dinner we set up a moth trap. Now the summers hit, we may get some interesting species, though we’re secretly hoping for the most rock and roll moth, the Death’s Head, to pay us a visit.