Farewell to Kirstine . for now . .

Off to ring at Grenen this morning, with some optimism, as the rain in the night and the light wind would be very good for any scarcities hanging around the area.

As it turned out we did catch some unusual birds, a returning failed breeder (presumably) pied flycatcher and a sedge warbler, the first to get ringed here this year. Aside from that we caught another 20 birds, which, whilst it was the largest number in weeks, was still not as good as we’d hoped, and without the major ‘rare’ that June can provide. However it was a very educational session, with a new bird in the hand for me (sedge warbler) and one for Michele (lesser redpoll). A nice male reed bunting was also a nice catch. Kirstine was also getting to grips with bird handling and extraction, and the fact that we were catching birds for a few hours, allowed us to show her some of the grips and positions for holding birds as well as the difficult species and how to separate them in the hand. Just before we left, the very tame fox from the ridge at Grenen appeared and followed us around for a bit, far too tame due to irresponsible feeding, we can only assume.

This was Kirstine’s last day, so after we arrived back at the Obs, she hastily typed up her last diary post and packed her belongings, before helping both Michele and I with entering ringing data and sorting the photo archive.

Heavy rain and wind put off any afternoon birding, so I occupied myself with cleaning the guests apartment, before continuing with computer work. After a quiet dinner Michele and I chatted about the differences in ringing licensing across Europe and North America and about some of the tricker birds we’d had in the hand over the last two days. Just before we retired for the night, Michele refound the male goosander he’d found earlier in the week, just offshore from the Obs. Despite dashing out 3 minutes later, I did not see it that evening.