Ringing Joy

Today was my second day of ringing at Grenen and I was eager to get out there after a day of many captures yesterday. Lisa, Daniel, Molly, Lars Mortensen and I set out at first light and we had another great day, despite some rain early on. It is wonderful to have Danish birders who are very familiar with the bird life of Skagen join us for ringing, as they help us to also identify birds migrating overhead by sight and sound. One of the observation highlights for me was Lars pointing out a migrating Common Ringed Plover (Stor Præstekrave) calling overhead and we were able to catch a glimpse of it flying south.

We are continuing to catch relatively common passerine species at the station, but I am enjoying studying molt limits and other aging techniques for so many new (to me!) species. I was particularly excited today because I rung a new bird species for the first time! I had observed two Bullfinches (Dompap) around the nets early in the day and was very excited when I met Molly on a net round and she told me she had a gift for me. After ringing the molting 1cy Bullfinch, it took a few moments for it to fly from my hand and you can see how excited Molly’s ringing “gift,” made me.

We missed Simon during ringing this morning, but he was doing important work meeting with Skagen Fuglestation’s board members. They came to the observatory to discuss future research initiatives and to prepare next year’s report (and to bring us cake ?). He rejoined the crew for dinner though as Lisa and Daniel had made us delicious vegetarian pizzas that we all enjoyed very much!

Altogether we ringed 37 birds today: 2 Yellowhammer (Gulspurv), 3 Great Tits (Musvit), 8 Robins (Rødhals), 7 Dunnocks (Jernspurv), 1 Redstart (Rødstjert), 2 Reed Warbler (Rørsanger), 1 Coal Tit (Sortmejse), 1 Common Whitethroat (Tornsanger), 2 Blackcap (Munk), 1 Garden Warbler (Havesanger), 2 Chiffchaffs (Gransanger), 5 Reed Bunting (Rørspurv), 1 Bullfinch (Dompap), 1 Chaffinch (Bogfinke).

People: Simon S. Christiansen, the Skagen Fuglestation Board members, Lisa Vergin, Molly Brown, Sasha Munters, Daniel Bloche, Lars Mortensen