BARRED WARBLER

Despite the weather’s attempt to deter us, Sasha and I are determined to ring as much as possible, so we set alarms and awoke at 5:20 to rain and wind. However, after carefully studying the weather forecast we went and opened the nets at Grenen. We quickly became soaked, but the sky cleared by about 7:30 and we got a steady flow of birds at every round from then on. This is brilliant for really studying each bird we process and taking pictures we can use to do moult cards later and so then when it’s later on in the season we can still age birds that don’t have features which indicate an age so easily. At 9:00 Simon appeared telling us there was a Barred Warbler (Høgesanger) quite nearby on the road to Nordstrand so we left Simon in charge and went on a quick hunt. We saw a quick flash of a large warbler we were quite sure could have been the Barred Warbler and then returned to the nets as Simon needed to leave to greet his friend Cecilie. On our way back to Simon the path took us on a net round so when we saw 3 birds in a net we stopped to extract them, at which point Sasha sent me running up to what appeared to be a very loosely caught large Garden Warbler which was close to escaping, after extracting it I then realised it was juvenile Barred Warbler! What a treat! (I think Sasha identified it straight away- she’s witnessed 5 in the hand already this year!)

Simon then let me ring it as he sent a message out to all the local birders, turns out this was the third Barred Warbler sighted this morning, all juvenile. Also heard this morning was Penduline Tit (Pungmejse) and Nutcracker (Nøddekrige)- although they weren’t sighted. While Sasha and I were out bird ringing Daniel went out with Knud and the highlights included Fulmars (Mallemuk) , Great Skua ( Storkjove), Arctic Skua (Almindelig Kjove), Little Stint (Dværgryle) and White bellied Brent Goose (Knortegås).

Daniel, Knud, Lisa and all the other nearby local birders then joined us to see the Barred Warbler just before we released it- it’s amazing how quickly everyone arrived!

In the evening Daniel and Lisa used a super human effort to enter all the data from ringing this summer with the BTO’s Constant Effort Site- about 3 hours worth of work! Then they cooked a delicious meal of halloumi, bread and salad! Simon and Cecilie then joined us for an ultimate Shuffle Ball tournament, in which Simon thrashed us all!

People: Molly Brown, Sasha Munters, Daniel Bloche, Lisa Vergin, Simon S. Christiansen, Cecilie Kimose Feggé Dufresne, Knud Pedersen and local Skagen birders.

Birds rung: Great tit (Musvit) 1, Barred Warbler (Høgesanger) 1, Redstart (Rødstjert) 3, Dunnock (Jernspurv) 6, Robin (Rødhals) 4, Coal tit (Sortmejse) 3, Siskin (Grønsiskin) 1, Blackcap (Munk) 7, Willow Warbler (Løvsanger) 1 and Chiffchaff (Gransanger) 2