BLUE TIT DAY!

Dorthe and I started the day by opening the nets at Grenen and we were soon joined by Jørgen, Igor and Simon in time for the second round. Sarah and James joined Rolf at World's End again.

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After a disappointing first round, on the second round each net we came to in the reed beds had about 20 Blue Tits in! So Simon took birds to ring and everyone else remained extracting, we then called Sarah and James and roped in Erik who was an absolute godsend and really helped us out, even without his glasses! Every time we emptied the nets they just filled again! So, we resorted to shutting the nets immediately after we’d cleared them. We eventually re-opened the nets at 11:40 and we caught about 20 more birds, but nothing on the scale that we had before. We also had a guided tour amongst the chaos, which Dorthe led. Michael Anchor also had a busy morning ringing with 50 birds.

All the Blue Tits made for a very happy Simon!!!

In the afternoon James, Sarah and I rode into town and continued until we reached Den Tilsandede Kirke- the sand covered church, I never realised how nice it is on the other side of Skagen- so much pine woodland with Nutcracker and Crossbill potential! I can see why all the birders go to the tip, once the birds spread out into the woodlands finding rarities must be a lot harder!!! We then cycled back and after finding an Ice cream shop shut till 2019, we came back to the station and bought ice cream from Christel and Fleming.

During this time Dorthe left us to go to Blåvand, let’s hope she doesn’t punish us with too many good birds!

We also went night catching led by James and although we didn’t catch anything we were very close to a Short-Eared Owl, which we pursued into the gorse and reeds without success. But we initially got very good views of it flying over us!

Birds caught: 168 total! 109 Blue Tits (Blåmejse), 33 Great Tits (Musvit), 11 Coal Tits (Sortmejse), 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker (Stor Flagspaette), 2 Blackbirds (Solsort), 3 Song thrushes (Sang Drossel), 1 Robin (Rødhals), 1 Wren (Gærdesmutte), 1 Dunnock (Jernspurv), 1 Chaffinch (Bogfinke), 1 Blackcap (Munk), 2 Chiffchaffs (Gransanger) and 2 Goldcrest (Fuglekonge)

People: Molly Brown, Sarah Bedford, James Butcher, Dorthe Schmit, Jørgen Kabel, Erik Christophersen and Simon S. Christiansen