Ringing:

Today we were joined by Tina for the first round. Because of the wind we thought she did not choose a very good day to come but the first round proved us wrong, I took another Red-breasted Flycatcher “Lille Fluesnapper” out of the net.

Lille Fluesnapper/ Red-breasted Flycatcher

After first round not many birds followed and a lot were Sparrowhawks “Spurvehøg”. They weather did not really look inviting for them to migrate and they flew very low because of the rainy weather, so they came all to our garden and four got caught, three first calendar year males and one second calendar year female.

Sparrowhawk male/ Spurvehøg han

In raptors and falcons and a few owl species, there is a strong sexual size dimorphism and we could see that very well in our birds, the female was significantly larger than the males.

Sparrhawk female/ Spurvehøg hun

Migration:

It was quiet out at the point today. A strong wind from the south and bursts of rain made observing the migration a little difficult – rain and hazy skies reduced visibility, while sheltering in the old building limited our view of the ocean. However, we still managed to observe 1310 individuals of 25 species! Running back and forth between shelter and good viewing points certainly made for a fun morning.

It seems that with the bad weather, raptors and passerines were a little more reluctant to leave land than in previous days (I would not want to migrate today if I were a bird either!). The Common Scoters (Melanitta nigra) didn’t seem to mind the wind and rain, still migrating in higher numbers than other duck species. They were by far the most numerous species migrating today, with a total of 767 individuals seen.

This week we’ve been seeing quite high numbers of Sandwich Terns (Thalasseus sandvicensis) migrating south. Within a few weeks we will no longer see them – how sad! There were also still high numbers of Little Gulls (Hydrocoloeus minutus) out today, with a nice mixture of both adults and juveniles passing by. They are truly beautiful birds, and as I learnt today, quite special to see here in Denmark.

It’s nice to begin to see changes in the composition of species migrating – even two weeks ago during my first two migration counts there were far fewer Little Gulls compared to what we’re seeing now. I hope to continue seeing changing patterns over the next few weeks. Each day brings something new, always leaving us excited for the next.

Moths caught in the traps

This night 21 species were able to find the traps, despite the strong wind (see table). Again a Lunar Underwing (Halvmåne Jordfarvugle). The only new one for the station this season was the Beaded Chestnut (Foranderlig Jordfarvugle). A common moth, which can be found in the whole of Denmark. See the picture.

Beaded Chestnut (Foranderlig Jordfarvugle)

 At thee station: Grace Marsh, Alix Bortulussi, Ole Friies Larsen, Robert Luttik, Hanelie Sidhu