Ringmærkningen:

With the weather only getting worse over the past few days, more wind and clouds awaited us today. Still, the sky was painted in bright pinks and oranges and while opening the nets around 05:45 a.m., Lua and I were lucky enough to stop and take it all in. We could not find the moon, and thus no moon eclipse, but this was more than enough to start the day off strong. 

Due to the wind, some nets stayed closed this morning. Still, we caught several Eurasian blackcaps (Sylvia atricapilla), Lesser whitethroats (Curruca curruca), Common whitethroats (Curruca communis), a Dunnock (Prunella modularis modularis), a Eurasian pied flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) and a European robin (Erithacus rubecula). From here on out, the robins will increase in numbers throughout September on their migration southwards.

With bad weather ahead, we expected little action in our nets today. This single robin was nonetheless only the beginning of something special. 

After just four days at the station, I have learned that slower days promise special birds. When Cyann and Marek showed up from behing the hedges, both grinning from ear to ear, we knew something was up. With a rather heavy-looking bird bag in hand, Marek exclaimed “sparrowhawk!”. Although the two of them were not on ringing duty today, they had been lucky enough to stare out of the station’s window just in time to see the Eurasian sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) fly into the net. As the bird of the day, Storm arrived from migratory observations at the tip just seconds later to see it. With its brown back and wings, along with heart-shaped patterns on the breast, it was clear that the individual was a male born just this year. Sparrowhawks are often seen in gardens hunting for small birds, so we have had our fingers crossed to catch one in our nets.

Our first sparrowhawk of the season! Note its size, coloration and patterning, revealing sex and age.

The rain started before noon, so we closed the nets at 10:00 a.m. Despite the bad weather, we caught 21 birds of 7 species.

Træktællingen:

Det var en vindblæst dag på Odden, dog med en utrolig smuk solopgang i hundrede nuancer af rød og rosa.

Sopgang ved Odden. Det gør det værd at stå op klokken 5 hver morgen!

Lidt færre ænder end normalt blev talt i dag. Sortænderne (Melanitta nigra) kommer der stadig mange af og 575 individer blev talt, og af krikænder (Anas crecca) og piberænder (Anas penelope) talte vi henholdsvis 153 og 128 individer. I dag kom der til gengæld mange skeænder (Anas clypeata) forbi. Det er en art vi indtil videre kun har set et par stykker af i blandet flok, ofte med pibe- og krikænder, men i dag så vi flere større flokke fra 10 helt op til 25 individer. Troldænder (Aythya fuligula) var der også et par stykker af, 8 i alt og mere end vi har talt de sidste par dage. 

Grundet en vindstyrke over 9 sekundmeter stod vi denne gang i læ lidt længere ude på spidsen end normalt. Det gav dårligt udsyn over rovfugletrækket, men gav os derimod mulighed for at følge med i småfugletrækket. Vi talte i alt 241 landsvaler (Hirundo rustica), 26 mursejlere (Apus apus), og 124 gule vipstjert (Motacilla flava) med retning sydpå. 

Blandt havfuglene ser vi et stort træk i splitterner (Thalasseus sandvicensis) med 181 trækkende individer. Fjordternerne (Sterna hirundo) er allerede ved at være videre og kun 6 blev talt i dag. Til gengæld så vi 3 sortterner (Chlidonias niger), 3 sortstrubede lommer (Gavia arctica) og en enkelt sule (Morus bassanus) passere Odden.