Here come the birds !

The birds were here today, we rang 80 of them : with almost no wind and a cloudy sky they decided to stop on the island. We caught the first Løvsanger of the season so the others should start to arrive in the coming days; Unfortunately we won't get to meet them as we're leaving tomorrow morning. This bird arriving the 15th of April is among the early one. The earliest løvsanger ever caught was ringed the 11th of April in  2024. The median date of arrival between 2000-2024 is 22nd of April.

A beautiful male Dvergfalk stayed on the island for the whole day. We first saw him in the morning as well as several times throughout the days, and again at dusk.
We finally caught a beautiful male Tornirisk today (we only caught ones with almost no red on the chest before that). The most colourful ones are all ringed so they know the trick and don't get caught again but this one forgot all about it today ! It's not my favourite of them, which is even more flamboyant (and has thus been nicknamed "Vanille-fraise" because his chest has the colours of vanilla and strawberry ice cream) but it was a very beautiful bird anyway. They are not uncommon in France too but we usually catch them in the summer when their colours tend to get a bit dull, so getting this one was a joyful event.

Birds ringed today : Gjerdesmett : 13, Jernspurv : 1, Rødstrupe : 30, Svarttrost : 2, Måltrost : 3, Munk : 1, Gransanger : 15, Løvsanger : 1, Fuglekonge : 9, Bjørkefink : 1, Tronirisk : 2, Brunsisik : 2