Hej!

Finally, the temperatures are rising and so are the chances for catching birds. Chris and I had a very cozy time in the sun and almost no wind at Kabeltomlen, not freezing anymore. Every round to check the nets resulted in some birds, so we were always busy ringing them. Most of them were Robins (Rødhals) and Chiffchaffs (Gransanger), but we also caught an adult female Yellowhammer (Gulspurv), that was ringed in 2023!

Recapture Yellowhammer (Gulspurv)

In total, it was a very successfull ringing day and it continued in the lighthouse garden after lunch with two additional Goldcrests (Fuglekonge). One profesionally ringed by Rasmus, who wants to get back into practice after not holding a bird for almost 4 years. The observers on the other hand had a rather slow day, with not much migration going on. They saw the King Eiders (Kongeederfugl), and the Glaucous Gulls (Gråmåge) again and also spotted 8 Shags (Topskarv). We also had to say goodbye to Janna this morning. She went out observing and on her way back to the lighthouse rang some birds and then had to leave to get the train back to Hamburg. We had such a great time with you!

Back at the station Simon came to pick us up for a very special mission, for which we needed to dress up a bit. South of Skagen a Sperm Whale (Kaskelothval) was washed up on the beach and we were asked to help remove it, so they could bring it to an ocean museum. This sounded just like the task volunteers from a bird observatory are made to do!

Versitile Volunteers

Latest after we saw the tiny saws, Simon packed as additional tools for the job, we suspected that something was not right. And yes, of course this was one of Simons april fools jokes! So no whale, but a lot of fun.

Later in the afternoon we went to pick up Tue from the train station and welcomed him to the team. He will stay here until Summer. After that the rest of the day went by in a second and the evening was lit by a very beautiful sunrise. We all are full of hope for a lot of birds (in the air and in the nets) tomorrow!

Highlights from the observations:

Gråmåge 2

Kongeedderfugl 2

Topskarv 8

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Gærdesmutte - 4

Rødhals - 6

Gransanger - 7

Fuglekonge - 2

Rørspurv - 1

Total = 22

Ringing (Det Grå Fyr):

Fuglekonge -2

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

People: Cora Köberle, Janna Ouedraogo, Mara Glane, Rasmus Matthiesen-Juhl, Christopher Moser-Purdy, Tue Baaner

Today we could all sleep a little longer. Because we got an extra hour of sleep with the time change.

Rasmus Olli and I went to world's end 3 to do the migration count. Because of the north wind, migration was quite slow this morning. But we found a nice Merlin (Dværgfalk) hunting on the Beach. There were many Gulls at  world's end 3 today. Among them were two(!) Glaucous Gulls (Gråmåge). Rasmus even managed to see them at once in one scopeview. When I checked the inland I saw a big flock of 16 Bearded Reedlings (Skægmejse) flying around of Kabeltromlen. Also the ringers could watch them really nicely. They had a nice ringing day today and catched some birds every round.

After lunch Janna, Mara, Rasmus and I went to Skagen to do some shopping. But first we went to the harbour. There we saw some beautiful Black Guillemots (Teiste) in summer plumage. 

chacking the harbour

When we came back we said goodbye to Olli who went back to Aalborg.             After that I baked an Apfelstrudel (kind of Apple Cake).  Janna packed up her things because she will leave tomorrow and the others went out to collect some wood for a campfire. Later I went on a little walk, thereby I was able to observe some singing Moor Frogs (Spidssnudetfrøe), which have now started mating.

When I came back the campfire was already well burning and Janna had prepared a Noodle salad and dough for Stickbread. We had a very hyggelig evening at the campfire with delicious Stickbread. 

Our hyggelit campfire

Highlights of the observations:

Gråmåge 2 

Bjergirisk 1

Skægmejse 16

Dærgkfalk 1

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Gransanger-2

Rødhals-4

Gædesmutte-2

Fuglekonge-4

Total: 12

Ringing (Jennes Sø, Michael Ancher)

Gægesmutte-1

Ringing (Nordstjernevej, Michael Ancher)

 Rødhals-1

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

People: Cora Köberle, Janna Ouedraogo, Mara Glane, Rasmus Matthiesen-Juhl, Christopher Moser-Purdy and Olli Lilja

Det barske vejr tillod desværre ikke ringmærkning eller observationer på Grenen i dag. Klokken 08.00 kunne vi se på radaren, at der kom et hul i regnvejret. Det udnyttede Janna, min fader og jeg prompte. Vi gik en tur ud langs Sardinkrattet og Sylviastien, og gjorde et stop ved Kabeltromlen, da solen pludselig tittede frem. Det resulterede i forbløffende mange fugle. To Små Skalleslugere lettede fra Skarvsøen, 12 Spurvehøge trak mod nordøst, og både Rørhøg og Blå kærhøg fouragerede over Grenen. Til sidst fik vi også set Gråmågen, der fløj nordvest langs stranden mod Nordstrand, samt en trækkende Dværgfalk. Efter en halv times tid, gik vi videre gennem Ellekrattet, op på Kapgadagung, og tilbage over Storsig, hvor vi så endnu en Blå kærhøg på jagt efter føde.

Klokken 13.00 drog min far tilbage til Grenå efter en “fremragende weekend i Skagen”. Jeg trøstespiste en Yankie bar han havde efterladt, tog et varmt bad, og begyndte, med Bob Dylan i ørerne, så at indtaste alt den data jeg mangler at få på DOFBasen fra weekenden. Midt under “The Times Are A-Changing” bankede det på døren, og jeg blev overrasket med nybagte brownies som Christopher havde bagt. LÆKKERT! 

Hertil aften holdte Janna en session om sammenhængen mellem klimaforandringer og fugletræk, med udgangspunkt i Broget Fluesnapper. Det var virkelig spændende!

Nu skal jeg i gang med Raptor summary fra de sidste par dage, det fik jeg vist nok lovet Lucas at jeg havde færdigt inden han kommer tilbage på stationen:)

Vi håber på bedre vejr i morgen!

Vi ses derude:)

Highlights fra dagen:

Lille skallesluger (2)

Gråmåge

Ringmærkning: Nordstjernevej

Gransanger (1)

Topmejse (1)

Sum of the Raptors in the area based on observations typed into Dofbasen.

Link to todays observations in Dofbasen from the Skagen area

People: Cora Köberle, Janna Ouedraogo, Mara Glane, Rasmus Matthiesen-Juhl, Christopher Moser-Purdy, Olli Lilja and Anders Rasmussen

Hei!

My name is Olli, and I come from Helsinki, Finland. I’m a biology master’s student and I’m currently on my exchange at the Aarhus University. I arrived at the Skagen bird observatory on Thursday and today was my second observing day here. The weather was good – sunshine most of the day and the sea was calm through the morning, which made it easier to look out for seabirds. It was exciting when I managed to spot the king eider (kongeedderfugl) from the sea, a lifer for me.

A beautiful glaucous gull on the beach. Photo by Olli.

Other cool species from the morning migration counts were 2 glaucous gulls (gråmåge), several shags (topskarv), merlin (dværgfalk), red kites (rød glente), jack snipe (enkeltbekkasin) and twite (bergirisk). We also spotted 4 hares running between the dunes and several seals resting on the beautiful beaches of Grenen.

We also met an interesting man from India, who came to us while we were doing the morning observation. He was interested on what we were doing and he told us that he came to Skagen because he’s a ship engine engineer and that he is waiting for his ship to arrive to Skagen and will leave later tonight and sail the ocean for 4 months. Making new friends, even in the unexpected situations, is always a good and valuable thing!

The ringing out at Kabeltromlen finally resulted in some nice birds - 14 in total. They caught some Reed Buntings (Rørspurv) and the first Blue Tit (Blåmejse) for this season.

Blue Tit (Blåmejse)

In the afternoon we biked together to the Damstederne and climbed on top of the beautiful dunes hoping to see migrating raptors from there. We spotted several buzzards (musvåge) and red kites (rød glente), sparrow hawks (spurvehøg), goshawks (duehøg), kestrels (tårnfalk) and merlin (dværgfalk). Although it was very windy, the sun was shining, and we enjoyed the afternoon there.

Enjoying the beautiful landscape of the Damstederne and observing raptors. Photo by Olli

After that we went to feed Simons chickens and had ice creams in town. When we came back to the station Janna and I went for an evening swim in the sea, which was a very refreshing after a long day.

What a day! I must say, I’m very fond of the Skagen bird observatory and the beautiful nature surrounding it. The last few days have been definitely one of the most amazing experiences of my exchange in Denmark so far.

Highlights of the observations:

Glaucous Gull (Gråmåge) - 2

King eider (Kongeedderfugl)

Merlin (Dværgfalk)

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Gærdesmutte - 1

Jernspurv - 2

Rødhals - 4

Solsort - 1

Gransanger - 1

Blåmejse - 1

Lille Dompap - 1

Rørspurv - 3

Total = 14

Ringing (Jennes Sø - Michael Ancher):

Gransanger - 1

Lille Gråsisken -1

Ringing (Nordstjernvej - Michael Ancher):

Gransanger - 1

Link to todays observations in Dofbasen from the Skagen area

People: Cora Köberle, Janna Ouedraogo, Mara Glane, Rasmus Matthiesen-Juhl, Christopher Moser-Purdy, Olli Lilja and Anders Rasmussen

Today Mara said many philosophical things. For example, “a zero count is also a count”. Luckily, we did not have a zero count today. But the ringing team was pretty close, they had only a very low numbers of birds in the nets. Therefore, they had much time to eat cookies. When we joined them from the obs there were sadly almost no cookies left. The time between the rounds was used by the ringing team to cut a birch “with great personal effort” and watch all the migrating birds.

During the morning observation we were able to see the adult King Eider (Kongeedderfugl) and the Glaucous Gull (Gråmåge). In contrast to yesterday it was possible to see the sea during the whole count. We therefore saw some more birds on the water. The songbird migration started slow. Especially the Finch-numbers stayed low over the whole day, maybe the wind was too strong for them. After hours with several thousand Chaffinches (Bogfinke) in the last days, todays count with zero to 35 Chaffinches per hour felt very strange. In one hour, we even had a similar amount of Chaffinches and Twites (Bjergirisk). After some time, the Jackdaw and Wood Pigeon migration started. Thousands of them were migrating throughout the day. Anders, who had chosen to count exactly these species, was therefore busy. We others had a calmer count.

Morning observation in wind and sun

After counting and ringing, we went out to watch the raptor migration. Their numbers were already high during our count. There we were able to see many migrating Harriers (Kærhøg), Sparrowhawks (Spurvehøg), Red Kites (Rød Glente) and a young White-Tailed-Eagle (Havørn). Some of them came very close, so we were able to study them well. That continued later in the day. We saw approximately 250 Common Buzzards (Musvåge), a young Rough-Legged-Buzzard (Fjeldvåge) and a Peregrine Falcon (Vandrefalk). Another highlight were two Goshawks (Duehøg) flying close by, followed by a group of Crows.

After that, part of the team proceeded to count at Skarvsøen. The Cormorants breeding preparations are ongoing there. In total 97 Coromorants (Skarv) were at the lake, 88 adults and 9 young ones. The area was also crowded with Adders (Hugorm), at least 14 of them were bathing in the sun. The team could also find two Caspian Gulls (Kaspisk Måge) at the lake and later on a flying one at the lighthouse.

The afternoon was defined by relaxing, napping and reading. Chris and I went on the lighthouse. It was the first time for Chris to be on there and he found it very “nice and cute”. He enjoyed it to see all the places we have been at from above there.

Rasmus and Anders were doing a trip into town. After a stop at the Harbour with Black Guillemots (Tejst) they went into a Sushi all you can eat (“we did that”). While eating dinner we others were talking about our top birds. The favourite, best, funniest, strangest looking… Or the funniest bird sounds (Dusky Thrush, Cornkrake). We also checked tomorrows weather a lot. It looks very good for migration and we have some goals. After many wrong predicitions about the Steppe Eagle (Steppeørn), he will probably appear tomorrow. Maybe together with the Golden Eagle (Kongeørn).

We are looking forward to a great migration day tomorrow!

Link to todays observations in Dofbasen from the Skagen area

Highlights from the observation

• 1 male King Eider (Kongeedderfugl)
• 1 White-Tailed-Eagle (Havørn)
• 1 Glaucous Gull (Gråmåge)
• 9 Twites (Havørn)
• 1 Little Ringed Plover (Lille Præstekrave)

Ringing (Kabeltromlen)

• Rødhals- 1
• Solsort- 1

Ringing (Jennes Sø, Michael Ancher)

• Solsort- 1
• Gransanger- 1
• Blåmejse- 1
• Lille Gråsisken (ssp. cabaret)- 1

Ringing (Nordstjernevej, Michael Ancher)

• Rødhals- 1

People: Cora Köberle, Janna Ouedraogo, Mara Glane, Rasmus Matthiesen-Juhl, Christopher Moser-Purdy, Olli Lilja and Anders Rasmussen

It was very cloudy when we went out to World’s End 3 this morning. We were just about to set up our scopes when Rasmus spotted a raptor coming in from the sea. It was an Osprey (Fiskeørn), the first one of the season. We could watch it really close flying down the beach towards Nordstrand. The passerine migration was a bit slower today and the finches were flying really high. We saw a Black-throated Diver (Sortstubet Lom) migrating and there were three Curlews resting at the tip.

In the second hour fog rolled in from the sea, the visibility became very bad and the migration on the sea slowed really down. We decided to continue the last two hours of migration count at Kabeltromeln because the seabird migration stopped and to join the ringers. But before we left we just  found the adult King Eider (Kongederfugl) again hanging around in the fogg.

Today Mara and Chris ringed some more birds than yesterday eleven in total. They catched the first Songtrush (Sangdrossel) of the season. Unfortunately it didn't want to be photographed.

Goldcrests (Fuglkonge) are so cute!

In the afternoon we welcomed Olli, a new volunteer. He will stay at the station for some Days. Later we did the data entry and Mara backed a nice lemon cake. While doing that two random farmers came by who brought us a dead Red Kite which they found in a field. 

braving the wind at Grenen

When the cake was ready we went out to Grenen to show Olli the area and to find a Pied Wagtail (Sortrygget Hvid Vipstjert). It was not hard to find it. A Pied Wagtail (Sortrygget Hvid Vipstjert) was just running around a puddle on our way. We also saw some Sanderlings (Sandløber) and Common Sandpipers (Stor Præstekrave). Maybe we will try to catch one of these cute colleagues tonight. 

In the evening Anders Rasmussen, Rasmus' father arrived who will stay there for the weekend. 

Highlights from the observations:

First Osprey (Fiskeørn) of the season

King Eider (Kongederfugl) 1

Black-throated Diver (Sortstrubet Lom) 1

Pied Wagtail (Sortrygget Hvid Vipstjert) 1

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Gransænger-1

Rødhals-1

Sangdrossel-1

Gædesmutte-2

Solsort-6

Fuglekonge-1

Total: 11

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

People: Cora Köberle, Janna Ouedraogo, Mara Glane, Rasmus Matthiesen-Juhl, Christopher Moser-Purdy, Olli Lilja and Anders Rasmussen

As the sun continues its cruel march toward an earlier sunrise every day, so too must we set our alarms earlier. Today, my alarm was set for 4:25 am but I know in a month or two that will seem like a sleep in. Mara and I headed out to the ringing site and opened the nets for 30 minutes before sunrise. We had a bit of a slower day but we caught our first Reed Bunting (Røspurv) of the season which was a nice treat.

A handsome boy - the Reed Bunting (Rørspurv)

Janna, Cora, and Rasmus headed out to observe birds at World’s End 3 a bit later than us. They had a good morning. Our good friends the King Eiders (Kongederfugl) continued their stay there - we hope they'll start paying rent soon. Our other good friend the Glaucous Gull (Gråmåge) also made an appearance right at the end, he's too loveable to pay rent. One Shag was seen (Topskarv) and a Pied Wagtail (Sortrygget Hvid Vipstjert) decided to come by as well.

Pied Wagtail a female- Sortrygget Hvid Vipstjert (Photo: Knud Pedersen)

In the afternoon, Rasmus, Janna, Kora, and I headed to Flagbakken in hopes of some good raptor migration. The raptors were fairly slow with nothing out of the ordinary but I did enjoy learning the different tit songs. We also heard a Chiffchaff (Gransanger) making the song of Spring.

Scoping out some raptors

I baked some cookies for everyone (we have a rule here that you have to make one baked treat per lifer you see, I used a loophole to bake 24 cookies - 1 per lifer). They turned out very flat (apparently that happens when your sugar ratio is too high, I've used this recipe tons of times though and never had this issue?? I'm blaming the oven) but were still enjoyable. The rest of the crew is about to head out for some pre-sunset raptor watching, everyone’s hoping to see the Steppe Eagle (Steppeørn) at some point.

Observation Highlights

Kongederfugl – 2

Topskarv – 1

Gråmåge – 1

Sortrygget Hvid Vipstjert  – 1

Sildemåge – 1

Ringing

Fuglekonge – 1

Jernspurv – 1

Gærdesmutte – 1

Røspurv – 1

Solsort – 2

Total: 6

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

People: Cora Köberle, Janna Ouedraogo, Mara Glane, Rasmus Matthiesen-Juhl, Christopher Moser-Purdy, Knud Pedersen, Simon Sigaard Christiansen, Gunnar Simonsen

Hej!

After my alarm clock woke me up today at 04:50 I immediatly checked the weather radar to see if the rainy forecast from yesterday evening was still up to date. It was and also a quick check outside the window by Chris confirmed that. So we went back to sleep for another hour in the hopes that the rain would stop eventually. It did, but only after 11 am. So this mornig we all stayed inside and rested. We of course also did some productive work for example the quality check of the DOF-Basen entries and the ringing data. Around noon Simon came by with some cake, so we had a nice and "healthy" lunch.

Nordjysk brunsviger

After that we went on a little sightseeing tour to some spots around Skagen to look for a Pied Wagtail (Sortrygget Hvidvipstjert). We found some normal White Wagtails (Hvidvipstjert), a Sparrowhawk (Spurvehøg) and some Mistle Thrushes (Misteldrossel). We also saw a flock of 35 Skylarks (Sanglærke), quite the number! On the Scoccer field we saw a huge flock of starlings (Stær) systematically foraging the field for snacks. On our way back we popped into a bakery to buy some nice fresh bread and had a quick stop at Simons house so we could look at his pet chickens.

Back to the car!

Once we got home we all sat together to have a proper lunch and ate almost all of the fresh bread we bought earlier. Janna gave some of us a lesson in Skat, Cora won - I think by accident - and now we are ready to loose some BirdLife Denmark funds in a game of Skat!

After our pizza dinner, Simon picked us up to try and cath some Woodcocks (Skovsneppe) on a horse field. The first challenge was to cross the electric fence, but that was no problem for us with a well excecuted secret-agent roll underneath. Our secret-agent skills apparently weren't enough to sneak up on the woodcocks because they flew away before we could reach them. Back to training school i guess, agent 007!

Highlights from the observation:

Sanglærke - 35

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

no ringing due to rain

Link to todays observations in Dofbasen from the Skagen area

People: Cora Köberle, Janna Ouedraogo, Mara Glane, Rasmus Matthiesen-Juhl, Christopher Moser-Purdy, Simon Sigaard Christiansen

Halløj derude

Jeg var igen til morgen en del af observationsholdet på Nordstrand, som i dag bestod af Cora, Janna, Knud og mig. Vi mødtes på Nordstrand klokken lidt i 06.00, og begyndte med det samme at tælle. Der var rigtig mange finker og siskener i luften, sortænder over havet og spurvehøge i klitrækkerne, så der var nok at gå i gang med. Dagens store overraskelser blev en mørk Alm. Kjove der kom tæt forbi mod øst og 19 topskarver, som vi kunne se fra Nordstrand, efter at Alex Sand Frich meldte dem fra Grenen

Efter en god morgen på Nordstrand, besluttede jeg mig for at tage en tur op på Kapgadagung, i håbet om store vingefang. Janna og Cora syntes også at det lød som en god ide, så de kom efter at de havde spist frokost. På Kapgadagung så vi over 100 musvåger, 2 fjeldvåger, havørn og meget mere, så det var godkendt:)

Der bliver talt musvåger på Kapgadagung

Ringmærkningen havde været god i dag, med omkring 20 fugle fanget. Der var en del dårlige runder, men også et par gode, med bla. 5 fuglekonger i et net. Årets første Dompap fandt også vej til nettet, til stor glæde for Mara og Christopher. 

Klokken 15.00 blev vi hentet af Knud. Christopher, Cora og jeg, havde nemlig sagt ja til at hjælpe Knud med at skære tagrør og pilebuske ned, ude ved Skarvsøen, De er nemlig begyndt at tage alt udsynet ved de to udsigtspunkter. Vi blev hurtigt sat ind i opgaven, og alt gik da også forrygende, indtil min fod sidder fast i en gammel rod på bunden, og jeg laver en maveplasker ude i søen. Jeg fik omkring 2 liter vand ned i mine waders, og jeg var gennemblødt fra top til tå. Det hjalp dog på humøret at Knud havde taget en fanta med til os hver, som vi kunne nyde i solskinnet med udkig over Skarvsøen:)

Mine bukser efter en tur i Skarvsøen

I morgen bliver det regnvejr, men vi håber på at vi kan komme ud alligevel!

Nu skal vi spise aftensmad og jeg glæder mig!

Highlights from the observation:

Almindelig Kjove

Topskarv (19)

Atlingand (2)

Grønspætte

Bogfinke (7128)

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen):

Link to todays observations in Dofbasen from the Skagen area

People: Cora Köberle, Janna Ouedraogo, Mara Glane, Rasmus Matthiesen-Juhl, Christopher Moser-Purdy, Knud Pedersen

Because of the windy weather, the ringing team decided to keep the nets closed today. With wind gusts up to 63 km/h the prospect for catching birds was very low. Nevertheless, the observation team headed motivated and with tailwind to Nordstrand. We chose this obs locality because we expected the strong eastwinds to push all the birds out to the west. However, we did not presume any passerine migration. This was already on our way to Nordstrand proved wrong- we saw several flocks with finches, fighting above our heads with the wind. Im contrast to the finches the geese and swans were intimidated by the wind and occurred in very low numbers.

The first hour went over with a high number of common scoters (sortand)- 1500 of them were migrating east. In general, the majority of todays birds was migrating east. Continuing yesterday’s trend we saw many goosanders (stor skallesluger). A highlight of the seabirds was a pair of garganeys (atlingand) migrating close to the shore. They were the first for the season and compared to other years very early. It was only the fourth March record for Skagen, the earliest one here is from the 17th of March 1973.

It was not that cold, but with the wind we were all happy that we brought handwarmers with us. During the count we also made some ten-second walks to warm our feet. Then the observation went on again. In general, we are here very exposed to the weather. Luckily it was often sunny during the last weeks. In today´s sun we could watch many of the birds very beautifully. One highlight were two hen harriers (blå kærhøg). We saw an adult and a young male flying around and showing up every now and then in the sun. Especially the adult, grey-black male was a sight for sore eyes.

Close above our heads- sometimes on eye level- there were finches over finches. It was impressive to see so many of them so close. The finches flew over in small flocks, however they added up to several thousand.

When we came back, Chris and Mara were waiting for us with hot cocoa. Lucas had meanwhile left. He is now for a week in the south, searching for wheatears and bustards. In the afternoon Mara, Cora and I went on a walk to overhaul the electricity fence around a radar tower. That was a nice walk and we were able to see a common snipe (dobbeltbekkasin) and several frogs.

At the radar tower

After sunset we tried to catch some plovers. Since the fox was already on the beach before us, the plovers were all well hidden. Therefore, we did not found any plover. It was still nice to be outside, listen to all the night noises and watch the stars.

Hope to catch a Snipe

Highlights from the observation

• 2 very early Garganeys (Aatlingand)
• 10 migrating Kestrels (Tårnfalk)
• 3300 Chaffinches (Bogifnke)
• 7 Red Crossbills (Lille Korsnæb)
• 2110 Siskins (Grønsisken)

Link to todays observations in Dofbasen from the Skagen area

People: Lucas Corneliussen, Cora Köberle, Janna Ouedraogo, Mara Glane, Rasmus Matthiesen-Juhl, Christopher Moser-Purdy, Knud Pedersen