After our successful evening seawatch yesterday, I was excited to start the day with the migration-count at Grenen accompanied by Mio and Jule. We were hoping, that the strong westerly winds might have blown some interesting seabirds to Skagen. Sadly that weather conditions also meant, that ringing at Kabeltromeln became impossible because no nets could be opened. Good for Pauline though, as she was able to enjoy some extra-sleep.

Mio walking to World's End 3 in the sunrise.

We started the count with some more or less stationary Gannets (Sule), terns (terner) and gulls (måger). But not much time had to pass, until we spotted a bunch of Fulmars (mallemuk) flying in bows far out at the horizon. I don’t get to see Fulmars that often, so identifying them in flight on greater distances was a bit challenging at first but started to work out quiet well as more and more fulmars started to appear in the distance.  At some point I spotted a bird which flight in bow arches reminded me of the Fulmar (Mallemuk) flight I just learned, but looked a bit different. More agile and fast in its movement and the wings seemed to be thinner and more pointy at the end. That’s a Sooty Shearwater (Sodfarvet skråpe)! One of the species we were hoping for this morning.

There were also some interesting birds passing in shorter distance like two Long-tailed Skuas (Lille Kjove), of which one was so close at the beach, we thought it might join the local gull-roost. The Long-tailed, had a hard time moving west against the wind, while being passed by some ultra-speedy Arctic Skuas (Almindelig Kjove). More calm and steady in flight were two Great Skuas (Stor kjove) which looked like they didn’t even noticed it was windy. As time passed migration kept slowing down and we made our way back to the lighthouse.

Mio proudly shared the chocolate-wrap recipe and I have to admit, that it wasn’t that bad like I expected. Turns out one toasted wrap with exactly three pieces of chocolate as its topping tastes really good! Saturday is cleaning day, so we continued with cleaning the station and the lab.

After cleaning Jule had a look at Kattegat from the old bunker. She had a good time watching some waders like Sanderlings (Sandløber), Dunlins (Almindelig Ryle) and Red Knots (Islandsk Ryle) at the beach, which might become interesting for nightcatching the next days. On the water there were Arctic Skaus (almindelig kjove) and a Great Skua (Stor kjove) passing by towards Grenen. That’s were my and I decided to again have a look at the water. We again saw quite a few Fulmars (Mallemuk) (this time even a bit closer), some Artic Skuas (Almindelig Kjove) , three Long-tailed Skuas (Lille Kjove) and five Great Skuas (Stor Kjove). That was just awesome:)

When we came back to the station a pleasant smell welcomed us. Pauline had decided to bake cinnamon rolls and a pie. A nice surprise.

Beautiful Cinnamon Rolls with white chocolate and raspberries. Pauline is a real baking wizard!

In the evening Nils Eriksen, Stig Frediksen and Grethe came to visit the station and prepared a delicious dinner. Thanks again for that! They then carried on with a guided night excursion to Grenen by Nils, which Mio and Pauline joined. They also planned to scout the beach for roosting waders (Vadefugl).

Highlights of the observations:

No Ringing today :(

 Link to today's observations in the Dofbasen from observers in the area.

People: Mio Brix, Simon S. Christiansen, Pauline Nähring, Hannes Schäfer, Jule Tappe, Niels Eriksen, Grethe and Stig Frederiksen

Westerly winds shook the lighthouse windows this morning. I woke up to meet Páll at Kabeltromlen and open nets for ringing. Because of the wind, we were quickly finished because about a quarter of our netmeters had to stay closed. For the first round, Simon, Pauline, Sophie, Grethe and Stig arrived. Considering the wind, we actually had a very good day, especially in terms of species: Two Bullfinches (Dompap) and a Red-Backed Shrike (Rødrygget Tornskade) kept us entertained even though the numbers were low.

Simon, Sophie, Pall and me admiring a bird.

A very pretty first year Bullfinch of the subspecies europaea (Lille Dompap). Foto: Pauline Nähring

After closing the nets, I went to work with a hedge cutter. Under the nets, grass and reed had been growing. Now, the nets don’t get tangled anymore!

Freshly cut reeds below the net. It looks chaotic but I swear, it's a clean cut! Foto: Jule Tappe.

In the meantime, Mio and Knud had a very succesfull morning at World’s End 3 during the migration count. In the second hour, there was a Long-tailed Skua (Lille Kjove) that was later joined by three more! There was also a Great Skua (Stor Kjove), a Little Gull (Dværgmåge) and some migrating Kittiwakes (Ride) around.

After these enjoyable morning activities, we entered data at the station and welcomed Hannes, who will stay at the station for a couple of days. Then, we held a Shuffle Ball tournament. In the game, you have to slide a game piece over the board as far as possible, but not too far. The further you slide, the more points you get.

Mio and Pauline playing the Shuffle Board Game. Foto: Jule Tappe.

At this point, I would really like to present you all the game results and the overall winner, but unfortunately, I can only remember that I lost all games. Maybe we should repeat soon.

In the late afternoon, I went for a walk around Ellekrattet and Storsig, enjoying the nice weather before the rain tomorrow. Highlights were Wheatears (Stenpikker) and a Stonechat (Sortstrubet Bynkefugl). However, a little further North, Mio and Hannes were birdwatching on a different level: While quickly checking Nordstrand for the Surf Scoter (Brilleand), they didn’t only find it: They also got very good views of a Black Tern (Sortterne) two of the Long-tailed Skuas (Lille Kjove) from the morning and even a Manx Shearwater (Almindelig Skråpe)! And all of this in the span of 30 minutes!

After this intense evening, we had a late dinner and are excited about tomorrow. I hope we will still see many birds, even though the westerly winds are increasing. So this is the perfect time to put the endless birder’s optimism to use!

 Link to today's observations in the Dofbasen from observers in the area.

People: Sophie Booker, Mio Brix, Simon S. Christiansen, Páll Vang Kjærbo, Pauline Nähring, Hannes Schäfer, Jule Tappe, Grethe and Stig Frederiksen

Today I got up early again to open the nets at Kabeltromlen, where Páll was already waiting for me to help me out. Jule also joined for the first ringing round and we had a good variety of birds. A Robin (Rødhals) was already waiting for us in the nets while we were opening them which was a nice start to the morning.

We caught 19 new birds in total, including a Blue Tit (Blåmejse), a lot of Blackcaps (Munk), Common Whitethroats (Tornsanger).... and a Dunnock (Jernspurv) which was definitely our highlight for today.

 

 

Somehow, all the blog posts I write seem to start with a night-catching story. This time, Simon went to Volsted with Johan to catch Great Snipe (Tredækker). And they were very successful, catching two Great Snipes! One of them was a recapture from our catching session a few days ago and it had even increased in weight by 5 grams!

The already known 1K Great Snipe (Tredækker) with 5 more grams on the scale! Photo by Simon S. Christiansen

The first ones who got up this morning were Jule and Pauline, who opened the nets at Kabeltrommlen. A bit later, Sophie, Páll and Simon joined them. In total, they didn’t catch that many birds, but they still enjoyed the morning with some Redstarts (Rødstjert), and even the next Red-backed Shrike (Rødrygget Tornskade) flew into the net. It’s always a mix of excitement and a healthy dose of respect for just how bitey these little birds can be. But in this case, the bird was more chilled and not that bitey, also because it was a young bird, which are mostly not as bitey as the adults.

Young Red-backed Shrike (Rødrygget Tornskade). Photo by Pauline Nähring

The advantage of going on migration count is (apart from all the cool birds you can get, of course) that you can’t get bitten by birds in the hand. Okay, yes, that’s really obvious, I agree, but I’ve been searching for a good linking sentence from the ringing to the observations at World’s End 3, which Knud and I took care of. Today, I already got some feelings of autumn migration with some migrating Meadow Pipits (Engpiber), and the first Kittiwakes (Ride) also began to migrate. Especially the young birds are just so pretty, and I always enjoy watching them! Apart from these birds, the highlight of the count was definitely a Merlin (Dværgfalk), which was coming straight in from the sea.

Afterwards, we headed back and went grocery shopping with Simon. On our way back, we stopped at Nordstrand to look for the Surf Scoter (Brilleand), and yes! We saw it again! Not as well as yesterday, but it was still cool to see! 

Observing the Surf Scoter (Brilleand) from Nordstrand. Photo by Simon S. Christiansen

In the afternoon, we did our daily routine with data entry, napping, and then, in the evening, Pauline prepared a delicious dinner as well as a delicious apple crumble, while Jule sewed a net at Kabeltrommlen and I walked out to Cape Gadagong and got to see a Merlin (Dværgfalk).

And with the apple crumble in our stomachs, this day at Skagen Fuglestation comes to an end, and we are all looking forward to seeing what the next days will bring!

Highlights of the observation:

Surf Scoter (Brilleand)-1

Merlin (Dværgfalk)-1

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Total: 24

Link to today's observations in the Dofbasen from observers in the area.

People: Mio Brix, Jule Tappe, Pauline Nährung, Knud Pedersen, Simon S. Christiansen, Johan Funder, Jørgen Kabel, Grethe and Stig Frederiksen

Another sunrise, another day of birdwatching and -ringing. But that’s not totally true, since the bird observatory never really sleeps. As you might know from yesterday’s blog, we tried to catch storm petrels (Lille Stormsvale) last night on the beach and Nightjars (Natravn) in the old lighthouse garden. Unfortunately, only one of those goals was reached and we caught two first-year Nightjahrs before midnight. This number the 21st and 22nd Nightjar of the season which is a new station’s record! The elusive ghosts of the sea, the storm petrels, did not visit us though. All of us had been really hopeful because one more bird would have been the tenth of the season, but we had no luck. Also, this might have been the last night of setting up nets on the beach so our last chance is now gone. But there is no reason to be disappointed! The season has already been great for Storm Petrels and Pauline’s night shift was not withouth events. At around 2 am, an adult male Common Redstart (Rødstjert) was caught in the Nightjar net. This was one of several more to come for the day.

One of the Nightjars (Natravn) caught on the evening of the 31st of August. Foto: Jule Tappe.

In the morning, I opened the nets at Kabeltromlen while Mio and Pauline took down the nets on the beach. I was met by Oluf for the first round; the two of us took care of the ringing together today. Jørgen Kabel and our guests Grethe and Stig Frederiksen were very nice company in between rounds. Actually though, we didn’t have so much time to chat and quite some birds to ring with several Robins (Rødhals), Blackcaps (Munk), Garden Warblers (Havesanger) and the already mentioned Redstarts (Rødstjert). There was even a beautiful Tree Pipit (Skovpiber) and the first Coal Tit (Sortmejse) of the autumn season.

A very pretty Coal Tit (Sortmejse) at Kabeltromlen. Hopefully the first of many. Foto: Jule Tappe.

Mio had everything under control and World’s End 3 doing the migration count. He saw some Arctic Skuas (Almindelig Kjove), a Cuckoo (Gøg) and a Hen Harrier (Blå Kærhøg). One highlight were four Orcas (Spækhugger), one male and three females, that he spotted in the sea. However, this was not the most exciting thing that swam on the waters of Grenen. Knud was on his way to birdwatch at Skarvsøen when he looked over the sea at Nordstrand to search for the Orcas. While he was unsuccesull in finding them, he found something else instead: In a flock of Common Scoters (Sortand), he found a male Surf Scoter (Brilleand). Just like me, it looks like it’s wearing glasses due to the white spots on its head (except for the fact that my glasses are real and not white spots). It is a vagrant duck from North America and a pretty one too! After the count, Mio walked to Nordstrand to also see it and he was later joined by Oluf and me, who was so kind to take me with him in his car. There, we good views of its striking white nape and base of beak as it went up and down with the waves.

A male Surf Scoter (Brilleand) in a flock of Common Scoters (Sortand) at Nordstrand. Foto: Mio Brix.

The puppy Odin was happy after ticking Surf Scoter (Brilleand) on his Life-list

After this exciting morning, we all came back to the lighthouse and continued our daily routines: Taking a nap and entering data. One time-consuming task today was also updating the picture archive. Because all of the nice pictures that you see here naturally have to be transfered, sorted and named.

In the late afternoon, I took a walk to Kabeltromlen to pick up my bike that I left there earlier. On my way there, I checked all the White Wagtails (Hvid Vipstjert) in the parking lot of Grenen for ones with rings since we caught quite a few of them last month. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any. Back at the station, we enjoyed a delicious dinner cooked by Mio and shared funny stories of our stays at different bird observatories.

Now, it has become quiet at the station. Everyone is tired from the past days of nightcatching and has to regain energy for the next days. There is one person, however, who apparently has no need for sleep: Simon is trying to catch Great Snipes (Tredækker) again and we are all hoping to wake up tomorrow to new photos of these amazing birds in the group chat. If you haven’t seen a Great Snipe yet, you should check out our blog post from 30th of August.

Total: 22

Link to today's observations in the Dofbasen from observers in the area.

People: Mio Brix, Sule Tappe, Pauline Nähring, Oluf Lou, Simon S. Christiansen, Grethe and Stig Frederiksen, Odin

After a few months away I’m finally back at Skagen Fuglestation! This time I’ll be staying for a whole month until the beginning of October and the first days have already been full of exciting observations, ringing and meeting new people :)

 

Like the title reveals, this day started at midnight, quite far away from our lovely Skagen area, in Volsted, where we were very happy that we had already caught three great snipes before midnight! Wow! This excitement is summarized in a poem that Jule wrote:

An ode to Tredækker

A Tredækker is a snipe
But not of normal kind
Because it's really great.
To catch, you have to come out late
With the bright moon above.
You can't help but feel love.
Its brown the most magnificent in town.
Its barred belly covering up yellow fat,
Making it feel round in your hand,
Like a handball
But prettier.
With a ring on its leg,
It flies out into the night.
Safe travels and goodbye!

Great Snipe (Tredækker). Photo: Simon Kiesé

This blog should also be used to give our readers some interesting information about birds and to show you a small part of what we learn every day up here.

Ageing of Great Snipes (Tredækker) :

Young (1K) Great Snipe (Tredækker) tail: notice the obvious barring on the outermost tail feathers...  Photo: Simon Kiesé

...and compare it here with an adult (2K+) bird. Look how clean and white the outer tail feathers are on this bird!  Photo: Simon Kiesé

And as you might already know, a night-catching session at Skagen Fuglestation never ends early, so we went to another field, and there we also succeeded very well! Our station head, Simon S. Christiansen (SSC), had built a new, big and long hand net a few weeks ago, inspired by the hand net of the skilled night catcher Johan Funder.

The moment of catching a Quail (Vagtel). Video taken with thermal monocular.

With this hand net, SSC and Páll caught a Corn Bunting (Bomlærke) and two Quails (Vagtel). You could really see how amazed they were! And, of course, they had every reason to be. Just look how pretty the Quails are:

Quail (Vagtel), young male. Photo: Simon Kiesé

2cy.+ Corn Bunting (2k Bomlærke). Photo: Simon Kiesé

After a loooong trip back to the beautiful lighthouse, Simon Jr. and Pauline immediately went to Kabeltrommlen and opened the nets, while Knud (our local legend) took care of today's migration count at World's End 3. What he saw, you will find in the link to DOFbasen below...

Today, there weren't many birds in the nets. Maybe they were on a night tour as well and had all fallen asleep now?! However, after a few rounds, I joined them and helped close the nets, so that we could all go to our well-deserved sleep.

Sleep! Yes, there are no more words needed to describe what happened in the afternoon...

But with time, we all woke up, and we could already smell the cinnamon rolls that Pauline had baked for her delicious dinner earlier! What a lovely way to wake up!

And now, we can already see that the sky is getting dark again. Somehow, there is once again the smell of our next night-catching tour in the air. Tonight, we will see if we can catch more waders at the Cormorant Lake (Skarvsøen).

We will let you know in the next blog post how it went!

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

   Total: 12

After my fascination for the young Pallid Harrier (Steppehøg) we saw yesterday (they are so pretty!) the others were making jokes about me seeing “50 shades of brown” in its plumage. Today’s theme was 50 shades of grey. The morning started with low hanging whitish fog and grey clouds over KAB. Finally, the first Common Whitethroats (Tornsanger) in the nets brought some warm colours in the day. When Willow Warblers (Løvsanger) showed up, the colours got even brighter and warmer and the sun warmed our faces.

Walking a net check in the morning sun.

The rather strong southerly winds reasoned the low number of birds this morning, so the company of Odin and Igor (Simon’s and Jørgen’s dogs) was very welcome. Igor stole Odins toy and proudly presented it to Jørgen. At the meanwhile, Odin seemed unimpressed by this theft and rather tried to play with his old friend.

We were happy to see an adult (2K+) Willow Warblers (Løvsanger) after catching many young ones the past days.

Adult Willow Warbler (Løvsanger). The white belly with distinct yellow streaking differs to young birds that are more washed yellowish.

Wing of the old Willow Warbler (Løvsanger). The moult limit in the secondaries shows that this bird suspended its complete moult. A clear sign for adults of this species, which does two complete moults every year.

Mio and James started their day at World’s End 3 and were later accompanied by Knud. The counters enjoyed the four Arctic Skuas (Almindelig Kjove) passing by. As yesterday, several Ducks, mostly Common Scoter (Sortand) but also some Teals (Krikand) and one Shoveler (Skeand) decided that it’s finally autumn and a good idea to migrate. Suddenly, 5 Pale-bellied Brent Geese (Lysbugget Knortegås) headed southeast. The first ones of the season and the first ones of this subspecies for Mio!

Saturday is cleaning day and we used the opportunity of Simon giving us a lift to buy groceries at the shop. This enabled Mio to continue his passion for eating chocolate wraps. Jule’s new passion is cricket. I don’t know what James did to her, but she mentioned this sport all day and was very upset, when the game was interrupted due to rain.

Mio doing deep cleaning.

It was another day of delicious dinner, handmade by James. It already looked amazing and the taste convinced me as well. He made burgers, put Hummus and Jam on the Bread Rolls, a mushroom patty filled with onions and some Halloumi on top. Can someone hire him as the stations chief,
please? Please!?

Pauline presenting James’s delicious dinner.

With lucky stomaches we prepared to drive down to Støvring to try to ring Great Snipes (Trædekker). We are very excited, but you - dear friends of the blog - have to wait for tomorrow’s post to see if we succeeded. Spoiler: the night was awesome!

Since I leave the station on Monday, I don’t want to miss this last opportunity to say one more time thank you to the volunteers, Simon Sr., the guests and locals for the great company. It felt so familiar to be back here the fourth year in a row and this stay was one more special experience with great birds and people. I know that the autumn team will continue doing a great job and enjoy great autumn birds. I can’t wait to read the next blog posts. Do you feel the same?

Link to today's observations in the Dofbasen from observers in the area.

People: Mio Brix, Simon Kiesé, Pauline Nähring, Jule Tappe, James Wareing, Páll Vang Kjærbo, Henrik Møller Thomsen, Simon S. Christiansen.

This morning, we had a bit of a team-building exercise. Since the wind was to strong for opening nets at Kabeltromlen, we all went out to World’s End 3 for migration count. Company-wise, the count was – of course – very entertaining. Bird-wise, it was lacking in excitement for the first part, so we started admiring Common Scoter (Sortand) flocks of different sizes. But then, birdwatching again proved how unpredictable it is: Coming in from the sea, there was a slim raptor. We only got a short view over the water, but then it got closer over the dunes migrating landwards and we got good sights of a very nice bird: A first year Pallid Harrier (Steppehøg)! While this species is a frequent sight in spring, it is a rather rare bird for late summer/autumn. It was first time since 2023 a Pallid Harrier (Steppehøg) was recorded in the area. I was extremely happy about this since I didn’t expect to see this species in my time here. And especially the first-year plumage is really magnificent (or as Simon K. would say: „snazzy“ because of all the different shades of brown). Simon Sr., who had left World’s End 3 earlier due to the lack of birds, luckily also managed to see the Harrier from Højen Fyr where it was migrating west.

Pallid Harrier (Steppehøg) over the dunes of Grenen. Foto: Simon Kiesé.

After this, the last part of the count passed quickly with a notable number of ducks, especially Teal (Krikand) and Widgeon (Pibeand).

Back at the lighthouse, Mio, Simon and I warmed ourselves up with hot cups of tea and entered data. Simon also took care of some very pleasant business: He entered Dotterels (Pomeransfugl) on Dofbasen since we found their calls on the passive recorder near Kabeltromlen. One flew over the area close to midnight on the 17th of August.

Recording of the first Dotterel (Pomeransfugl) on xeno canto.

Two others came in the night of the 23th over Kabeltromlen. Hopefully we’ll get that species in the field soon.

James was at Skarvsøen to watch some waders. It was a worthy visit with Wood Sandpipers (Tinksmed), Ruffs (Brushane) and a couple of Greenshank (Hvidklire) in the area.

After lunch, everyone took a nap since we weren’t sure yet whether we would go out during the night. Just before I was wrapping up my R session (we love statistics at this station), Pauline arrived! She is a new volunteer coming from Berlin and will stay here until early October. The first thing Simon Sr. told us about was her experience with bat monitoring so next time we have a bat in the net (like yesterday), we now have an expert to call!

In the late afternoon, Mio, Simon and James went down to the exhibition and played the games there, like throwing balls at birds. We highly recommend the exhibition, it is very fun! By then, Simon Sr. had decided that due to rain during the night, we would not go nightcatching for Great Snipe (Tredækker). So we settled in for a chill night. While Mio and Simon Jr. were cooking dinner, James and I watched England play against Pakistan in cricket. He explained the game to me and I now learned a bunch of new hyper-specific cricket related words. Even though watching the game was quite interesting, I think I will stick to birdwatching.

After dinner, we all started relaxing evening activities, like writing this blog while Simon is playing (or attempting to play) guitar in the background.

The strong wind and many cups of tea made this day feel like the first autumn day. Except for the Pallid Harrier (steppehøg), of course. It was a moment of spring-like sunshine on this cloudy day.

No Ringing today. :(

Link to today's observations in the Dofbasen from observers in the area.

People: Mio Brix, Simon S. Christiansen, Simon Kiesé, Pauline Nähring, Jule Tappe, James Wareing

 

 

Video showing flight on distance of the Black-winged Kite (Blå Glente)

The Black-winged Kites have expanded north rapidly resent years. Last year there was a breeding attempt in western Jutland, and this year in northern Germany around 10 pairs have been reported in Sleswig-Holstein!