Her på Skagen Fuglestations blog bringes korte nyheder i dagbogsformat om hændelser på fuglestationen.
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Goodbye Skagen, see you in spring!
Today Martin, Christina, Simon and I woke up and started cleaning the bird station. Yesterday we had already finished cleaning the lab and today we made everything clean in the apartment for next spring and also for the renovations of the walls, that will happen here in December. It was so strange to see everything packed away and made me think about the last 4 months I spent here meeting so many wonderful people and learning so much, not only about birds, from everyone.
Simon was happy to see everything so clean at the bird observatory here, but of course found some places we weren’t thorough enough…
In the afternoon Martin, Christina and I took a little walk before they left and also said goodbye to the lighthouse and to the sea. Seeing them leave was hard and Martin and I had to cry a little...
I hope to see you all again. A little family portrait :P
In the evening, Simon and I cooked a nice dinner and had a very lonely evening meeting with only two people…
I will probably stay up long to pack all my stuff and get ready for leaving tomorrow morning.
I’m happy to say that this is only my last blog for this year, because I will be coming back in February for 3 weeks! Thank you everyone for this wonderful time I had here. I’m looking forward to meeting everyone again in February!
Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området
People: Martin Grienenberger, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Amelie Zeller
So long and thanks for all the fish - birds, I mean
Martin went to World’s End 3 one last time this morning. The weather wasn’t really cooperating, as it was drizzling, and the visibility was poor. There weren't a lot of birds; however, he still enjoyed those hours, especially since he had hot tea and delicious cookies that Amelie made yesterday:
Meanwhile, we continued cleaning the station and wrapping up the ringing year. That includes counting the leftover rings, packing up equipment and cleaning the lab, checking the last remaining ringing data sheets, cleaning up the freezer, cleaning and storing away the bicycles, and taking down the base station for the ICARUS project until it can be resumed.
Once the rain stopped later in the morning, Amelie opened the nets in the lighthouse garden. We caught three Greenfinches (Grønirisk) and recaptured one Blue tit (Blåmejse). So, the three of us each got to ring one last bird:
In the afternoon we heard that a Bonaparte’s Gull had been sighted in Hirtshals, so we jumped in Martin’s car and drove there in record time. Bonaparte’s Gull is a North American species that is rarely seen here. With the overcast sky, the light was already beginning to fade quickly when we arrived, but Martin spotted it in the harbor within minutes of our arrival. Incidentally, we ran into Conny who was also twitching the bird. The gull was closer to another pier than where we were. We wanted to get a closer look and take some pictures, so we jumped back in the car to drive to the other pier. To our chagrin, we could no longer find the bird – it flew away just as we were heading over there!
We continued to search for it until it became too dark and then decided that we still had a good twitch after all, even if we only saw it for a few minutes.
When we got back to the lighthouse, a large package was waiting for us: the hoodies we ordered with the Skagen Fuglestation logo on them!
Simon got a call from a local who found a dead Greenfinch (Grønirisk) that was ringed here at the station last year in December. Simon enjoyed a nice cup of coffee with the locals and then took the bird back to the station and put it in the freezer. It will stay there until it can be analyzed for pesticides. If you find a dead bird, always feel free to let us know - we would love to have it for our records and for our research.
Tonight we enjoyed a pizza dinner with Simon and had Kirsten's champagne that she got for us - thank you, Kirsten! :)
This is my last blog entry for the station, as Martin and I will be leaving tomorrow. It really hit me when we drove back from Hirtshals this afternoon and saw the lighthouse in the dark. This place has left a profound impression on me, and I think that it will take me several weeks to process the three months I had here at the station. So many memories, so many good people! And, of course, so many amazing birds.
Many thanks to all of you who crossed paths with me. Each one of you taught me something valuable, even if our encounter was only brief!
Ringmærkering (Fyrhaven):
Grønirisk – Greenfinch: 3
Total: 3
Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området
People: Amelie Zeller, Martin Grienenberger, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Conny Jensen, Kirsten
Goodbyes, hot dogs and cookies ....
First day of our last week ! And we can't start it without our traditional sunrise picture ;-)
Most of our day was dedicated to inside works since the station needs to be ready for winter : our day menu was composed of sowing nets, sorting the pictures archive, moving furnitures to Simon’s house and to the attic and a lot of cleaning.
But of course, we don’t waste any occasion to ring a few birds ! Amelie thus opened the nets in the morning and she was rewarded with 4 birds : 1 Blue Tit (Blåmejse), 1 Great Tit (Musvit) and 2 Robins (Rødhals).
We had the first of our upcoming heartbreaking moments of the week by driving Jeppe to his train back home at noon. We had a wonderful time with you, we shared so many fun and wonderful moments. Thank you for making our stay as best as it could have been, you know how much good we think of you. We love you, man !
But we couldn't of course let him leave with an empty stomach. At least, that's the excuse we found to hit the Pulse Vogn once again and celebrate Danish hot dog culture !
Guess who ate the biggest ... And it's not necessarily the obvious one !
"Hmmm which will I eat after this one ?"
Simon's is slowly but surely taking away most of the furnitures in the Lighthouse. He even took away the living-room carpet that we asked him to leave ! I couldn't agree more with Amelie's blog post from yesterday ! Simon, you're taking all of the hygge away !!
Ringmærkering (Fyrhaven):
Rødhals – Robin – 1
Total: 1
Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området
People: Jeppe Overgaard, Martin Grienenberger, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Amelie Zeller
the last days at the Bird Observatory <3
Today I woke up at 7 to open the 2 nets we have in the garden. Esben and I started ringing a bit and had 3 birds in the first round. Then Jeppe came downstairs just to bring Esben some coffee, but he got hijacked by him, so they ringed some Greenfinches (Grønirisk) together. Here you can see a male, first year bird:
Later in the day, we ringed this pretty, female, first year Blackbird (Solsort):
After checking a lot of sheets together with Christina, I took all the remaining GPS tags in from the station garden, because we will only start tagging Blackbirds (Solsort) again in spring or autumn next year. But there’s some good news: The first Blackbird we tagged made its way to the UK a few days ago! After not being able to track it for one month we can finally see the GPS points in the animal tracker app. If you would like to find it, you can search for “Blackbird” in the app and then look for the ring number 8E16269.
We are hoping for some track points from our other 6 Blackbirds (Solsort) soon!
Simon went for a little walk today, didn’t see many birds, but a very colourful Goosander (Stor Skallesluger) and some Sanderlings (Sandløber) resting at the beach.
Martin started early sewing nets today and was later joined by Jeppe, Christina and me. In total, we fixed 6 nets today, 8 more to go now.
Esben was busy ringing today, but also cooking some delicious Tartelettes for us, which is his and Simon’s favourite food and we were all excited to try out this traditional Danish meal!
Right after sunset, Martin and Esben went for a little walk on the beach and Esben tried to catch some birds in the sea, but unfortunately only got wet. Sadly, Esben will leave again tonight and Jeppe will already leave tomorrow… It is getting quite empty here at the station, also because Simon removed all the paintings from the walls today and he will take out the carpets tomorrow, no more hygge in here :(
Ringmærkering (Fyrhaven):
Gærdesmutte - Wren – 1
Grønirisk – Greenfinch – 11
Solsort – Blackbird - 1
Total: 13
Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området
People: Jeppe Overgaard, Martin Grienenberger, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Esben Hansen, Amelie Zeller
Last day of migratory seabird counts + Æbleskiver
Today was our last day of official observations at World’s End 3. Martin, Amelie, Jeppe and I went out in the morning. The first couple of hours were quite busy, with over 2,000 Alcids! There was also a Great Northern Diver (Islom). We kept our eyes peeled for a Storm Petrel (Stormsvale), but we didn’t see any. Otherwise, it was quite calm out over the sea. Erik, Jørgen and Igor came out to visit us:
I had just left the counting spot when a Little Auk (Søkonge) passed over the tip at Grenen. Too bad I missed it! However, there was a nice Glaucous Gull (Gråmåge) sitting on the beach with the other gulls. Amelie managed to take a picture through the scope, which unfortunately isn't very sharp:
For the four of us it was a nice opportunity to enjoy each other’s company in the field. All too soon we will have to say goodbye and go our separate ways. Jeppe is leaving on Monday, and Amelie will go back to Germany next Thursday. Our time here at Skagen Fuglestation has flown by in a blur!
While we were in the field, Esben ringed in the lighthouse garden all day and caught 9 new birds. Between rounds, he got some of his work for university done. Last night, he went nightcatching with Amelie. They saw three Woodcocks (Skovsnepper) but didn’t get close enough to catch one.
There are several tasks still to do before the station closes for the winter, including sewing all of the remaining mist nets and cleaning the two apartments. Jeppe spent most of the afternoon sewing one of the nets from Kabeltromlen, which now leaves us with only 14 nets to fix.
Sadly, the field work is done – Amelie and I also took down the three nets we had at Ellekrattet, so now there will be no more ringing besides in the lighthouse garden! Martin brought back the water pipit (Bjergpiper) trap we had in Grenen, which unfortunately did not catch us any birds. We will try again next year – there must be a way to catch those water pipits (Bjergpiper)!
This afternoon Erik, Jørgen and Igor stopped by for some Æbleskiver and Glühwein. Unfortunately, Knud, Oluf, and Michael were not able to join us, but we had a couple of Æbleskiver in their honor. Or five. I lost count… Delicious, though!
Igor was also there, of course. He greatly enjoyed getting petted by everyone and even took advantage of the couch:
We are now getting ready to have dinner in Skagen. It has been a while since all of us were out together. What a great way to end the day!
Ringmærkering (Fyrhaven):
Blåmejse – Blue tit: 4
Grønirisk – Greenfinch: 1
Munk – Blackcap: 2
Fuglekonge – Goldcrest: 2
Total: 9
Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området
People: Jeppe Overgaard, Amelie Zeller, Martin Grienenberger, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Esben Hansen, Erik Christophersen, Jørgen Kabel + Igor
Årets sidste ringmærkning ved Kabeltromlen - sikke en dag.
I dag var hele temaet samlet for at ringmærke på års sidste dag ved kabeltromlen og sikke en dag.
Morgen bød på kulde og frost, men varmen fra den flotte solopgang, fik varmen tilbage i kroppen. For os alle var det én af de flotteste morgener i vores tid på fuglestationen.
Ude ved kabeltromlen afholdte Simon en live tak-for-i-år-session hvor han viste de tre skægmejser (bearded tits) vi bl.a. fangede i dag. Ligeledes kom der folk forbi for at sige farvel og på gensyn til næste år.
Foto: Søren Skov
Den sidste ringmærket fugl i år ved kabeltromlen blev en rødhals (robin). Amelie vandt vores interne konkurrence “Hvilken fugle ringmærker vi som den sidste i år”.
Som et led i nedlukning af kabeltromlen tog vi alle spejlnet ned, samt tilhørende materialer.
Med nogle gode pakke færdigheder formåede vi at have alt grej fordelt på vores fire cykler.
Efter en dejlig frokost og et velfortjent, hvil hoppede Amelie, Martin, Christina og jeg en tur i bølgen blå og sikke en oplevelse.
Vandet var som forventet rigtig frisk og opkvikkenden, men hvad vi ikke havde forventet var at vi pludselig opdagede to delfin som svømmede lige ude foran hvor vi havde badet. Det var tydelig at se de fiskede, fordi pludselig kom der en delfin op og med halen slog den en fisk op i luften - fantastisk syn.
Øresvin (Bottlenose dolphins)
Inden vi gik ind oplevede vi denne smukke måne opgang.
Her til aften holde Christina hendes session “Ringing and tagging birds for Conservation” hvilket var rigtig spændende.
Esber vil senere i aften joine temaet for weekenden, hvor vi vil nyde Ries suppe som hun kom med igår -endnu engang tak for den Rie.
God aften til alle som læser med.
Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området
Folks: Martin Grienenberger, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Jørgen Kabel & Igor, Amelie Zeller, Søren Skov, Peter Donnow, Esben Hansen og Jeppe Overgaard
Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen):
Rødhals (Robin) 1
Blåmejse (Bluet it) 10
Munk (Blackcap) 2
Skægmejse (Bearded tit) 3
Solsorte (Blackbird) 1
Sjagger (Fieldfare) 1
Total: 18
Missed a Stormpetrel, but otherwise a perfect day
For the first time in 10 days we could go ringing again finally! We all went out to the ringing station together and Martin did some inland migration counts from there. We only ringed 9 birds today, but we still had a very nice and sunny morning together.
Chaffinch (Bogfinke), male, first year
Jørgen and Igor were also with us. Peter Kristensen also came to visit today, because he and Simon had a meeting about the year report he’s going to put together. They looked at the radiotelemetry mast of the station, so maybe Peter will be in charge for activating it for next year, so we can receive signals from tagged birds in the area. During the ringing session Martin tested us in our newly acquired raptor identification skills and we had a private little raptor session today. We saw a Peregrine Falcon (Vandrefalk), Common Buzzards (Musvåge) and Sparrowhawks (Spurvehøg). We had another moment of excitement when we heard about a Leach’s Stormpetrel (Stor Stormsvale) that was seen at Grenen. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to spot it from Kabeltromlen…
We unfortunlately had to close early today, but were very happy to get the chance to meet Anders Østerby at the Ocenarium in Hirtshals today and get a private tour with him.
He showed us around and talked with us about the North Sea and also what they are working on at the moment.
This year they even built some shelters in the garden, so you can spend a night at the ocenarium in summer.
Sunfish (Klumpfisk)
Martin standingunder the skeleton of a Fin Whale (Finhval) that was found dead on the beach at Blokhus.
We could also observe the feeding of the Seals, but not only the Seals were hungry…
Tonight, Rie brought us some delicious soup she cooked for us, thank you so much! We will enjoy it tomorrow night, because when we came home from the Ocenarium, Simon surprised us with some Hot Dogs he made for us :)
Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen):
Sjagger – Fieldfare – 3
Solsort – Blackbird – 1
Jernspurv – Dunnock – 1
Blåmejse – Blue Tit – 2
Rørspurv – Reed Bunting – 1
Bogfinke – Chaffinch – 1
Total: 9
Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området
People: Martin Grienenberger, Christina Stinn, Jeppe Overgaard, Simon S. Christiansen, Rie Voetmann, Jørgen Kabel & Igor, Peter Kristensen, Anders Østerby, Amelie Zeller
What happened today?
Knud, Martin and Jeppe were migration counting today at Verden’s Ende 3. But still in the first hour they had to change the location because of the strong wind. So Knud made his way to the Kattegat Bunker and when he arrived there, Martin and Jeppe came after him, so they didn’t have to stop the counting in between. The migration today was slow and they mainly counted Alcids. Jeppe also counted all the resting birds. He was also happy to learn some aging of female Eiders (Ederfugl) with Knud.
Jeppe took a picture of this handsome male Velvet Scoter (Fløjlsand):
Christina and I stayed at home to do some indoor tasks. Christina was working on a session for us about bird ringing and conservation and I was sorting the picture archive and updating the guidelines for the new volunteers in spring.
Simon went birdwatching today (only for 10 minutes, though), he saw a Longtailed Duck (Havlit) resting close to the lighthouse. Then he had an online meeting about a project for next year about getting children into nature.
Martin and Jeppe were working on the nocturnal migration recordings in the afternoon. Jeppe is very interested to learn about the bird calls and also how to use the devices and softwares, so Martin is teaching him.
We’re looking forward to go ringing tomorrow for probably one of the last times this season…
Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området
People: Knud Pedersen, Jeppe Overgaard, Martin Grienenberger, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Amelie Zeller
What´s the title ?
Today was another indoor day for all of us since the weather wasn’t cooperating for either ringing or migratory seabird counts. As much as we enjoy spending time in the field, we need to wrap up end-of-season activities and get the station ready for winter. We took the opportunity to do a bit of cleaning around the station.
Amelie did an excellent job of tidying up and wiping down the bookshelves in our extensive library:
Look how organized it looks now:
I started to clean all of the drawers and cupboards in the kitchen. Even though we have a regular cleaning schedule here, it is amazing how crumbs and dust still manage to settle in the nooks and cracks.
Speaking of crumbs: Since we need to finish off as much food in the pantry as possible before we leave, I also decided to make some date bars today. A sweet treat on a grey November day!
Jeppe spent the morning in the attic fixing one of our mist nets. Now we only have 15 nets left at Kabeltromlen, which we will be taking down at the end of this week and try to fix before all of us leave. Jeppe also went to the lab to take the Sparrowhawk (Spurvehøg) skull from the water bath and placed it into hydrogen peroxide. That way, the solution can dissolve more of the meat and tendons over the next three or four days.
This afternoon, Martin held an informative and instructive presentation on raptor identification. I had been looking forward to this session for a while because I am terrible at identifying raptors in the field. Martin has many years of bird identification in the field and is always happy to share his knowledge with others. His presentation today was quite valuable for all of us.
We will upload a video of Martin’s session on Youtube and Facebook in the coming days, so stay tuned for updates!
I will be working on my own session over the next couple of days and will present it on Friday. I will be talking about the value of bird ringing and tagging for conservation efforts. If we have time before we leave, we will videotape the presentation as we did the other sessions and make it available online so that everyone can watch it.
Martin and Amelie are going night catching this evening and are hoping to catch another Woodcock (Skovsneppe). If they do, they will let me ring it so that all of us have ringed at least one Woodcock (Skovsneppe) during our stay – keeping fingers crossed that they have a successful night!
Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området
People: Jeppe Overgaard, Amelie Zeller, Martin Grienenberger, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn
En god dag ved vandet
Hele temaet var idag ude ved Nordstrand for at tælle trækfugle. Morgen var der ikke meget at klage over med hård vind og skyfri himmel. Fra start stod det klart at vi ville få en god dag. Alt imens vi kom på plads én efter én begyndte folk at tælle.
Martin var fast på hans teleskop, alt imens Amelie, Christina og jeg tog skift ved de to teleskoper vi har på fuglestationen.
Simon kom forbi for at sige hej og tælle med. Fuglene kom i en lind strøm og det var en god dag for Rødstrubet lom (Red-throated diver).Vi kan med glæde melde, at vi idag har haft en rekord ved at tælle 1.316 Rødstrubet lom (Red-throated diver) på en efterårsdag.
Tilbage på fuglestationen var der der forskellige opgaver at se til. Amelie havde i dag et skype-møde med en tysk biolog, da hun gerne vil skrive hendes bachelor om et projekt der omhandler at få Kirkeuglen (little owl) tilbage til naturen i de Bayerske skove.
Simon og Christina indtastede imens data fra Jennes sø. Martin arbejdede på hans session om rovfugle, som han vil afholde i morgen.
På loftet gik jeg rundt med nål, kaffe og tråd i hånden for at syn mere på de huller vi har fået i vores spejlnet. Amelie har i aften lavet lækker suppe som vi ser frem til. God aften til alle som læser med.
Tak til Erik Christoffersen for lån af billederne af den Rødstrubbet lom.
Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området
Folks : Amelie Zeller, Martin Grienenberger, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn og Jeppe Overgaard.