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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Our morning was dedicated to another kind of birding this morning : storm birding ! It consists in sitting on the same spot a whole morning looking for the eventual scarce pelagic bird you really want to see while you don't see any other  bird crazy enough to fly in that kind of weather. And unfortunately, that bird might never want to show its pretty face to those crazy birders sitting in a ferocious wind for hours …

That’s pretty much how our morning went at Buttervej. We saw at most 40 birds during 4 hours of sea watching while the most wanted Leach’s Petrel was seen in Grenen. Sometimes it’s just about luck !

Tea break time in the car before going in the storm

Simon joined us for a while, and then went to Nordstrand to try to see Storm Petrels with Knud, joined by Erik alter on.

In the afternoon, we worked on pretty diversified activities : Jeppe and Amelie cleaned and put some stuff away in the attic and the birder’s club, Christina took some nets dowckn in kabeltromlen, and I was working on the session I’ll run in the next few days.

Jeppe carried on with his skull work, and it looks like a pro job.

Pernille had sadly to go back to Aalborg but we hope to see her again next weekend !

In late afternoon, Amelie and I went out again for night catching, hoping to be as successful as last night. And it went even better than yesterday ! We caught 2 Woodcocks tonight ! This time, the 2 birds were adults and it was quite interesting to check on the features after the 1^st year from last night.

Ringmærkning (Grenen):

Skovsneppe - Woodcock: 2

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området

Folks : Jeppe Overgaard, Amelie Zeller, Martin Grienenberger, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Marian & Michael Ancher og Pernille Roed, Knud Pedersen, Erik Christophersen

I dag kunne vi alle sove længe, da blæsten og regnen ikke gjorde det muligt for os hverken at ringmærke eller at tælle fugletrækket på Grenen. Så var det godt, at vi havde planlagt en “Kom med på møgvejrs-tur” i stedet for. 

Møgvejrs-turen er startskuddet til DOF’s nye projekt “Formidling på tværs af generationer”, som for alvor bliver sat i gang i januar 2021. Projektet går ud på at få flere børn ud i naturen, og hvem er bedre til at formidle end forældre og bedsteforældre? Derfor er planen at give inspiration til sjove og spændende aktiviteter for børnene. Det hele bliver samlet på en ny hjemmeside, som i skrivende stund er ved at blive udarbejdet. Stay tuned for mere information. 

Jeppe, Amelie, Simon og Pernille brugte lidt af morgenen på at gøre klar til turen, og kl. 10.00 begyndte vi online-streamingen. Vi startede med at gå ned på stranden for at samle ting, som vi ville undersøge - kunne de mon flyve eller flyde? Efter nogle sjove test af vores fund, gik vi ind i klubhuset for at drikke varmt saftevand samt male fugle. 

For at male fuglene helt korrekt brugte vi DOF’s Fuglebog, som er en rigtig fin gratis app, man kan bruge til at lære om fugle. Udover at man kan få hjælp til at identificere de fugle, man har set, kan man også krydse fuglene af, således man kan lave en liste over sete arter. 

I samme øjeblik som vi afsluttede turen, ankom et par familier til Det Grå Fyr. Simon fortalte dem om ringmærkning samt viste vinger og fødder fra forskellige fugle frem. Især børnene syntes det var ret spændende. 

Du kan se Møgvejrs-turen på vores side på Facebook. 

Hjemme på Det Grå Fyr arbejdede Christina og Martin på deres video-sessions. På mandag vil Martin fortælle os om, hvordan man identificerer rovfugle, og torsdag vil Christina fortælle om, hvordan ringmærkning og gps-sendere kan bruges til at monitorere og beskytte truede fuglearter. Begge video-sessions vil blive uploadet på youtube. 

Over middag gik Amelie, Martin og Christina i gang med at reparere net oppe på loftet, så vi kan blive klar til forårssæsonen, alt imens Jeppe, Simon og Pernille tog ind til Skagen for at handle ind. Vi skulle blandt andet bruge nogle kasser til at pakke laboratoriet ned, således det kan blive istandsat inden foråret. 

Vi fik også besøg af Michael Ancher, som medbragte dejlige kanelsnegle, som hans kone havde bagt til os. De smagte himmelsk - tusind tak :-) 

Da mørket faldt på, gik Jeppe i gang med at lave mad, og Martin og Amelie tog på natfangst. De fangede dagens eneste fugl - en fin skovsneppe, hvilket især Amelie var glad for, da det var første gang, hun prøvede at ringmærkede sådan en. 

Herefter var det tid til aftensmad. Udover at tale om alle dagens sjove oplevelser, talte vi om danske ordsprog samt hvad de betyder. Eftersom de fleste frivillige på fuglestationen kommer fra forskellige lande, taler vi altid engelsk sammen, og det blev til mange grin af ordsprogene, når de blev oversat til engelsk.

Ringmærkning (Grenen):

Skovsneppe - Woodcock: 1

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området