It was too windy to ring at Kabeltromlen today, so Amelie, Chris, and Aurora decided to try to catch Snow Buntings (Snespurv) at the beach in Grenen.

There was a nice flock of Snow Buntings on the beach that was merrily going about its business, but never seemed to want to go too close to the nets. As the morning wore on, more tourists came onto the beach and began to investigate the nets, which didn’t help matters. Around noon, the ringers tried to “herd” the Snow Buntings into the net from several sides, and for a moment it looked like the birds were going to fly straight into the mesh – but when the Buntings were 20 meters away, they suddenly rose higher up in the air and flew over the nets. Well, it was a sunny and windy day today, and the nets were quite visible. So, Snow Buntings: 1, Ringers: 0.

Next time, we will go out earlier when there are fewer tourists around. The early ringer catches the bird! Hopefully, it will be less windy then and somewhat overcast skies wouldn’t hurt, either.

I went to World’s End 3 this morning for migration counting. I joined Martin and Knud a little later than usual because I had a translation job to finish. Before I arrived, Martin and Knud saw two Little Auks (Søkonge) and a Pomerine Skua (Mellemkjove) – too bad I missed them! But we had nice numbers all morning, with over 600 Northern Gannets (Sule) and more than 5,500 Razorbills (Alk).

Last night, Chris and Aurora caught a juvenile Great Black-backed Gull (Svartbag) and an adult male Common Scoter (Sortand) – very exciting! Aurora has some pretty mean-looking bruises on her hands and arms because the Great Black-backed Gull was quite feisty. But she has a lot of experience ringing seabirds (including gulls), so she did not shy away from the job.

We are going night catching again this evening – this time, we are targeting a more challenging group of birds: owls! Stay tuned for updates, we will certainly let you know if we catch anything. Perhaps a Short-eared Owl (Mosehornugle)?

No Ringmærkning data for today.

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

People: Aurora Gonzalo-Tarodo, Chris Ketola, Martin Grienenberger, Knud Pederson, Amelie Zeller, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Jørgen + Karin 

After a night of heavy rain, the trails around the ringing station were very muddy and flooded. Ringing was quite slow for most of the morning, however we did catch a large flock of Coal, Great and Blue Tits (Sortmejse, Musvit, Blåmejse).

Martin, Christina and Knud had a much more exciting day highlighted by many rarities including a Gray Phalarope (Thorshane), one Puffin (Lunde), White-billed and Great Northern Divers (Hvidnæbbet Lom and Islom), Pomarine Skua (Mellemkjove) and a light morph Arcitc Skua (Storkjove).

Photo: Knud Pedersen

The night before Chris and Aurora did not see any birds during their night catching session, but they did find many Natterjack toads (Strandtudse)!

In other news our Blackbird (Solsort) solar powered tracking tags arrived. These will send location data to the International Space Station allowing researchers to track the migratory movements of this species. Once the units have had a good charge in the sun we will begin attaching them to Blackbirds, hopefully this weekend.

Finally the whole team pitched in for the weekly station house cleaning session. Simon claims we have the cleanest bird observatory in Scandinavia, a title we want to keep!

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

People: Aurora Gonzalo-Tarodo, Chris Ketola, Martin Grienenberger, Knud Pederson, Amelie Zeller, Simon S. Christiansen,

Yesterday night, Simon and I came back from the Blåvand Bird Observatory. We spent some days there to practise preparing and putting on tags on Blackbirds (Solsort). Our supervisor was Kaspar Thorup who is very experienced in tagging birds with GPS. We were lucky and could already tag 12 Blackbirds, so in the next weeks we are excited to follow them on their journey. For me it was also interesting to get to know another bird station, helping the volunteers with their daily work and getting to know great people. When Simon and I arrived at home, Chris, Aurora, Christina and Martin were in the lab ringing the first ever Wigeon (Pibeand) for the station, they just caught a few meters from the lighthouse!

This morning Christina and I opened the nets half an hour before sunrise at 8. We had a very foggy ringing day with not so many birds, but we got some nice species today.

Fieldfare (Sjagger):

Jacksnipe (Enkeltbekkasin), the first one that was ringed here at the station using a mist net:

this very handsome male Bearded Tit (Skægmejse):

Martin had some quite good observations today. He saw 3 different species of Skuas: Great Skua (Storkjove), Arctic Skua (Almindelig Kjove) and Pomerine Skua (Mellemkjove)! He also saw some Shore Larks (Bjerglærke) and Lapland Buntings (Lapværling).

In the afternoon Christina and I took down the nets in the old lighthouse garden and put them up in the station garden, because we will start feeding in about a week.

After that we had some data entry and checking to do. At the evening meeting we talked about some small projects we want to do in the next weeks. Chris will give us an interesting session about his work in Peru, where he is ringing birds in the Amazon. He will talk about different species they catch there and how to age them. It is always interesting to listen to his stories, not only about birds, but also about catching crocodiles with bare hands…

We also want to try and put up some mist nets for Owls and Water Pipits (Bjergpiber) in the next weeks.

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen):

Blåmejse - Blue Tit - 4

Dompap, Lille – Western European Bullfinch – 2

Dompap, Stor – Northern European Bullfinch – 1

Enkeltbekkasin – Jack Snipe - 1

Fuglekonge – Goldcrest - 2

Gærdesmutte – Wren - 3

Gråsisken, Nordlig – Common Redpoll -1

Jernspurv – Dunnock - 1

Munk – Blackcap - 1

Musvit – Great Tit - 7

Rødhals – Robin - 1

Sangdrossel – Songthrush – 2

Sjagger – Fieldfare - 1

Skægmejse – Bearded tit - 1

Vindrossel – Redwing - 3

Total: 31

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

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Aurora Gonzalo-Tarodo, Chris Ketola, Martin Grienenberger, Jørgen Kabel & Igor, Amelie Zeller

Today was one of those typical autumn days with strong winds, rain and low temperatures. With these conditions, bird ringing is not possible, and the majority of the team was forced to remain indoors. Being indoors gave us a great opportunity for desk-based tasks. I spent half of the afternoon arranging and classifying the pictures taken in the field from the last 4 days. 

Some birds are very difficult to age or even distinguish to other similar species, that is why taking pictures from different parts of the bird helps us to learn and share this knowledge with others. Also, these pictures produce a great database that in the future could be used for research, showing for example how moult limit varies between different countries or over time.
Christina used the time to work on her presentation for the next week and kindly volunteered to wash the bird bags. Keeping the bird bags clean is a very important task because helps to minimize the transmission of infections between birds. She also did some administrative task like printing new ringing sheets and laminating others to protect them from the rain. She also delighted us with amazing home-made cookies. 

Chris has been doing a lot of literature review about neotropical birds from the Amazon where we works and together we also worked on a couple of grants applications for my PhD project.
Martin was the only one brave enough to go out for seabird counting. Two little auks (Søkongen) passed very close to him. The numbers of razorbills (Alk) are decreasing but still, he counted 2800 individuals, on the other hand, common guillemot (Lomvien) numbers are getting higher and today were counted 300 also 638 kittiwakes (Ride). Knud and Martin played this game in guessing how many guillemots (Lomvien) were in a single flock but Knud is always the winner. In the afternoon Martin tried to spot some petrels (Stormsvale) from the lighthouse with luck.

Simon and Amelie were back today from their training on blackbird tagging, they will be sharing all the information the following days.

Night cathing wasn’t very productive last night but the weather and temperatures were very pleasant.

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

Today was amazing day for migration counting! On his way to World’s End 3 before sunrise, Martin saw 10 Little auk (Søkonge) flying south, not far from the beach. The day was already off to a promising start! By the early afternoon Martin, Knud, and his friend had counted 14,049 razorbills (Alk) – yes, you read that right. This is the second highest count for razorbills since the observatory was opened in 2017, with close to 17,500 razorbills (Alk) counted in early November 2018. Today was also a good day for Whooper swan (Sangsvane), with a few flocks totaling 47 individuals. In addition, the observers counted 368 Black-legged Kittiwake (Ride) – not a bad day at all!

It was much quieter for us at Kabeltromlen, with only 46 new birds in total. However, Aurora ringed her first Bearded tit (Skægmejse), which she was very excited about. Also, we were happy to have Oluf out at Kabeltromlen with us.

I was excited to take a Great spotted woodpecker (Stor Flagspætte) out of the net, even if it was a recapture:

Another highlight was the Yellowhammer (Gulspurv), which is perhaps not the rarity we were hoping for, but honestly, how can you not like this beautiful bird?

Chris and Aurora are night catching tonight. We are hoping for a Spotted sandpiper (Plettede mudderklire), but a more local bird would also be nice – and more realistic, of course.

Simon and Amelie had a successful day at Blåvand Observatory and caught enough Blackbirds (Solsort) to practice attaching GPS trackers to them. They will rejoin us tomorrow evening and can then train us in how to install the small “backpacks” on the birds when we catch them – now that will be exciting! We look forward to getting started on that project and seeing the results in a few months, after the data from the birds has been analyzed.

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen):

Bjergirisk – Twite: 1

Blåmejse - Blue tit: 4

Bogfinke – Chaffinch: 1

Dompap – Bullfinch: 7

Fuglekonge – Goldcrest: 7

Gærdesmutte – Wren: 5

Lille Gråsisken – Lesser redpoll: 2

Stor Gråsisken – Common redpoll: 1

Gulspurv – Yellowhammer: 1

Jernspurv – Dunnock: 1

Munk – Blackcap: 2

Musvit – Great tit: 6

Rødhals – Robin: 2

Rørspurv – Reed bunting: 1

Skægmejse – Bearded tit: 1

Solsort – Blackbird: 2

Sortmejse – Coal tit: 2

Total: 46

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

People: Aurora Gonzalo-Tarodo, Chris Ketola, Oluf Lou, Martin Grienenberger, Knud Pederson, Amelie Zeller, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Jørgen Kabel + Igor, Jørgen + Karin 

The weather forecast was not looking good for today’s ringing session. Thankfully, the wind was not too bad, and our team was able to open the nets for a full morning of ringing. Although the number of birds caught was not that high, today was all about quality over quantity!

Word spread that a Great Grey Shrike (Stor Tornskade) had been seen around our nets, and we actually did see this individual duck into vegetation from our ringing table. Sure enough, on our next net check there it was waiting to be extracted!

With its sharp bill and perfect aim it did manage to inflict a little bit of pain during the net extraction and while being ringed, but the pain was more than worth it to be able to see this stunning first year bird up close!

Last night also had some excitement, during a night catching session our team caught a female Common Eider (Ederfugl).

This female was quite cooperative while being ringed. Waders and waterfowl require special steel rings because of the amount of time they spend in the water. This process takes a little longer than when we attach aluminum rings to the typical passerine species we catch in mist nets. Thankfully, this female decided to wait until AFTER we were done ringing her to give us a nice big “surprise” on the table…

In other news, Martin had another productive day of migration counting with Knud and a good friend of his. The biggest highlights were seeing 6 Little Auks (Søkonge) and 1,000 Razorbills (Alk). It made sitting in the freezing windchill for 4 hours worth it!

Finally Simon and Amelie left after morning ringing to go to Blåvand station. There they will participate in training sessions on how to attach GPS backpacks to Blackbirds (Solsort) for an exciting research project Skagen Fugelstation will be involved with. They will return to Skagen in a few days and share this information with the whole team so we can start participating in this project very soon.

Total: 43

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

People: Aurora Gonzalo-Tarodo, Chris Ketola, Martin Grienenberger, Knud Pederson, Amelie Zeller, Esben E. Hansen, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Erik Christophersen, Jørgen Kabel + Igor, Jørgen + Karin

We started the day with beautiful views and very nice weather. Esben and Christina opened the nets and the rest of the team joined for the first round.

We had a few busy rounds with a lot of Goldcrest (Fuglekonge) and Bullfinches (Dompap), but Bramblings (Kvækerfinke) and Lesser Redpolls (Lille Gråsisken) were also present today, but for me, one of the most beautiful birds was a first -year female Yellowhammer (Gulspurv), also a ringing tick, and the 89 ^th species that I have ever ringed.

A group of visitors came to see and learn about bird ringing, and immediately afterward a nice surprise came with Christina and Amelie. They got three Common Crossbills (Little Crossbill), two males (juvenile and adult), and a female (juvenile). Adult males have a very intense red-orange color while females are more greenish.

Photo: Jørgen Kabel

In Crossbills we measure other morphometrics like the length and width of the bill, these measurements help us to confirm if they are Common Crossbill (Little Crossbill) or Parrot Crossbill (Large Crossbill).

Almost by the end of the day, we had two foreign captures from Norway (Stavanger) a Great Tit (Musvit), and a Goldcrest (Fuglekonge).

Martin G went birdwatching and he managed to count an impressive amount of about 3000 Razorbills (Alk), also some Horned Lark (Bjerglaerke), Snow Buntings (Snespurv) and Lapland Bunting (Lapvaerling)

We had to say goodbye to Jeppe today, but he will come back next month and with him a lot of fun !!

In general, we had a great ringing session with 120 birds including recaptures. The numbers follow below:

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen):

 Ringmærkning (night catching):

Ederfugl - 1

Ringmærkning (Jennes So):

Stor Flægspatte - 1

Gærdesmutte - 1

Rødhals - 2

Solsort - 1

Gransanger - 1

Fuglekonge - 10

Sortmejse - 1

Blåmejse - 2

Musvit - 4

Træløber, Nordlig - 2

Gråsisken, Lille - 12

Rorspurv - 1

Total: 38

Click here to see today's observations entered in the Dofbasen by observers in the area

People: Amelie Zeller, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Martin Grienenberger, Esben E. Hansen, Michael Ancher, Jeppe Overgaard, Jørgen Kabel, Erik Christophersen, Pernille, Roed, Niels Eriksen, Anders østerby, Knud Pedersen and Aurora Gonzalo-Tarodo

Today it was the first time for Chris and Aurora to ring in Denmark and they enjoyed comparing the different ways of ringing in Spain, the UK, Canada and Denmark. Aurora was happy to ring her first ever Twite (Bjergiririsk) and Lesser Redpoll (Lille Gråsisken).

Chris also gets a lot of new species here, because he hasn’t ringed in Europe yet. He was especially happy about a couple of Bullfinches (Dompap) and a Brambling (Kvækerfinke).

We also had some guests at the ringing station today. As usual, Jørgen, Igor and Erik were there, but they left quite early in the morning to look for a Spotted Sandpiper (Plettet Mudderklire) that has been seen at Lønstrup today.

Jeppe also had a very exciting day, because he extracted and ringed his first birds. His first one ever ringed is this Goldcrest (Fuglekonge):

The net closing round was then very successful. A group of Longtailed Tits (Halemejse) flew into a semi-closed net. They then attracted more and more birds by their calls, which made us very happy. As they are very social birds, we released them all together, which is always nice to watch.

In one of the last nets we closed there were 7 Starlings (Stær)! That was a pretty cool catch, because they usually don’t fly into the nets. For these we took a long time to age and sex them and afterwards we took pictures of all the birds, so we can check again at home.

The ringing team came home at 3  and Simon then gave us a great session on different moult strategies. We also recorded it and shared the video with other bird stations.

Later in the afternoon, Martin also came back home, who is now, after a few days of rest, fit again for the many upcoming counting and ringing days. Esben is also back for the weekend, which makes us all very happy, because we always have a lot of fun together. In the evening Esben, Aurora, Chris and I were going out nightcatching together and were lucky on our way back: We caught a Purple Sandpiper (Sortgrå Ryle) :)

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen):

Gærdesmutte – Wren – 4

Halemejse – Longtailed Tit – 6

Halemejse, Sydlig – Longtailed Tit - 3

Gråsisken, Lille – Lesser Redpoll - 1

Rødhals – Robin - 1

Sangdrossel – Songthrush – 2

Sortmejse – Coal Tit – 4

Stær – Starling – 7

Træløber – Treecreeper – 1

Vindrossel – Redwing - 1

Munk – Blackcap - 2

Blåmejse - Blue tit - 6

Kvækerfinke – Brambling - 2

Bjergirisk – Twite - 2

Dompap, Lille - Western European Bullfinch - 6

Rørspurv - Reed Bunting – 3

Fugelkonge – Goldcrest - 22

Total: 73

Ringmærkning (Nightcatching):

Sortgrå Ryle – Purple Sandpiper – 1

Ringmærkning (Jennes Sø):

Dompap, Stor – Bullfinch - 1

Gærdesmutte – Wren - 4

Rødhals – Robin - 2

Fuglekonge – Goldcrest - 14

Topmejse – Crested Tit -1

Blåmejse - Blue tit - 1

Musvit - Great tit - 1

Sortmejse – Coal Tit - 2

Gråsisken, Nordlig – Common Redpoll - 10

Gråsisken, Lille – Lesser Redpoll - 15

Total: 51

Grand total: 125

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

People:  Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Martin Grienenberger, Jeppe Overgaard, Aurora Gonzalo-Tarodo, Chris Ketola, Esben E. Hansen, Kristina Sønderkjær, Britta & Lotte, Michael Ancher, Knud Pedersen, Amelie Zeller

Michael Ancher caught a Pallas’s leaf warbler (Fuglekongesanger) in Jennes Sø today! We heard the excited chatter on Zello and immediately went out to his place to see this rare species. It was the first time since the founding of Skagen Fuglestation in 2017 that a Pallas’s leaf warbler has been ringed in Skagen – congratulations, Michael, what a great catch!

Photos of Pallas’s leaf warbler (Fuglekongesanger) by Marian Ancher

We were of course not the only ones to get excited about this special event – quite soon after we arrived, a number of cars and bikes stopped along the side of the road and people brought out their cameras.

Jeppe was out migration counting at Nordstrand with Knud, Frede, Hans, and Torben this morning to practice his seabird ID skills. He took Knud's scope with him, so it is being put to good use:

Jeppe is new to birding and isn’t used to being around twitchers, so he was quite bemused when the message on Zello arrived about the Pallas's leaf warbler (Fuglekongesanger). The other men suddenly jumped out of their chairs and hurriedly packed up their scopes. “It’s a Fuglekongesanger!” Knud told Jeppe – as if that explained everything. “No time, I’ll tell you later!” Well, now Jeppe knows that birding in Skagen is serious business and that twitching has quite the appeal...!  

This afternoon Martin and I went birding in Gerå and spent a couple of nice hours in the sun. The air was cool, but with the sun it was quite pleasant.

I saw my first Whooper swan (Sangsvane) and Ruff (Brushane) and practiced my duck ID skills. There weren’t many different species in the water, but it was still a valuable exercise for me.

We welcomed two new volunteers, Aurora (originally from Spain, now living in the UK) and Chris (from Canada), to Skagen Fuglestation this evening. They will be staying with us for a couple of weeks. They are experienced ringers and are excited to see how we ring birds in Denmark. I am sure we can learn a lot from each other and look forward to getting to know them better.

The weather tomorrow is supposed to be quite nice (little wind, no rain), so we are excited to ring at Kabeltromlen. Perhaps the Pallas’s leaf warbler (Fuglekongesanger) will stop by for a visit at one of our nets…?

Ringmærkning (Jennes Sø):

Stor Flagspætte – Great spotted woodpecker: 2

Gæ­rdesmutte - Wren: 3

Rødhals - Robin: 3

Vindrossel – Redwing: 1

Fuglekongesanger – Pallas‘s leaf warbler: 1

Gransanger – Chiffchaff: 3

Fuglekonge – Goldcrest: 11

Topmejse – Crested tit: 3

Blåmejse - Blue tit: 3

Musvit - Great tit: 1

Skovspurv - Tree sparrow: 1

Trækøber, Nordlig – Northern Treecreeper: 3

Kvækerfinke - Brambling: 2

Nordlig Gråsisken – Common redpoll: 1

Bjergirisk – Twite: 1

Nordlig Gråsisken - Common redpoll: 3

Lille Gråsisken – Lesser redpoll: 11

Total Jennes Sø: 52

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

People:  Amelie Zeller, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Martin Grienenberger, Jeppe Overgaard, Britta & Lotte, Michael & Marian Ancher, Frede Jakobsen, Torben Sørensen, Hans Christophersen, Knud Pedersen

Dagen I dag har stået på observationer ved Nordstrand og eventet åben fryser ved Det Grå Fyr.

Vinden var hård og kold da vi stod ud af bilen ved Nordstrand. Men med kaffe på kanden, teleskopet under armen og huen over ørene gik det an.
Vi var i dag fem observatør som var klar til at tælle de trækkende fugle.  Som fuglene flyver forbi, får vi talt dem én efter én. Dagens mest observeret fugl bliver i dag Sulen (northern gannet) med et resultat på 346.
Kl. 12.00 går turen hjem til en velfortjent frokost.

Simon og Christina er hjemme på stationen og klargøre eventet åben fryseren som starter kl 13.00. Eventet har til formål at fremvise hvad en fugl består gennem dissekering. Dagens hovedfugl var en ung spurvehøg (sparrowhawk).
Christina føre kniven imens Simon fremviser forskellige organer til de fremmødte.

Ligeledes bruger Simon fuglens vinge til, at fremvist hvordan man kan aldersbestemme fugle. De fremmødt stiller spørgsmål og benytter sig af den forforståelse de har om fugle.

Eventet afsluttes med, at Simon uddeler en halefjer, fra spurvehøgen (sparrowhawk), til de børn som ønsker det. Tak til de fremmødt, vi sætter pris på jeres deltagelse.

Kl.19.00 begyndte aftens fordrag ved Hans Christophersen om fugle rejse til Cape May.

Ringmærkning (Jennes Sø):

Skovspurv - Tree Sparrow - 3

Kvækerfinke - Brambling - 1

Bogfinke – Chaffinch – 1

Total Jennes Sø: 5

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

People:  Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Erik Christophersen, Britta & Lotte, Michael Ancher, Knud Pedersen, Jeppe Overgaard, Amelie Zeller