Today, we woke up early to do migration counts and morning observation on the beach at Grenen. We started off sitting on the beach close to the water watching a flock of 16 sanderlings (sandløber) pass by us, only a few meters away. We counted the many gull roosting on the beach: herring, greater black-backed and lesser black-backed. As the wind picked up, we made our way to the dunes where we continued our observations. Notable birds included many gannets (sule), a honey buzzard (hvepsevåge) coming from the sea and a flock of bar-tailed godwits (lille kobbersneppe).

Thanks to Frank spotting them yesterday, we spent early afternoon chasing after the young common ringed plover chicks. We first looked on the right side of the tractor track. There we found 2 older chicks starting to grow their feather. We moved on to the left side of the tractor track. There we ringed 3 very young chicks while the mother turned around us calling the chicks ensuring they were ok. The chicks themselves were the sweetest little things cover in loads of fluff.

Tomorrow we are back at Kabeltrommlen, keeping our fingers crossed for many birds.

Ringmærkning:

Stor Præstekrave 5

Folk på stationen: Mathilde Ducroz, Frank Osterberg, Lisa Vergin, Kirsten og Simon S Christiansen

Klik her for at se dagens observationer fra Dofbasen af fugle i Skagen

Another slow day at the station today, with ringing not available to me and Mathilde alone we were left to catch up on data during the day and general upkeep of the station/ lab etc. Mathilde went shopping and made a tart from the berries she foraged near Kabletromlen and in the morning I went out to Grenen for diverse Observations. I found some more new ringed plover chicks (Stor Præsteekrave unger)  which we hope to ring tomorrow with Lisa and I sat on the beach with 3 friendly sanderlings  (Sandløber) feeding no more than 5m from me at one point. Other than the usual gannets  (Sule), scoters (Sortand) and terns (Terne), there was not too much else to see. For the rest of the day I have been reading up on moult and ageing of birds in the hand and illustrations and Mathilde has also been reading. Kirsten has also kindly offered to cook for us this evening so we are looking forward to that.

Folk på stationen: Mathilde Ducroz og Frank Osterberg

Klik her for at se dagens observationer fra Dofbasen af fugle i Skagen

Today I was the lucky one who got to sleep the extra hour as Esben and Frank opened the net. I joined them in time for the results of the first round, mostly common whitethroats (tornsanger) and marsh warblers (kærsanger). The morning was quiet but with a nice variety of species: lesser whitethroat (gærdesanger), blackcap (munk), reed bunting (rørspurv)… The highlight of the morning came around 8 when we caught a green sandpiper (svaleklire)! A true beauty! We saw them fly around in the morning and hoped it would happen, so we were all delighted.

The rest of the day was turned to data entry and date checking. We all allowed ourselves a short nap as well. I spent a bit too long sorting out redcurrants I picked while at Kabeltrommlen but hopefully I’ll be able to make a tart with them tomorrow.

Sadly, we had to say goodbye to Ebsen today. Thank you for the teaching and the laughs!

Ringmærkning:

Svaleklire 1

Tornsanger 5

Gransanger 3

Gærdesanger 1

Bogfinke 1

Munk 1

Solsort 1

Rørspurv 1

Kærsanger 4

Rørsanger 1

Total: 19

Folk på stationen: Esben Hansen, Mathilde Ducroz og Frank Osterberg

Klik her for at se dagens observationer fra Dofbasen af fugle i Skagen

Esben got an extra hour sleep this morning as me and Mathilde opened the nets at Jenne Sø for the CES ringing, he then joined us for the first round but the following produced little birds with a Robin (Rødhals) and a few whitethroats (Tornsanger). After a few rounds, however, I got a bad migraine and had to head home. The others carried on however and although nothing majorly exciting as most days at Jenne Sø are like they did have a round of 8 birds.

They then returned and had a nap and then we got on with cleaning the apartment. Me and Mathilde went shopping for the next few days and we said goodbye to Lauren, Niklas and their kids. The rest of the evening will then consist of data entry, ringing checks and sorting through the picture archive.

Tomorrow we will head to Grenen for morning ringing.

Jennes Sø rinngmærkning:

Tornsanger 6

Gransanger 3

Gærdesanger 2

Bogfinke 1

Topmejse 1

Rødhals 1

Musvit 1

Total: 15

Folk på stationen: Esben Hansen, Mathilde Ducroz og Frank Osterberg

Klik her for at se dagens observationer fra Dofbasen af fugle i Skagen

Vi var alle afsted og ringmærke igen i dag ved kabeltromlen, her ringmærkede vi 26 nye fugle, hvor både 1k tornsangere og gransangere udgjorde størstedelen. Efter frokost har den stået på datatjek og indtastning. Ligesom tidligere dage har vi haft nettene åbne i Fyrhaven, hvilket dog kun har givet en enkelt tornsanger indtil videre.

En af gærdesangerne  fra i dag

Samt en tornsanger

I morgen skal vi til Jennes Sø og udføre CES mærkning, det bliver spændende og se hvad vi bliver budt!

1 kærsanger

3 rørsanger

5 gærdesanger

10 tornsanger

7 gransanger

Total: 26

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

Folk: Mathilde Ducroz, Frank Osterberg, Esben Hansen

Today started with a slightly later wake up call as we are approaching autumn and the days are getting shorter. Like the last few days, we set off ringing at Kabeltromlen but with one less. Frank was occupied leading a birding tour around Grenen.

At Kabeltromlen, the day was quiet with a minimum of a couple birds each round. The highlight came around 7 when a greater spotted woodpecker (Stor Flagspætte) was found in one of the northern side nets. The feisty and loud juvenile did not make the extracting easy, pecking viciously at the fingers. The rest of the birds were similar to previous ringing session with a majority of common whitethroats (tornsanger) but a surprising high number of chiffchaff (gransanger). Two blackbird (solsort) were also ringed which had been a while.

Meanwhile Frank looked at the results of the night’s moth trap, a lot a o common and already caught moth. Once the visitors arrived he set off along the tractor track popping in at Kabeltromlen to show them how ringing worked, and continued to the point and back down the beach to the observatory. He spotted a white-tailed eagle (havørn).

The afternoon was lounging and admin. Frank went out to Skagen to do a small shop, Esben caught up on his sleep and I finally made it up the lighthouse and a second swim. In the evening the lighthouse garden nets were opened with 2 great tits (musvit) so far.

Ringmærkning:

Stor Flagspætte 1

Tornsanger 11

Gærdesanger 1

Gransanger 7

Solsort 2

Grønsiskin 2

Rørsanger 2

Kærsanger 1

Havesanger

Musvit 2

Total: 30

Folk på stationen: Esben Hansen, Mathilde Ducroz, Frank Osterberg og  Simon S Christiansen

Klik her for at se dagens observationer fra Dofbasen af fugle i Skagen

The same way we start most of our mornings, ringing had us down at Kabeltromlen at 4:20 opening the nets for the mornings catching. With the 19^th being as successful and busy as it showed to be we had high hopes for today with the weather on our side again. However, although not as busy we still had a productive day with 31 birds. Our new guests were up and early also to join us for the ringing at around 7 so with not so many birds this morning it was good to have a few extra minutes showing the kids the birds properly and letting them release a few, hopefully sparking that new interest we need in the next generation and maybe some new volunteers in the future! Following the trend of the past week the majority and dominating species was common whitethroat (Tornsanger) most being this year’s young I also rung my first wren which are always a pleasure and a couple more common species out on Grenen mentioned bellow.

Simon also joined us for the ringing, partly the way through he went to the beach to do some observations and found a Caspian tern (Rovterne) and a black tern (Sortterne).

The rest of the day that followed then simply consisted of data entry from the morning and deciding what will be on the agenda for the following week. We also opened the nets in the courtyard as we did last night as something to fill our time for the slim chance of catching the house martins, but we didn’t catch anything. I will also put the moth trap out this evening, so we have some moths to show at the beginning of the tour in the morning.

Ringmærkning:

Tornsanger 21

Gærdesanger 1

Gransanger 2

Gærdesmutte 1

Grønsiskin 1

Rørsanger 1

Kærsanger 3

Musvit 1

People: Esben Hansen, Mathilde Ducroz, Simon S Christiansen

Klik her for at se dagens observationer fra Dofbasen af fugle i Skagen

Simon var på stationen kl 10 hvor arbejdsdagen bød på møder med Lene og kommende frivillige. Han fik også indsendt rapporter til sjældenhedsudvalget fra foråret!

Dagen for os andre startede noget tidligere kl. 01:15, for vi prøvede at tage på natfangst, inden vi kl. 04:10 havde åbnet nettene ved Kabeltromlen. Natfangsten lykkedes desværre ikke, heldigvis skete der lidt i ringmærkningen. 15 fugle blev det til, før vi lukkede 0930. Vi fik besøg under ringmærkningen, så der blev fortalt om vores daglige arbejdet og om hvordan ringmærkningen foregår.

Vi fik sagt farvel til Ouafa og Peter efter vi havde spist frokost, og skyndte os derefter ind i seng for at få en lang lur.

Efter vi havde sovet, åbnede vi net i fyrhaven, hvor vi i skrivende stund har fanget 3 fugle indtil videre! En Husrødstjert, gråspurv og Tornsanger. Det er ikke så tit vi fanger gråspurve og husrødstjerter så de var et velkommen syn i nettene.

Kabeltromlen:

Gransanger 2

Kærsanger 1

Blåmejse 1

Rørspurv 1

Munk 2

Tornsager 6

Bogfinke 1

Musvit 1

Fyrhaven:

Husrådstjert 1

Gråspurv 1

Total:

17

Folk på stationen: Mathilde Ducroz, Frank Osterberg, Esben Hansen og Simon S. Christiansen

Klik her for at se dagens observationer fra Dofbasen af fugle i Skagen

Esben’s arrival yesterday meant that we were able to ring again today which is exactly what we did! Just before sunrise, we headed out to our Kabeltrommeln site and opened up our nets for the morning around 4:30. From the very first round, the birds were present with rounds of around 10 birds each time. At the end of the first round, we were joined by our station guests, Ouafa and Peter, which generously brought coffee and food that was very well received. A round later, we were joined by Bella and her boyfriend, who has studied birds extensively throughout her studies.

The results of our morning were an enormous amount of whitethroats, both common (tornsanger) and lesser (gærdesanger) making up more than half of the ringed birds today. Grenen really does seem to be a successful breeding place for them, as most of them were first year juveniles! Other notable birds include 2 siskins (grøsiskin), a tree pipit (skoupiber) and a beautiful crested tit (topmejse).

Here is the topmejse and grønsiskin from the last round. 

As the nets were so full, we stayed out later than usual eventually making our way back to the station around 12:30, perfect timing for lunch. In the afternoon, we focused on admin and little tasks such as entering data, charging batteries and this blog.

We are now eagerly awaiting the diner being prepared by our guests, which form the living room smells delicious! Keep watch for tomorrow’s blog as we will be attempting an early morning seabird ringing session!

A reed bunting (rørspurv)  

Ringmærkning (Kabeltrommeln):

Tornsanger 30

Gransanger 9

Gærdesanger 5

Rørsanger 3

Grønsiskin 2

Munk 2

Solsort 2

Rørspurv 2

Kærsanger 1

Skoupiber 1

Topmejse 1

total: 58

Folk på stationen: Mathilde Ducroz, Frank Osterberg, Esben Hensen, Ouafa og Peter.  

Klik her for at se dagens observationer fra Dofbasen af fugle i Skagen

We began the day with morning observations along the west side of Grenen with me and Mathilde, beginning at 05:00 until 08:00, with one Manx shearwater (Almindelig Skråpe) the usual auks (Alkefugle) and a lot more Gannets (Sule) this morning than previous mornings but overall a good count of most species which can be seen on DOFbasen. After the observations, we had the final cormorant colony session to complete looking at which nests are still active and which young have fledged successfully. On the journey to and from the colony, I couldn’t help but look for reptiles with plenty of sand lizards and some healthy female adders baking on the path.

We returned home and entered data from the morning updated the picture archive. During which we said goodbye to Jesper and Margit who have already requested another stay for next year which we love to see and glad they enjoyed their time with us and hope they will enjoy their stay just as much next summer. We then went into town to do the weekly shop and returned to greet our new but returning guests Ouafa, where we got to know each other a bit better over dinner with some interesting conversations. Espen also arrived this evening for a week as he just can't stay away for long.

Tomorrow we will go ringing at Kabletrommen so we prepared the stuff for the morning and hope that the birds give a good show!

People: Mathilde Ducroz, Esben Hensen

Klik her for at se dagens observationer fra Dofbasen af fugle i Skagen