Good evening!

For this morning's fieldwork, Frank, Diana, and I went to Kabeltromlen to ring, and Hanelie and Solenn did a seawatch at World's End 3.  The ringing brought an uptick in numbers from the past few days and a good diversity of species.  Nothing rare, but more goldcrests (fuglekonge) and robins (rødhals), which have only begun passing through in larger numbers in the past few weeks, plus both expected acrocephalus (kærsanger and rørsanger), phylloscopus (løvsanger and gransanger), and a wren (gærdesmutte) were treats.  Sadly, today is my last full day here at Skagen, so to have a broad sample of species I've worked with and seen nearly every day was special. 

Rødhals

Meanwhile at World's End 3, Solenn and Hanelie saw three young black guillemots (tejst), good numbers of dunlin & sanderling (almindelig ryle & sandløber), and a mass of foraging cormorants (skarv) and gannets (sule) offshore, but suprisingly none of the velvet scoters (fløjlsand) that passed through in record numbers yesterday.

In the afternoon, we did our routine weekly cleaning, and then I went to Skarvsøen to do some shorebirding.  I found 2 juvenile little stints (dværgryle), 2 juvenile curlew sandpipers (krumnæbbet ryle), 30 ruff (brushane), and a singular greenshank (hvidklire) with the expected snipe (dobbeltbekkasin) and dunlin.  But, overall, numbers were lower than they have been in previous day, but maybe more birds will accumulate as the day progresses.  Diana spent some time birding and drawing birds on the nearby beaches, while Frank worked on a presentation about aging and sexing shorebirds, Solenn napped, and Hanelie did some work back at the station.

Diana paiting eiders (ederfugl)

Little stint at Skarvsøen

It's been nearly two and a half months since I arrived here in Skagen, and as I get ready to leave tomorrow morning, I'm so pleased to reflect on how much I've learned here, how much experience I've gained, how many lovely people I've met, and of course, how many incredible birds I've seen.  I feel so fortunate to have been able to spend this time here in Skagen, and want to thank all the people I've met along the way for making my stay so enriching!

 Ringing totals:

Redstart (Rødstjert): 3

Willow warbler (Løvsanger): 2

Chiffchaff (Gransanger): 1

Marsh warbler (Kærsanger): 1

Reed warbler (Rørsanger): 1

Lesser whitethroat (Gærdesanger): 1

Robin (Rødhals): 1

Garden warbler (Havesanger): 2

Blackcap (Munk): 3

Goldcrest (Fuglekonge): 2

Total: 17

Local observations of the day in DOFBasen

People: Solenn Boucher, Max Laubstein, Simon Christiansen, Frank Osterberg, Hanelie Sidhu, Diana Sciandra, Lisa Vergin, Hella Lemke, Yves Bötch, and our guests Jette & Anders

Hi everyone!

Today was a very windy and rainy day. In the early hours of the morning bevore sunrise, Frank went out to check if there were Eiders „Ederfugle“ resting on the Seal-Bunker on the beach because we would really like to catch one, but under these windy conditions, the Eiders prefer apparently another place to rest, probably in the harbour. As it was way to windy for ringing and also very rainy, we all stayed inside and slept a bit longer. So today was a inside day, it continued rainig the whole day. I usesd the time to finish analysing, the NocMig, the recording of the nocturnal migration, that we had out at Kabeltrommle a few days ago. Simon checked some mystery calls I was not sure of and now everything is typed in in Trektellen. There were some birds mooving in the nigt from the 29^th to the 30^th of August, some Waders as Golden Plover „Hjejle“, Common Sandpiper „Muddeklire“ and Dunlin „Almidelig Ryle“ and Turnstone „Stenvender“ and some Passerines, for example Redstart „Rødstjert”, Spotted Flychatcher „Grå Fluesnapper” and Tree Pipit „Skovpiber”.

Click here to see night recording of nocturnal migration

Sonogramm of a Common Sandpiper "Muddeklire"

Frank continued prepareing his presentation about sexing and ageing waders because tomorrow, he will give a seccion for us!

Max wrote the month report for August for the year report of the Bird Observatory and started packing because sadly he will already leave on Sunday.

Diana discovered the game ”KLASK” on the shelf and so Diana and I played quite some games, we got kind of addicted.

Solenn cooked us a lovely meal today, also our guests Anders and Jette also joined.

In the afternoon, Lisa came by and showed the bird observatory to two German friends and colleges, Hella and Yves, who are also working at Nabu, the German Birdlife Partner.

In the morning, Anders gave a guided tour for families, Mini-bioblitz and in the afternoon and evening there was a board meeting.

Tomorrow, the weather is supposed to be good again so we will be out ringing and observing in the morning. See you in the field! Take care,

Hanelie

Observations of the day in DOFbasn from observers in the area

People: Solenn Boucher, Max Laubstein, Simon Christiansen, Frank Osterberg, Hanelie Sidhu, Diana Sciandra, Lisa Vergin, Hella Lemke, Yves Bötch, Knud Pedersen, Anders Østerby, Niels Eriksen, Hans Christophersen, Anders Brinkmann, Peter Kristensen, and our guests Jette & Anders

Or as I may say: it’s windy out there ! So windy that the nets stayed closed today… Much to our delight, as we broke a new record:

Hanelie, Diana and I headed to Grenen for the daily migration counts this morning. After 4 hours shivering in the gust, while sand covered our faces and buried our personal equipment, we counted a total of 1560 velvet scoters Fløjlsand heading south-east ! The previous record at Grenen was 1015 velvet scoters on the 1^st of October 2020. Of course we were too busy counting the birds that we didn’t take pictures of the big flocks migrating ; the biggest group was composed of 150 birds ! More birds where counted after we left. The numbers from there can be seen on dofbasen.

We also managed to see red-breasted merganser Toppet Skallesluger, red-throated diver Rødstrubet Lom, sandwich terns Splitterne, and brant goose Knortegås.

Colour ring resighting on roosting gulls was not easy, as the wind shaked our tripods and created “rivers of sand” that covered the gulls’ legs ; but Diana still managed to read three of them, one of which was ringed as a chick in 2014 in Norway !

(Here above: one of the rings read today)

While Max worked on the monthly report, Frank was out birding. On his 2 hour walk, he encountered many redstarts Rødstjert, pied & spotted flycatchers Broget &Grå Fluesnapper, crested tits Topmejse, as well as a juvenile hen harrier Blå Kærhøg, kestrel Tårnfalk, common buzzard Musvåge, and also a snipe Dobbeltbekkasin; his trained ears even picked up the song of a green woodpecker Grønspætte. (Am I trying to learn Danish bird names by writing this long list of observations ? The answer is yes.)

The afternoon was focused on maintenance tasks : after going shopping (thanks to our guest Anders who gave us a lift), Diana and I helped Per, who works at the Exhibition, to put the mat down and back up again, as the rope got away.

Meanwhile Simon, under careful surveillance of Hanelie, moved the wifi-antenna higher up on the mast, in hope it will ease data reception of radio tags deployed on birds : the MOTUS receiver can pick up their radio signals up to 15 km radius.

We spent the rest of the afternoon trying to catch wheatear Stenpikker with clapnets ; however, after teasing our trapping team for more than 1 hour by feasting on delicious worms next to the trigger, our only candidate flew off free of any ring. Let’s hope we’ll catch some birds tomorrow, despite the announced wind and rain.

Our english volunteer Frank just heard of the sad news ; the Queen is dead, bless the Queen.

People: Solenn Boucher, Max Laubstein, Simon Christiansen, Frank Osterberg, Hanelie Sidhu, Diana Sciandra and our guests Jette & Anders

Todays Observations from the area on DOFBasen

Hello everyone!

Ill start with the successes from last night. At around 10pm, Me, Solenn, Max and Diana decided that we will try mist-netting for shorebirds at skarvsøen again and try our luck at improving on the last two attempts with 13 & 9 birds. This was the first time that Solenn and Diana had attempted night catching shorebirds with mist-nets so they were excited regardless. Once we arrived we put out two nets and were already very optimistic due to thew number of birds we could see on the lake with the thermal scope. Whilst putting up the two nets, a Dunlin (Almindelig Ryle) had already flown into one so this also filled us with hope for the night ahead.

For the first round we had caught 16 birds which had already surpassed our first night catcing at skarvsøen so we were already happy. The night then continued in this was with good numbers of Dunlins and Snipe (Dobbeltbekkasin) throughout the night. At around 5am however, we decided to take a walk around the lake and see if we could catch any birds with torch and net. There were plenty of Water Rails (Vandriske), but there were too flighty and ran off into the reed beds. We also saw multiple Ruff (Brushane) and a Little Ringed-Plover (Lille Præstekrave) but success came in the form of a Little Grebe (Lille Lappedykker). It was a first for me, Solenn and Dianna in the hand and first seen for Max so we were all pretty happy. Lisa also came to see the little guy. So, in the end, we ended up with 40 birds, so a good success and a good effort made by everyone. We will very likely be exploiting the low water levels at Skarvsøen at the moment so hopefully we bring you more storys of wader-filled nights and maybe some more species.

Lille Lappedykker (Little Grebe Juv.)

Also during the morning Hanelie and Simon went ringing at Kabeltromlen. Although not as eventful as our night, some birds kept the morning going including the Redstarts (Rødstjert) and Willow Warblers (Løvsanger). Once we had packed up and got back from Skarvsaøen, Solenn decided she wasn’t tired (Somehow), likely from the night of excitement, so also joined the others at Kabeltromlen.

Dobbeltbekasin (Common Snipe Ad.)

During the day, after data entry and other housekeeping, most of us slept until early afternoon.

We then enjoyed a great dinner outside in the Blink Courtyard prepared by Jette and her Husband staying with us in the apartment this week.

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Rødstjert: 5

Løvsanger: 3

Rørsanger: 1

Gransanger: 2

Jernspurv: 1

Sangdrossel: 1

Gærdesanger: 2

Lile Gråsisken: 1

Ringing (Skarvsøen)

Dobbelbekkasin: 19

Almindelig Ryle: 20

Lille Lappedykker: 1

Total: 56

Todays Observations from the area on DOFBasen

People: Max Laubstein, Simon Christiansen, Frank Osterberg, Hanelie Sidhu, Solenn Boucher, Lisa Vergin, Diana Sciandra and our Guests Jette og Anders

Hello everybody!

I am experiencing my first days here at the observatory, and I already had some wonderful experiences.

Tonight Solenn and Frank went night catching, but it wasn’t a very productive night for birds. They observed instead other very cool things at the beach like many seals resting and bioluminescent algae.

In the morning sadly we had to say goodbye to Elena, which returned at home, in Austria.

Today I went observing birds with Max in Grenen and I saw my first Velvet Scoters (Fløjlsand)! They are quite elegant birds and in this period it is possible to see some flocks migrating towards South, often paired with some Common Scoters (Sortand), which are migrating too (we observed approximately 200 of them). It is possible to recognize the two species from afar just observing if there is a white window on the wings: when lacking you are observing a Common Scoter.

The males of Velvet Scoter especially have a very bright white window which catches the eye immediately.

In the sea we observed as well a Brant Goose (Knortegås), Gannets (Sule) and other seabirds. At the beach we were able to read three rings on gulls despite the tricky wind. One of these was quite interesting: a black ring on a Great Black-backed Gull (Svartbag), which we discovered in the afternoon it was put when the individual was a chick and it was ringed in Norway in 2014. Reading colored rings on birds always excites me, because you can learn some wonderful stories sending the data and receiving the info back; you just need a little bit of patience and a good telescope!

The afternoon has been very cool too: we had a fantastic dinner at the Blink restaurant with the community of people who work near the lighthouse. I had the opportunity to begin to know the people which will become my neighbors and family for the next months.

People: Max Laubstein, Frank Osterberg, Hanelie Sidhu, Elena Turac, Solenn Boucher, Diana Sciandra

Local observations of the day in DOFBasen

Hey everybody,

Today was my last day at the bird observatory. It’s sad for me to leave as there are so many things I still want to do, so many things I still want to see or observe. But on the other hand, I started to fall ill and it’s good to have time to reenergize again and to hopefully come back at another time, fully regenerated and open to experience much more exciting moments.

Well, how have I spent my last day?

As I have wanted to gain again more experience in ringing birds, I decided to join the ringing team today. Unfortunately, the birds didn’t want to say goodbye to me… We caught only 9 birds in total and closed soon again. Too windy and too beautiful weather conditions with wrong wind directions might be the reason for this low number. The birds are probably using these good conditions and are not landing during their migration, or they are not migrating at all because of the nice weather or they are just not passing by, taking another route. As you can see, there can be a couple of reasons for the low catching and probably, nobody knows for sure.

Our little highlight was a juvenile Yellowhammer (Gulspurv) and a beautiful male adult Redstart (Rødstjert).

Hanelie and Solenn went for watching migration at worlds end 3. Unfortunately, there wasn’t quite a lot to observe as well, but it was enjoyable anyway. Besides the big flock of gulls (måge), in which eight color rings could have been read and the migrating Common Scoters (Sortand) , some Red Throated Loons (Rødstrubet Lom) and Velvet Scoters (Fløjlsand) were seen.

In addition, 4 seals, including two puppies, were resting at Grenen, which is always a nice sight. Unfortunately, they could not detect the orca, which was sighted at Nordstrand this morning.

We spent the afternoon cleaning the apartment, napping, data entry, playing bird memory and Hanelie started to analyze the Nocmig data. (The Nocmig is a microphone, which is placed outside during the night. The recordings give you an insight into which birds are around during this time.)

The past week Simon has been writing two articles to Netfugl.dk. Read them on these links:

Ringing of Quails

Color-ringed Red-footed Falcons

Finally, on the occasion of my last day, we went eating in Skagen at one of the harbor restaurants, which was extremely nice and such a beautiful goodbye (which makes it even a bit harder to leave).

All in all, I want to say THANK YOU to the Skagen Bird Observatory for all the experiences, for all the new things I have learned and for all the beautiful moments you enabled me to have. 

I will definitely come back!

See you then!!

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Løvsanger: 4

Rødstjert: 2

Gulspurv: 1

Tornsanger: 1

Blåmejse: 1

Total: 9

Local DOFbasen observations

People: Max Laubstein, Frank Osterberg, Hanelie Sidhu, Elena Turac, Solenn Boucher, Diana Sciandra

Good evening everyone,

I will start with this blog in the last hours of yesterday as some of us were nightactive again last night. Simon drove Frank, Solenn and me to Aalbourg yesterday evening. First we went to Simons mums place and learned to know the house he grew up in to meet Lisa there. Then the five of us went to Simons dad and his wife and we had a delicious barbecue. Tak for mad!

Afterwards we went to the fields around Lindenborg as the goal of this night was catching Great snipes (Tredækker)! Simons dad joined us for the first hours of nightchatching and also Oluf joined us at Lindenborg. On the first round on the field we caught a Common Snipe (Dobbeltbekkasin).

Ringing Common Snipe (Dobbeltbekkasin)

Common Snipe (Dobbeltbekkasin)

After we ringed it, we went on the fields again but we just had four Skylarks (Sanglærke). We didn´t see any Great Snipes (Tredækker) and decided to leave earlier than in the last nights around 2.30. Simon and Lisa went to Simons familys summerhouse after nightcatching, Frank, Solenn and I had to take the train back to Skagen. While waiting we sat an hour at the train station in Aalborg, doing bird quizzes on the phone.  I managed to sleep in the train after two nightshifts in the last three days. When we arrived at Skagen, it was soon time to leave to the morning observations for Max. He joined Knud this morning, but came a bit later, so he missed the Mediteranian Gull „Sorthovedet måge” Knud observed at sunrise. But later they had a Caspian Gull (Kaspisk måge), and also the young Pallid Harrier (Steppehøg) showed up, that has been around the last few days.

Caspian Gull (Kaspisk måge) in a flock of Gulls

While Frank Solenn an I were still sleeping, Elena went to town today, as she will leave Skagen soon and wanted to discouver it a bit more. She had a look at a few shops, that were open today to buy souvenirs for firnds and family, visited the harbour and Ankers house. Also, she had a nice fish in a restaurant. Max went to town today as well to enjoy a Faxe Kondi wihile enjoing the sight of a swinging picnic tabele full of gull shit.

Later in the afternoon, our new volunteer, Diana from Italy arrived. She had been visiting Copenhagen with her family bevore and had a long journey with Flixbus and train to Skagen today. Jørgen picked her up at he trainstation, Diana will be volunteering at the bird observatory until the end of the season at the 7^th of December. Now Max is cooking dinner for the six of us, tommorrow, we´ll all be in the field again for ringing and observations! See you then!

Hanelie

Ringing (Lindenborg):

Sanglærke: 4

Dobbeltbekassin: 1

Total: 5

Observations of the day in DOFbasn from observers in the area

People: People: Max Laubstein, Frank Osterberg, Hanelie Sidhu, Elena Turac, Solenn Boucher, Diana Sciandra, Simon Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Jørgen Kabel, Knud Pedersen, Oluf Lou, Gunnar Simonsen

God Aften,

In the morning it was quite windy when Solenn and Elena went to open the nets. Never-the-less, they prevailed and opened as many nets as they could but left hose most exposed closed. As expected with the higher winds in the morning, ringing was again slow following the recent trend of the past few mornings. With peaks of 2 birds per round every round we made the decision to close early and head home for a few hours rest before this evening of another attempt at catching the Great snipes (tredækker) near Aalborg.

Whilst at the ringing the Pallid Harrier (Steppehøg) was seen again quite close to Kabeltromlen along with a could Marsh Harriers (Rørhøg) and a Peregrine Falcon (Vandrefalk). Hanelie was also out Observing and also saw the Pallid and Marsh Harriers but apart from the resting sanderlings (sandløber) and Dunlins (Almindelig Ryle) there was nothing else of note or in noteworthy numbers. A Rosy Starling (Rosenstær) was also seen near Kabeltrolen after we had closed the nets so Max had rushed out to see if and got to see his first Rosy Starling. 

Simon came and took me Hanelie and Solenn to his mother’s house where we met Lisa who had been at home for a while. After this we went to Simons fathers place where he had very kindly offered to cook a BBQ for us as sustenance for the night ahead. From there we went to lindenborg, Simons father joined us for the first few hours and we met Oluf there. The rest I will leave to the blog writer to write about of partial success.

Pallid Harrier: Erik Christophersen

Rosy Starling - Erik Christophersen

You can see more of Eriks Pictures of the birdson his blog.

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Rødstjert: 2

Havesanger: 2

Rødhals: 1

Rørsanger: 2

Total 7

Local DOFbasen observations

People: Max Laubstein, Simon Christiansen, Frank Osterberg, Hanelie Sidhu, Elena Turac, Solenn Boucher, Lisa Vergin og Oluf Lou

Hello everybody !

Yesterday was my first volunteering day at Skagen Bird Observatory, which was quite busy : sincere apologies for the late update on the blog !

Sadly no storm-petrel (Stormsvale) decided to visit us in the night from Thursday 1st to Friday 2^nd ; however Hanelie, who was on nightwatch, woke us up at 5am for she had found a new Nightjar (Natravn) attracted in the nets by some audio lures. What a great start of the day !

Frank and I then headed to Kabeltromlen, where Elena and Max later joined us until midday, while Hanelie went for a well deserved resting time. We got several different species, mostly redstarts (Rødstjert) ; but also a willow warbler (Løvsanger) subspecies, P. t. ssp acredula. We also got visited by a pallid harrier (Steppehøg), hovering above Kabeltromlen, as well as a goshawk (Duehøg) hunting around – although none of them visited the nets !

Pallid Harrier (Steppehøg) Photo by Erik Christophersen (https://ecskagen.blogspot.com/)

After a good lunch and some more naps, Simon and Henrik took us and Karin for bird watching on Jerup beach at 4pm, much to Elena’s delight : there she managed to see her very first oytercatcher (Strandskade), sandwich terns (Splitterne), turnstones (Stenvender), curlew sandpiper (Krumnæbbet Ryle) and little stint (Dværgryle)!

We stayed there until 6pm and counted individuals of the 13 wader species observed there. Simon then gave a final lift to Karin to the train station, where she started « migrating home ». Safe travels and thank you for joining us these past 2 weeks !

There was no night shift that night : instead, we celebrated Hanelie’s birthday around a well-appreciated barbecue (the first one that happened since June) under the stars. Happy birthday again !

People: Max Laubstein, Frank Osterberg, Hanelie Sidhu, Elena Turac, Solenn Boucher, Simon Christiansen, Michael Ancher, Karin, and our guest Henrik

Local observations of the day in DOFBasen

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Goldcrest (Fuglekonge): 1

Robin (Rødhals): 1

Redstart (Rødstjert): 9

Lesser Redpoll (Lille Gråsisken): 1

Willow Warbler (Løvsanger): 3

Lesser Whitethroat (Gærdesanger): 1

Chaffinch (Bogfinke): 1

Blackcap (Munk): 1

Common Whitethroat (Tornsanger): 1

Garden Warbler (Havesanger): 1

Total: 20

Ringing (Nordstjernevej)

Blackbird (Solsort): 1

Lesser Whitethroat (Gærdesanger): 1

Chiffchaff (Gransanger): 2

Coal Tit (Sortmejse): 1

Blue Tit (Blåmejse): 1

Great Tit (Musvit): 4

Siskin (Grønsisken): 1

Lesser Redpoll (Lille Gråsisken): 7

Total: 18

Ringing (Fyrhaverne)

Nightjar (Natravn): 1

 Total: 39

Hej!

After our success with a Leach's Storm-Petrel the night of Aug. 29/30, we decided to try catching storm petrels again last night.  I had nightwatching duties, while the rest got some sleep.

I'll quell your anticipation now: we did not catch any storm-petrels.

However, after putting on some audio lures for shorebirds in the early hours in the morning, we caught a single Red Knot (Islandsk Ryle) juvenile.  Additionally, while it was still dark, I had seen some nightjars circling above the nightjar nets.  When I went to do the final net check & close just at sunrise, I found one nightjar (natravn) caught in the net!  

A knot and a nightjar may not be Leach's Storm Petrel, but they're timelessly pleasant birds nonetheless, so all-in-all it was a successful night!

Red Knot (Islandsk Ryle)

Worldwide, there are several subspecies of Red Knot, Calidris canutus, all breeding in high latitudes of the northern hemisphere.  Here in Denmark, two subspecies occur on migration: canutus, which breeds in central Siberia, and islandica, which breeds on islands in extreme northern Canada and northern Greenland.  These two subspecies appear highly similar, and only show subtle morphological differences (with much overlap).  While we likely can't identify this bird to subspecies, it's fascinating to think that it was born just a few weeks ago in a place as far away as the Canadian arctic, Greenland, or Siberia.

In the morning, Hanelie and Simon went to Kabeltromlen to ring, catching a Jay (skovskade) as a highlight, and some more goldcrests (fuglekonge).  

Frank and Elena went to World's End 3 for a brief seawatch as well, and heard a spotted redshank (sortklire) flying over.

Two of our guests, Pia and Jan left today in the afternoon.  It was lovely having them here.

In the evening we welcomed our new volunteer Solenn, who will be staying here until December.  We'll be attempting to catch storm-petrels again tonight, so hopefully we succeed and can give Solenn a warm storm-petrel welcome to Skagen!

Have a good night!

Max

People: Max Laubstein, Frank Osterberg, Hanelie Sidhu, Elena Turac, Solenn Boucher, Simon Christiansen, Karin, and our guests Henrik, Pia, and Jan.

Ringing (Kabeltromlen)

Goldcrest (Fuglekonge): 3

Chiffchaff (Gransanger): 1

Redstart (Rødstjert): 7

Lesser whitethroat (Gærdesanger): 1

Marsh warbler (Kærsanger): 1

Common whitethroat (Tornsanger): 1

Eurasian Jay (Skovskade): 1

Ringing (Stranden, Det Grå Fyr):

Red Knot (Islandsk Ryle) 1

Ringing (Fyrhaverne)

European Nightjar (Natravn) 1

Total: 17

Observations of the day in DOFBasen from observers in the area