Hej allesammen!

Aksel, Prescillia og Simon ringmærkede til morgen i fyrhaven, hvor der ihvertfald var flere fugle end sidste gang. Det blev til 10 fugle fanget i alt, 7 nye ringe og 3 genfangster. De bedste arter var nok tre genfangster og en ny Gulspurv. En Rødhals blev Prescillia’s sidste fugl i Skagen for denne gang, da hun skulle afsted om formiddagen, efter nettene blev lukket kørte Aksel, Prescillia og Simon forbi Nordstrand hvor der blev sagt farvel, før de kørte Prescillia til stationen.

Det var kun Søren der var med Diana og jeg idag dag da Karen ikke var helt god om morgenen, hun gik senere en tur på Grenen og så en Vandrikse i et træ!

Vandrikse, Foto, Karen Marie Leth-Nissen

Der gik lidt tid med at få sat Snespurve nettet op så obsen gik først rigtigt i gang lidt senere end normalt. Den første time var lidt stille, udover en Bjergpiber der fløj over, næste time kom der mere gang i alkefuglene, dog gik mange langt ude i dis, så de bare blev til Lomvie/Alk, og også 2 Søkonger blev set, hvor man kunne sammenligne størrelse og flugt med de andre Alke der fløj forbi:) Også en enkelt Dværgmåge kom forbi sammen med Rider, og sidst men ikke mindst 2 Islom, først en vinterdragts fugl, som kom flyvende og landede langt ude, og ikke blev set igen, og senere en flot gammel fugl med sommerdragt, som kom relativt tæt på kysten og sås rigtigt fint:) Snespurvene ville ikke blive fanget idag, men vi var meget tæt på 2 gange, så vi håber på det imorgen:)

Snespurve, Foto, Søren Leth-Nissen

Eftermiddagen gik med at se Danmark tabe til Frankrig i fodbold, og sige velkommen til Olivia som er frivillig på stationen den næste uge. Efter maden fandt vi en Husmår med natkikkerten, som sad i et træ nede i haven!

Ringmærkning Fyrhaven:

Rødhals 1

Blåmejse 1

Musvit 4

Gulspurv 1

Total: 7

Observationer fra idag kan ses her

Folk på stationen: Louis Kristoffer Poulsen, Olivia Aaalling-Frederiksen, Diana Sciandra, Aksel Y. Munkholm, Prescillia Lemesle, Simon S. Christiansen, og vores gæster Karen og Søren

Hello everyone,

Last night, Franck, Karen and I were in night captching. Within the first few minutes, a yellow hammer (Gulspurv) was recaptured. We also caught a Woodcock (Skovsneppe) and a blackbird (Solsort). A beautiful evening, it's always relaxing to walk in the night, in silence, enjoying the silence of the sleeping nature!

An unusual day today as we left Skagen to visit the East coast around Frederikshavn. We had taken the woosh nest and the ringing material with us in the hope of ringing some of the resting birds on the beach. At the end, no ringing but very nice observations! A promising morning from the start with a herring gull (Sølvmåge) ring found on the beach. The purples sandpipers (Sortgrå Ryle) staying on the rocks but also a velvet scotter (Fløjlsand) were magical moments.

Velvet Scotter, Fløjlsand (picture of Søren Leth-Nisse, our guest)

Purple sandpiper, Sortgrå Ryle (picture of Søren Leth-Nisse, our guest)

It's really great to see the birds so close up when you are watching them from so far away in Grenen! Other birds seen were Red-breasted Merganser (Toppet skallesluger), Black guillemot (Tejst), Oystercatcher (Strandskade), redshank (Rødben), rock pipit (Skærpiber), water rail (Vandrikse), little grebes (Lille Lappedykker)! For me, seeing my first Kingfisher (Isfugl) in Denmark, my favourite bird, was amazing!

Kingfisher, Isfugl (picture of Søren Leth-Nisse, our guest)

On the way, we said goodbye to Franck who will surely come back next spring! Then we continued our tour of the ugliest places, where the most interesting birds can be found in this type of habitat! Great white egret (Sølvehejre) and long tailed duck (Havlit) resting in the water was the last sighting but a first for our guests who accompanied us!

This afternoon we came back late, Aksel, Diana and Louis fixed the last nets for the next year. Tonight, our guests also prepared a wonderful Danish Christmas meal for us! A real treat and Aksel was happy to find the almond in the Risalamande, a first in 24 years! He won some nice decorations for Christmas!

Aksel, happy to get the present

On my side, this afternoon, I prepared my stuff for my departure, in fact, I am writing this message with a bit of nostalgia as I am leaving the station tomorrow. I say goodbye to this wonderful team with whom I spent unforgettable moments, always with seriousness as you can see on this picture, taken this afternoon!

Don't get me wrong Simon looks serious but he had as much fun as the volunteers! A goodbye but not a farewell because I will come back to Skagen and the Bird Observatory!

Autumn team: Louis, Franck, Simon, Aksel, Diana, our guest (Karen Marie Sø Leth-Nissen) and me (picture of Søren Leth-Nisse, our guest)

See you soon,

Ringing:

Solsort: 1

Skovsneppe 1

Gulspurv 1

Today's Observations

People at the station today: Diana Sciandra, Simon Christiansen, Louis Kristoffer Poulsen, Prescillia Lemesle, Frank Osterberg, Aksel Y. Munkholm, Søren Leth-Nissen and Karen Marie Sø Leth-Nissen.

At five minutes past midnight, I heard a knock on our door, it was Aksel bringing me good tidings of a lucky night catch. I ran to the lab, where Louis, Prescillia, Diana, Frank and Aksel were setting up for the ringing of four nice birds. Simon got here fast as well. He called the catch on Zello, and the ringing, measuring, weighing, gendering, aging and photographing began. We ended up with a group photo session of the four birds: Jacksnipe (Enkeltbekkasin), Water Rail (Vandrikse), Yellowhammer (Gulspurv) and Stonechat (Sortstrubet bynkefugl), before we released them. I was really happy to get this experience with the team at Skagen Fuglestation.

Louis, Diana, Prescillia, and Frank spent the morning mending the last nets at the attic. Nice to be prepared for next season.

In the afternoon, Diana, Frank, Louis, Søren and I went hunting for Snowbuntings (snespurve) on Nordstrand. As we were setting up the wooshnets, the Snowbuntings started gathering around us. They apparently know that people moving around like we did means food on the beach.

Foto, Søren Leth-Nissen

As we told you yesterday, Frank and Simon had been optimizing the nets with new strings and elastic ropes. As Diana, Louis and Frank tested it on the beach, it worked really perfect. So, Diana laid out the seeds and we all sat very excited behind the dunes. And the Snowbuntings (snespurve) came closer and closer and just two seconds before Frank was about to release the net, a Sparrow Hawk (Spurvehøg) attacked and took one of the Snowbuntings! Our hunt was over… half an hour later, the flock of Snowbuntings came back again, but they never got close to the wooshnet again. We guess it was the same Sparrow Hawk that disturbed our hunting on Monday.

Søren set up a post with his camera at the beach close to the water, and besides taking pictures of Kittiwakes (rider) and Northern Gannet (Sule), he had a Sanderling (Sandløber) coming up close.

Foto, Søren Leth-Nissen

Aksel went out running in the afternoon, after keeping the score for all of us on the World Cup in football. Some of us finished the Christmas log cake from yesterday. It was still very nice.

Foto, Søren Leth-Nissen

Tonight, we will go night catching again and hope for a great catch!

Foto, Søren Leth-Nissen

Dagens observationer kan ses her

Many greetings, Karen Marie (guest at the station this week together with Søren).

People at the station today: Diana Sciandra, Simon Christiansen, Louis Kristoffer Poulsen, Prescillia Lemesle, Frank Osterberg, Aksel Y. Munkholm, Søren Leth-Nissen and Karen Marie Sø Leth-Nissen.

Unfortunately, due to the weather, nothing too exciting happened during the day. With the end and closing of kabeltromlen for the year, along with bad weather, meant no mist netting in the garden and no one was too keen on attempting snow bunting on the beach in high wind and rain. Following drinks and fish with some of our friends from Skagen the previous evening, some of us appreciated the late morning!

As a result, it was mostly an indoor day today with most of the day spent doing some tidying and admin tasks. Precillia tidied the lab, ringing data was checked and me and Simon went shopping for some ingredients for tonights Yule Log but also some updated parts for our Whoosh net, that has, thus far, been unsuccessful in snow bunting catching, but we hope some new parts will increase our chances. For dinner, we had left over fish from the previous night but it was definitely just as enjoyable. Following the weekly themes for dinner and this week being Christmas week with Christmas fast approaching, Diana and Precillia had made a Christmas Log for dessert.

After the meal, Me, Precillia and Louis went out night catching and once again saw plenty of birds including: Jack snipe (Enkeltbekkasin); Snipe (Dobbeltbekkasin); Woodcock (Skovsneppe); Pheasant (Fasan); plenty of Fieldfare (Sjagger) and a few smaller passerines in the bushes. We ended with a successful night with a Water Rail (Vandrikse), a nice male Stonechat (Sortstrubet Bynkefugl), a Yellowhammer (Gulspurv) and my highlight, a Jack snipe (enkeltbekkasin). This particular Jack snipe was especially interesting as it was already bearing a ring. A recapture from last November which shows these birds expressing high site fidelity during the winter season in Skagen and caught previously less than 1km away!

Ringmærkning : 4

Enkeltbekkasin (Jack Snipe); 1 Recapture 

Sortstrubet Bynkefugl (Stonechat): 1

Gulspurv (Yellowhammer): 1

Vandrikse (Water Rail): 1

Dagens observationer kan ses her

People at the station today: Diana Sciandra, Simon Christiansen, Louis Kristoffer Poulsen, Prescillia Lemesle, Frank Osterberg, Aksel Y. Munkholm, Søren Leth-Nissen and Karen Marie Sø Leth-Nissen.

Hello!

This morning me and Prescillia opened the nets at Kabeltromlen. Later the other volunteers joined us and we were hoping to catch many birds but the weather was not up for that: we caught in total 12 birds (with recaptures). Considering that the weather in the next days will not be good we brought to the lighthouse all the nets and the materials (poles, ropes, pegs, signs etc) which were at Kabeltromlen and we said goodbye to Kabeltromlen for this year. The end of the 2022 season is a little bit sad, but we will continue ringing birds until the end of the opening of the ringing station (7th December): we have still some nets settled in the Lighthouse garden, than we have also the Night-catching sessions and the Snow Buntings (Snespurv) are waiting for us.

During the afternoon Prescillia went to the city, Frank tried to use the thermal to catch Jack Snipes during the day and the rest of us looked the football match of the day (Denmark-Tunisia 0-0).

In the evening we had a lot of guests that came to eat the fish and seafood which Simon ordered. It was wonderful, super tasty! We looked some pictures of the past year, many of them were with Hanelie, who stayed here for a very long time <3 

We also played some games :) 

Ringmærkning Kabeltromlen:

Solsort: 1

Gærdesmutte: 1

Musvit: 1

Munk: 1

Total = 4

Dagens observationer kan ses her

Folk på stationen: Simon Christiansen, Louis Kristoffer Poulsen, Diana Sciandra, Prescillia Lemesle, Frank Osterberg, Aksel Y. Munkholm, Lars Mortensen, Knud Pedersen, Olof Lou, Frede Jakobsen.

Hello everyone,

Today, first wake up under the snow, the landscapes of Skagen become all white and are beautiful!

 Louis was also at North beach for observations, but the morning was really slow… Franck and Diana accompanied by our guests went also to North Beach in the hope of capturing Snow Buntings (snespurv). Unfortunately, the efforts made, no snow bunting was captured! At least, they played seriously with the snow, created a snow snow bunting! Sparrow auk (Spurvehøg) got involved to show the volunteers how to catch a snow bunting in front of their eyes!

Serious work..

Funny work...

On my side with Simon and Aksel, we opened the nets in the garden of the Light House. In spite of the birds around interested and intrigued by the apples (generously given by Knud), the seeds as well as the songs played, only one robin (Rødhals) was ringed.

We also had a visit of Peter Jürgensen, taxidermist and William Aarestrup, Denmark's oldest active ringer.

We enjoyed Gløgg and æbleskiver listening fantastic stories about … Birds! After, they went outside to see and try to catch some raptors! They finally saw that a buzzard (Musvåge), but they didn’t try. Simon posted this afternoon a report about the European Storm-Petrel (Stormsvalerne) (you can read it here: Report Stormsvalerne i Skagen 2022).

All the volunteers want to thanks Lone and Lars for their help and the nice time together these two last weeks and we will hope to see you again.

Ringing in the Light House Garden:

 Rødhals 1

Today's Observations

People at the station: Louis Kristoffer Poulsen, Frank Osterberg, Diana Sciandra, Prescillia Lemesle, Simon S. Christiansen, Jesper Madsen, William Aarestrup, Peter Jürgensen and our guests Karen and Søren

Hej allesammen!

Idag var nettene ved Kabeltromlen igen åbne efter et par dages pause pga. vind, så Frank og Prescillia åbnede net og efter kom vi andre også derud. Vejret og årstiden taget i betragtning var der fint med fugle. Bedste arter blev en stor Dompap, og en genfangst af en Gransanger ringmærket her sidste år, desværre ingen Sjaggere selvom der var massere af dem i området, og også Silkehaler sad tæt på kabeltromlen og var til stor glæde.

Efter første runde gik Simon og jeg ud for at lede efter Bjergpibere, som vi gerne vil prøve at fange i den kommende tid, vi så ihvertfald 3, men vi ved stadigvæk ikke hvor de overnatter, derudover så vi en Bjerglærke ude ved de yderste klitter og omkring 800 Sjaggere, som fløj rundt omkring sandorme sporet:)

Bjergpiber, tro det eller ej;)

Efter frokost kørte jeg, Simon, Jeppe og Prescillia ud for at kigge efter specielt måger ved Højen fyr og ved havnen, dem var der dog ikke så mange af, men vi så istedet for mit vedkommende den første sne i år:)

Lars og Lone er taget afsted, og vi har til aften fået nye gæster, Karen og Søren, som skal være her i en uge.

Ringmærkning Kabeltromlen:

Solsort 2

Rødhals 1

Gærdesmutte 1

Stor Dompap 2

Munk 1

Blåmejse 1

Rørspurv 1

Total: 9

Observationer fra idag kan ses her

Folk på stationen: Louis Kristoffer Poulsen, Frank Osterberg, Diana Sciandra, Prescillia Lemesle, Simon S. Christiansen, Jesper Madsen og vores gæster Karen og Søren

Hello! 

Yesterday night we tried to have a tour around the area of Ellekrattet, with thermal camera and it was really interesting: at least 11 Woodcocks (Skovsneppe) were spotted! The highlight of the night was a blackbird-looking bird: a beautiful Ring Ouzel (Ringdrossel), a not-very common species here in autumn, unluckily it was not caught but we will try again tonight.

This morning Louis and, later, Jeppe, went observing at Nordstrand: it was a really cold day and the wind was blowing exactly in our direction. They saw a couple of beautiful juvenile Long-tailed duck (Havlit) and still some Velvet Scoters (Flojsand) migrating. Also me, Frank and Prescillia were at Nordstrand, but we arrived later. Our goal was to try again to catch Snow Buntings (Snespurv) but the wind changed direction and intensity compared to yesterday. In general, I think that now we know all the tricks to catch them, we just have to be patient, consistent and to hope that it will come again wind from East (it is easier to set the trap, considering the soil structure and the position of the dunes). Today we added also a new friend to the team: a stuffed Snow Bunting (Snespurv, picture below) that can help us to “attract” the Snow Buntings to come and feed with the seeds that we put near the net. It worked, because the birds were curious about it and they came very close.

Although I feel that the other volunteers start losing hope I really like to put effort in this kind of activity: for a so unique species a lot of effort is always worth it, I think. I could do this catching method every day, even if the cold is getting stronger and stronger (luckily I am not really a cold person) and the biking to the beach with all the material is really painful when the wind is blowing against us. Unluckily tomorrow it is Sunday and there will be a lot of people around the beach and we also need to fix the last nets at Kabeltormen before putting them down for the winter: that’s why I can’t be there also tomorrow to trying to catch them. Monday will be definitely the perfect day, if the wind will blow in the right direction!!! 

Struggling with the wind and the sand 

During the afternoon we cleaned the house and me and Prescillia played Wingspan. I should mention (as agreed with Louis) that I won 3 times against him at table football yesterday, it was fun!

Later, Simon warmed up for all of us some æbleskiver accompanied with some gløgg and it was very nice! We ate them while looking at some pictures of birds and some of the activities in ornithological station that Simon did. 

Now we are ready to eat the country-food that Jeppe (so, in this case from Denmark) has prepared for us: later we will try to catch something cool.

Ringmærkning Kabeltromlen:

Fuglekonge: 5

Blåmejse: 5

Total = 10

Ringmærkning Nordstjernevej:

Rødhals: 2

Blåmejse: 13

Musvit: 13

Skovspurv: 7

Bogfinke: 2

Grønirisk: 8

Gulspurv: 1

Total = 46

 Dagens observationer kan ses her

Folk på stationen: Simon Christiansen, Louis Kristoffer Poulsen, Diana Sciandra, Prescillia Lemesle, Frank Osterberg, Jeppe Therkildsen Madsen, Michael Anker og vores gæster Lars og Lone.

I decided to have a bit of a slow morning and didn't join the early observations at North Beach. The clouds had cleared a bit during the night and we had a really beautiful sunrise painting one side of the lighthouse a spectactular reddish orange which I could see while having my coffee. On my way to North Beach I overheard a flock of Waxwings (Silkehale) calling to eachother at Jenner Sø, but didn't directly observe any. Still it is nice to know they are in the neighbourhood as I think they are gorgeous birds!

And we had a spectacular happening at Jenner Sø today: Michael Anker caught and ringed a Firecrest (Rødtoppet Fuglekonge). It is seldomly enountered here and is the second one caught at Skagen this year.

Today's observations at North Beach were mainly dominated by the scoters, Common and Velvet, with the highlights being Long-tailed Duck (Havlit) and Red-Throated Diver (Rødstrubet Lom) and a solitary Mute Swan (Knopsvane) flying straight over us. Aksel and Louis went back to the house around noon to do a bit of cleaning - Aksel is also leaving us for the weekend but will be back again on Monday.

The Whoosh Net

We decided to move the Woosh Net a bit farther down the beach to see if it would improve our Snow Bunting (Snespurv) luck. Moving the net was slightly difficult since the ground is sand on top and gravel underneat which makes it hard to fasten the pegs holding the lines. Still we prevailed and had several visits by the buntings at the new location, with a few interuptions from people visiting the beach and a sparrowhawk coming in low for a possible meal.
Neither the hawk nor we had any luck catching buntings though. In our case the net had been weighed down by sand blowing on to it and it didnt deploy when we pulled on the string.

Still the mood was high when we decided to call it off at 3pm; we were cold but undeterred and tomorrow surely we will catch some buntings!

Speaking of the cold the weather forecast promises us snow in the weekend. At least the wind is dying down and we may be able to go to Kabeltromlen this Sunday according to Simon.

People at the station: Aksel Y. Munkholm(½), Louis Kristoffer Poulsen, Diana Sciandra, Prescillia Lemesle, Knud Pedersen, Jeppe, Simon, Frank Osterberg and our guests Lars og Lone

Ringing at Jenner Sø

Rødtoppet Fuglekonge 1

Gærdesmutte: 1

Stor Gråsisken: 6

Lille Gråsisken: 6

Totals: 14

Today's Observations

Early morning for me, Diana, Precillia, and Louis for the observations with the Whoosh net with the hopes of a Snow Bunting (Snespurv) catch.

The Whoosh Net set-up at Nordstrand

We came very close with birds wandering close to and even within the firing range of the net including the Lapland Bunting (Lapværling) but unfortunately no birds were caught this time, the closeness however, does bring hope for future attempts

A Snow Bunting and the Lapland bunting (Right)

Highlights from the observations were a Skua sp, likely a Pomarine (Mellemkjove), seen by Precillia and Louis. A Goosander (Stor Skallesluger), a nice male Long-tailed Duck (Havlit), plenty of Velvet Scoters (Fløjlsand) and the supporting cast of Goldeneye (Hvinand) and Red Throated Divers (Rødstrubet lom). Whilst at the observations, Lone, Askel and Jepper also joined us later in the morning. Jepper also briefly went into town for some shopping and also checked out the cemetery and found 6 Waxwings (Silkehale), and watched them luckily escape a Sparrowhawk (Spurvhøg) attack.

When we had all returned home, got some food and recuperated from the wind and cold. For the afternoon, I hoped we could open a few sheltered nets out at Kabeltromlen with tape lures for Fieldfare (Sjagger) and Redwings (Vindrossel). Unfortunately, they didn’t show, and only one flock of fieldfare flew over. We did, however, capture 4 Wrens (Gærdesmutte) and one Blue tit (Blåmejse)which were very welcome following the lack of thrushes.

Everyone was a bit tired for night catching this evening so we hope to bring good news tomorrow of Snow Buntings!

Ringing Kabeltromlen: 

Wren / Gærdesmutte: 4

Blue Tit / Blåmejse: 1

People at the station: Aksel Y. Munkholm, Louis Kristoffer Poulsen, Diana Sciandra, Prescillia Lemesle, Knud Pedersen, Jeppe, Simon, Frank Osterberg og vores gæster Lars og Lone

Dagens observationer kan ses her