Hello everyone,

After a rainy day, the night was much more conclusive!

Optimistically, at nightfall, Aksel, Diana, Solenn and Hanelie headed to Cormorant Lake to try to net some waterfowl.

Armed with our flashlights and nets, in the silence of the night, the team then completed by Johannah and Prescillia worked from 9pm to 11:30pm to capture a beautifull results of 9 waders.

Back at the station, with Simon and Lisa, the captured birds were ringed:

- 1 Common snipe (Dobbeltbekkasin)

- 1 Ring-plover (Stor præstekrave)

- 7 Jack snipe (Enkeltbekkasin)

 Total: 9 birds

The team began aging the snipes, a not-so-simple task that requires looking at certain patterns on the tertiary remiges that are difficult to discern if the feathers are wet.

This night capture also gave Diana's "best moment in a banding station", seeing with pleasure her first short-eared owl (Mosehornugle) which unfortunately was not captured.

The whole team went back to their beds in the night but happy with these captures, which for some volunteers were their first shorebirds!

The team recuperated during this rainy day, each one working to enter, verify the data and prepare the future presentations. Solenn, Aksel, Hannelie, Diana and Johannah played Wingspan this afternoon, while I did some work on my computer.

Now, everyone is already ready and enthusiastic for potential new captures this evening...!

Observations of the day in DOFbasn from observers in the area

People at the station: Diana Sciandra, Hanelie Sidhu, Solenn Boucher, Johanna Veentjer, Prescillia Lemesle, Aksel Munkholm, Lisa Vergin, Simon S. Christiansen and our guests Bent and Åse

Hello everyone!

Today has been a slow day for everyone: it rained a lot, so in the morning we stayed at home. We used the time to check the sheets, entering data on DOFbasen and introducing Prescillia on every activities of the station. We had lunch all together and in the afternoon we kept working at home; Hanelie and I started looking for information about our future presentations and we chose our main themes. Solenn continued analyzing the recordings made during two nights of the last week and Johanna and Prescillia worked with their computer at other projects.

Some drawing I started this morning: do you recognize the species? 

Aksel went outside and tried to spot the Black woodpecker (Sortspætte) which was seen in the past days in the area, but he didn’t see it. He didn’t found not even some cool mushrooms he was looking for in the area, but he enjoyed spending some time outside and when he came home he took a nap. Meanwhile, all of us were energized because with Simon we decided to try tonight waders night-catching at the Cormorant Lake, despite the cold and the rain (actually it helps a lot during this kind of catching). After Simon left we started playing Wingspan; Solenn won, and we believe that she made the record (114 points!!!) for the station! Later Johanna went outside to take some fresh air and she loved the sighting of the sea, with the clouds full of rain just above it.

Now we are ready to go outside: we will be two groups (me & Hanelie and Solenn & Aksel), we had no dinner but we are super ready! 

Solutions about the drawings: there are a European storm petrel (Lille stormsvale) and a Little stint (Dværgryle). 

People at the station: Diana Sciandra, Hanelie Sidhu, Solenn Boucher, Johanna Veentjer, Prescillia Lemesle, Aksel Munkholm, Simon S. Christiansen, Lisa Vergin

Observations of the day in DOFbasen from observers in the area

Hi everyone,

This morning, we split up in three teams: Solenn an I went to Verdens Ende 3 to do the morning observations. The sea was very flat and there was not much migration going on. But apart from resting Gannets „Sule“ and Common Scoters „Sortand“ we had some Razorbills „Alk“ migrationg and quite a lot resting on the water. There was also a Great Scua „Storkjove“ and a lightmorph Arctic Scua „Almindelig Kjove“ and it was nice to see them together. There were also a lot of passerines over Land, bur they were not really migrating: Goldfinches „Stillits“, Reed Buntings „Rørspurv” Chaffinches ”Bogfinke”, Starlings ”Stær”, I even saw one Fieldfare ”Sjagger” and the Goldcrests ”Fuglekonge” were coming our dune and sitting in the high grass on the dunes! Later, Solenn went to the tip to cout the waders and read some Gull Rings. She was very succesfull with reading rings and there was even a Great-Black-Backed Gull ”Svartbag” with a orange ring! Later, Solenn found out, that it ringed in Sussex in Great Britain. But the ring has been read in Skagen already in 2019. In the flock of Gulls, there was also a Great Scua ”Storkjove” resting and Solenn took a very cute picture.

Great Skua "Storkjove"

In the meantime, Diana and Prescillia went to the Cormorant Lake. There were many waders as Little Stint ”Dværgryle”, Ruff ”Brushane” Grey Plover ”Strandhjeile”, Lapwing ”Vibe”, Dunlin ”Almindelig Ryle” and they even saw a Jack Snipe ”Enkelbekassin”.

Jack Snipe "Enkelbekassin"

Johanna took the train to Jerup, she had to bike very fast, as she left the staton quite late. But she managed to catch the train and arrived at a very foggy Jerup.

But she had a very nice morning there, she saw 17 Bar-tailed Godwits ”Lille Kobbersneppe”, a lot of Dunlins ”Almindelig Ryle”, also Sanderlings ”Sandløber”, Ringed Plover ”Stor Præstekrave”, Oystercatchers ”Strandskade” and impressingly big flocks of Greylegs ”Grågas”.

When we were all back from our mornig activities, we hanged the bird bags, that we had washed, to dry. It was not as easy as it sound as all the strings of the bags were tangelt, so we had to entangel them first, which took some time. Finally, when we managed, we went to town all together because Johanna wanted to eat with us at her favorite Fish and Chips restaurant at the harbour.

Afterwards, we went quickly to the backery for a little dessert, then we headed back to the station.

We welcomed our new guests Åse and Bent, who I knew already from their visit in March! Then Diana, Johanna and Prescillia went tho the Radar mast as we needes to cut some bushes there to put up the solar pannel soon. Solenn and I went to Kabeltromlen to moove some nets to another place. While we were working, Simon called. He was back in Skagen from his weekend at Aggertange and proposed us to go wader-nightcatching at Jerup. That was a very spontaneous plan an when we went back to the bird observatory, we had less then one hour to prepare all necessary things for nightchatching: Rings, Poles, nets, speakes, USB-Sticks with wader-sounds … But we managed, it was very good team work and when Simon arrived at 19 o´clock, he admitted to be a bit surprised, that we were ready. But when we arrived at Jerup, there were hunters hunting ducks and geese and nearly no wades on the beach. We were a bit annoyed and drove back because like that, nightcatching would not make sense. When we were back and having dinner, Aksel also came back from his weekend that he spent at his grandmas birthday.

Tomorrow it will probably rain but we will check if we can still go out in the morning, otherwise we will maybe be out in the field later, depending on the weather.

Observations of the day in DOFbasn from observers in the area

So lets hope that the waether the next days will be better than the forcarst.

See you soon!

Hanelie

People at the station: Diana Sciandra, Hanelie Sidhu, Solenn Boucher, Johanna Veentjer, Prescillia Lemesle, Aksel Munkholm, Simon S. Christiansen

Today's observations in the area on DOFBasen

Hi everyone!

We weren’t ringing today and unfortunately the weather was also too wet and foggy to do the morning observation. So we spend the morning painting, playing Wingspan and enjoying our time together. We also cleaned up our flat. These beautiful paintings are from Diana:

In the afternoon all of us decided to go birding in different places. I went to Stokmilen and the forest around the “Tilsandede Kirke”. I was amazed by a Crested Tit (Topmejse) I spotted on a branch and I also saw some Coal Tits (Sortmejse), two Great Spotted Woodpeckers (Stor Flagspætte), an Eurasian Jay (Skovskade) and some other common birds. Furthermore I saw some Sanderlings (Sandløber) and a Ringed Plover (Stor Præstekrave) on the beach.

Diana went to the Cormorant Lake where she saw two Grey Plovers (Strandhjejle), Ringed Plovers (Stor Præstekrave), Ruffs (Brushane) and some other species as well while Solenn went to the tip where she saw for example Eiders (Ederfugl), Cormorants (Skarv), Razor Bills (Alk), Red Knots (Islandsk Ryle ; see below) and a Golden Plover (Hjejle). Hanelie went to the Harbour but there were not so many birds today, apart from a Rock Pipit (Skærpiper) and some Eiders (Ederfugl).

In the evening we were happy to meet our new french volunteer Prescillia, who will stay at the bird observatory until December. Welcome to the team !

People at the station: Diana Sciandra, Hanelie Sidhu, Solenn Boucher, Johanna Veentjer, Prescillia Lemesle

Good evening everyone,

As you can see below, Aksel had a great sunset when going to World End 3, where he met Knud and was later joined for 3 hours by Egon Østergaard, chairman of DOFBasen. At the beginning of the day, two big groups of gannets, totaling more than a thousand individuals, were feeding on fish along the shore using their specific and stunning preying technique: from as high as 40m above the sea level, they would dive almost vertically, with their wings thrown back as they strike the water at 100km/h, to pursue their prey underwater at greater depth than most airborne birds. Aksel also had the chance to observe closely a young kittiwake and its recognizable dark "W" pattern across the wings.

As from the ringing team, capture rate was slow as only 23 birds got ringed this morning before we had to close the nets around 10:30 because the wind was rising; we were glad to have Anton visiting today as he kept us entertained between rounds ! We were quite happy with the species captured, as the goldcrest Fuglekonge, the reed bunting Rørspurv and the great tit Musvit are the most appreciated birds of respectively Johanna, Diana and I (don’t judge : there wasn’t any Musvit where I grew up, and I only discovered them when I was 20 years old !). We also got 4 bullfinches Lille Dompap, two of them recaptured from previous sessions; I was quite happy as, again, I never saw one before coming here. A flock of crossbills flew over our heads and we can’t wait to trap one someday.

As usual, we entered ringing, observing and nocturnal migration data on the different databases, before splitting in teams : Diana went observing at the tip until rain interrupted her drawing session while Hanelie and Johanna went grocery shopping; then Johanna took a bike ride and hike around, Hanelie started to cook and I was analyzing some more nocturnal migration recordings – hopefully I will soon be able to tell birds apart, even if all I hear is just a pip !

Fieldwork can be physically hard, and therefore we finished our day by having a yoga session to stretch our muscles;  we will probably try to give bird names to the different positions so as to motivate us to add it to our routine, we will let you know how it goes !

People at the station : Simon Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Knud Pedersen, Diana Sciandra, Hanelie Sidhu, Solenn Boucher, Johanna Veentjer, Aksel Munkholm, Egon Østergarrd, Anton Arnesson and Jørgen Kabel (& Igor)

Today´s observations from the area on DOFBasen

Ringing totals at Kabeltromle:

Gransanger: 3

Fuglekonge: 1

Gærdesmutte: 4

Jernspurv: 4

Rødhals: 2

Rørspurv: 4

Lille Dompap: 2

Munk: 2

Musvit: 1

Total: 23 birds

Hej derude

I dag stod dagens første time efter solopgang for de største oplevelser for både observationsholdet og ringmærkerne. Jeg var draget afsted mod verdens ende 3 (grenen) for at lave morgenobs sammen med Knud, mens resten af stationens frivillige stod for ringmærkningen ved kabeltromlen sammen med Simon og Lisa.

Ikke længe efter at jeg var ankommet til verdens ende 3 (grenen) udspillede der sig et større drama for øjnene af Knud og mig. En gærdesmutte havde fået forvildet sig ud på stranden, hvor den desperat prøvede at flygte fra 5 hættemåger, som havde udset sig et nemt morgenmåltid. I stedet for at vælge den sikre flugtvejen over klitterne og ned i havtornen tog gærdesmutten turen ud mod vandet. Ud på mågernes hjemmebane... En hættemåge fik hurtig fat i gærdesmutten, men tabte den igen i vand. Dette tiltrak hurtigt opmærksomheden fra flere sølvmåger og kort herefter blev den slugt i en mundfuld.

Knud og jeg havde nær ikke fået pulsen ned fra det tidlige morgendrama før vi fik en meddelelse om at de ved kabeltromlen havde fanget en høgesanger! Af sti afsted hen over klitterne og igennem havtornen, for den blev vi nødt til at se.

En høgesanger var blevet set i området allerede i går, og vi havde snakket om, at det måske kunne lykkedes at ringmærke den. Den var allerede i nettet i første omgang og er kun det 7. individ fanget siden 2017, så vi var glade for at forhåbningerne gik i opfyldelse.

Sikke en morgen!

Herefter vendte Knud og jeg tilbage til obsen, hvor resten dog foregik i et stille tempo. Vi havde en alm kjove og dværgmåge som højdepunkter resten af formiddagen. Jeg valgte, på grund af det rolige tempo, at bevæge mig ned for at tælle de vadefugle som stod yderst på grenen. Jeg benyttede i samme omgang lejligheden til at beundre sælerne som lå og nød morgensolen.

Ved kabeltromlen havde de en rigtig fin dag med 55 ringmærkede fugle i alt og 16 forskellige arter i nettene. Se Facebook for billeder af nogle af de fugle vi har ringmærket i september. For Johanna var det en stor dag, da det var første gang hun prøvede kræfter med ringmærkning. Hun fik holdt flere fugle og ringmærket sin første fugl. Vi håber på at ringmærkningen bliver lige så stor en succes som i morgen som det var i dag.  

Efter en god frokost havde vi alle en rolig eftermiddag med dataindtastning og middagslur. Inden aftensmaden tog vi et spil wingspan. Resultatet heraf behøver vi dog ikke en længere udredning af…

Dagens observationer kan ses her

Ringmærkede fugle ved kabeltromlen:  

Sanddrossel: 1

Musvit: 1

Høgesanger: 1

Gulspurv: 1

Rødhals: 5

Gærdesmutte: 4

Jernspurv: 4

Grønsisken: 1

Sortmejse: 2

Munk: 5

Blåmejse: 13

Rørspurv: 8

Dompap: 1

Gransanger: 5

Nordlig træløber: 1

Fuglekonge: 2

Total: 55

Folk på stationen:

Simon Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Knud Pedersen, Diana Sciandra, Hanelie Sidhu, Solenn Boucher, Johanna Veentjer og Aksel Munkholm

Hi everyone!

Tonight me and Johanna were up for night-catching stormpetrels (Lille stormsvale) and nightjars (Natravn), but unfortunately we didn’t catch anything. I hope we will try again soon because I would really want to see a stormpetrel (Lille stormsvale); I have never seen one and just the thought to have the chance to catch one and seeing it so close is amazing! We tried also to use the thermal camera to locate them in the dark of the night but no birds appeared. In the morning we slept, but the other volunteers were quite busy.

Solenn went observing with Knud at Verdens Ende 3; September is proceeding and observations change week after week: yesterday with Knud we observed one of the first rock pipit of the season, today they saw an increased number of Razorbills (Alken) and Common guillemots (Lomvie) passing by. In general they saw a good diversity of species: amongst them there was also a Great crested grebe (Toppet lappedykker) and a group of Northern pintails (Spidsand). Moreover, a Great skua (Storkjove) was resting at the beach: probably it was the same we saw yesterday during the Fulmar (Mallemuk) survey.

At Kabletromle there were many people; Hanelie, Aksel, Lisa were accompanied by Werner Larsson and his dog Saga, and Jørgen Kabel and his dog Igor. It was a successful day: 50 birds were found on the nets (3 of them were recaptures). Amongst them have been ringed: a beautiful male Brambling (Kvækerfinke), one barn swallow (Landsvale), 7 dunnocks (Jernspurv) and 7 wrens (Gærdesmutte). It is interesting to have seen a Barn swallow (Landsvale) in the nets: they will go to Africa very soon! This individual, caught on the first day of autumn will be probably the last of the year. 

In the afternoon a school came to visit the ringing station: unfortunately there were no birds, but Simon explained them our activity very well.

My personal highlight of the day was a razorbill (Alk) found by Lisa and Simon, very close to the beach: it was my first one ever! Extremely beautiful!

People at the station:

Simon Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Knud Pedersen, Diana Sciandra, Hanelie Sidhu, Solenn Boucher, Johanna Veentjer, Aksel Munkholm, Jørgen Kabel (and Igor), Werner Larsson (and Saga).

Ringing totals at Kabeltromle:

Fuglekonge: 3

Gransanger: 4

Rødhals: 7

Gærdesmutte: 7

Rørsanger: 1

Munk: 5

Rørspurv: 2

Musvit: 1

Lille Gråsisken: 2

Kvækerfinke: 1

Jernspurv: 7

Landsvale: 1

Bogfinke: 1

Lille dompap: 1

Blåmejse: 1

Gulspurv: 1

Sangdrossel: 2

Totals: 47

Today’s Observations from the area on DOFBasen

Hi everyone,

today was, once again, too windy to open the nets, so we decided to put some effort on seawatching and bird counting. Diana, Aksel, Simon, and later Johanna went to World End 3 for seawatching with Knud, where they saw a Sooty Shearwater „Sordfarvet Skråpe”– we are definitely grateful to see so many Procellariidae these last few days ! They also had a Great Skuas „Storkjove”, and spent some time detailing the shorebirds to be able to better identify them on the field.

Dunlin "Almindelig Ryle" in the back and Little Stint "Dværgryle" in front

In the afternoon, Simon dropped them at Gammel Skagen for a 10 km long Fulmar  "Mallemuk" survey : the goal is to collect dead Fulmars "Mallemuk" in order to study the amount of microplastic contained in their stomach. They found on sadly encountered dead 37 Gannets, six Guillemots „Lomvie”, one Razorbill „Alk” and one Sandwichtern ”Splitterne“. Along the way, in honor of the World Clean Up Day that happened last week on the 17 of September, but also because we care about the safety and health of our seabirds, they collected 4 kg of waste along the shore – mostly transparent plastic, that seabird might mistake with jellyfish, and fishing ropes, in which seabirds can get entangled.
In the meantime, Solenn and I had a very different day. In the morning went with Rie to Jerup Strand to look at waders ; we had good numbers of Dunlins „Almindelig Ryle“ and Oystercatchers „Strandskade“, and happily identified Bar-tailed Godwits „Lille Kobbersneppe“ and one single Greenshank „Hvidklire“ ; on the way back, we had some Ruffs „Brushane“ on a field and very good views on a sparrowhawk that decided to rest for a moment on a pole.

After our nap, I continued analysing the nocturnal migration recording while Solenn entered the observation data and started cooking dinner and baking some biscuits and cookies, which hopefully will help Diana and Johanna to stay awake tonight as they have the nightwatch today for our stormie + nightjar night catching session. We´ll ceep you updated on the results of that session!

While Diana and Johanna will probably be sleeping tomorrow morning, Solenn, Aksel and I will be in the field, so see you tomorrow!

Observations of the day in DOFbasn from observers in the area 

Hanelie

People at the station: Simon Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Knud Pedersen, Rie Voertmann, Diana Sciandra, Hanelie Sidhu, Solenn Boucher, Johanna Veentjer, Aksel Munkholm

Hi everyone,

The weather definitely doesn’t wish us luck recently ; the morning was very windy again, enough to keep our nets closed for the third day in a row. All five of us therefore took our chances and went to Verdens Ende 3 with Knud, who returned yesterday afternoon, and managed to see the Calonectris sp. individual ! This presumed Scopoli’s shearwater Scopolis's skråpe has been around for the last four days, and went close enough to the beach today to allow all of us to have a good glance at it, specifically the light underwing – a criteria to distinguish it from its sister species, the Cory’s shearwater Kuhls skråpe.

We also saw a great skua Storkjove attacking two grey herons Fiskhejre – not to eat them, but to feed on their prey. This behaviour is called kleptoparasitic foraging : if skuas rely heavily on this type of foraging, some other species like gulls måger can do it opportunistically. It also exists in other mammal and arthropods species, like hyenas hyæner.

At the pond, near the tip, there were some common terns Fjordterne resting; one Arctic Tern Havterne was sitting next to one of them and it was therefore easy to see that the Arctic Tern has shorter legs and bill than the common one.

After two hours of wind blowing sand all the way up to our faces, Diana, Johanna and I decided we froze enough at the beach and went to Cormorant’s lake instead, where we could see ruffs Brushane, dunlins Almindelig Ryle, snipes Dobbeltbekkasin, grey plover Strandhjejle and little stints Dværgryle – before a sparrowhawk Spurvehøg scared all the birds away from the lake, at which point we went back home while eating Havtorn fruits collected on the way.

In the meantime, Knud explained Hanelie and Aksel the visual clues to distinguish juvenile gulls ; he also pointed out the fulmars Mallemuk far out at sea, and their specific « jizz », i.e. the combination of the general shape of the bird (big/small, elongated/round, pointy or round wing shape, etc) and its way of flying (soaring / flapping its wing constantly, up and down / straight, close to the water / high in the sky, etc).

After lunch and nap, we spent the afternoon entering or checking datas. Then everybody went back out again, for birding along the shore (Aksel took a swim in the sea !) or at Cormorant lake, while I was analysing nocturnal migration – or at least tried to, as there was a lot of parasitic noise on the recordings, such as TV, human voices, cars, and high level of background noise.

We will now enjoy some home-made pizzas and Scopoli’s cake Johanna made for us – have a nice evening !

People at the station: Diana Sciandra, Hanelie Sidhu, Solenn Boucher, Johanna Veentjer, Aksel Munkholm, Knud Pedersen

Today's observations of the area on DOFBasen

Hi everyone!

The day started quite slow for us, as the weather was too rainy and windy to go ringing. Luckily the weather became better late in the the morning and Solenn and Aksel went to Worlds end 3 for observations. They saw a Golden Plover (Hjejle), Common Terns (Fjordterner) and Razorbills (Alk). Aksel saw his first Red-throated Divers (Rodstrobet lom)!

I joined them later and then went back to the station with Solenn, while Aksel stayed at the observation point and was joined by Diana then. She also made some beautiful paintings of birds today as you can see in the picture below.

Hanelie went to Batteriskoven in the afternoon and she saw two Great Spotted Woodpeckers (Stor Flagspætte), a lot of Chaffinches (Bogfinke), Crested Tits (Topmejse), Siskins (Grønsisken), a Eurasian Treecreeper (Træløber), a lot of Goldcrests (Fuglekonge) and Great Tits (Musvit) as well as Blue Tits (Blåmejsen). Then she went to the industrial area and saw some Goldcrests (Fuglekonge) and Yellowhammers (Gulspurv) and a bit further on the horse fields four Lapwings (Vibe) and also four Common Snipes (Dobbeltbekkasin) in a ditch. Afterwards she went to Grenen near the tractor track and met Knud and some other birders there and they saw the Scopoli’s Shearwater ( Scopolis's skråpe) and two Great Skuas (Storkjove). 

Solenn, Aksel and I did some data work in the afternoon. We were interrupted by some people who brought a Common Kestrel (Tårnfalk) they had found in the street ; the bird was probably hit by a car. We put it in a card box in a cool spot and called the animal protection (1812) who could take better care of the bird ; one of their volunteers picked it up two hours later, hopefully to its full recovery.

People at the station: Diana Sciandra, Hanelie Sidhu, Solenn Boucher,Johanna Veentjer, Aksel Munkholm, Esben Hansen

  Obersvations of the day from observers in the area