On the 15^th of July the standardized 4-hour morning observations start after the summer break. Emma and I went to World´s end three this morning and started the sea migration count. We had some Common Scoters “Sortand” on migration and very few Red-Throated Divers “Rødstrubet Lom” and Auks “Alkefugl”. Many Sandwich Terns “Splitterne” came to forage not so far from the tip as well as Nothern Gannets “Sule”. Erik joined us for a bit coming from the beach where he had been photographing and saw the Black-throated Diver “Sortstrubet Lom” first. A Great White Egret “Sølvheire” was flying southeast in a group of ten Grey Herons “Fiskehejre”. Three Kestrels “Tårnfalk” landed on the beach – on of them was plying with some long roots that sticked out of the sand. That was fun to watch. But they also landed close to where the ringed Plovers “Stor Præstekrave” raise their chicks, so were a bit worried about them. We also had a Whimbrel “Småspove” landing on the beach.

Great White Egret "Sølvhejre". archive picture from 2022.

The last hour was a bit tiring; there was not much happening on the sea. We kept an eye on the birds but after the obs was finished, we were happy to go back to the station to take a nap.

Higlights Morning Obs:

Great White Egret - Sølvhejre

playing Kestrel - Tårnfalk

Today´s observations typed into DOFbasn of observers in the area can be seen here.

Before noon, Simon came to the station. I also woke up and did a bit of data work with the ringing data and did the DOFbasn quality assurance. We are checking if all our data is also typed into dafbasn and if there are some mistakes in the data. I found some data that was not in and entered it. After, we had an early evening meeting with Simon. Then Pauline and I checked some ringing data while Emma went grocery shopping. We also took out one more net to sew. Luckily, it did not have as many holes as the last one so we could finish it today and it can be reused as soon as a net needs to be exchanged or for the nest year.

Net sewing. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Now Pauline is cooking an early dinner, maybe we can go to bed a bit earlier today to be fit again tomorrow morning for ringing at Kabletromle and Morning Observations.

At the station: Pauline Næhring, Emma Fabre, Simon S. Christiansen, Hanelie Sidhu.

Today was CES day. We went to Cormorant Lake for bird ringing. Our first round was accompanied by a lovely young bird — a juvenile Bluethroat (Blåhals). Throughout the morning, we caught many Reed Warblers (Rørsanger) and other species. We also had three Lesser Whitethroats (Gædesanger)— two juveniles and one adult. While we were waiting between rounds, the sun warmed us, and we could hear the call of a Bearded Tit (Skægmejse) in the background.

young Bluethroat (Blåhals)

During the last round, we caught three young male Bearded Tits (Skægmejse) — two were already ringed, so we may have caught the last unringed chick. When we closed the nets, we rescued a bumblebee that had gotten stuck.

Three young male Bearded Tits (Skægmejse)

Then we went back to the lighthouse and had lunch.

I went out to look for butterflies and dragonflies around Cormorant Lake. I found about a dozen species and saw lots of Sand Lizards. Hanelie was checking data sheets with Simon, and Pauline took a nap.

Commom Blue - Almindelig blåfugl - Polyomatus icarus

Later in the afternoon, we continued sewing the nets. We finally finished one net after two days of work and many repaired holes. Pauline caught a Sand Lizard and brought it over to motivate us to finish the net.

Sand Lizard

Link to todays observations in DOFbasen from Observers in the area.

Ringing (Skarvsøen CES):
Solsort 1
Rørsanger 6
Blåhals 1
Gærdesanger 3
Skægmejse 1
Munk 1
Gransanger 1

Total 14

People: Pauline Nähring, Hanelie Sidhu, Emma Fabre & Simon Sigaard Christiansen

The day began very early for us, with an alarm at 3am for a planned ringing session at Kabeltromlen. Sadly, the weather didn’t look very good, so we decided to stay at the station.

I still decided to go for a little walk to look for some amphibians or reptiles, and actually got rewarded with some nice sightings: four Natterjack Toads (Kreuzkrø) and one Moor Frog (Spidssnudet Frø). Even though we see them quite often, I still get excited each time.

After a few hours of rest, Emma and I jumped on the bikes and went on a grocery run to the city. After that, we spent the afternoon repairing our nets by sewing all the holes.

In between, we had a short but very cool break. It was finally time to ring the young Barn Swallows (Landsvale) that are nesting right here at the station.

Let’s hope the weather improves tomorrow, so we can successfully do more ringing :)

Link to todays observations in DOFbasen from Observers in the area.

Ringing (Lighthouse Garden):

Landsvale: 3

People: Pauline Nähring, Hanelie Sidhu, Emma Fabre & Simon Sigaard Christiansen

On Friday evening, Simon dropped Emma and me off at Sandmilen, together with a bunch of poles and equipment. While we were setting up the nets, we were joined by Henning Schmidt, who is monitoring some breeding populations of Nightjars “Natravn” since the mid-1990s.

When we went back from setting up the nets, we already saw the first Nightjar “Natravn”, a male, flying and landing in the branch of a tree, which put our hopes for many nightjars “Natravn” in the nets high.

Also Mark and his daughters joined us at our encampment.

Waiting for the round with insect hats, covering most of our skin againt midges and moscitoes. Picture: Mark Desholm.

Our guests joined us for the first two rounds and unfortunately, they just saw empty nets apart from an Oak egger “Egespinder”, which is a rather big moth, which got caught in a net. Luckily, I managed to get it out and after a while, it flew away.

Net-check. Picture: Mark Desholm

We learned a lot of interesting things about Nightjars “Natraven”, for example, that they usually lay two eggs. The first egg and first hatched chick is usually a female, which is important for reproduction in the next generation. The second is either male or female and does not get fed is food is low. Luckily, the breeding populations of Nightjars “Natravn” were doing very well in the last years, so we hope that means they get enough insects, and most chicks get fed and survive.

Ather the second round, our guests left us whishing us luck for the next rounds. They had whished well, we got the first bird in the third round and two more in the fourth round. It was all females.

Nightjar "Natravn", female. Picture: Emma Fabre.

Fifth round was closing round, we saw Nightjars “Natravn” flying but nothing in the nets.

After the nets were down, we called Simon to pick us up.

Back at the station, I checked my moth trap, took pictures and released all moths before I went to sleep. I still need to put them all in the databases but saw already, that I had two new species, the Feathered beauty “Peribatodes secundaria” and Lygaphila pastinum “Vikkeugle”, which is called Blackneck (not Blackcap ;-) in English.

Feathered beauty “Peribatodes secundaria”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Lygaphila pastinum “Vikkeugle”. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu.

before I went tp bed I saied goodbye to Andrew, who left to a short stppover in Iceland and after home to Canada today. Good luck with birding and ringing Andrew, now again in less sandy areas!

After breakfast, which was in the early afternoon, we had a planning meeting with Simon and after that cleaned the station.

Link to today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

Ringing (Skagen Klitplantage):

Natravn - 3

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Henning Schmidt, Emma Fabre, Pauline Næhring, Hanelie Sidhu, our guests Mark Desholm and his daughters.

Last night, we set up the nets in the hope of catching a Storm-petrel or a nightjar. Sea fog was beginning to roll in. Mette come to help us for the round. Hanelie and  her went on the net check while the others went to sleep. However, nothing was caught in the nets. Andrew later went to help Hanelie close them.

Storm-petrel net setting 

After that, Hanelie went to check her moth trap. She found a Small Chocolate-tip (Chokoladeplet – Clostera pigra) and a Natterjack Toad near the lighthouse. During the check, she also saw a bat flying. Andrew went to the beach to count gulls. It was foggy, but he still managed to count around 500 gulls, along with some kittiwakes and waders.

Small Chocolate-tip (Chokoladeplet – Clostera pigra)

This afternoon, we started repairing the nets. Hanelie taught Pauline and me how to do it. Then Hanelie cleaned the lab while Pauline and I went to Kabetteotmmer to cut the grass under the nets and clear some trees.
When we got back to the lighthouse, I went for a swim. I found some crabs and small polyps attached to the seaweed.

Team fixing the net

This nigh Simon taking Hanelie and me to …. for ringing some nightjar. We hope to catch some!

People: Pauline Nähring, Andrew Jacobs, Hanelie Sidhu and Emma Fabre, Mette Møller Christensen, Simon S. Christiansen

 

People: Pauline Nähring, Andrew Jacobs, Hanelie Sidhu and Emma Fabre

The beach at dawn. Picture: Andrew Jacobs

The day started even earlier than usual at that time of the year. The evening before we had set up nets for Nightjars “Natraven” in the old lighthouse garden and nets for tern and waders at the beach. Andrew and Emma took the night watch and at 01:15 I got a call from Andrew that they had caught a Nightjar “Natraven”! I got up immediately, and Cora too had heard the call. We met the others down in the lab and processed the bird.

2K+ female Nightjar "Natravn". Picture: Andrew Jacobs.

After it got released, I laid down for a bit until it was time to take down the nets. After Andrew and I had out all the poles, ropes, pegs and nets in the lab I grabbed the ringing bags and Cora and I went to Kabeltromle to open the nets. Pauline joined for the first round, and we got some nice birds, 26 new in total. Pauline was very happy about a juvenile Crested Tit “Topmejse”, Cora got to ring a Spotted Flycatcher “Grå Fluesnapper”, we did not have that species for a while. I had a juvenile Lesser Whitethroat “Gærdesanger”, that did not think of flying off when I wanted to release it. The bird was fine, and it was quite cute but a bit unpractical to have a bird sitting on my hand when I needed to check the nest one. So it could sit a little on Coras hand and we released the nest bird, a Common Whitethroat “Tornsanger” right next to it, maybe the Lesser Whitethroat “Gærdesanger” would also fly. It did not but it seemed to remember that it was a wild bird, it called and a little later it flew of from my hand, where it had been sitting again. A juvenile Blue Tit “Blåmejse” was also nice and a recapture of a Reed Bunting “Rørspurv”. We had some Cruise ship guests visiting as at Kabeltromle, Andrew was their tour guide today. We saw in total seven Honey Buzzards from Kabeltromle. Andrew and the Cruise guests also so the flock of six. They also had a White-tailed eagle “Havørn”.

Ringing totals KAB
Tornsanger 15
Munk 1
Blåmejse 1
Grå Fluesnapper 1
Gærdesanger 2
Topmejse 1
Rørsanger 1
Gransanger 4
Total 26

Ringing  old lighthouse garden

Natravn 1

Highlights

Natravn

Hvepsevåge

Havørn

Grå Fluesnapper

Back at the station we met Simon, Cora and I had a swim, we had lunch and did some data work. After, we had a meeting with Simon. Cora, Emma and Malte left to count the last orchids while I could finally have a nap. When I woke up, I went to the lab to clean the fridge. After we started preparing dinner, we had a barbeque tonight all together with bread on the stick. It was a very nice evening. We ended it by climbing the lighthouse and looking down at evening Skagen and some gulls flying to the harbor to sleep.

Stick breaad over the fire. Picture: Mark Desholm.

At the station: Knud and Inge Pedersen, Cora Kørbele, Pauline Næhring, Simon S. Christiansen, Hanelie Sidhu, Emma Fabre, Andrew Jacobs.

Today Hanelie and I got up early in the morning to see if the weather was good for gull catching at the beach at dawn, unfortunately it was raining so we had to hold off of trying.

Simon came by around 10 to get us to go and do some ringing projects further abroad for the day.

When we drove past Hulsig there was a Great Egret standing in the pond.

First we went back to Tårs for the Eurasian Kestrels which had grown significantly since last time we saw them and we put satellite tags on them with Lars for a monitoring project that looks at the movements of the Kestrels. There were some nice Corn Buntings singing nearby while we learned about the tagging process.

Collecting Kestrels photo Andrew Jacobs

Our second location was at former volunteer Tue’s house where his family had nesting Common Swifts that we ringed, they were surprisingly large and quiet with very grippy feet. There was also a nest box with a Eurasian Tree Sparrow in it, however there was no eggs or chicks in the box so we’re unsure if it was just hanging out in the box or not.

Common Swift photo Andrew Jacobs

The third location we went to was to scout out a Western Barn Owl nest box in a barn. We checked around the barn for the Barn Owl and couldn’t find it in the rafters. We put up a ladder next to the box to check for any possible chicks and the Barn Owl shot out of the barn full speed, however there were no eggs or chicks in nest but this location could be good to come back to in the future for the station.

Barn Owl box photo Andrew Jacobs

We headed back to the station and picked up the new Volunteer Emma.

Tonight we will try some night catching around the lighthouse for waders, terns and nightjars, setting up a few more nets to use.

Observations from the area on DOFbasen today

Ringing totals

Eurasian Kestrel 3 (Tårnfalk)

Common Swift 3 (Mursejler)

Highlights

Western Barn Owl (Slørugle)

Great Egret (Sølvhejre)

Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Skovspurv)

Corn Bunting (Bomlærke)

People: Cora Köberle, Hanelie Sidhu, Andrew Jacobs, Pauline Nähring, Simon Sigaard Christiansen, Lars Bo Jakobsen, Emma Fabre,  and our guests Mark Desholm and his Family.

Today it was time again to go to Skarvsøen to do the CES ringing. So Hanelie and Pauline went out early to open the nets and Andrew and I joined for the first round. 

We rang 20 new birds today and caught 13 recaptures. Many of the birds we caught today were Reed Warblers (Rørsanger) three of them were 1k birds which hatched this year. The first 1k Reed Warblers (Rørsanger) this season!

And also very interesting was a recapture of a Reed Warblers (Rørsanger) which was rung here in 2019 so it is six years old now!

Two young Great Tits (Musvit) 

Between the rounds we also found out that many of the Raspberries  at Skarvsøen were already ripe and there were also some Redcurrants and Gooseberries! So we had nice snacks and we also collected some for breakfast.

We also had some nice observations of other birds out at Skarvsøen. One highlight were four Arctic Skuas (Almindelig Kjove) which were flying inland chasing a Tern.  There were also Bearded Reedlings (Sægemejse) flying around in the reeds and Andrew found a Caspian Gull (Kaspisk Måge).

After we came back and had a little break, Knud came by and took us to Hulsig Hede to count some Orchids. Also our guests Mark and Malte joined. Out there we counted three different species the Lesser Butterfly Orchid (Bakke-Gøglilje), Heath Spotted Orchid (Plættet-Gøgeurt) and Northern Marsh Orchid (Purple-Gøgeurt).

Heath Spotted Orchid (Plættet-Gøgeurt) 

While walking through the meadow we also found a very beautiful Moth, the Narrow bordered Five Spot Burnet (Femplettet Køllersværmer).

noting Orchid numbers

Another highlight of the day was that the wind finally died down, we had not seen the sea so calm for many weeks now! 

In the evening Simon also came to the station after coming back from a little trip to Germany today.

Ringing Skarvsøen:

Munk 1

Musvit 2

Gærdesanger  1

Gransanger 4

Tornsanger 5

Rørsanger 7

Total: 20

Highlight of the observations:

Arctic Skuas (Almindelig Kjove) 4

Caspian Gull (Kaspisk Måge) 1

Bearded Reedlings (Sægemejse) 

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

People: Cora Köberle, Hanelie Sidhu, Andrew Jacobs, Pauline Nähring, Simon Sigaard Christiansen and our guests Mark Desholm and his Family.

After many days with bad weather, we were finally able to ring again in Kabeltromlen and it was a great success! I got up around 4am and made my way to the first net check, feeling both sleepy and excited. 

It turned out to be a very busy morning with a total of 54 birds ringed. We saw a good variety of species, and one of the most exciting aspects was just how many of them were actually young birds.

1k Blåmejse (Blue tit)

But the real highlight of the morning came when we recaptured an Icterine Warbler (Gulbug) that had originally been ringed in Sweden! 

The rest of the day was a bit more relaxed. Most of us took a nap at some point, while Andrew went out for a bit of birdwatching in the afternoon. He reported seeing flocks of Starlings (Stær) and noticed that the recent rain had created temporary pools among the dunes. Maybe it will be a good spot where we’ll be able to observe some waders (vadefugle) in the coming days.

Later, I helped Hanelie with data checking, and in the evening, we welcomed our new guests to the station and had our usual evening meeting together.

Ringing totals at Kabeltromlen:

Gransanger (Willow Warbler) – 13

Kærsanger (Marsh Warbler) – 1

Rødhals (Robin) – 1

Gærdesanger (Lesser Whitethroat) – 2

Gulbug (Icterine Warbler) – 1

Lille Gråsisken (Lesser Redpoll) – 1

Rørsanger (Reed Warbler) – 1

Blåmejse (Blue Tit) – 1

Gærdesmutte (Wren) – 1

Havesanger (Garden Warbler) – 1

Musvit (Great Tit) – 3

Solsort (Blackbird) – 1

Munk (Blackcap) – 6

Tornsanger (Common Whitethroat) – 21

Total: 54 birds

Hightlights:

Gulbug ringed in Sweden

 People: Pauline Nähring, Andrew Jacobs, Hanelie Sidhu, Cora Köberle