After such a good day of ringing yesterday, I (Miles) was excited to join again. It was quite foggy in the morning, but Amira, Mara, and I were still able to open the nets. It was chilly this morning, and with the fog, felt quite autumnal for the first time this season. There have been quite a lot of visitors at the ringing table this week, and though we have been a bit busy, it has been really rewarding to show the ringing process (and the cool birds) to so many people! Simon was able to join the ringing for the start, but left midmorning to teach a course for nature educators about teaching to children.

Simon's course about nature education for children. Photo by Simon

There were still many Bearded Reedlings (Skægmejse) in the area, and we caught and ringed another 4 today! Bearded Reedlings are a colonial breeder and have a highly localized breeding distribution within reedbeds. In the fall, they form large flocks and disperse to new reedbed sites. During this period, young birds pair up, which has resulted in us catching a lot of males and females together. While it is unclear if they keep these pairs into the breeding season, there is evidence these pair bonds are maintained through dispersal behavior, which may be a strategy to ensure there is an even sex ratio following dispersal.

A pair of Bearded Reedlings (Skægmejse). Photo by Amira

The fog prevented the observers (Sarah and Florian) from starting the migration count right away, so they joined us at the ringing for the first hour. Once the fog cleared, there were many auks (alkefugle), including our first Little Auk (Søkonge) of the season! This was a lifer for Florian and brought much excitement. They also saw a Great Northern Diver (Islom), also called a Common Loon and many European Golden Plovers (Hjelje). After the count, Florian searched for passerines in the sea buckthorn (havtorn) west of Worlds End 3 but unfortunately didn’t find much more than a thorn in his boot. However, when he reached the sandormen track he heard a Red-throated Pipit (Rødstrubet Piber) calling and was able to see it as it flew overhead. He was able to obtain a good recording, which can be found in the observation on DOFBasen.

Sarah and Florian enjoying danish pastries at the bakery in Skagen. Photo by Miles

Upon returning to the lighthouse, we quickly ate lunch and then headed to the bakery in town to get a cinnamon waffle (kanelvaffel) before they sold out. These are Sarah’s favorite cakes, and she has been very excited to introduce the rest of the crew to them. While in town, we visited some secondhand stores and Sarah found a very nice winter jacket, which will likely be quite useful when she goes to the Faroe Islands in a week. This evening, Amira gave us a true British cultural experience by cooking jacket potatoes with baked beans for dinner. They were delicious!

Today’s observations from the area can be found here

People: Mara Glane, Florian Hatt, Sarah Partridge, Amira Nuseibeh, Miles Scheuering, Michael Ancher, Simon S. Christiansen, and our guests Mette and Jesper.

Same as yesterday, it was another day with hardly any wind. Accordingly, Sarah and I didn't have to get very warm clothes, as it was already relatively mild in the morning. The passerine activity was actually quite good in the early hours, with several species attempting to migrate but turning back before reaching the sea. Many species of finches flew around, including Common Crossbills (Lille Korsnæb). With crossbills in particular, it is worth listening carefully and if necessary making audio recordings. Parrot crossbills (Stor Korsnæb) could soon appear over Grenen!


Calm morning at the migration count

Over the sea, several bigger groups of Guillemots (Lomvie) and Razorbills (Alk) flew by again. It was also nice to see a small flock of Purple Sandpipers. Due to the good visibility, we were also able to spot a handful of fulmars in the distance. Suddenly we heard something calling behind us. They were definitely Bearded Reedlings (Skægmejse), and shortly afterwards we discovered a flock of 15 individuals flying around! Miles, who was at the ringing, had never seen any before, so I called him on Zello and told him to keep an eye on the sky in case the flock flew over Kabeltromlen. It took less than a minute for a call to come back saying that they had just found two Bearded Reedlings (Skægmejse) in the nets. Since we observers had never seen any in the hand before, we decided to quickly cycle back to take a look at these beautiful birds. Even though the count was briefly interrupted as a result, it was a very good decision! For me, it was definitely a highlight to get to see this fascinating species up close!


Super cute pair of Bearded Reedlings (Skægmejse)!

After that, I headed back very fast and started later counting the resting Common Scoters (Sortand). Because there were so few waves, many of them were visible today, so I was motivated to count as accurately as possible. This took me quite a long time and ended up not even as accurate as I would have liked, because some of them kept flying around. However, the 1750 individuals still meant a respectable number, which was nice.

Afterwards, I went to do some birding at Skarvsøen. The bushes there have consistently proved to be a good spot for passerines over the last few weeks. In particular, I always found many chiffchaffs here. This gives me hope that I’ll maybe find a rare siberian warbler here this autumn! But it didn't happen today. Instead, I was able to observe again a nice flock of Bearded Reedlings (Skægmejse). The highlight of this small trip was not a passerine, but an adult male Hen Harrier (Blå Kærhøg) at Reservatet! What a beautiful raptor!

Back home, I heard that the ringers had caught three more Bearded Reedlings in the last net round - it really seems to be a good day for them! In the afternoon, refreshed by a swim, they checked some ringing sheets before our guests invited us to dinner with a delicious vegetarian lasagne!

Ringing (Kabeltromlen)
Skægmejse 5
Vindrossel 3
Solsort 2
Grønirisk 11
Musvit 2
Gærdesmutte 15
Rødhals 4
Stor Dompap 2
Lille Dompap 2
Bogfinke 2
Munk 2
Rørspurv 3
Fuglekonge 4
Gransanger 1
Træløber 1
Blåmejse 4
Kvækerfinke 3
Total: 66

Ringing (Jennes Sø)
Stor Flagspætte 1
Blåmejse 2
Musvit 4
Sortmejse 1
Topmejse 1
Nordlig Halemejse  4
Fuglekonge 4
Gærdesmutte 3
Lille Dompap 1
Nordlig Gråsisken 1
Lille Gråsisken 16
Grønsisken 2
Total: 40

Highlights from World's End III
Skægmejse 15

Today’s observations from the area can be found here

People: Mara Glane, Florian Hatt, Sarah Partridge, Amira Nuseibeh, Miles Scheuering, Michael Ancher, Simon S. Christiansen, and our guests Mette and Jesper.

This morning was very cold when Amira and I went to open the nets at Kabeltromlen, but it was not windy at all, so we could open all the nets and then huddle together for some coffee at the Kabeltromlen to see the beautiful sunrise. We were joined by Lisa, Simon, Gabriel, and some guests before the first round. It was a fairly busy morning with a steady and lägom flow of birds into the nets, with a nice variety of species. Gabriel and I were very happy indeed to come across a flock of absolutely gorgeous long-tailed tits (Halemejser) on one of the early rounds. They are very round and soft and smell like marshmallows and I wish they could come live with us in the lighthouse. We also had some treecreepers (træløber), and plenty of goldcrests (fuglekonge) again.

Stillits

It was truly abysmal in the middle of the morning to have to say goodbye to Gabriel, who we have grown to adore. In fact, there was so much moaning and wailing from Amira and me after he left that Simon accused us of turning into “Skagen Silly Observatory” and had to take a short break from us. We carried on with the ringing feeling like we lost a wheel, but luckily we did find another flock of soft halemejser to mend our broken hearts. All but one of the flock was in the net, and the lonely one followed us through the reeds for some time calling plaintively until she, too, flew into one of the next nets and got to join her friends in the box. When ringing the long-tailed tits, we always keep them with us until the last one is ringed and release them all together because they can’t bear to be apart.

Halemejser are a social species and have strong family ties. Being so tiny, they lose body heat easily in the cold, and cope with this by roosting close together (also known as snuggling) to share heat. So cute! They spend most of their time together, foraging as flocks of 10-20 individuals in winter and breeding semi-cooperatively in summer (failed breeders often help their siblings rear chicks). What a charming species.'

Halemejse

Later on, Florian and Miles joined us after observation to help on the closing round. We found in the net a firecrest (Rødtoppet fuglekonge!!), a very handsome female adult that was ringed here last autumn. At the end of the last round, we were joined by our new volunteer Mara, and it was very lovey to meet her and spend the rest of the day together.

Rødtoppet fuglekonge

Miles and Florian went to World’s End III for migration count this morning, and weren’t expecting too much in the calm conditions. But it wasn’t too long before they called over the radio that a White-tailed eagle (Havørn) was resting on the beach. Soon after, they called out a yellow-billed loon (hvidnæbbet lom) in breeding plumage resting in Skagerrak. They were very pleased with this. They were also seeing larger flocks of Auks (Lomvie/alk) of 10 r 20 together, which is a nice sight.


The highlight of today's obs: Yellow-billed Diver in breeding plumage!

Havørn

After work we all went for a family swim and had lunch together. An afternoon of data entry went by very fast, and then we had a nice, tasty dinner cooked by Florian.

Final words from Gabriel: “Make sure to keep your hands warm. You don’t want them ending up like mine.”

Highlights from World's End III

Havørn 1

hvidnæbbet lom 1 ad.

Today's observations in DOFbasen can be seen here. 

People: Gabriel Axelsson, Florian Hatt, Sarah Partridge, Amira Nuseibeh, Miles Scheuering, Michael Ancher, Simon S. Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Mara Glane, and our guests Mette and Jesper.

Today was the first really nice, busy day for the migration count in quite a while. Miles and Florian headed out to Worlds End 3 where the north-westerly winds seemed to be pushing all the birds closer to the shore, leading to nice views of three Sooty Shearwaters (Sodfarvet Skråpe). Even the ringers at Kabeltromlen managed to see them pass by. There were also more Fulmars (Mallemuk) than usual, at least 500 over the morning, and both Arctic and Great Skuas (Kjoves) too! A highlight was also 8 Purple Sandpiper (Sortgrå ryle), a species which we have been seeing more and more in the last week, and we all love so much!

Observers counting lots of birds this morning!

Over at the ringing station at Kabeltromlen, we had a windy start to the morning, so we didn’t have most of the nets open at first but then opened more up as the morning went on and caught 57 new birds in the end. It was lovely to have a Norwegian photographer, Hilde, and her family, join us and take some photographs as part of her upcoming project focused on birds, bird ringing and current environmental issues (link to her website is here). We were also visited by Linda and Jeppe who hold a ringing licence so helped Sarah, Gabriel, Simon, Esben, Florian and I with the ringing this morning.

Although we didn’t catch any rare species today, it was nice to have so many retrapped birds (22 in total), including a gorgeous Crested Tit (Topmejse) which Sarah and I caught 10 days ago. Since then, it has increased in body fat but decreased in weight by 0.1g which I find quite confusing.

Once we got back to the lighthouse, Sarah, Florian, Miles, Esben and I had a refreshing dip in the sea, much to the shock of the many many tourists which were sat in their coats and woolly hats clutching hot drinks whilst we walked past them in just our swimsuits. The sun was out and the water was probably the warmest it has been since I arrived here in September.

This afternoon we said goodbye to Lars Bo and Esben who have helped us so much this week and I know we’re all extremely grateful for all the knowledge and funny stories they’ve shared with us! Lars Bo is a terrific ornithologist and specialist on Little Owls (Kirkeugle) in Denmark and has just yesterday been interviewed on TV about the project; you can find out more about it here!

Gabriel is sadly also leaving us tomorrow but it’s his birthday in a few days, so Miles and I baked him a secret surprise chocolate torte whilst he went out birding with Sarah and Florian for the quarterly waterbird counts. They visited Skarvsøen (Cormorant Lake), North Strand, and then did the final count from the top of the lighthouse at sunset. They did have to almost run up the 210 steps to make it before it got too dark to count birds! Their highlights from the waterbird counts were lots of Great Crested Grebes (Toppet Lappedykker) from Northstrand, some Purple Sandpipers (Sortgrå ryle) and a Great Grey Shrike (Stor Tornskade) on their bike ride between count locations!

Florian, Sarah and Gabriel completing the final waterbird count of the day, from the top of the lighthouse, as the sun sets.

After a delicious dinner of Chilli and homemade Cornbread made my Miles, Gabriel gave us an interesting presentation on the identification of Scotor (Melanitta) species. I definitely learnt a lot from it; I had no idea that there were 6 different species globally. We then surprised Gabriel with his birthday chocolate cake which we decorated with powdered sugar in the shape of a traditional Swedish Shrimp. We’ll all miss him so much, but we wish him lots of luck as he returns to Sweden to finish writing his master’s thesis on Hummingbirds and carry out lots more wildlife surveys this Autumn!

Chocolate Torte with a Shrimp decoration for Gabriel's birthday

Then, just as we sat down on the sofa finally ready to relax, Miles sent us a message saying that the Northern Lights were visible. We all sprinted outside as fast as we could and we could see the green glow, wow! As we watched it for a while, we listened to the tseep tseep calls of Redwings (Vindrossel) as they migrated above us under a sky full of stars. What a fantastic end to a great day!

Northern Lights / Aurora Borealis from the Lighthouse Garden

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Vindrossel 3

Sangdrossel 2

Grønirisk 2

Musvit 1

Gærdesmutte 12

Rødhals 3

Dompap 1

Stor Dompap 3

Lille Dompap 3

Kvækerfinke 10

Bogfinke 3

Blåmejse 3

Munk 2

Fuglekonge 9

Total: 54 

Ringing (Jennes Sø):

Gærdesmutte 3

Rødhals 2

Fuglekonge 7

Sortmejse 1

Blåmejse 6

Musvit 2

Træløber 1

Grønirisk 1

Lille Gråsisken 11

Stor Dompap 2

Total new birds: 36

Highlights from Worlds End 3:

Sooty Shearwater (Sodfarvet Skråpe) 3

Fulmar (Mallemuk) 500+

Purple Sandpiper (Sortgrå ryle) 8

Today’s observations from the area can be found here

People: Gabriel Axelsson, Florian Hatt, Sarah Partridge, Amira Nuseibeh, Miles Scheuering, Michael Ancher, Simon S. Christiansen, Lars Bo Jacobsen, Esben Hansen, and our guests Linda and Jeppe.

It has been quite windy the last few days, so there has not been ringing. This morning, the crew took a family outing to World’s End 3 for the migration count. There have not been a lot of particularly special species the last few days, but there has been decent movement of some species. There have been many Alcids (Alkefugle) and we have been getting large flocks of geese (gås sp.). The geese tend to arrive later in the morning, which is nice because numbers of other species have often dwindled by then. Today we had 117 Pink-footed Geese (Kortnæbbet Gås) and 165 Graylag Geese (Grågås), plus 88 unidentified gray geese (Grå Gås sp). The alcid total was over 200 birds, with most (180) being unidentified Guillemots/Razorbills (Lomvies/Alks), along with 17 Razorbills and 9 Guillemots. Many have been migrating far out and they are difficult to identify, but I plan to do my session on their identification, so hopefully that will help us.

Hard at work counting gulls at the harbor. Photo by Gabriel

After returning from the count, Sarah cooked us a delicious lunch. Amira had returned early and had already finished most of the weekly cleaning, which was greatly appreciated and saved us all some time this afternoon! This weekend is Denmark’s national waterbird count (NOVANA), which we are participating in. It happens to coincide with eBird’s October Big Day, which is today! There are several sites we need to visit for the waterbird count, but today we got a ride from Lars Bo and birded the harbor. We mostly saw gulls (Måge sp.), including 324 European Herring Gulls (Sølvmåge) and 150 Great Black-backed Gulls (Svartbag), along with 396 Great Cormorants (Skarv) and 49 Common Eiders (Ederfugl).

Amira checking on the tofu delivery from the lighthouse. Where is Miles? Photo by Gabriel

After counting the roosting gulls, Lars Bo took us to Lidl so we could pick up some groceries. Unfortunately, just as we were arriving back at the lighthouse, Sarah and I realized we had forgotten the tofu and rice noodles that Amira had specifically requested (and we had confirmed we would get) for tonight’s dinner. Sarah and I rushed back to Lidl on our bikes to collect these items in time for dinner. Sometimes just one trip to Lidl is not enough, even in a single day. Amira cooked us a delicious stir fry for dinner, and we discussed the use of “I love you” in platonic friendships.

Now, Gabriel, Esben, and Lars Bo are out night catching. Last night they failed to capture anything, although they did see a Jack Snipe (Enkeltbekkasin). Maybe tonight they will catch something good!

Ringing (Jennes Sø):

Eurasian Wren (Gærdesmutte) 4

European Robin (Rødhals) 1

Eurasian Blackbird (Solsort) 1

Common Chiffchaff (Gransanger) 1

Goldcrest (Fuglekonge) 3

Crested Tit (Topmejse) 1

Blue Tit (Blåmejse) 2

Great Tit (Musvit) 3

Eurasian Treecreeper (Træløber) 2

Lesser Redpoll (Lille Gråsisken) 2

Highlights from World’s End 3:

Pink-footed Goose (Kortnæbbet Gås) 117

Little Gull (Dværgmåge) 26

Horned Lark (Bjerglærke) 1

Today's observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area 

People: Gabriel Axelsson, Florian Hatt, Sarah Partridge, Amira Nuseibeh, Miles Scheuering, Simon S. Christiansen, Lars Bo Jacobsen and Esben Hansen

Once again, the wind was too strong, so no ringing at Kabeltromlen today. But at Jennes Sø it was enough shelter for Michael to be out ringing. He caught in total 42 birds, among them a feisty Jay (Skovskade).

While Miles, Gabriel, and I went to the observation count, Esben, Sarah, and Amira went on a Fulmar Walk. This means that they walked about 10 km along the north beach in search of dead Fulmars (Mallemuk). These are collected for a project studying the amount of plastic in the environment. However, they only found two dead Guillemots (Lomvie) and, as a highlight, a fully alive Purple sandpiper (Sortgrå Ryle)! This bird was so cute and so round! You just have to love these guys! After this fantastic sighting and a few more alive Sanderlings (Sandløber), the fulmar walk ended at Grenen, where we all met again at World’s End III.

Dead Guillemot (Lomvie)

In the meantime, we had counted not as many birds as we hoped, but got still some good sightings. An Arctic Skua (Almindelig Kjove) and a Horned Lark (Bjerglærke) were nice to see! As the activity gradually slowed down, we decided to celebrate also the common species more, which was really funny! Why not just call out a Teal (Krikand) or a Red-throated Diver (Rødstrubet Lom), as if you had just found a first record for the country?
A rainbow appeared in the sky, but it announced an approaching rain cloud. Fortunately, we were largely spared, and the last hour even brought a few more birds, including a arriving flock of Common Crossbills (Lille Korsnæb) and the first 33 Barnacle Geese (Bramgås) for us this season and 75 Pink-footed Geese (Kortnæbbet Gås) flying directly overhead!


Flock of Pink-footed Geese (Kortnæbbet Gås) flying over us

In the afternoon, some entered a lot of data, went for a swim, or searched for rare warblers. The latter, however, was unsuccessful. More successful will be the night catching hopefully! Gabriel, Esben and Lars Bo have just headed off.

Ringing (Jennes Sø):

I think Sarah, Gabriel and I were feeling slightly nervous but excited this morning as we arrived at Kabeltromlen, wondering if today would be just as busy with birds as on Monday. It was a little windier than expected but we could still have more than half of the nets open and had a "lagom" amount of birds, which we learnt from Gabriel means the perfect amount of something. There were not too many were retraps from Monday’s big day so it seems many of those birds have moved on and continued their migration perhaps. It was lovely and sunny but also the big (almost) full moon was lovely to see.

Fieldfare (Sjagger) - Adult male

My favourite bird of the day is definitely the Fieldfare (Sjagger), the first of the Autumn and a beautiful adult male! When I searched for a fact about Fieldfare to share with you, the following one stood out to me: When threatened by crows or birds of prey, fieldfares often mob the intruder as a flock and bomb it with droppings, as a defence strategy. They can aim quite well and their sticky poo can interfere with the predator’s feathers forcing it to retreat. How clever!

But the bird of the day overall has to be the Bullfinch (Dompap), of which we had individuals from both the Northern and Southern subspecies (Lille and Stor). It was a great learning opportunity for us comparing them side-by-side and we were all surprised by the much larger size of the Stor subspecies.

A young female Yellowhammer (Gulspurv) from this morning's ringing

The observers (Florian and Miles) also had a decent morning at World End 3, with lots of Alcids, 198 Guillemots (Lomvi)/Razorbills (Alk) in total! They spotted 5 Horned Lark (Bjerglærke) and a Grey Wagtail (Bjergvipstjert) on the beach, and had a nice group of 25 Twite (Bjergirisk) hanging around the dunes area. It was also nice to see lots of Geese flying over, mostly Pink-footed Geese (Kortnæbbet Gås), but also some Greylag (Grågås) and Brent Geese (Knortegås).

We all came home and then Sarah, Miles and I went for a quick dip in the sea where a Guillemot came swimming right past us only few metres away! Sarah and Gabriel then cooked us a lovely lunch of traditional Scottish Tatti Scones made from leftover potato mash from yesterday’s dinner, they looked smelled delicious. Fueled up by the potatoes, we all sat on the sofa and locked in for several hours of data entry. We have now finally finished entering all the ringing data from our big day on Monday (742 new birds!) and you can find the breakdown of the totals on Monday’s blog linked here.

Sunset from the lightouse before our nightcatching attempt.

We had a brilliant takeaway pizza dinner (thank you to Lars Bo!) and decided to try and go night catching again this evening. Gabriel, Sarah, Miles and I ventured out onto the dark beach but unfortunately all we could find was a Wheatear that kept running away from us, and some rabbits hopping about between the grass tufts. We then tried a marshy area near Ellekratet and spotted several Common Snipe (Dobbeltbekkasin) but they're quite flighty birds compared to Jack Snipe (Enkeltbekkasin) so we weren't successful this time. Whilst we were scanning with the thermal we did spot a creature which, at first we thought was a pig, then maybe a wolf, then maybe a racoon dog, then perhaps a hyena, and then finally settled back to thinking it was a pig. We went though a rollercoaster of emotions whilst we looked through the thermal trying to figure it out! BUT, despite our failed mission, it was a very fun evening with the team, full of laughter, and I think we're all motivated to try some nightcatching again soon.

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Sjagger 1

Vindrossel 3

Gulspurv 1

Gærdesmutte 24

Rødhals 9

Grønsisken 1

Kvækerfinke 4

Stor Dompap 6

Lille Dompap 1

Dompap 3

Blåmejse 7

Munk 5

Bogfinke 2

Træløber 3

Gransanger 5

Fuglekonge 22

Total new birds: 97

Highlights from today’s observations at Worlds End 3:

Long-tailed Duck 1

Caspian Gull 8

Pink-footed Goose 128

Hen Harrier 1

Horned Lark 5

Today’s observations from the area can be found here

People: Gabriel Axelsson, Florian Hatt, Sarah Partridge, Amira Nuseibeh, Miles Scheuering, Simon S. Christiansen, Gunnar S. Simonsen, and Lars Bo Jacobsen.

This morning Amira, Gabriel and I woke up quite tired from yesterday but ready to head out to open nets again. We weren’t too sad that the radar showed heavy rain all morning so we decided not to open the nets and got to sleep longer instead. By the time I woke up, Florian and Miles had been to World's End 1 and come home again already, rained out after just 30 minutes of the standardized count. Still, they were able to see some migrating Ederfugl (Eiders) and a Blå Kærhøg (Hen harrier). Then we all had a nice lazy breakfast together.

Amira and I were hyped up to spend the morning entering our ringing data from yesterday, but the ringmærkning website was down for maintenance so we spent the morning relaxing instead. Feeling a little restless after a whole morning inside, we went out for a rainy swim since it was wet anyway. Then Simon cheered everyone up when he brought us a “half-Jew cake” (the meaning of this is not entirely clear to me but there is still much to learn about Danish culture). It was delicious anyways. Then we finally got to spend the afternoon entering data! Florian and Gabriel went out for some birdwatching after the rain stopped, and after we got too tired of reading numbers, Amira, Miles and I went to the shops to get dinner, and Amira stopped to mushroom watch on the way. We cooked up the fish that Matilde and Maciek brought us, which was delicious indeed.

This evening, Simon took Gabriel and LarsBo out to Elle Krattet to try to catch Jack Snipes (Enkeltbekkasin) in the dark. And they have already had some success! They are on their way back just now to ring the bird in the lab.

Jack Snipe (Enkeltbekkasin). Foto: Gabriel Axelsson

Highlights from World's End 1

Ederfugl

Blå Kærhøg

Today's observations from the area can be seen on DOFbasen.

Ringing (Storsig):

Enkeltbekkasin 1 

People: Gabriel Axelsson, Florian Hatt, Sarah Partridge, Amira Nuseibeh, Miles Scheuering, Michael Ancher, Simon S. Christiansen, and Lars Bo Jacobsen.

What a day! This morning, Florian and I were leaving the lighthouse on our way to Worlds End 3 and Florian already noted several passerine species in the parking lot and that it could be a good day for migration. At the migration count activity was good for the first hour or two, though it did start to tail off. Passerine numbers were very good, with 647 bramblings (Kværkefinke) and 514 Redwings (Vindrossel) in total. We also had a European Shag (Topskarv) resting on the beach. It seemed to be a quite unusual behavior, and we were a bit concerned but eventually it walked over to the sea and swam off. While Knud was photographing the Shag and I was distracted by gulls, Florian spotted a large loon directly overhead, heading southeast. He quickly took a photo and upon review, was able to see it was a Great Northern Diver (Islom). Us Americans know this species as Common Loon, but it is quite a nice bird here. There were several flocks of Twite (Bjergirisk) around, with several landing on the dune directly in front of us, offering fantastic views. I have seen this species once before, but it was great to see these adorable finches up close.

European Shag (Topskarv) at the tip (Grenen). Photo by Knud Pedersen

At 10:04, Simon called me and asked me to come help with the ringing as they were having quite a busy day. I went back to the lighthouse to grab extra boxes and encountered a significant gnat hatch on the way. There were also SO MANY BIRDS. The vegetation was dripping with passerines and almost every single bush or tree had several birds in it. When I arrived at Kabeltromlen, Gabriel informed me that they had just returned from a net round with 200 birds. That did not quite compute, as it was double the total number of birds caught in a whole day while I’ve been here. That figure did start to sink in when I was scribing and filling multiple pages just with Goldcrests (Fuglekonge) from a single net run.

Box with Goldcrests (Fuglekonge). Photo by Gabriel

While these exorbitant net run totals did abate, there was still considerable activity all afternoon. We continued to get new birds, so we did not close the nets. At one point, a flock of Long-tailed Tits (Halemejse) flew by the banding table, which brought much excitement and clapping. Clapping causes passerines to drop down, often increasing the chances of catching them. We were all out on the following net run and got to share a moment of jubilation upon finding the entire flock in the first net. In total we ringed 36 Long-tailed Tits, including 1 of the northern subspecies (Nordlige Halemejse), which has a pure-white head.

Elation at finding the Long-tailed Tit (Halemejse) flock in the net. Photo by Gabriel

Later, while I was scribing for Simon, we noticed Gabriel and Florian hurrying back from a net run, and Gabriel was holding his face. A Eurasian Treecreeper (Træløber) had pooped directly in his eye while he was trying to extract it. Despite the circumstances, he remained in good humor while Sarah poured water in his eye to flush it. We were able to clean it well, and on the next net run Gabriel was first on the scene to extract a Great Gray Shrike (Stor Tornskade). Perhaps the treecreeper bequeathed him with special powers? We were very excited to catch a shrike and surprised by how large it was. It was definitely a highlight for me, even overshadowing the many Long-tailed Tits.

Gabriel rings the Great Gray Shrike (Stor Tornskade) under Lars Bo's watchful eye, while Simon releases a Eurasian Wren (Gærdesmutte). Photo by Miles

Stor Tornskade (Great Grey Shrike). Photo: Gabriel Axelsson

Night was falling when we finally closed the nets and we did not return to the station before 8 pm. Simon ordered us pizzas because there had not been time to cook dinner and his father Gunnar (who had arrived in town earlier in the day) brought it to us! It was a delicious treat after spending the whole day ringing! The crew put in a huge effort today and we greatly appreciated the help of Jeppe and Lars Bo.

Stor Dompap (Northern Bullfinch), the northern subspecies. Photo: Søren Skov

In total we ringed 742 birds at Kabeltromlen. Michael Ancher was also out ringing at Jennes Sø and caught an additional 129 birds until 1 pm. This makes a total of 871 birds today. The most ever ringed on a single day in Skagen.

The previous record day was 10 October 2010 when locals ringed 683 birds. The result of todays was also more than double the previous high for Skagen Bird Observatory (since it began in 2017), which was 372 birds on 28 March 2024. 

While we have not been able to start entering data as the Danish ringing database is currently offline for maintenance, we have counted that we caught 25 total species!

The ringing table and the team was lightening up when the last bird of the day was ringed. Photo: Florian Hatt

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Ringing (Jennes Sø):

Eurasian Wren (Gærdesmutte) 6

Dunnock (Jernspurv) 1

European Robin (Rødhals) 7

Song Thrush (Sangdrossel) 1

Eurasian Blackcap (Munk) 2

Common Chiffchaff (Gransanger) 10

Goldcrest (Fuglekonge) 25

Crested Tit (Topmejse) 1

Blue Tit (Blåmejse) 2

Eurasian Treecreeper (Træløber) 4

Lesser Redpoll (Lille Gråsisken) 66

Total: 129

Highlights from today’s observations at Worlds End 3:

European Shag (Topskarv) 1

Great Northern Diver (Islom) 1

Twite (Bjergirisk) 9

Brambling (Kværkefinke) 647

Redwing (Vindrossel) 514

Today’s observations from the area can be found here

People: Gabriel Axelsson, Florian Hatt, Sarah Partridge, Amira Nuseibeh, Miles Scheuering, Michael Ancher, Simon S. Christiansen, Gunnar S. Simonsen, Jeppe Madsen, and Lars Bo Jacobsen.