Good Vibes all around

Because of the strong southeasterly winds, almost all of us headed to Northstrand this morning for the migration count, and squeezed into our cozy nook sheltered from the wind. Mara attempted to open a few nets at Kabeltromlen in the hope of demonstrating some bird ringing to a visiting tour group. Unfortunately, two hours later, she had caught a single Goldcrest (Fuglekonge) and had only three nets open, so decided it was best to call it a day.

Meanwhile, at observations, we (Miles, Florian, Lise, Anton and Amira) had an exciting start to the morning with two Great Northern Divers (Islom) in the first few minutes as well as several more later on. It’s always a privilege to see these majestic birds flying past so close and be able to compare them properly to other diver species. We were also super excited by the two Little Auks (Søkonge) which we saw migrating past, particularly the second one which appeared in the last five minutes of the count when we were quite cold and needed a lift in our mood. It was especially nice to see these birds alive after, yesterday, our guest Lone brought us a dead individual she’d found on a nighttime walk on the beach by our lighthouse. Another highlight was a larger than normal number of Goldeneye, and I really enjoyed seeing the piercing golden eyes and glistening square black heads of the males as they flew past us tæt på land (which we’ve finally learnt means ‘close to the shore’ in Danish!).

Afterwards, some of us went home to warm up whilst others went searching for more birds. Miles, Florian and I all went different ways at first but ended up accidentally crossing paths quite a lot; I’m not sure who was following who? The best birds from our efforts were four Lapwings (Vibe) spotted by Miles as he cycled from Northstrand to Batteriskoven, but we all saw lots of other lovely common species too, including noticeably many flocks of Siskin (Grønsisken). I also found one of my favourite fungi, the Inkcaps, which drip a thick black liquid from their gills, historically used as ink for writing important documents, how cool!

Once we were all home, we put in a big effort to get all the cleaning of the apartment and lab done before a fun outing to Simon and Lisa’s house in Skagen. They were hosting an open house to celebrate Lisa’s birthday which was earlier this week, and so kindly invited us all! Happy Birthday Lise. It was really nice to gather around the table together and enjoy some delicious pumpkin soup, baked goods and drinks. It felt very autumnal and a really lovely treat after a long day out in the cold and wind. How hygge :)

No Ringing today

Link to today’s observations from the area.

People: Mara Glane, Florian Hatt, Amira Nuseibeh, Miles Scheuering, Lise Mastrup, Anton Møbjerg Toft, Simon S. Christiansen, and our guests Lars and Lone