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

Today we got up early with the intention of going out to try some ringing however the rainy weather was not conductive to doing so and we went back to bed for awhile.

Later when the rain had mostly cleared up we went to the beach to look for birds where we saw some 1k Common Terns and the first fledged 1k European Herring Gull of the season. There was a dark morph Arctic Skua flying around offshore and the tern flock seems to now always have Black-legged Kittiwakes joining it giving quite good views of them sitting on the beach. When we headed back to do the cleaning of the station we saw some Common Ringed Plover chicks and so we decided to come back to ring them later in the day.

Stor Præstekrave photo Andrew Jacobs

Stor Præstekrave photo Andrew Jacobs

When we came back for the Common Ringed Plovers we caught 3 new ones and recaught 2 from earlier that had more than doubled in weight since last time we saw them.

Today the moth box got a new shiny Plusia moth photo Andrew Jacobs

Tomorrow we will try again to ring in the morning if the weather allows.

Ringing

Stor Præstekrave 3

Highlights

Almindelig Kjove

Ride

Observations in Dofbasen for the area today

People : Andrew Jacobs, Cora Körbele, Knud Pedersen, Pauline Nähring, Hanelie Sidhu and our guests Linda and Jeppe.

It was an early morning today for Andrew and me, we left the station at 03:00 equipped with a trap, fish garbage and ringing equippment and handnet. The goal was to catch gulls at the beach. On our way we saw a Common Scoter „Sortand“. We were a bit worried it was sick as it is rather unusual here to see them on the beach, we usually only see them in the water. As we had steel rings in all sizes with us and a handnet it was quite tempting to go for it and we decided to do so and release it, if it would not seem well. The Common Scoter „Sortand“ tried to escape but Andrew was faster with the handnet. When we had the duck in hand we saw, why it was a bit slow: it was moulting all its flightfeathers! It is nomal for most ducks and geese to have a period when they can not fly due to their moult of flight feathers. So we did not need to worry, the Common Scoter „Sortand“ got a ring on its leg and got weighed and after some pictures we released it, it went into the water and we saw that it could swim and dive very well. We followed it with our binoculars until we could not see it any more, then we continued our way with the gull trap.

Sortand han. Picture: Andrew Jacobs.

Moult of flight feathers of the Common Scoter "Sortand". Picture: Andrew Jacobs.

Ringing totals

Sortand 1

We did not succed to catch a gull and went back before people came to the beach. While keeping an eye on the trap, we did some seewatching, we saw a few Arctic Scuas „Almindelig Kjove“, Kittiwakes „Ride“and resting Common Terns „Fjordterne“ and Gulls. There was not so much going on, it was a rather quiet morning on the sea.

On our way back we spotted another birdwatcher: Knud is back from his holiday in Norway and Sweden! After a nice chat combined with some birdwatching we continued our way back to the station.

Back there, I went to the moths traps. It was a quite windy night but I still got 23 different species, one of them was new for me, Macrochilo cribrumalils „Græssnudeugle”. And I want to show a rather common but nice one, Phalera bucephala ”Måneplet”. It is the first time I caught it here in Skagen. It is a nice and very well camouflaged moth, that looks a bit like a stick.

Phalera bucephala "Måneplet". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

We got interesting news from Knud on zello: he had some Manx Shearwaters Almindelig Skråpe” on the sea later in the morning!

The rest of the day, I did a bit of datawork and tidied up the lab, took a nap and checked the nets at Cormorant lake, as it was quite windy the last days since we ringed there last. It is important in that weather to ckeck that the nets are properly closed so no sad accidents happen.

Cora as well had some datawork to do and worked on her presentation about Terns that we will enjoy one of the coming days. Andrew took a long nap and Pauline cooked us an early dinner before be left to Jerup with Linda and Jeppe.

At the beach in Jerup we could observe many waders, highlights were Bar-tailed Godwits ”Lille Kobbersneppe”, a Spoonbill ”Skestork” and – not a wader – a Little Gull ”Dværgmåge”, that Andrew found! After a verz nice evening we returned back to the Grey Lighthouse.

Birdwatching at Jerup. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu.

Little Gull. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Highlights in the field in Skagen:

Arctic Skua/ Almindelig Kjove

Manx Shearwater/Almindelig Skråpe

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

Highlights in the field Jerup:

Little Gull/ Dværgmåge

Spoonbill/ Skestork

Bar-tailed Godwit/ Lille Kobbersneppe

At the station: Andrew Jacobs, Cora Körbele, Knud Pedersen, Pauline Nähring, Hanelie Sidhu and our guests Linda and Jeppe.

Yesterday evening we planned to go out to the beach in the morning to do some seawatching. So we had set out alarms for four.

But I must have turned off my alarm and fell asleep again in the morning. So I got woken up by Jeppe who told me that Andrew, who actually went out to the beach, had found a Surfscoter (Brilleand) resting together with Common Scoters. And earlier he also had a Manx Shearwater (Almindelig Skråpe) passing by.

So I got up immediately and headed out to Grenen, hoping to see the Surf Scoter (Brilleand),  which I have not seen before.Luckily it was still resting out there when I arrived there and we got some nice views on it.

When we came back to the station Hanelie already prepared the ringing equipment because we wanted to try to ring some Gull chicks in the harbour. Out at the harbour we found a roof with many Herring Gull (Sølvmåge) and also some Lesser Black-backed Gull (Sildemåge) chicks on it. We asked some people if we could go up there and they allowed us. 

So we went up there and rang a Herring Gull (Sølvmåge) chick. But later someone else came by and told us to come down again. So unfortunately we could not ring more than one Gull. 

After that we birdet  a bit around in the harbour and read some Gull Rings.

In the evening we had a nice dinner together with our guests. During dinner a Hummingbird Hawk Moth (Duehale) came into our kitchen. A very  nice visit! 

Hummingbird Hawk Moth (Duehale)

In the end of the day we had a nice trip to Råbjerg Mile with a lot of sand and wind.

 Walking against the wind at Råbjerg Mile

Ringing Skagen Havn:

Sølvmåge 1

Highlight of the observations:

Surf Scoter (Brilleand) 1 

Manx Shearwater (Almindelig Skråpe) 1

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

People: Cora Köberle, Hanelie Sidhu, Andrew Jacobs, Pauline Nähring and our guests Jeppe and Linda