Because the past mornings have been rather quiet in terms of bird migration, we have now started to assign this task to only one of us at a time. Today, that person was János, so he went out to Sandormsvinget, and actually had quite a good time there with surprisingly many birds – especially high numbers of Chaffinches (Bogfinke), Crossbills (Lille Korsnæb) and Canada Geese could be observed on migration, as well as a Great Northern Diver (Islom), two Northern Shovelers (Skeand), and a Golden Oriole (Pirol). Since János covered the counting, that meant that Alvin, Dylan Olga and I could all go ringing together, joined by Kirsten.

First bird of the day: Lesser Redpoll (Lille Gråsisken).

We didn’t have as many birds today, but still between one and five each round, and among them two good catches: The first one was a Red-spotted Bluethroat (Nordlig Blåhals), a beautiful male which even made Simon and János come to visit us at Kabeltromlen.

Fantastic male Bluethroat (Nordlig Blåhals).

At some point on the last round in standard time, Dylan said to Alvin: “There will be a jammy bird around the corner”, and when he got closer to see there was a Blackcap (Munk) in the net: “This one will have a cool foreign ring.” — And so it was! The female Blackcap really had a ring from Barcelona around its leg; this is far beyond coincidence, Dylan must be a fortune teller at this point, otherwise I couldn’t explain :) What an interesting recapture!

Female Blackcap with a ring from Barcelona!

In fact, Dylan has already been very lucky this morning: At around 06:00, János spotted a possible Black-headed Bunting (Hætteværling) perched on an elderflower tree in the distance when looking inland and called it out. Since it must have been quite close to Kabeltromlen, Dylan went to look for it as soon as he could, and actually saw it from only about a 5 meters distance. But it flew off almost instantly, and disappeared into the shrubs never to be seen again by anybody. Anyhow, the evidence we have makes us confident enough to identify it as a female Black-headed Bunting (Hætteværling).

Distant scope view of the female Black-headed Bunting (Hætteværling).

Rain clouds moving in.

After the standard time of five hours was over for the ringing, I went back to the station to get some very much needed rest (I could barely leave my eyes open at the ringing table after having had way too less sleep in the previous nights). Dylan and Olga also left soon after, but Alvin continued ringing by himself for almost three additional hours, during which he was virtually the only person out at Grenen. After closing the nets, he also walked around that area for some birding but didn’t see much. János and Dylan worked on reports for some of the rare birds we’ve had in the past days to submit them to the rarities committee. After that they went out again and observed a few Red-backed Shrikes (Rødrygget Tornskade). Before it began to rain towards the evening, I biked to Kabeltromlen again, equipped with a hedge cutter, to trim the reeds and grasses that have now grown beneath the mistiest and make the ringing site fresh again. After that we had our daily evening, and Olga prepared very delicious potato tortilla for dinner.

People: Alvin Johansson, János Schadl, Julian Helbig, Dylan Daunt, Olga Fernández Enríquez, Simon S. Christiansen, Kirsten

It wasn’t raining when we woke up this morning, but the rain came when we were opening the nets and it stayed for the whole day. Under this situation, we had to go to the rounds more often to prevent the birds to get too wet. So you have just finished one round and you are about to start the next one, which makes bird ringing a nice training for our legs.

Dawn at Kabeltromlen before the rain started

We couldn’t ring at Kabeltromlen as usual if we did not want all our material and folder to end up completely wet. Therefore, we turned the tent into a cozy lab for ringing and blood sampling.

Ringing in the tent

We were expecting a good day for birds today. Especially, Julian was very excited because it was his birthday and he wished interesting birds on the nets as a present. And he wasn’t wrong.

The rain gave us satisfactory results: 10 blood samples, 67 ringed birds and nice species. We caught two beautiful males Red-backed Shrikes (Rødrygget Tornskade), one of them had peculiar white spots on the wings.

The two male Red-backed Shrikes

Dylan had been at the migration counting, but on the contrary, today it wasn’t a very interesting morning for migration. He saw a Temminck’s Stint (Temmincksryle), but not much more interesting. So, he decided to join the ringing afterwards. And when he joined the rounds, he found a Warbler on the nets and immediately noticed it was different from a Marsh Warbler (Kærsanger) and a Reed Warbler (Rørsanger). The colour was more similar to a Marsh Warbler, but the wings were much shorter. He came back to the tent very excited, and after taking the measurements, we could assure it was a Blyth’s Reed Warbler (Buskrørsanger)!

Blyth's Reed Warbler. The wing is shorter than in other Warblers, especially P2.

We also had a Marsh Warbler and a Reed Warbler on the same round, so we could compare the three species and show the differences to the excited public that came to see the new species. We were even able to record the Blyth’s Reed Warbler’s sound.

The three Warblers together

Showing the Blyth's Reed Warbler to the public

We ringed for longer today, so we were tired when we arrived home, but very happy.

In the afternoon, Dylan was interviewed by some students that are doing a school project and that are interested in knowing about young birdwatchers in Denmark.

Also, Dylan and I did data entry. It is interesting to mention that yesterday we caught a Reed Warbler that had been ringed in Norway in 2023, and since then it has been recaptured in Skagen once a year.

János and Simon went birding and Alvin and Kirsten went shopping. We have received a donation for the collective from Jan Eske Schmidt and Jørgen Hulbæk. Thank you so much! We appreciate it a lot! This type of donations helps us to improve the station. By the way, the lamp we have in the living room does not work anymore, so if someone has one that doesn’t use it would be well received here.

After finishing the tasks, we celebrated Julian’s birthday eating the delicious chocolate cake that he made. Happy birthday!

Julian's birthday

Highlights from the observations:
Temminck’s Stint (Temmincksryle)

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):
Rødrygget Tornskade - 2
Gulbug - 10
Buskrøsanger - 1
Kærsanger - 11
Rørsanger - 8
Gransanger - 8
Havesanger - 4
Munk - 7
Gærdesanger - 4
Tornsanger - 7
Grå Fluesnapper - 2
Rødhals - 2
Bogfinke - 1
Total = 67

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

Summary of today's raptor migration in DOFbasen

People: Alvin Johansson, János Schadl, Julian Helbig, Dylan Daunt, Olga Fernández Enríquez, Simon S. Christiansen, Kirsten

Rain in the early morning or late night usually brings down a lot of birds, and today was no exception.

When the ringers went out in the morning, it was still raining a little. The rain stopped soon after thought, and already on the first round they had many birds. The following rounds continued to bring in many birds and the ringing went on even past the standardized time. In total, 93 new birds were ringed, including 18 Ictarine Warblers (Gulbug), which is an unusually high number for Skagen. They are also very nice and cute birds to ring. There was also a March Warbler (Kærsanger) with a dark head that looked quite peculiar and a female Red-backed Shrike (Rødrygget Tornskade), bringing the total numbers of birds caught over 100 including recaptures. Even though the conditions were promising there was still no “lifer” (a species seen for the first time) for Simon haha.

March Warbler (Kærsanger) with a dark head for unknown reasons 

Female Red-backed Shrike (Rødrygget Tornskade)

In the meantime, a Rosefinch (Karmindompap) was singing close to the nets, and a Golden Oriole (Grøn Pirol) flew over the ringing site.

On the observations today it was me (Alvin), and it was pretty slow, but the hopes of finding a rare bird kept me going for the four standardised counting hours. The highlights from the observations was the around 500 Common Scoters (Sortand) migrating past in good light.

Instead of joining the migration count in the morning, Julian went birding and saw many Skylarks (Sanglærke), Tree Pipits (Skovpiber) and Stonechats (Sortstrubet bynkefugl).

Highlights from the observations
Golden Oriole (Grøn Pirol) - 1
Rosefinch (Karmindompap) - 1

Ringing (Kabeltromlen)
Rødrygget Tornskade - 1
Gulbug - 18
Sivsanger - 2
Kærsanger - 9
Rørsanger - 5
Løvsanger - 5
Gransanger - 6
Munk - 14
Havesanger - 7
Gærdesanger - 11
Tornsanger - 8
Grå Fluesnapper - 3
Rødhals - 1
Broget Fluesnapper - 2
Bogfinke - 1
Total: 93

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

People: Alvin Johansson, János Schadl, Julian Helbig, Dylan Daunt, Olga Fernández Enríquez, Simon S. Christiansen, Kirsten

With only a little wind from the SW, this morning was a bit more exciting than yesterday. And while I had a very calm migration count, the ringing worked quite well with a nice diversity of birds in the nets. Today was the first day for Alvin at the station, after he visited Alix for a week in Blavand. He had an amazing stay there, finding a Woodchat Shrike (Rødhovedet Tornskade) and a Greenish Warbler (Lundsanger) and also seeing Denmark's first record of a Great-tailed Grackle (shipp assisted). We are happy to have him back in Skagen though! Also, his mother visited him today, and he showed her the bird ringing and the Skagen area. We were also joined in the field by Neve today. She is an Australian PhD exchange student from Aarhus University.

It was also the last day for our guests Ole and Annette. We hope they had a good time here!

Since the migration count is starting to become very quiet, and one person counting is enough, Dylan decided to do some birding in the morning instead of the standardized tasks. He went for a long walk with a few good species like a Green Woodpecker (Grønspætte), a Rosefinch (Karmindompap) and a Quail (Vagtel). The highlight was probably a singing Golden Oriol (Pirol) though.

Simon, Lisa, and Neve, as well as a few others, went south of Skagen to Hulsig Hede and another place to look for butterflies in the early afternoon. They saw many, but unfortunately not the goal species. Shortly after they started driving back north, a Black Stork (Sort Stork) was called out at Hulsig Hede.

Glanville Fritillary

Group looking for the butterflies

Dylan wanted to see the bird and decided to drive to Flagbakken even though the bird was already going south. As expected, he didn't see the bird but found a singing Greenish Warbler (Lundsanger) there instead and a Crested Tit (Topmejse) nest. He also proved his eating skills, eating five ice lollys on his bikeride from Lidl to Flagbakken. 

The rest of the team spend the afternoon catching up with some office tasks or going for small walks without special sightings. In the evening our new guest Kerstin arrived, and we had a very tasty dinner by Julian topped with a rhubarb crumble cake.

Rhubarb crumble

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

Summary of today's raptor migration in DOFbasen

People: Alvin Johansson, János Schadl, Julian Helbig, Dylan Daunt, Olga Fernández Enríquez, Simon S. Christiansen, Ole & Annette, Kerstin

Julian and I decided to join János on the ringing today, hoping it to be as good for the ringing as it was yesterday, with some interesting species. Unfortunately, we were unlucky. As soon as we left the station, we realized that it was quite windy. We started to open the nets, but the strong wind made them ballon too much, so we had to close them again and cancel the ringing for today. A bit upset, Julian and I went back home to have some more sleep, while János joined Dylan at the migration counting. After a while, he went for a walk for birdwatching and took back the recorder he had left for recording bird songs. Also, Annette and Ole joined the migration after seeing that nobody was at Kabeltromlen today. It was quite a slow day, but they could see some interesting species, like an Arctic skua (Almindelig Kjov), an Ortolan bunting (Hortulan) flying and a blue morph of a Fulmar (Mallemuk).

Spring day in Skagen

When Julian woke up, he cooked blueberry pancakes for all of us. Then, he fixed two bikes that needed some improvements and had some time to draw.

In the afternoon, Dylan did a guided tour to some people from the US. Among other species, they could see a Black Kite (Sort Glente), a Spotted Flycatcher (Grå Fluesnapper) and some Cranes (Trane).

Glanville Fritillary (Okkergul pletvinge), seen by Dylan

Annette and Ole took a walk to Grenen and could hear an Icterine Warbler (Gulbug), saw Wagtails (Vipstjert), Gulls (Måge), Ringed Plovers (Stor Præstekrave), Dunlins (Almindelig ryle), Barnacle geese (Bramgås). Later, they went birdwatching with Simon and saw a male, a female and a young Stonechat (Sortstrubet bynkefugl). János did also some birdwatching and put his recorder again. On the other hand, I used the afternoon to visit the bunker museum and walk on the beach.

Lighthouse from the beach

In the evening, Alvin arrived after spending one week in Blåvand. Welcome back!

Summary of today's raptor migration in DOFbasen

This morning János and I were at the ringing. We were hopeful for a good session as the winds were finally coming from the South again after a week of West winds. When we were opening, we heard lots of singing birds including Marsh Warblers (Kærsanger), Cuckoos (Gøg) and Icterine Warblers (Gulbug). The first round of the ringing can often be the best one, and today that was the case. I was lucky enough to find two Red-breasted Flycatchers (Lille Fluesnapper) in the nets including a stunning adult male. We can tell it is an adult because of the orange colouration on its throat and upper breast. Only a couple Red-breasted Flycatchers (Lille Fluesnapper) are caught in Skagen every year and this adult male was the first one with an orange throat to ever be caught by the station. Making this bird even more special! The second bird was a second calendar year which are still very pretty birds. The rest of the session was good with higher numbers of birds caught in previous days.

Red-breasted Flycatchers (Lille Fluesnapper) – 2cy left, adult male right.

Many people came to see these two special birds.

Julian and Olga were at the migration count and had some nice species including a Great Northern Diver (Islom), Fulmars (Mallemuk) and some of the more common species. Their highlight though was a very close Harbour Porpoise (Marsvin) that showed very well for them. Usually, they are difficult to see well as they are often far out so it will have been a real treat to see one so close.

Female Fox Moth (Brombærspinder) in the moth trap today.

We were hoping that the afternoon would be a bit better for birds, but it seemed the rarer birds haven’t quite reached Skagen yet. A few nice species seen though was a Red-footed Falcon (Aftenfalk), a Bee-eater (Biæder) and a Quail (Vagtel). Migration hotspots further south in Denmark and in Germany have been seeing a lot of really cool species so we hope that we get a share of them!

Cloudy afternoon

Even though the birds weren’t as good as we hoped it was still very nice to be outside in the warm weather. We have experienced a lot of cold winds this spring so we all really appreciate these nicer spells of weather. Tomorrow, the winds look a bit stronger from the West, but we still hope to see some nice species.

Seán and Olga went to the migration count in the morning. Almost the very first bird they saw was a Great Skua (Storkjove). After one hour, they were accompanied by Dylan. In the meantime, I was ringing at Kabeltromlen with János, where we had better conditions compared to the previous days: The winds have dropped, and we were able to open all nets except three, in which we caught a decent amount of birds over the course of the five standard hours. After the first couple of hours, Mette from the lighthouse joined us, she had planned this for a long time already. She went on one of the rounds with me while János was napping in the sun, and also got to ring some of the birds. Good job there! As another highlight of the morning (since there wasn’t so much else), we’ve heard one of the numerous rather uncommon call types Red Crossbills (Lille Korsnæb) can make on migration – something mainly János could appreciate.

Walking the rounds at KAB.

After having lunch with us back at the station, Seán said goodbye to us after these two short but nice days. He left earlier than planned, to visit Naturmødet, a big nature event in Hirtshals, where also Simon held his talk about “Seabirds Under Pressure (SUPRE)”. Our guests Annette and Ole went there too as well as many others. They had a very interesting time there with many informative presentations, inspiring and at times heated discussions and good food.

Simon's talk at Naturmødet in Hirtshals.

Up here at the station, the rest of us took a good nap before continuing with the tasks for the day. During the afternoon, three Lesser Spotted Eagles (Lille Skrigeørn) were seen in the area, János and Dylan went out and got to see two of them flying directly over the lighthouse. Yet, I couldn’t observe them unfortunately, because I was in an online interview in that moment. Hopefully there’ll come more the next days.

One of the Lesser Spotted Eagles (Lille Skrigeørn).

Olga went for a little trip into town and visited the art museum.
We are all looking forward to the upcoming days, the weather forecast looks quite promising.

People: János Schadl, Julian Helbig, Dylan Daunt, Olga Fernández Enríquez, Simon S. Christiansen, Ole & Annette

Today was hopefully the last of a series of windy mornings, which allowed us only to open half of the nets the past days at Kabeltrommeln. When Olga and I went out today we emediately noticed the rather strong north-westerly winds and after being only able to open 3 out of the 26 nets, we closed again and went back to have some rest. 

Also Dylan and Julian had a calm morning at the migration count. With very few bird around, the highlight of the morning was the resting Shorelarks (Bjerglærke), as well as a very close Great Northern Diver (Islom) and many Arctic Terns (Havterne). After the second hour Dylan desided to abandon Julian to try and catch the Shorelarks (Bjerglærke). Unfortunately without success.

Empty blue skys over Skagen

When comming back, we also met Sean who is a former volunteer and will stay at the station for the next two days. The afternoon was then spend talking about the good old times and ringing abroade, but also finishing some office tasks. Both Sean and I went on a short walk, he to see the area again and I to set up a recorder. Dylan went out to look for a Long-tailed Skua (Lille Kjove) which was seen in Geraå in the early afternoon comming our direction, but without success.

In search of the Long-tailed Skua (Lille Kjove)

The rather calm day was comming to an end with a very delicious dinner by our guests Ole and Annette.

No ringing because of strong winds

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

Summary of today's raptor migration in DOFbasen

People: János Schadl, Julian Helbig, Dylan Daunt, Olga Fernández Enríquez, Ole & Annette

The forecast for today was not good and we went to sleep yesterday without knowing if we could ring in the morning.

Dylan got up very early, hoping to see different waders at the beach. First, he checked the wind at the nets and realized that it did not look that bad for opening them, so he called János. Some minutes later, János and I arrived at Kabeltromlen and started the job. Not all the nets could be open, and we had to rearrange them during the morning according to the wind, but between 160 and 180 m of net were operative and that allowed us to catch a nice number of birds. Among them, we got a beautiful male Bullfinch (Lille Dompap), a Spotted Flycatcher (Grå fluesnapper), a Reed Warbler (Rørsanger), some Black Caps (Munk) and Common Whitethroats (Tornsanger).

Ole and Annette, our guests during this week, joined the migration counting for a while and the ringing for another while, and we could show them the different feather generations in a Chaffinch (Bogfinke) and a Blackbird (Solstort), in which you could see the moult limit very clearly, comparing to more difficult species to see this like in a Chiffchaff (Gransanger).

In the end we were glad that the forecast did not stop us to have a nice day for birds.

Willow Warbler (Løvsanger)

In the meantime, Dylan was at the migration counting and Julian joined him later. What looked like a common morning ended up being full of surprises. First of all, they were able to see several Arctic Skuas (Almindelig Kjove) and Great Northern Divers (Islom), which are always cool to see. Then, Dylan could hear a bird and he wasn’t sure about what it could be. He was excited about the possibility of being a Ticking bunting, but in the end he realized he was wrong. It was actually a robin (Rødhals)! He felt disappointed for such a common species, but on the other hand, it is very unusual to detect a robin in migration, which makes his observation very unique!

Finally, a very original goose was seen resting at the beach. It didn’t look like any of the goose species that can be found in Denmark, and that is because it wasn’t. It was a Magellan goose (Magellangås), a species that lives in South America! So, why was there a Magellan goose chilling at a beach in the North of Denmark? Well, the logic explanation is that it must have escaped from a zoo.

Magellan Goose (Magellangås)

In the afternoon, Julian did a guided tour for a lady and her son, who came from the US. They went for a walk and saw several species like a White-tailed Eagle (Havørn), a Reed Bunting (Rørspurv) and a Red-legged goose (Kortnæbbet Gås). They seemed to truly enjoy the tour and the bird species, very different from the ones they were used to in their country.

On his way back to the station, he found this beautiful Broad-bordered Bee Hawk-moth (Bredrandet humlebisværmer):

Broad-bordered Bee Hawk-moth (Bredrandet humlebisværmer)

Ringing (Kabeltromlen)
Grå Fluesnapper - 1
Rørsanger - 1
Tornsanger - 2
Bogfinke - 1
Løvsanger - 1
Gransanger - 2
Munk - 3
Solstort - 1
Lille Dompap - 1

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

Summary of today's raptor migration in DOFbasen

People: János Schadl, Julian Helbig, Dylan Daunt, Olga Fernández Enríquez, Ole & Annette

This morning, Olga and I were at the migration count from sunrise and onwards. As the wind was coming from the west, we decided to sit a bit down of the dune so we were sheltered and can hear some of the birds better. It was a nice count with some great species like 4 Great Northern Divers (Islom), 4 Rosefinches (Karmindompap), 5 Arctic Skua (Almindelig Kjove) , 3 Great White Egret (Sølvhejre) and 1 Temminck’s Stint (Temmincksryle). Even though the winds weren’t ideal there were still birds to see!

The ringing was still difficult in these windy conditions, but they were still able to catch a few birds like a Bullfinch (Dompap), Spotted Flycatcher (Grå Fluesnapper) and a Chaffinch (Bogfinke). When the winds come from the west, it makes it difficult to open a lot of nets as they move around a lot when it is windy, making it impossible to catch birds as they can see the nets.

Ringing set up for when it is windy

In the early afternoon, János, Jørgen and I went to look for some gulls near the harbour and a bit south of the town. There were quite a few gulls feeding along the coast, the most common species being Herring Gull (Sølvmåge) and Common Gull (Stormmåge) but we did see a couple Kittiwakes (Ride). János also found a female-coloured Montagu’s Harrier (Hedehøg) which is always lovely to see. We also stopped to look at the harbour on the way back to look through the gulls. We found a Great Black-backed Gull (Svartbag) with a black colour ring and a possible hybrid between a Caspian and Herring Gull (Kaspisk x Sølvmåge). When we were watching from the car, we were able to get super close to the gulls to see all their features.

The gulls didn't seem to mind the car!

Caspian x Herring Gull (Kasisk x Sølvmåge)?

Once we were back, János looked through the recordings on one of the passive recorders that has been left out recently. The passive recorders have done very well so far this spring with finds like Black-headed Wagtail (Sorthovedet Gul Vipstjert), Iberian Chiffchaff (Iberisk Gransanger), Quails (Vagtel), Avocets (Klyde) and a Spotted Crake (Plettet Rørvagtel). But the next cool bird was even better. On the night of the 20^th May a Little Bittern (Dværghejre) was recorded migrating over the recorder. This represents the second record for Skagen and is the first to be recorded flying at night. These records really show how amazing these passive recorders can be.

Tomorrow, the winds look very windy so we might not be able to ring. But let’s hope the conditions get slightly better for everyone’s sakes!