The weather forecast for today left us to expect a possible fallout of birds that were migrating west along the Atlantic coast. However, it seems that the front passing was probably bigger than expected and birds did not really move last night at all. Also, it was rather more windy than expected this morning. So the ringing team was a little disappointed, not because it was a bad day as such but because it was just not what we expected.

Even before we got to ring any birds we got distracted by three bitterns (rørdrum) flying very close to us which Fanny got this beautiful picture of.

The ringing was still interesting too, however, because not only have the willow warblers (løvsanger) passed for the biggest part, as already expected and we only caught very few today, but because we had several nice recaptures too. Among the birds caught today was a pretty male bullfinch (dompap) that has been ringed here in 2017.

Another bird we controlled today was a reed warbler (rørsanger) that was ringed at this same location in July 2017.  It was ringed as an adult, so after this breeding season it is at least 4 years old. If you assume an average migration distance of around 6400 km from a breeding territory in southern Sweden via Spain to Ghana this means that this 12-gram bird has already migrated a total of more than 50,000 km!

At home we heard back from one of the birds we recovered with an English ring the other day, which is always nice: it was the male blackcap (munk) and it was ringed in Gibraltar in November 2018. Blackcaps are known to winter either in Britain or in southern Spain or even northern Africa. Ring recoveries even show that some migrate past the Sahara and winter in places like Senegal or Nigeria. Naturally, when we saw the ring from London we automatically expected that the bird was wintering in Britain. Apparently, though it has been wintering in northern Africa and when caught in Gibraltar in November was just on its way to cross the sea to Morocco. This would also explain why it is migrating so late in the season. Today we caught several more blackcaps, probably also migrating north from Africa. There have been discussions in the scientific literature lately about climate change affecting bird migration, mainly using blackcaps as an example since they seem to winter more in the British Isles now than they used to. It is supposed that birds arriving at the breeding grounds earlier would have an advantage over those arriving later. However, depending on the year and the winter climate in some years those migrating further would have higher survival rates and therefore also a reproductive advantage. In short, if a population has several migration and wintering strategies then it is most likely to adapt to any climatic changes which will ultimately increase its chances of survival in the long term.

Since all of our volunteers wanted to be in the ringing, hoping for a rarity that might have been blown here with the strong winds, Knut was so kind to do the observations for us today. He managed to see a Mediterranean gull which is very rare this far north.

The people from DOF youth were also again out today to look for birds so we can safely assume that every bird that has passed has also been recorded by somebody.

In the afternoon the weather cleared up a little bit and Frederik went out with his friends from the DOF youth to find some more birds. He managed to see a tawny pipit (markpiber) which has become very rare in Denmark after they have gone extinct as breeding birds 10 years ago.

Picture: Frederik R. Johansen (Fuerteventura, 1/3-2020)

In the evening we still wanted to go out ringing at a different site, however, due to the strong winds we decided to postpone that to next week when the weather should be a lot better for catching birds. It should also be much better for migration when the wind dies down so although we do not expect any big outfalls in the next days we do hope for good migration days which will also give us the chance to catch many birds. Reed and marsh warbler (rørsanger og kærsanger) are starting to move through and many more should come this week.

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen + Jennes Sø):

Rødrygget Tornskade - Red-backed Shrike - 1

Gærdesmutte – Wren - 1

Grå Fluesnapper – Spotted Flycatcher - 2

Solsort – Blackbird - 1

Gulbug – Icterine Warbler - 3

Gærdesanger – Lesser Whitethroat - 5

Tornsanger – Whitethroat - 4

Havesanger – Garden Warbler - 3

Munk – Blackcap - 10

Løvsanger – Willow Warbler - 2

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området

Folk: Fanny Rey, Esben E. Hansen, Martina Hillbrand, Kirsten, Simon S. Christiansen, Micheal Ancher, Frederik Johansen og DOF ung.

I dag startede Fanny og Esben med at åbne net, hvor Martina, Kirsten og Simon kom lidt senere. Dagen i dag bragte ikke så mange fugle i nettene, men det gav nogle Kærsangere.

Jeg var taget ud for at observere i dag. Der var et fint træk i dag med en del fåtallige fugle, såsom; Pirol 1-2, Islom 2 og Biæder 3. Det var meget dejligt :)

Dagen i dag gav også nogle sjældne fugle bl.a. DVÆRGØRN. Fuglen fra i går var gået til overnatning ude ved industrikvarteret, og var så klokken 0852 til morgen, gået på vingerne. Det er bare en drømmefugl! 

Dagen i dag gav også en ret sjælden fugl. Jeg var gået ned til Grenensøen for at tjekke om den Citronvipstjert der havde været der i går, måske stadig ville være der. Jeg og nogen fra DOF ung tog derned for at gå lidt rundt. Jeg tramper lidt ud i sivene, mens de andre gå lidt op i klitterne. Pludselig høre jeg et citronvipstjert-agtigt kald og tænker 'der er den', jeg tager kiggerten op og kigger på den, men 'hov', den har jo sort hoved!? Jeg kigger hen på de ornitologer, som står i den næstyderste klitrække, og det ligner at de også hørte den. Jeg løber derhen, for at spørge hvad det var, og får svaret "En meget mulig Feldegg (Sorthovedet Gul Vipstjert)". Vi får både foto- og lyddokumenteret fuglen. Og shit den er bare vild flot mand!!!!! Dens knald sorte hoved, som bare grænser op til den fuldstændige citrongule farve, øj mand!

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen + Jennes Sø):

Skovpiber - 1

Gærdesmutte - 3

Rødhals - 1

Solsort - 1

Kærsanger - 2

Rørsanger - 1

Gulbug - 1

Gærdesanger - 14

Tornsanger - 11

Havesanger - 2

Munk - 9

Gransanger - 7

Løvsanger - 6

Bogfinke - 1

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området

Klik her for at se opsummeret observationer af rovfugle i Skagen

Folk: Fanny Rey, Esben E. Hansen, Martina Hillbrand, Kirsten, Simon S. Christiansen, Micheal Ancher, Rune S. Neergaard, Andreas B. Kristensen, Anders W. Nielsen, Frederik Johansen og DOF ung.

I dag startede dagen med at Martina og jeg åbnede nettene. Det var en fin morgen med en del fugle. Senere kom Daniel Bloche, som også var her for 2 uger siden, og derefter Fanny, Kirsten og Simon. 

Klokken 08:15, gik Simon og jeg ned til parkeringspladsen for, at samle det første hold til en guidet ringmærkningstur, efter lang tid. Det gik rigtig godt:)

Efter morgenobsen og -mærkningen, tog vi hjem, og slappede af/sov. Jeg havde belsuttet at tage ud til Flagbakken næsten lige efter jeg kom hjem, og da jeg var ved at være klar til at smutte, bliver der meldt "CITRONVIPSTJERT!!" ud ved Grenensøen. Ser den meeeeega godt! :) Ser også trækforsøgene Lille Skrigeørn, derude. 

Tager derefter til Flagbakken og ser 1-2 Sort Glenter. Efter et stykke tid beslutter jeg mig for at begive mig hjem ad, men så bliver der meldt mulig DVÆRGØRN ud!! Så var det op på Flagbakken igen.

Det viser sig så at det er en sikker Dværgørn i dragten mørkform. Den overnatter ude ved Forbrændingen i industrikvarteret, så den kommer forhåbentligt i morgen!!!!!! :)

Fanny og Martina tog ud til Skarvsøen i dag for, at lave noget overvågning på kolonien. Der er stadig godt gang i kolonien derude!

Esben tog ud og så på rovfugle træk ved Store Klit. Af spændende ting som han så kan nævnes: Hedehøg, Lille Skrigeørn, Sort Glente, og Hvepsevåger.

Esben så desværre ikke Dværgørnen fra Store Klit af :( 

Vi håber så meget vi kan at den kommer i morgen (som den jo selvfølgelig gør ;) ).

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området

Folk: Esben E. Hansen, Martina Hillbrand, Fanny Rey, Simon S. Christiansen, Daniel Bloche, Kirsten, Michael Ancher, og Frederik R. Johansen.

Today, Esben and I opened the nets at 04:15, we also set up a new trap to try to catch the Water rail (Vandrikse ) with some cheese to attract them ! Maritina and Kristen joined us for the first round and Simon a bit later. It was a good day with 50 birds ringed, a bit quieter them yesterday but with more variety of species and most important two great recapture from England! One Black cap (Muke) male and one Pied flycatcher male (Broget Fluesnapper). We are very exciting to see when they have been ringed!

Kristen has ringed her first birds today so she was very happy and feel very confident about the next steps so this is great and we are all very happy to help her in her learning.

We also had the second Meadow pipit (Engpiber) of the season and a Spotted flycatcher (Grå Fluesnapper) than mostly Willow warbler (Løvsanger) like usually and Common white throat (Tornsanger). We didn’t succeed to catch the Water rail but we will try again the next days!

Frederik was observing at Grenen and at a very nice observation of an Artic skua (Almindelig kjove) hunting a Stern very close to the observation spot, this is definitely a very good time to observe that specie! He gets to eat a nice chocolate ice cream form the shop at the parking lot offer by Simon!

During the afternoon we heart about a Lapland bunting (Lapværling) around at Grenen so Frederik and I went to try to found it, unfortunately it was already gone but it was a nice walk around the tip.

Ringging (Kabeltromlen):

                Gransanger – Chiffchaff                                 1                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

                Havesanger – Garden warbler                       4                                                                                                                                                                                                             

                Dompap – Bullfinch                                         1                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

                Munk – Black cap                                             4                                                                                                                                                                                                             

                Tornsanger – Common white-throat              11                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

                Engpiber – Meadow pipit                              1                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

                Gærdesmutte – Wren                                    2                                                                                                                                                                                                             

                Broget Fluesnapper – Pied flycatcher       1                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

                Rødstjert – Common redstart                     2                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

                Gærdesanger -Lesser white throat           3                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

                Løvsanger – Willow warbler                         14                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

                Rødhals - Robin                                            3                                                                                                                                                                                             

                Grå Fluesnapper – Spotted flycatcher         1                                                                                                       

              Sangdrossel – Songtrush                               1             

Sum: 50 for 14 species

Folk: Martina Hillbrand, Frederik R. Johansen, Esben E. Hansen, Kirsten, Christian Andersen Jensen, Yørgen Hulbok, Jørgen Kabel, Henning Ettrup, Simon S. Christiansen and  Fanny Rey

Todays observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

After some days with fewer birds today has been a good day for ringing again. Just from walking through the dunes you would never guess that so many little birds are stopping here for the day before they continue their migration towards the north at nightfall. The beauty of bird ringing is that you can detect all those birds that otherwise would go mostly unnoticed. This way we can also get a good feeling of how wind and weather affect birds on migration. Winds are turning south now so we expect more migrants to pass through the next few days, however it is possible that with the good winds they will go faster and not stop here at Skagen before crossing the sea.

Today we ringed mostly willow warblers (løvsanger). The other advantage of bird ringing over simple observation is that you can measure the birds which helps to sex them. Therefore we know that today we caught mostly female willow warblers which generally migrate later than the males. This indicates that willow warbler migration is already coming to an end, whereas the migration of Acrocephalus warblers only just begins.

It was impressive to see how these little birds must have arrived just after we opened the nets at 4 in the morning. The first net check was good but a lot of birds only arrived for the second net run. Many of these then were obviously very tired and after ringing often stayed on or right next to the ringing table before they flew off again. The long ways they travel every year appear even more impressive when you hold such an exhausting little bird in your hand and think of the fact that it has seen more countries than you ever have. And without an airplane.

For the rest the ringing was also interesting as we had a total of 14 species, among which also two bearded tits (skægmejse), a male and a female, which made our ringers and some visitors very happy. Setting up the new nets yesterday obviously was worth the effort. By now we have a nice mixture here of birds that are already breeding in the area where we have set up the nets and birds that just pass on migration.

Fanny did the migration counts this morning and managed to take this beautiful picture of a Merlin that came really close.

Ringed birds (at Kabeltrommlen):

Garden Warbler - Havesanger - 5

Lesser Whitethroat - Gærdesanger - 4

Dunnock - Jernspurv - 2

Pied Flycatcher - Broget Fluesnapper - 1

Common Redstart - Rødstjert - 3

Robin - Rødhals - 3

Wren - Gærdesmutte - 1

Willow Warbler - Løvsanger - 39

Bearded Tit - Skægmejse - 2

Reed Warbler - Rørsanger - 1

Icterine Warbler - Gulbug - 1

Blackcap - Munk - 1

Yellowhammer - Gulspurv - 1

Redwing - Vindrossel 1

Total: 66

Folk: Martina Hillbrand, Frederik R. Johansen, Fanny Rey, Esben E. Hansen og Kirsten

Todays observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

I dag har vinden endelig lagt sig, efter mange dage med hård vind. Det blæser dog stadig fra nordvest men det kommer til at vende lige om lidt :D

Fanny og jeg åbnede net. Simon, Kirsten og Martina kom ud til første net runde. Og fint gik det i dag 32 nye ringmærkede fugle, hvor næsten alt var sangere. 2 Flotte landsvaler var de fedeste fugle i ringmærkningen og de er virkelig flottentæt på, helt skinnende mørkeblå. Martina er ny frivilig på stationen.

Landsvale (F, 2k+)

Håret mosaikguldsmed hun, billedet er taget ude ved et af vores ringmærkningsnet.

Highlights fra morgenobsen var 3 islommer, hvoraf 1 kom rigtig flot. 8 storkjover og 3 alm. kjove.

Om Eftermiddagen lavede vi 2 nye netbaner, så vi har nu 21 net.

Ringmærkning: (Kabeltromlekrattet)

Havesanger – Garden Warbler – 5

Gransanger – Chiffchaff – 2

Tornsanger – Common Whitethroat – 4

Gærdesanger - Lesser Whitethroat – 8

Løvsanger – Willow Warbler – 10

Landsvale – Barnswallow – 2

Munk – Blackcap – 1

Sum: 32

Folk: Simon S. Christiansen, Frederik R. Johansen, Fanny Rey, Esben E. Hansen, Martina og Kirsten

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området

Klik her for at se opsummeret observationer af rovfugle i Skagen

Blæsevejret fra vest fortsætter. Frederik og jeg var ud på en halv morgenobs ved verdens ende før vi skulle trodse vejret og prøve at åbne net ved kabeltromlen. Det lykkedes at åbne nogle få sammen med Simon og Fanny. Vi var heldige, 3 fugle var der at vise frem over Naturmødes Online Livestream. Fanny var ude at tage billeder før vi åbnede net, og Simon var en kort tur i radioen på p4. Livestreamingen kan stadig ses på dette ved at klikke på dette link.

Simon fremviser Havesanger på livestream

Highlights fra morgenobsen var 3 almindelige kjover og 1 storkjove.

Eftermiddagen stod på datacheck, indkøb og Billearkiv.

Ringmærkning: (Kabeltromlekrattet)

Havesanger – Garden Warbler – 1

Gransanger – Chiffchaff – 1

Tornsanger – Common Whitethroat – 1

Total: 3

Folk: Simon S. Christiansen, Frederik R. Johansen, Fanny Rey, Esben E. Hansen og Kirsten

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området

Klik her for at se opsummeret observationer af rovfugle i Skagen

Last night we went night catching with Frederik around the beach: Because it was very windy, we thought that we get a chance to find a bird resting on the beach. Unfortunately, we weren’t lucky and didn’t found any bird on the beach only a passerine sp who flew away far from us, we are not very lucky with this night catching. We need to have a day with a lot of rain maybe to help us and be more hide with the weather.

Nina and Sverre left last night while Esben came back.

Today, I went observing at Grenen, despite the strong wind it was a very nice morning observation with some sea-birds migration with a lot of Fulmar (Mallemuk) very close to the shore so very nice to observe! Three Great Labbe (Storkjove) and one Artic Labbe (Almindelig Kjove) along with good numbers of Gannet (Sule).

Freerik and Esben stayed at the observatory to work on indoor duties, Esben worked on the raptor summary and Frederik on the picture archive of the station, very studies morning as you can see on the picture.

This afternoon we had a special delivery from Esben Eriksan who brought us some poo from a wolf !!! That he found on the forest in Skagen so maybe the wolf it still around Skagen and we get  a chance to see it ! Simon keep it previously on the freezer of the observatory for some analyse maybe.

With Frederik we work on the ringing data this afternoon. We tried to put the trap outside with some warms to catch Wheatear (Stenpikkere) or Whinchat (Bynkefugl) who are around the lighthouse one the rocks but the trap was bluw away with the wind, no chance to catch anything today…

We post a new video on our youtube page, if you haven't seen it yet, it's this link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaAdMmyIeTg

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Esben E. Hansen, Frederik R. Johansen and Fanny Rey

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området

Klik her for at se opsummeret observationer af rovfugle i Skagen

I dag tog Fanny, Sverre og jeg til kabeltromlen for at ringmærke et par timer, inden vinden begyndte at tage til, omkring kl 8 og vi var nødsaget til at lukke nettene ned. Det smed blandt andet en fin lille fuglekonge og en smuk solsort af sig, blandt tornsangere, gærdesangere, munk, havesangere og en enkelt gransanger, bogfinke og løvsanger. Michael mærkede imens ved Jennes Sø

Frederik tog ud for at træktælle i morges og fik set steppehøg og to islommer!

Efter fællesrengøringen i eftermiddags, tog Sverre og jeg os en sidste dukkert i havet og tager i aften videre mod Lille Vildmose og takker af for et fantastisk ophold her på stationen <3

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen + Jennes Sø) :

                Havesanger         4                                            

                Munk                    3                                                                                         
                Gransanger          1    

                Rørspurv             1                                            

                Tornsanger          1                                            

                Gærdesanger      4  

                Rødhals               3                             

                Løvsanger           2

                Musvit                 2 

                Bogfinke              1     

                Dompap               2

Sum: 24

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området

Klik her for at se opsummeret observationer af rovfugle i Skagen

Folk: Sverre Schou, Nina Ali, Frederik R. Johansen, Fanny Rey og Michael Ancher

Today Nina, Sverre and I went at Jennes sø for the CES second session of ringing. During this session we caught 14 birds with one Eurasian Jay (Skovskade), the second of the season! We also had a very nice observation of the Cuckoo (Gøg). A school class of second grate from Skagen visit us and we had time to show the children a little Willow wabler (Løvsanger). We had to stop the CES ringing at 10.30 but Michael kept going the ringing and get some more bird with 2 more Jay and one Crested tit (Topmejse), lucky guy !

 Frederik went observing the migration at Grenen. There were more migration today then the past days and he get to do a very nice observation of an Artic Skua (Almindelig Kjove)hunting and roasting close to the beach !  And I learned from Fredrik that they are mostly eating other birds ! and sometimes fish.

This afternoon we finished to analyze the sound form the night migration recording of the 28 of April and we put the data on Trektellen, you can see the numbers and species with this link : https://www.trektellen.nl/count/view/2601/20200429

Ringing (Jennes sø) :

                Havesanger         1                                             

                Munk                    2                                                             

                Musvit                  2                                                             

                Rørspurv             2                                             

                Tornsanger          2                                             

                Gærdesanger      1   

                Rødhals               2                             

                Løvsanger           4                             

                Skovskade          3             

               Bogfinke              1

              Topmejse            1   

              Blåmejse             1                                                                                                                    

Sum: 22

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området

Klik her for at se opsummeret observationer af rovfugle i Skagen

People: Sverre Schou, Nina Ali, Frederik R. Johansen, Mikael Ancher and Fanny Rey