Our day techniclly started with a well deserved rest after a long night of nightjar monitoring volume II. We are happy to report that on this visit we recorded 14 pairs of nightjars. It would seem they were not majorly disturbed by the concert taking part in the nature reserve Monday evening. Looking forward to doing the count again next year and hopefully find even greater numbers!

To celebrate our successful nightjar session Simon decided to treat Christina, Joakim and myself to an awesome trip to Tornby Klitpantage hoping to see the Woodchat shrike (Lanius senator) visiting us from the South! Christina (the local authority on members of the Laniidae family) spotted the notorious butcher bird within minutes of our arrival and we had some splendid views (hold on to your hats for some nice pics in the near future). Another treat was the cirl bunting (Emberiza cirlus) which appartenly was still residing in the area and decided to sing the song of it's people for a fair amount of time within 20 meters of our location.

The road trip of epicness countinued to increase in scale when Simon decided to stop at Tversted søerne on our way back. I will be honest I did not expect a full blown coniferous forest within 50 meters of Skagerrak! There we heard and saw several crossbills of various species alongisde the usual forest suspects. The place also looked ideal for camping and made it on my own personal bucket list.

The final treat for the day was the arrival of Anders our new star ringer who will be filling eager and curious minds with endless knowledge about non-avian dinosaurs.

People: Joakim Matthiesen, Simon S Christiansen, Martin Y Georgiev, Christina Ninou, Anders Odd Nielsen, Kim Haselmann, Benjamin Haselmann, Andreas Haselmann, Hugh Mayo and Irene Mayo.

The day started calmly in our living room, drinking our coffee and tea and finishing up our video about the Whitethroat. You can check out the video in the following link: https://www.facebook.com/Skagenfuglestation/videos/2104643632981308/?t=0

At 12:30 Lene came and picked us up (Martin, Joakim and me) to take us on a super guided tour around Old Skagen and not only. We started with an architectural tour of the amazing buildings and houses of Skagen. We also got to see the sea on both the East and the West side of the area and walked up to the hill of old Skagen and had a nice view of the sea and the town.

The first highlight of the day was the visit to the Natural History Museum of Skagen with a superb collection of stuffed birds and mammals that have ever been seen in Denmark. The owner of the collection informed us that the exhibition we saw was only 20% of his total collection! After that, Lene took us, to her office. The interesting thing about that is, that this building used to be the house of the famous Danish painter, Krøyer. We were lucky to get to see the house from the inside. She showed us all the rooms and the beautiful little kitchen. What was also amazing though were the huge windows in one of the central rooms with a view to the garden. In the end, we visited the Skagen Museum. We learned a bit about the history of Skagen and saw some very interesting paintings of local famous painters such as Krøyer, Michael and Anna Ancher, Viggon Johansen and others. Also, there was an exhibition of some of the huge masterpieces of Krøyer, which were very impressive!

In the meanwhile, our new visitors, Irene and Hue, had a nice day, visiting our exhibition and then going up to the lighthouse. Later in the day, we met Kim, Benjamin, and Andreas, the rest of the family that will be staying next door for the rest of the week! We are very excited to have new people around and we have already planned to do so many things with them!

After having dinner, we prepared for the Nightjar counting! So all of us together got ready and left the house at about ten in the evening. It was a long but really interesting walk and we came back at three in the morning.

People: Joakim Matthiesen, Simon S Christiansen, Martin Y Georgiev, Christina Ninou, Kim Haselmann, Benjamin Haselmann, Andreas Haselmann, Hugh Mayo and Irene Mayo.

Næsten ingen vind fra morgenstunden, og solen så ud til i dag også at komme frem. Det betød selvfølgelig at nettene i Sardinkrattet på Grenen skulle åbnes. Det er snart ved at være lidt tid siden, at vi sidst var ude i ringmærkningen. Derfor havde vi forventninger om, at mange af de unge fugle ville have forladt reden sidn sidst og at det derfor var dem, som ville dominere i dag. Det viste sig hurtigt at være rigtigt. Dog fangede vi flere fugle end vi havde troet. Således blev det til 35 ny-mærkede fugle samt nogle genfangster i dag. Et rigtigt fint tal for et par timer i ringmærknignen på denne årstid.Vi fik også set de første voksne fugle i år, som var begyndt på deres sommerfældning af fjerragten. Og det kan kun betyde en ting: EFTERÅRET ER PÅ VEJ, for fuglene gør sig klar til atter, at flyve sydpå.  Det var Martin, Christina, Simon og jeg, som var ude denne morgen.

Da vi kom hjem igen var der nok at se til. Poul Hald og Martin havde en guidet Life-projekt tur i området med 15 deltagere. Turen var en stor succes i det flotte vejr og der blev fanget sommerfugle og diverese ineskter undervejs.

Imens brugte Christina og jeg nogle timer på at få styre på en masse ringmærkningsdata. Der blev indtastet data fra morgenens ringmærkning samt checket op på en masse af den data, som allerede var lagt i databasen. 

Mark og hans datter tog hjem til København og Poul Hald rejste også hjem igen i løbet af eftermiddagen. Tak for jeres besøg!

Om aftenen kom to nye gæster til lejligheden. I morgen kommer deres søn og 2 børnebørn og de skal være her hele ugen, så mere om dem senere.

Ringing (Sardinkrattet)

Blåmejse - 2

Musvit - 7

Gransanger - 4

Munk - 3

Havesanger - 1

Tornsanger - 5

Gærdesanger - 5

Gulbug - 4

Rørsanger - 3

Kærsanger - 1

Total: 35

Her ses databasen med den indtastede data fra dagens ringmærkning. Det kan være meget arbejde at få dataen tastet ind, men det er nu vigtigt!

 Folk: Mark Desholm, Joakim Matthiesen, Poul Hald Mortensen, Simon S Christiansen, Martin Y Georgiev and Christina Ninou.

In the morning we were hoping to catch some birds in the garden in order to make our visitors' visits more exciting, however the birds had other plans, possibly due to the moderate winds.

The light trap which we had set up the previous night rewarded us with a lovely elephant hawk moth (Ryszard Szczygie?).

In the meanwhile Simon was giving a ringing tour to one of his former pupils and his family. It is always amazing to see the impact good teachers have on children and I'm saying this from experience. in my opinion the subjects are rather irrelevant, what really matters is the teacher's attitude towards his/her students and of course his/her knowledge in the area of study and last but not least the way of theaching.

To honour the marvellous weather we decided to play several games of beach volleyball. The setup took us no longer than 15 minutes which was followed by a solid 2 hours of serious sportsmanship. We did consider placing the net in the garden however in the end nothing beats sand between your toes. Joakim and moreso Christina were kindly advised to dedicate more time to their choice of clothing for the next game. They both sensibly agreed.

The evening was dominated by preparation for an early morning of ringing at grennen the following day.

The last treat was a visit by Poul - a very knowledgeable biologist and member of The Board of the Observatory, who spent an evening with us. We are all really excited about his tour tomorrow which will feature all forms of life in our local 'back yard'.

Folk: Mark Desholm, Joakim Matthiesen, Poul Hald Mortensen, Martin Y Georgiev and Christina Ninou

After a well deserved rest following the rewarding nightjar session Christina and I studied moulting strategies of various passerines in the birders club using the large TV screen to better see the slight differences in moulting patterns.

In the meanwhile, captain birdwatcher (Joakim), got up at 7 am to get some ice cream from the marina and do some birdwatching which rewarded him with a cirl bunting. It's only the second time ever, that this bird have been seen here. Such a rare bird is not easy to stay away from, so offcourse Joakim had to do a twich. Luckly one of the local birders, Knud Pedersen, was very kind and offered to drive with him to se the bird. The bird was quickly found and they had some amazing views of it! The icecream afterwards wasent just icecream, it was HIT-icecream as a celebration of the rare bird!

The evening we withnessed a MISTerious natural phenomenon. An incredibly mist quickly swept the land around the lighthouse until the roofs of huts and taller hills remained. It was also incredibly lucky it all happend around dusk and as a consequence the sunset was simply breathtaking and we happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Folk: Mark Desholm, Joakim Matthiesen, Simon S Christiansen, Martin Y Georgiev and Christina Ninou.

Solen skinnede allerede fra morgenstunden og vinden var sådanset næsten ikke eksisterende. Derfor kunne vi nyde dagen rundt omkring fyret. Vi åbnede nettene i haven i forhåbning om at få lidt fugle til den guidede tur kl 11, hvilket også lykkedes. 

Op ad eftermiddagen hang vi bare ud rundt omkring gårdspladsen og snakkede med diverse folk der kom forbi. Martin udnyttede tiden til at spille lidt guitar og skabe god stemning. Så det var en rigtigt hyggelig og rolig eftermiddag.

Til sidst på eftermiddagen snakkede vi (Martin, Christina og jeg) med Mark om radaren i haven. Han viste og lidt om hvordan den fungerede samt hvad den kan bruges til. Herudover snakkede vi lidt om hvad planerne for brug af radaren for fremtiden er.

Aften var sat af til natravne. Vejret var med os så natravnene kunne høres på lang afstand. Planen med det hele var, at tælle natravnene i nogle områder i Skagen Klitplantage. De næste dage er der nemlig orienteringsløb i skovene, hvilket måske kan skræmme nogle af natravenne væk? Det ved vi ikke men kan forhåbentlig finde ud af det ved at foretage en tælling mere om et par dage! Der var mange natravne, flere end forventet. Derved fik vi optalt 15 par af natravn i de områder vi gik i, i løbet af 4 timer. Vi sluttede omkring kl 03:00. Så vi kom sent i seng.

Ringmærkning (Fyhaven):

Tornsanger - 1

Gransanger - 1

Blåmejse - 1

Total: 3

Her ses et kort som dækker det område vi optalte natravne i. Når vi fandt et par blev det plottet ind på kortet.

Folk: Mark Desholm, Joakim Matthiesen, Martin Y Georgiev and Christina Ninou

The day started with an awesome ringing tour delivered by the lovely Joakim which involved 11 humans and 2 whitethroats! Since Mark is visiting us for a week we made sure to have as many interesting lectures and workshops with him such as a overall talk on the migration of birds with a focus on the response of birds to windfarms and the aerodynamics of flight. As Wednesday is our cleaning day at the station we made sure everything was squeaky clean by the end of the day. Nothing better than a sparkling house after a long day of field work. For me personally the highlight of the day was a weaver beetle (Lamia textor) which I found while cleaning the lab. The weaver beetle is a member of the long-horned beetle family and despite being a North Asian species it is widely distributed throughout all of Europe. The larvae develop in willow trees and the adults are one of the largest Coleoptera species in Denmark. We kept it in a enthomological containder for about two hours which allowed it to capture the imagination of many of our visitors during the day, especially the young ones. The size and robustness of the beetle combined with its relaxed temper made it an awsome specimen to handle which - perfect for enlightening our visitors with some amazing entomological knowledge!

Ringing (Fyrhaven):

Tornsanger – Whitethroat - 2

Total: 2

Mark Desholm, Simon S Christiansen, Joakim Matthiesen, Martin Y Georgiev and Christina Ninou.

The day started quite early, at 5o clock Martin, Joakim and me, took our bikes and telescopes and went up to Verdens ende that used to be the tip of Skagen some years ago. The aim of our visit was to find out if any migratory birds are flying by or maybe find any interesting species flying or swimming in the sea. Rolf was already there with his telescope for some time. Not more than half an hour later he shouted out to us something in a very exciting tone! A rarity!! A surf scoter swimming among a flock of common scoters! We immediately pointed our scopes at it and took a good look of that beautiful bird. Unfortunately, it was a bit far for a picture, but still observing was more than enough! After that exciting encounter, we walked on the beach heading to the tip of Skagen were Kattegat and Skagerak, the two seas, meet creating a line of beautiful waves. We took some pictures there and continued our walk next to the water, on the beach. There were three big flocks of gulls and terns, so we decided to check out the exact species, while try to find any color rings. Three tern species were there as well as three different species of gulls and some with color rings.

When we came back, we stayed at the birders club where we met up with Mark and Simon and talked a bit with the tourists. An interesting meeting with Mark took place at the birders club, were he talked to us about film making and creating short videos and exchanged some nice ideas (...more to come in the next days ;) ).

It was a good day with that rarity we saw and now the “rarity wall” in the house is full, having in total 10 rarities for Denmark this year!

Rarity wall

Interesting to say though, is that after dinner around 8o clock we decided to go look for the duck again. So, we prepared ourselves for a long walk. As soon as we got close to the beach, right next to the observatory, Mark looked at the sea with his binoculars and decided to put up his scope just to check! There it was! The evening golden light and the smaller distance, were it was swimming calmly in less waves this time, were the best conditions for a better picture. We got it!

 Mark Desholm, Simon S Christiansen, Joakim Matthiesen, Martin Y Georgiev and Christina Ninou.

I dag var vi tidligt oppe! Hvilket vi trængte meget til efter mange dage med regn og vind og alt for meget søvn om natten. Det var nemlig CES dag i dag. Så vi og afsted til Jennes sø og fik åbnet nettene så de var klar kl 04:00. Det var Michele, Martin, Christina og jeg denne morgen. Det er sådan et dejligt sted så vi nød at være der, hvilket er heldig for fuglene var desværre ikke mange i dag. Dog blev det til et par interresante fugle, som bød på svære aldersbestemmelser, hvilket altid er sjovt, så morgenen er nu godkendt! 

Tilbage igen på stationen blev det til et par ekstra timers søvn for mange af os. Martin og Michele tog til byen og fik klaret diverse gøremål. Christina kiggede rundt i området, som stadigvæk er meget nyt for hende og Martin. Jeg klarede lidt små-opgaver hjemme. Simon havde også diverse ting at holde styr på i dag og et møde eller to blev det vidst også til. Derudover brugte Mark og Simon tid sammen på at kigge på stationens radar for at prøve, at udvikle en plan for hvordan den skal bruges i fremtiden, spændende!

Det er desværre Micheles sidste dag på stationen og han tager med Ottenby i Sverige her kl 22:00 i aften. Jeg har nydt at være sammen med Michele som jeg allerede lærte at kendte på stationen sidste år. Jeg er sikker på at alle her kommer til at savne ham! Men inden han skal afsted har Michele besluttet sig for at tage ravance i forhold til den tiramisu, som gik lidt i vaksen sidste uge. Denne gang endte det faktisk meget godt selvom vi stadigvæk ikke kan finde de rigtige kiks... men den smagte nu fint! 

Ringmærkning (Jennes Sø):

Gransanger - 1

Bogfinke - 2

Blåmejse - 1

Tornsanger - 1

Rødhals - 1

Gærdesanger - 1

Rørsanger - 2

Total: 9

Her ses version 2 af Micheles tiramisu. Den endte med at blive rigtig fin denne gang.... dog lidt tynd!

Folk: Mark Desholm, Simon S Christiansen, Joakim Matthiesen, Michele Pes, Martin Y Georgiev and Christina Ninou.

The day started reasonably late with a delifhtful breakfast with Simon's family who were visiting. That was followed by some ringing in the garden which resulted in the capture of two whitethroats which some tourists were quite deligthed to see up close. Our high level of productivity during the day was further increased by us fixing the bicycle which had a flat tire the previous day, while doing this we made sure to quickly service all of our bikes since as everyone knows prevention is the best medication!

Michele (who is preparing to leave us in two days) in the meanwhile was enjoying the lovely sunrays at the beach hoping for a cheeky swim only to find a tremendous amount of jellyfish in the water which in the end spoiled his relaxing beach safari.

Christina & Joakim managed to find some time for a quick bird watching session which yielded some views of seabirds and a lovely harbour porpoise in our local Kattegat!

Since tomorrow was a day for our constant effor site (CES) the afternoon was dominated by prep work to make sure everything was up and running for our 04:00am start on the next day.

Ringing (Fyrhaven):

Tornsanger – Whitethroat    2

Total: 2

Folk: Mark Desholm, Simon S Christiansen, Joakim Matthiesen, Michele Pes, Martin Y Georgiev and Christina Ninou.