There’s no better introduction than how Jeppe summarized how he felt this morning : “I’m very tired, but I need a coffee, some fresh air and a bird in my hand and I’m happy.”

The team started the day with such a feeling for a cool and sunny morning. Although the numbers of new ringed birds were quite low, the ringing team enjoyed a good quality time. As always, Simon shared his precious knowledge which was particularly appreciated by everyone, including our guests Lars and Lone. The guys played a little game of how many birds they would get on the first round and the winner was the one with the closest guess, which ended up being Jeppe!

1st bird of the day: Fieldfare - Sjagger

Since our tent at Kabeltromlen is broken, the guys managed to bring back to the lighthouse al of our stuff there and it was a hell of a ride !

They closed the nets due to the weather and few birds, only to come back to the lighthouse and open the garden nets! They had only 8 birds but that still included 5 species, such as Greenfinch (Grønirisk) and Tree Sparrow (Skovspurv). It was the occasion for Lars and Lone to take an active part in the station: while Lars took over the net supervision and helped taking care of the GPS-tags, Lone helped Pablo with writing down the ringing data on the data sheets and gave a hand to Jeppe with closing the nets.

Meanwhile, Simon and Christina went to John Pedersen’s. John generously gave us the bike from the late Mogens Fed. It will for sure get a new life like before, when Mogens used it for birdwatching in Skagen.
They of course stayed a bit at John’s enjoying a coffee (black for Simon and with milk for Christina if you care ;-) and talked about birding in Skagen.

On my side, I went as usual to World’s End 3 with Knud looking for some migrating seabirds. As the previous days, the numbers of alcids remained low in comparison with those we had 2 weeks ago. But still, we enjoyed a very nice morning with a rather good diversity and some nice of those nice moments I love on migration spots when each spotter is announcing flocks coming from almost everywhere in front of him. And we did indeed, with several nice flocks of Geese, Whooper Swans (Sangsvane) or Hooded Crows (Gråkrage).

The rest of the afternoon was spent doing office stuff. Simon even had some help from Chris the Elephant!

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

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen+Lighthouse):

Bogfinke - Chaffinch - 1

Gronsisken - Greenfinch - 3

Blåmejse – Blue Tit - 4

Dompap, Lille (europaea) – Eurasian Bullfinch - 3

Skovspruv - Tree Sparrow - 1

Munk - Blackcap - 1

Sangdrossel – Song Thrush - 1

Vindrossel – Redwing - 1

Sjagger – Fieldfare - 3

Total: 18

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Knud Pedersen, Christina Stinn, Martin Grienenberger, Jeppe Overgaard, Pablo Macías, Lars & Lone Madsen, Amelie Zeller

This morning started with Christina and me waking up for opening the nets, but then being uncertain about whether we could open or not, as the weather forecast and the radar were difficult to read this morning. In the end, we decided to go and open (an hour after sunrise) and that was a good choice! We only had some small showers of rain and saw some beautiful rainbows.

We definitely had a Blue Tit (Blåmejse) day today but also caught some Bullfinches (Dompap) and a flock of seven Bearded Tits (Skægmejse).

When we were on a round, we also saw some Waxwings (Silkehale) flying over quite close.

Our guests Lone and Lars really appreciate joining us in the ringing and like watching us doing our work and asking interesting questions.

Jeppe had a good feeling about today because he made a big progress in bird extraction and ringing. Here you can see a happy Jeppe after extracting his first Blue Tit (Blåmejse)...

...and when he ringed his first Bearded Tit (Skægmejse).

When we came home we were surprised by Martin who prepared some sandwiches for us for lunch, thanks Martin!

Martin and Knud spent a successful morning counting about 400 Razorbills (Alk), 400 Guillemots (Lomvie) and 400 unidentified Alcids. They also went for a little walk at Grenen Sø to look for Water Pipits (Bjergpiber) but could only observe some Jack Snipes (Enkeltbekkasin). Highlights for them were a Great Skua (Storkjove), a Fulmar (Mallemuk) and two Great Northern Divers (Islom).

As there are some technical problems with the DOF Basen App, Martin wasn’t able to enter the data directly in the field and had to do some very time-consuming data entry in the afternoon.

While Pablo was preparing a delicious fish soup for us, Simon and I were downloading the first tracking information about our GPS-tagged Blackbirds (Solsort). Now we can check, if they are all alright! One of them already changed its location from the Lighthouse Garden to a place close to Kabeltromlen.

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Knud Pedersen, Christina Stinn, Martin Grienenberger, Jeppe Overgaard, Pablo Macías, Lars & Lone Madsen, Amelie Zeller

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

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen):

Blåmejse – Blue Tit - 24

Dompap, Stor (pyrrhula) – Eurasian Bullfinch - 3

Fuglekonge – Goldcrest - 1

Musvit – Great Tit - 1

Rødhals – Robin - 2

Rørspurv – Reed Bunting - 1

Skægmejse – Bearded Tit - 7

Sortmejse – Coal Tit – 1

Total: 40

This morning we said goodbye to Chris, who was helping us for two weeks. We wish he has a safe journey and all the best in the future. Skagen will always welcome you.

Sadly, today the heavy wind and the rain forced us to stay inside. So, no ringing or counting today. After catching up some sleep we tidy up the field station. In the evening we arrange a meeting and discuss about tomorrow’s plan (hopefully we will go ringing if the weather allows us) and we split different tasks for the week. Lastly, we go through some ringing pictures and double check the information we noted down in the field. This is always a great way to share knowledge and to learn something new about bird ageing and sexing.

We hope to get the nets open tomorrow and luckily catch some nice birds despite the wind.

People: Martin Grienenberger, Amelie Zeller, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Jeppe Overgaard, Chris Ketola, Pablo Macías, Lars & Lone Madsen

Our team keeps growing! Last night, Pablo arrived at Skagen Fuglestation and will remain with us for a couple of weeks. We are looking forward to getting to know him better and learning a lot from each other about birds, birding, and – well, birds. Welcome, Pablo!

Since our group is quite large now, we were able to split into three groups today: Martin and I went to World’s End 3 to count migratory seabirds. It was a slow day for us, with the highest counts of a few hundred Alcids and around two hundred Common Scoters (Sortand). However, it didn’t rain on us and the wind was also quite mild.

Esben and Amelie went to Jennes Sø to ring with Michael. Chris, Jeppe, and Pablo ringed at Kabeltromlen. They opened the nets a bit later than usual because of rainy and windy weather at dawn. It was quite a slow day at both sites, with only 15 new birds at Kabeltromlen and 12 new birds at Jennes Sø.

However, a Ring Ouzel (Ringdrossel) was caught in the nets at Kabeltromlen – so exciting! Erik was there to take a beautiful photo:

Jeppe took the opportunity of the slow day to practice handling and ringing birds at his own pace. It is a much more stressful experience to do this when there are many birds in the bags that need to get processed before the next round. Chris’ last bird today was a Great tit (Musvit) – well, I guess it could’ve been a Blue tit (Blåmejse), which is definitely worse!

We are sad to have to say goodbye to Chris tomorrow. He was with us for only two weeks but became an integral part of the team during his stay with us. We will surely miss him and hope that our paths will cross again at some (birding) point in the future - perhaps in the Amazonian jungle...?

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen):

Fuglekonge - Goldcrest: 4

Gæ­rdesmutte - Wren: 1

Rødhals - Robin: 1

Blåmejse - Blue tit: 1

Vindrossel - Redwing: 1

Solsort - Blackbird: 2

Ringdrossel - Ring Ouzel: 1

Munk - Blackcap: 2

Musvit - Great tit: 2

Total KAB: 15

Ringmærkning (Jennes Sø):

Stor Flagspætte - Great spotted woodpecker: 1

Rødhals - Robin: 2

Vindrossel - Redwing: 1

Solsort - Blackbird: 1

Fuglekonge - Goldcrest: 3

Blåmejse - Blue tit: 1

Skovspurv - Tree sparrow: 1

Musvit - Great tit: 2

Total Jennes Sø: 12

Overall total: 27

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

People: Chris Ketola, Martin Grienenberger, Pablo Torres, Jeppe Overgaard, Esben Hansen, Knud Pedersen, Michael Ancher, Amelie Zeller, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Erik Christophersen

Først og fremmest vil jeg sige, at jeg er rigtig glad for at være tilbage på fuglestationen og ser frem til den næste måned og de oplevelser der kommer.

Dagen har været præget af et vidunderlig vejr med masser af solskin. Vores lørdag begynder med en dejlig skyfri himmel og en smuk solopgang.

I dag delte vi os op i mindre grupper hvor Chris og jeg mødes med Michael ved Jennes Sø, Christina, Amelie og Esben tog ud til Kabletromlen og Martin tog sammen med Knud ud til Verdens Ende 3 for at tælle havfugle på træk.

Ude ved Jennes Sø oplever vi et fåtal af fugle som flyver i vores net. Dette betyder at vi har god tid til at ringmærke og tale om de fugle som vi fanger i nettene.  
Jeg er stadig ny indenfor ringmærkning, så det er dejligt med god tid, således den erfarende Chris kunne rette ind på min nuværende forståelse af de elementer som ringmærkning indebærer.

Ude ved Kabletromlen oplever Christina, Amelie og Esben det samme. Der er ikke så mange fugle i nettene, derved har Christina, Amelie og Esben muligheden for at nærstudere de fugle som fanges.
Der bliver i løbet af formiddagen fanget en god flok blåmejser (Blue tit). Jørgen der er dukket op med Igor, hjælper med til at få nedskrevet data på blåmejserne. Ligeledes bliver der fanget solsorte som Amelie tog med sig, da der skal tages flåter fra dem.

Tilbage på fuglestationen åbner vi nettene i vores lille have. Vi fanger bl.a. Skovspurv (Tree sparrow), Kvækerfinke (brambling) og Blåmejse (Blue tit). Chris fik muligheden for at ringmærke hans første Skovspurv (Tree sparrow). Vi fik ligeledes set på fugle fra fuglestationen.

Sidst på eftermiddagen bliver der tjekket op på dagens genfangster, hvor vi kigger på fuglenes historik og sammenligner de biometriske mål fra da de bliv mærket og senere genfanget.

Her til aften vil vores nye frivillig Pablo ankomme, hvilket vi alle ser frem til.

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen)

Blåmejse (Blue tit)                           18

Bogfinke (Chaffinch)                        2
 
Dompap (Bullfinch)                          2

Gærdesmutte (Wren)                       2

Gransanger (Chiffchaff)                   1

Gråsisken (Redpoll)                         1

Munk (Blackcap)                              1

Musvit (Great tit)                              6

Rødhals (Robin)                              4

Rørspurv (Reed Bunting)                1

Sjagger (Fieldfare)                           4

Skægmejse (Bearded tit)                1

Skovspurv (Tree sparrow)              3

Solsort (Blackbird)                          1

Vindrossel (Redwing)                     1

Ialt                                                  48

Ringmærkning (Jennes Sø)

Gærdesmutte (Wren)                     2

Rødhals (Robin)                             2

Vindrossel (Redwing)                     1

Fuglekonge (Goldcrest)                  1

Topmejse (Crested tit)                    1

Sortmejse (Coal tit)                        1

Blåmejse (Blue tit)                          2

Musvit (Great tit)                            9

Gråsisken (Redpoll)                       20

Ialt                                                  39

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

People: Chris Ketola, Martin Grienenberger, Knud Pedersen, Amelie Zeller, Michael Ancher, Esben E. Hansen, Christina Stinn, Jørgen Kabel og Igor, Erik Christophersen, Jenne & Jeppe Overgaard

Friday means splitting of ringing teams : Chris and Amelie went to join Michael Ancher at Jennes Sø while Christina, Aurora, Simon and I went to Kabeltromlen.

The good choice in terms of number of birds was definitely Jennes Sø this morning with a good busy round with over 60 Redpolls (Gråsisken), leading to a around 50 bird morning. And at last but not least, they enjoyed cupcakes baked by Michael and one shot of homemade alcohol with Michael and Jenne ! According to Chris, this morning was a great experience of European ringing !

Redpolls keeping social distancing !

Crested Tit

Treecreeper

Long-tailed Tit

At Kabeltromlen, things were quite different with considerably low numbers of birds, unlike we could have guessed considering the good weather the night before. Luckily, a flock of Blue Tits (Blåmejse) found its way to our nets to get at least a decent round. Being more free than usual allowed us to check around for some nice birds in Grenen and we enjoyed amazing views at a young male Goshawk (Duehog) sitting on top of a wooden pole. We also had the luck to see a few Waxwings and Parrot Crossbills migrating, not the worst birds to look at !

Blue Tits showing their usual love

Unfortunately, Aurora’s stay came to an end and she had to leave today back to her home in England. It was lovely to have you here, work and live with you during these last two weeks. We already miss you !

This afternoon, it rained.

In the evening, Jeppe and Esben arrived making us 6 now, until Palo arrives tomorrow. It looks like we’re are going to have a nice crowdy and funny weekend all together !!

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen)

Ringmærkning (Jennes Sø

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

People: Aurora Gonzalo-Tarodo, Chris Ketola, Martin Grienenberger, Knud Pedersen, Amelie Zeller, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Leif & Lisbeth, Michael Ancher, Jenne, Jeppe Overgaard, Esben E. Hansen 

The day started with Christina and Martin opening the nets. After a few days with no ringing, it was very nice to come back. I joined them with Amelie for the first round and we had the first two blackbirds. Amelie then nun back to the lighthouse to tag them with Simon.

In the meantime, Christina, Martin and I carried on ringing. We didn’t have many birds but enough to keep us busy. In the second round, we got another blackbird and then Christina had to go back to the lighthouse to tag it.

The ringing was quite slow but some southern treats kept us excited ! Jørgen found a swift flying over the Reservatet. While looking at it with Martin, they realised that there were actually two Swifts flying together and at least one where looking like a Pallid Swift. Around an hour afterwards, the Swifts were relocated while looking at the Shrike and it appeared that both of them were Pallids !! Crazy ! It's the first time in Denmark that 2 individuals are seen at the same time ! up to 2019 there has been only 18 previous records in Denmark for that species, and those birds are number 4 and 5 in Skagen.

Photos of the Pallid Swift: Erik Christophersen

Another surprise was awaiting for us, a Red-Backed Shrike (Rødrygget Tornskade) roosted at the Grenens parking lot. Normally this species migrate to Africa and now it is to late for them to be here, so at first, we hoped that it was a different species and hopefully a more interesting one, however that was not the case. But it's the latest record ever in Skagen and maybe even in Denmark? In 1992 a 1 cy. was seen in Skagen between the 20th and 25th of October which was the latest until today.

The last surprise of the day for me was a Tree Sparrow (Skovspurv). Where I live in Bristol these species are very uncommon, I had never seen one before at my area, and of course, I had never ringed one. Today that changed and I had the pleasure to hold and ring one, making this my 96^th species of bird ever ringed. I was wishing to hit the 100, but since I am leaving tomorrow this seems unlikely.

After lunch, we spent some time installing the antenna for the Blackbirds (Solsort) tracking, but it was quite challenging due to the specifications of the equipment. A provisional installation was done but we will have to move it in a few days.

Migration counting was not too successful due to the low numbers of birds, so Chris and Knud had the opportunity to spend more time looking for the Shrike and the Pallid Swift.

One more time the team went to the city centre to try to spot the Waxwing (Silkehale), and one more time with no luck, however, we heard them by the lighthouse, still, we didn’t see them.

Tomorrow is my last day at the Skagen Fuglestation. I have had an amazing time, I have learned things I didn’t know and have made friends, I think I have accomplished by far my objectives.

Until the next time Skagen!!

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

People: Aurora Gonzalo-Tarodo, Chris Ketola, Martin Grienenberger, Knud Pederson, Amelie Zeller, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Leif & Lisbeth 

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen):

The wind was once again too strong today for any ringing activities. We made a short trip to Kabeltromlen to take down three nets to fix back at the lab. It was actually quite fun and cozy to sew them in the attic this afternoon.

We also decided to go for a quick swim. It was Aurora and Chris’ first time in Danish waters – which were cold, but we all quite enjoyed ourselves.

Martin took some time to go through a few of the night recordings from earlier this month. The delay for the processing was due to 4 nights between the 6th and the 14^th of October. The first highlight is a new Barn Owl (Slørugle) for the year during the night of the 10^th, quickly followed by another one the night after! Quite a crazy year for that species with the sighting we had earlier in the week. The 2 most interesting nights happened on the 11^th and 13^th with a very good diversity for the former, and crazy numbers for the thrushes for the latter! At least 13 species were recorded in the night of the 11^th, including at least 3 species of Goose with numerous flocks: Barnacle Goose (Bramgås), Greylag Goose (Grågas), and Pink-footed Goose (Kortnæbbet Gås) with probably some Great White-fronted Goose (Blisgås) in that flock.

Moving on to the 13^th, that night was less diverse but quite busy: Redwings (Vindrossel) and Blackbirds (Solsort) were the most numerous with 739 and 144 individuals calling, respectively. We are really looking forward to what the next nights of nocturnal migration have to offer, so stay tuned!

You can find the nocturnal migration data on Trektellen here

The day ended in a highlight: Leif and Lisbeth made a delightful dinner for us – a great appetizer with avocado and shrimp, followed by a Danish dish that translates into “meatballs and carrots”. It was absolutely delicious!

Tomorrow looks good for ringing, so all of us will go to Kabeltromlen. It will be Aurora’s last day with us, sadly, so hopefully we get a rarity (or a tick for Aurora) in the nets!

No Ringmærkning data for today.

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

People: Aurora Gonzalo-Tarodo, Chris Ketola, Martin Grienenberger, Knud Pederson, Amelie Zeller, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Leif & Lisbeth 

Once again the wind conspired against us and sadly we could not open our ringing nets, but everyday at Skagen is still a good day! The sun even managed to peek through the clouds in the afternoon to produce a beautiful rainbow.

Although the wind kept our nets closed, Martin and Knud braved the conditions as usual for their sea migration counting. It was a relatively quiet day with the highlight being a single Great Northern Diver (Islom) and a massive Black-Throated Diver (Sortstrubet Lom) which gave Knud the chance to share more of his limitless knowledge with Martin!

Today was Laila’s last day working in the lighthouse exhibition, her enthusiasm and great attitude will be missed! Hopefully she will be back next season!

After seeing the first Barn Owl (Slørugle) at Skagen in 18 years the night before, our team was hopeful about the prospects of catching an owl, but the wind was very strong and once again they came up empty. However the team had a great time sharing stories and boding in the dunes!

After dinner Chris and Aurora went out in the driving winds for a night catching session. Although they didn’t see any birds they did have stunning views of the moon over the Skagen Lighthouse.

Today was also te first full day at Skaegn for our new guests Leif and Lisbeth. Hopefully the weather improves and Leif can see a Bearded Tit (Skægmejse) foir the first time! 

People: Christina Stinn, Aurora Gonzalo-Tarodo, Chris Ketola, Martin Grienenberger, Knud Pedersen, Amelie Zeller, Laila Neermann, Lisbeth & Leif

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

After we GPS-tagged the first Blackbird (Solsort) for the ICARUS Global Thrush Project yesterday evening, we celebrated all together and went out for dinner in Skagen last night. We had a nice evening and especially enjoyed having Lisa as our guest yesterday and today.

Then, this morning we were excited to catch our second Blackbird (Solsort) in our nets at Kabeltromlen in the first round! It is this first calendar year female.

We named her after our dear guest Kirsten who visits the station several times a year. We’re looking forward to following Kirsten on her journey.

Else, we didn’t catch so many birds today. Among them was this Fieldfare (Sjagger)

and this first calendar year and very grumpy Greenfinch (Grønirisk).

We closed early and used our time listening to an interesting presentation by Chris. He talked about his work in Peru for the organization “Fauna Forever”. He told us about their projects and focused on talking about the different birds they catch. It was also interesting to hear how they age and sex birds there, as you cannot think in calendar years like you do it here in Europe.

You can also take part in Chris’ session! We filmed him during the presentation and will share the link to the video in a few days.

In the afternoon, Christina was working on editing the videos from the presentation. Simon and Lisa left for Aalborg. Before sunset Chris, Aurora, Martin and I will open the Owl-Nets at Grenen and will try and catch that Barn Owl (Slørugle) we saw a couple of days ago.

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen)

Blåmejse -Blue Tit - 2

Bogfinke -Chaffinch - 2

Dompap – Bullfinch - 2

Dompap, Lille – Wester European Bullfinch - 2

Fuglekonge – Goldcrest - 2

Gærdesmutte – Wren - 2

Grønirisk – Greenfinch - 1

Jernspurv – Dunnock - 1

Munk – Blackcap - 2

Musvit – Great Tit - 2

Rødhals – Robin - 3

Rørspurv – Reed Bunting - 1

Sjagger – Fieldfare - 1

Vindrossel – Redwing – 2

Total: 25

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

People: Christina Stinn, Aurora Gonzalo-Tarodo, Chris Ketola, Martin Grienenberger, Knud Pedersen, Amelie Zeller, Simon S. Christiansen & Lisa Vergin