Yesterday evening Christian and Yehonatan went out for nightcatching. They managed to catch a Dunlin (Almindelig ryle)! The bird was feeding on the tip of Grenen, while they discovered him.

Early in the morning Christian, Knud and Lars went out for observations in worlds end III. The highlights were 2 european shags (topskarv), 1 pomarine skua (mellemkjove) and 68 brand geese (knortegås). So, the ending of the storm and the nice warm weather now is pretty good for doing observations, it is not that cold outside anymore and the birds are coming closer to the beach.

There are also two rarities in the area around Grenen at the moment. The american scoter (amerikansk sortand) was seen yesterday and today, and a lapland bunting (lapværling) was discovered today.

In the meanwhile, Yehonatan, Simon and I went for ringing to Kabeltrommelkrattet. The first day after the stormy weather where it was calm enough to open the nets again. But contrary to our expectations the birds was not very active. In sum we caught 19 individuals in 3,5 hours. The dominant species were robins (rødhals) and wrens (gærdesmutte). While we were ringing one of our highlights, a song trush (sangdrossel), we heard a pheasant calling from the location of our mist nets. However, when we checked the nets it was not in there but keep going calling in the shrubs next to our nets. Another highlight, this time not related to birds, was a fox really close to our Kabeltrommel-tabel. She was watching us and did not mind when we came near to her. I guess she was hoping for some food, but that did not work.

We also had many visitors today while ringing: Our guests in the apartment Lis and Erik joined us and were really interested in our work. Furthermore, two german tourists were passing by, and two local birdwatchers was also talking to us for a while. As we already stopped the ringing at 10 o´clock because we had no more birds in the nets, I had time to join Christian and Knud doing their observation at the tip. It was very nice to watch the birds in this (for Denmark) warm temperatures.

When Christian and I came back to the station we went for a swim. We were looking forward to go in such a fine weather, but as soon as we touched the water we were not warm any longer – today the water was even colder than the last days. But we still managed to go into the sea and used the very calm water for a little longer swim. And not only we were enjoying the sun, also a young seal was lying next to us on the beach in the sun.

Wednesday is cleaning day, so after cleaning the whole apartment, birders club and laboratory everything is now gleaming again. In between a bus tour from Sjælland arrived and Simon, Yehonatan and I showed them around and told them something about our work here and how we do the ringing of the birds.

While Yehonatan prepared some delicious pasta, Christian and I used the nearly windless courtyard to play volleyball. Let´s hope that the wind will still slow down the next days, so we can put up the net on the beach and play a volleyball game with the whole station team.

Ringing (Kabeltrommelkrattet, Grenen):

Chiffchaff – Gransanger - 1

Willow warbler – Løvsanger - 2

Blue Tit – Blåmejse - 2

Common Whitethroat – Tornsanger – 1

Reed Bunting – Rørspurv – 2

Robin – Rørhals – 5

Wren – Gærdesmutte – 3

Dunnock – Jernspurv – 2

Song Trush – Sangdrossel – 1

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Yehonatan Ben Aroia, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Knud Pedersen, Erik Brodersen & Lis Kragelund, Jens Kirkeby.

We still had strong north-western gales this morning – too strong to put our mist nets up. So instead Knut and I went out for observations from sunrise at Denmark’s northernmost observation point. Our hopes were high that the winds would bring some good numbers of common species and maybe one or two uncommon or rare birds. As soon as our telescopes were pointed towards the sea, we saw a constant stream of fulmars (mallemuk) passing to the northwest at the horizon. Gannets (sule) also showed in good numbers and the typical early morning movement of common scoters (sortand) and red-throated divers (rødstrubet lom) from Kattegat to Skagerrak was also visible. So a hit on numbers, but what about rarities? Well it was hit and miss this time. We got two smart migrating long-tailed skuas (lille kjove), but somehow managed to miss a Sabine’s gull (sabinemåge) that other observers found. Anyhood, we were happy with 2481 gannets (sule), 969 fulmars (mallemuk) and 120 red-throated divers (rødstrubet lom) migrating northwest in five hours, during which Yehonatan, Lis and Erik joined us for a short while, too.

Counts of migrating fulmar (mallemuk), gannet (sule) and great skua (storkjove) this morning.

During the same time, Judith collected some plants for the herbarium she plans to prepare during her stay at the observatory. It is now getting late for some of the flowering plants, so she wants to use her time in the rest of the week to focus on collecting cool plants. Judith uses the heavy books (“The Danish bird migration atlas”) from our library to compress the plants. Really good, that the books are finally put to good use! :-P

In the afternoon, Simon gave us a small tour around the observatory and had some tips and tricks regarding care of tourists coming to The Grey Lighthouse (Det Grå Fyr). Afterwards we had a seminar about subspecies identification of chiffchaffs (gransanger) and the pitfalls connected to that. A small session on aging chiffchaffs based on moulting strategies followed.

To refresh from the dry theoretical talk, Judith and I took our daily swim in Kattegat. There was a lot of red algae stuff in the water, which was a little disgusting. And Judith was so unlucky to hit a lion’s mane jellyfish (brandmand) and suffered the rest of the evening from that encounter.

Suddenly we heard through the grapevine, that an American scoter (amerikansk sortand) was found at the seal bunker, just a couple of hundred-meter north of the lighthouse. Yehonatan went out to find it and took some record shots. This individual might very well be the same bird that was seen for a couple of days at Nordstrand and Grenen in July (which in turn could be the one seen there as well in April). There cannot be too many birds of this American species around here…

Male American scoter (amerikansk sortand) on the left; picture: Yehonatan Ben Aroia

Just after finishing this blog entry (dagbogen), Yehonatan and I will go out for night catching. Wish us luck to get something!

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Yehonatan Ben Aroia, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Knud Pedersen, Lis Kragelund and Erik Brodersen

Music: The Dear Hunter – Migrant

Still very windy days now, between 15-20 meters per second but a little slower than yesterday that was vert strong. So this morning we split, Christian and Judith went for observation together with Knud Pedersen on the tip and I was walking on the beach from the observatory going north by foot trying to find some passerines and taking some photos. After yesterday was kind of slow day for birds, today was a little better with some nice movement of Red throated diver and nice numbers of Fulmars.

While I was walking on the beach I didn’t find many birds but I did see some nice Rock pipits feeding on the beach together with some Golden and Grey plovers.

After we all finished the observations, we went to the ringing sites to check if the strong winds have done any damage to the nets and our equipment. We had one net that needed fixing in the new ringing site but other than that our nets standing still and ready for ringing when the winds will slow down!

Then in the afternoon we all had some very needed sleep after long morning field work, Chris and Judith went for the daily swim and I stayed for some indoor work. Later we went shopping had a nice dinner tnx to Christian and had our evening meeting with our lovely neighbors Erik brodersen and Lis Krag that decided to join us after the meeting for night catching on the beach.

Soon after the meeting we left ready for some walk on the beach looking for roosting birds.

Almost instantly me and Judith spotted something weird on the rocks. It was very weird looking and wasn’t really moving while the waves hit it. I climbed on the rock and got very close to the bird that didn’t really care from me and very first I caught the first Great cormorant for the station!

We came back to station in less than 10 minutes with a bird! we took some measurements and ringed the bird that after some discussion we decided it’s a 3^rd calendar female.

After we finished with the bird we let it go back on the rocks and it flew to the same spot that we caught it.

Christian and Yehonatan was already looking forward to going out to the tip for observations. But due to rain in the morning, they had to wait inside for a while. Despite the storm they started at 7 am. The highlight was a Black-throated Diver (Sortstrubet Lom) and a really high number of Red-throated Divers (Rødstrubet Lom), in total 81.

In the meanwhile, I was sleeping a little bit longer to be fit for the ‘Gannets Day’. In this event Simon and I showed visitors the gannets at the tip and the guests got the opportunity to observe them with their binoculars and one scope. The tip in Grenen is one of the best places in Denmark to watch Gannets from such a short distance. They are seeking for fish in the turbulent sea where the two seas Kattegat and Skagerrak collide. Afterwards we showed a movie about plastic pollution and the risk of fishing nets for birds in general and especially for gannets. The event ended with a delicious ‘Gannet-Soup’ and a beer.

At noon Chris and I used the sunshine to go swimming in the sea. Unfortunately, we could not really feel the warmth of the sun because the wind was really strong and cold. But at least we managed going during the day and not in the evening with lower temperatures and much more wind. Nevertheless, we needed some hot tea and a warm blanket to get warm afterwards.

In the afternoon the ongoing storm with the record speed of 72 kilometre per hour kept us in the house. So Chris and I checked all the ringing data to avoid mistakes in the database and Chris welcomed our new guests in the apartment and showed around. Yehonatan was reading a book about ringing and rested a little bit to be fit again for making a delicious dinner for all of us.

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Yehonatan Ben Aroia, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Knud Pedersen, Pennille Roed, Athena V. Jensen, Lis Kragelund and Erik Brodersen

Before sunrise, Simon, Yehonatan and Judith went ringing in Kabeltrommelkrattet. It was a good morning with 34 birds, but only a few species (see list below) with dunnocks (jernspurv) being the no. 1 species today. The new net, that we installed yesterday, caught 5 birds – so it seems to be indeed at a good place.

In the meanwhile, Knud and I were doing migration counts at the outermost dune row of Grenen. We had a little less wind than yesterday, but with 11m/s it was still quite strong. Opposed to yesterday, many different seabirds came by in good numbers and we managed to pick out some specialities as well: One first year Mediterranean gull (sorthodet måge) flew along the beach, one shag (toppskarv) migrated not far out on the sea to the northwest and two long-tailed skuas (lille kjove) followed suite. When looking at rough numbers, gannets (sule) were dominating with 626 migrating northwest followed by over 550 common scoters (sortand) in different directions. 262 kittiwakes (ride), 92 great skuas (storkjove) and 63 fulmars (mallemuk) kept us busy counting as well. Later, Judith and Yehonatan joined us for the last hour of observation after they had finished ringing.

During noon, Simon had a guided tour back at the observatory for a group of hairdressers. Too bad, that Simon already cut Yehonatans hair yesterday... (it looks good, though!)

In the afternoon, a German journalist came for a visit to the Grey Lighthouse on his journey from Ribe to Skagen. Judith and I were showing him around our exhibition, the birder’s club and went also up the lighthouse with him. Now we are curious what he will write about us, but the article won’t be published before next year.

In the meanwhile, Yehonatan did some office work and managed to keep the number of unsorted pictures in our ever growing picture archive low!

Our daily swim is now starting to cost us quite an effort. On days like today, when we have plenty of action going on, we only have time in the late afternoon, when the air temperature has already dropped. The Kattegat has also gotten noticeable cooler since the middle of August. Still, we are determined to swim and with some exercise like running on the beach, we manage to get warm enough to spent several minutes swimming among the waves.

Ringing (Kabeltrommelkrattet, Grenen):

Common Chiffchaff – Gransanger - 6
Willow Warbler - Løvsanger (Song of Songs) - 1
Common Reed Bunting – Rørspurv - 2
Common Whitethroat - Tornsanger - 2
Eurasian Blackcap – Munk - 3  
Eurasian Blue Tit – Blåmejse - 1
Dunnock - Jernspurv - 7
European Robin - Rødhals - 6 
Eurasian Reed Warbler - Rørsanger - 6

Total: 34

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Yehonatan Ben Aroia, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Knud Pedersen, Anders Odd Wulff Nielsen, Anders & Agnethe.

Music: Wovenhand - Mosaic

We wanted to go ringing today but after looking at the forecast and seeing that very strong winds are coming (up to 45 km per hour) so this morning we decides not to go ringing. So instead me Christian and Judith went to do some morning observations together with Knud Pederson at worlds end 3. we woke up at 05:30 and took some equipment with us and left it in our new ringing site (Kabeltrommelkrattot)  so we can start working on a new net lane right after the observation.  The morning was very cold with some strong winds, good for sea bird but cold for us! We had a nice observation of a Fulmar that was very close to the beach, some good kittiwake migration numbers (176) and just before we left we had a nice Hen harrier coming from the sea to finish the morning!

After comparing our numbers with Knud so we can be sure we all saw the same birds, we went to the ringing site to cut up a new net lane for net that was already in the field but in the few last ringing seasons that we had there we got the idea that this new isn’t really working so good… so after talking about a few spots to move the net, we went up there and cut a nice lane in a place that looks really nice! Now we only need to see how good it works on tomorrows ringing.

When we got back to the observatory we had nice lunch, Chris and Judith put in the data from the morning observation and we all had some rest before the evening.

Then we took the evening meeting, had a really nice dinner that Christian made and then some sleep before tomorrows ringing.

Today my morning started with observations at the dunes next to the sea. The weather was, apart from the wind, very good. I used the observation time to solidify all the knowledge I have already learnt here at the station by identifying the sea birds and repeating the english species names and the most important characteristics. Because it was raining yesterday evening there were some water paddles on the beach - unexpectedly nearly without waders. During the morning only a few Red Knots (Islandsk Ryle) and Ringed Plovers (Stor Præstekrave) showed up. In and above the sea the species were more numerous. Gannets (Sule) and Common Scoters (Sortand) could be find nearly everywhere. By taking a closer look behind the waves Redthroated Loons (Rødstrubet Lom) and a Redbreasted Merganser (Toppet skallesluger) appeared.

Furthermore, the first Longtailed Skua (Lille Kjove) in this year was seen in Grenen and the Barred Warbler (Høgesanger) from yesterday is still in the area.

Christian, Yehonatan and Simon went for ringing to Sardinkrattet. The first two rounds were really good and especially many Robins (Rødhals) and Dunnocks (Jernspurv) were caught. Unfortunately, in the next rounds were not many birds catched and they already thought about closing the nets a little bit earlier. However, the decision to go further with the ringing was worth it. In the last round only one bird was in the net, but this was a big highlight: a Common Crossbill (Lille Korsnæb). A beautiful species that we rarely catch even though there are flocks of them coming everyday on migraton attempts

(Picture: Yehonatan Ben Aroia)

Back in the observatory station we opened the fridge on search for some food for lunch and realized that we have to go shopping. So, Yehonatan and I took the bike and went to Skagen, of course with wind against us.

After Christian had a short nap, and I had checked the nets in the old lighthouse garden we went for a swim. The refreshing water helped us to feel awake again and so we were ready to do some computer work and put the ringing data into the database.

In the evening we had a delicious curry, prepared by Yehonatan.

Ringing (Sardinkrattet, Grenen):

Dunnock – Jernspurv: 5

Robin – Rødhals: 11

Common Redstart - Rødstjert: 4

Reed warbler – Rørsanger: 3

Eurasian Blackcap - Munk: 5

Common Chiffchaff - Gransanger: 2

Willow Warbler - Løvsanger: 3

Great tit - Musvit: 1

Common Crossbill - Lille Korsnæb: 1

Total: 35

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Yehonatan Ben Aroia, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Anders & Agnete, Knud Pedersen, Jørgen Kabel, Igor.

This morning the team divided to cover both seawatching and ringing. While Knud and Yehonatan did observations from Worlds End 3, I joint Simon and Judith for ringing. It was rather windy, so we had to make sure that the nets were not entangled in the bushes and we were a little unsure if we would catch many birds. That was however nothing to worry about. We ringed 33 birds and among them several “not-everyday” species. The highlight was the male, first calendar year bluethroat (blåhals). Bluethroats are not captured every autumn and we suspect that the one we caught belongs to the Northern subspecies “svecica”.

Bluethroat (blåhals)

A late marsh warbler (kærsanger) and an adult male reed bunting (rørspurv) in autumn plumage were also fine birds. The most caught species were robins (rødhals) followed by dunnocks (jernspurv). Judith ringed her first bird here at Skagen, which was also a robin (rødhals). Besides the ringing, a overflying grey wagtail (bjergvipstjert) and a red-backed shrike (rødrygget tornskade) gave us further notable birds.

Reed bunting (rørspurv)

The observation team (Knud + Yehonatan) had a rather slow morning with comparable little movement over the sea. However, a ruff (brushane) and a goldeneye (hvinand) were giving some needed distraction from the 680 great black-backed gulls (svartbag) and 400 gannets (sule).

Unnoticed from both teams, a smart barred warbler (høgesanger) was also seen at Grenen in the morning.

While we were out, Joost prepared his farewell. He worked on the picture archive and finished the protocols that we will use to continue his sound recordings.

Like every Wednesday, cleaning commenced on the afternoon. Warm from all the floor-scrubbing, Judith, Joost and I went for our daily swim. It had started to rain, and the Kattegat was really rough, but once in the water it wasn’t that cold anymore. This was also the last swim of Joost here, he left by train shortly after. Best of luck for your future endeavors in Brussels and Abisko, mate!

In the evening, Jens had a talk about Buthan. His talks are well-known: The birders club was full (we had to get extra chairs) and buzzed of excitement while waiting for his presentation. Of course he delivered. By not only focusing (as expected) on the many birds of the country, but also giving some insights on the Bhutanese culture and lifestyle. Maybe some guests are now considering a birding trip into this often-overlooked country!

Ringing (Kabeltrommelkrattet, Grenen):

Common Chiffchaff – Gransanger - 4
Willow Warbler - Løvsanger (Song of Songs) - 4
Common Reed Bunting – Rørspurv - 1
Whinchat - Bynkefugl - 1
Eurasian Blackcap – Munk - 3    
Bluethroat – Blåhals - 1
Dunnock - Jernspurv - 5
European Robin - Rødhals - 6   
Common Redstart - Rødstjert - 2   
Eurasian Siskin - Grønsisken - 1    
Lesser Redpoll - Lille Gråsisken - 1
Eurasian Reed Warbler - Rørsanger - 2    
Marsh warbler – Kærsanger - 1                   
Lesser Whitethroat - Gærdesanger - 1

Total: 33  

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Yehonatan Ben Aroia, Christian Stolz, Joost Van Duppen, Judith Kloibhofer, Knud Pedersen, Jens Kirkeby.

Music: Gregory Alan Isakov - That Sea, the Gambler

Most of us woke up later than usual because the weather did not allow us to observe or go for ringing.
A perfect day to tidy up the attic, but also for the office, kitchen and repair bikes.
For my last day I prepared a short presentation about the soundscape ecology that took place in the evening.
Christian found some dry spots in between to do some observations, such as Wheatears, Meadow pipets and Whinchat. Simon had a few meetings with Knut and Lene. In the early evening he made a delicious dish!



Later I introduced the workflow about the nocturnal audio recordings that will be performed this season. It tracks the sounds of migratory birds that fly over at night. The recordings are made from sunset to sunrise and are analyzed by spectrograms that show the presence of different species. These spectrograms or sonograms are a visualization of sound frequencies over time. You can see the birdcalls that make it possible to analyze many recordings without listening to the entire file.
The data is recorded in a map system to support the preparation of the migration map of Europe.

Spectrogram or sonogram that visualizes the bird sounds: X axis shows the time and the Y axis presents the frequency. Most of the birds are located between 2kHz and 8kHz, higher up you can see some overtones that helps to identify species as well.

The Audiomoth is a mini computer that has a microphone on the right side down.  It can be programmed to record certain periods of interests over several weeks.

Workflow on the computer

I m looking forward to the results of the project and how it will be continued the coming years.
I´ m very thankfully to Simon to gave me the opportunity to setup this project and had the nice time with all volunteers at the Fuglestation . As non- birder, it was a new, exceptional, instructive experience that will be continued.

Now I ll prepare my 16 hours train journey to Brussels.

Thank you Fuglestation team and hope to see you again!

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Christian Stolz, Joost Van Duppen, Judith Kloibhofer, Yehonatan Ben Aroia,  Lene Kappelborg, Knud Pedersen, Anders & Agnethe.

After a long weekend without ringing due to Simon stay in Copenhagen for a few days. we woke up early and opened the nets in our new ringing site. The first round seemed very promising with some nice birds, mainly Dunnocks – Jernspurv and some Robins – Rødhals but after the first round the bird activity went down for the rest of the time and it was really slow but we had some nice migration over head while ringing. A flock of 30 Common Crossbills, some flocks of geese was seen and a Merlin trying to hunt passerines.

We finished the ringing with total 18 birds.

 People: Yehonatan Ben Aroia, Joost Van Duppen, Judith Kloibhofer, Simon S. Christiansen.

Gærdesmutte – Wren               1

Jernspurv – Dunnock                 6

Rødhals – Robin                          3

Rødstjert – Redstart                   1

Rørsanger – reed warbler         2

Havesanger – Garden warbler   1

Munk – Blackcap                           1

Gransanger – Chiffchaf                2

Grå fluesnnaper – Spotted flycatcher       1

Total-18

When we finished the ringing me and Judith joined for a few hours Christian that was counting migration all morning on the beach. Right when we arrived we had a very nice and close observation of a 23 Brent geese flying really low over beach and the Merlin that we saw earlier trying to hunt waders now, without any success. Also was nice to see  a few Red-breasted merganser migrating close to us and also the First rock pipits to arrive. Nice migration days are coming!

In the evening, after having a nice dinner that Christian cooked for us we had a nice time listening to “The Choir of the dunes” that had a amazing concert in the lighthouse and many people came to hear them!