The day started quite early, Daniel, Mikkel and I got up at 5 and went out to open the nets and activate the reed trap by 6:15am. Unfortunately, it was quite windy so we couldn’t open all the nets. It was also too cold to stay up on Kabeltromlen, so we took shelter down the hill from there and ringed there the whole morning. The rounds were quite slow and there were not so many birds, but we did have a couple of exciting captures! A nice adult female sparrowhawk (Spurvehøg), and later an adult male Goldcrest (Fuglekonge) with a ring from Germany! It’s always super exciting to catch birds with foreign rings!

Photos with sparrowhawk: Marienne

Even though we didn’t have many birds, Mikkel got to practice handling birds and taking wing measurements, he also extracted his 3 first birds from the net! We also had quite a few people staying with us throughout the morning; a nice family from Copenhagen, Jørgen and Igor, Erik Christophersen, Søren Skov, and Marianne just to name a few!

Foto: Søren Skov

Meanwhile, Jonas went out observing at Verdens ende 1 together with Henrik and Nicole Böhmer, Alex Sand Frich, and they were also joined by Erik Christophersen. They had quite a nice first hour of observations with a lot of auks (Alkefugle), a couple of great skuas (Storkjove), a handful of fulmars (Mallemuk) and 6 European shags (Topskarv). Jonas stayed for an extra hour to enjoy the raptor migration, they counted around 150 common buzzards (Musvåge), two merlins (Dværgfalk), and many sparrowhawks (Spurvehøg).

Back at the observatory, Michaela, Mikkel, Daniel and I went for a fun but cold swim in the sea and the did some yoga in the living room. That’s where Jonas found us when he came back. After lunch we all took quick 10 minute naps. During that time Simon prepared for the Easter fun afternoon. Apparently The Easter bunny visited the garden and laid 10 chocolate eggs there which we had to find! The hunt was successful (not for me though, as I found none.), all 10 eggs were found and shared among us! After that Simon made us go up to the attic because we had to find and catch the bats that started living there. We put on gloves and started checking all the corners with flashlights, but soon we realized it was actually April fool’s prank!

After that, our Easter fun continued and we blew and painted some eggs! Everyone went with the bird theme which resulted in a nice collection of painted eggs that are now hanging in the observatory garden if anyone wants to see them! We had an early omelet dinner, and went swimming after it again!  

Overall, it was a lovely sunny day with lots of fun and laughter!

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Spurvehøg - 1
Gærdesmutte - 2
Jernspurv - 2
Rødhals - 2
Solsort - 2
Gransanger - 1
Fuglekonge - 1
Musvit - 1
Bogfinke - 1
Dompap, Lille (ssp. europaea) - 1

Sum: 14

Michael Ancher was also ringing in Nordstjernevej and Jennes Sø
Ringing (Nordstjernevej):

Rødhals - 2
Bogfinke - 2
Gulspurv -2

Sum: 6

Ringing ( Jennes Sø):

Rødhals - 1
Solsort -1
Nordlig Gråsisken - 1
Lille Gråsisken - 1

Total: 4

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: 

Hey folks :)

Since it was to windy for ringing, we all started together observing with Knud at Worlds End 3 this morning. It was a very windy day, so even though the temperatures were quite high, it felt very cold. Though, it was definitely worth it to go out on migration count today! We had many early arrivals: A Great Skua (Storkjove), Marsh Harrier (Rørhøg), Merlin (Dværgfalk) and Common Tern (Fjordterne). Knud was very excited especially about the early Common Tern. While the others started observing, Laima and I put up the newly build Woosh net, trying to catch the last Snow Buntings (Snespurv) before they are all gone to their northern breeding grounds. Unfortunately, it was a very disappointing experience. There were still four Snow Buntings left on the beach at Grenen, however, they behaved much more scared and suspicious then the bigger floks used to behave the weeks before. That the Woosh net was moving in the strong wind, wasn´t helping. In the end we didn´t caught any, we tried two times to catch birds, though. The first time a stick in the sand blocked the net from correctly unfolding and the second time we weren´t fast enough/the birds wasn´t close enough. After getting too frustrated with this, I switched with Michaela to counting Corvids and had two nice observation hours with many close Red-throated Divers (Rødstrubet Lom) in winter and summer plumage, which was very nice to see. A small bandage on the Snow Bunting catch failure was also the visit from Jørgen and Igor, its always nice to see them. In the afternoon, there was a open freezer tour. Four families joined with some really motivated kids. It was nice to show and dissect some of the dead birds we collect for scientific purposes. It was interesting to also look through some Barn Owl (Slørugle) pallets and see skulls and bones of rodents.

Open-freezer tour

Also Simons dad Gunnar arrived and brought delicious cake with him. After the open-freezer tour Laima and I made some Swedish Kanelbullar. Meanwhile, Jonas and Mikkel went to the new harbour, where Mikkel found his first Glaucous Gull (Gråmåge). Later in the afternoon we also prepared the visits to the Cormorant (Skarv) colony, which we will conduct from tomorrow on two times a week.

Kanelbullar

Glaucous Gull

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:  Simon S Christiansen, Knud Pedersen, Jørgen Kabel, Igor, Michaela Berdougo, Laima Bagdonaite, Jonas Pedersen, Mikkel Friborg Mortensen, Trine, Jeppe and Daniel Bloche.

Hej allesammen!

Dagen i dag har mest af alt været en inde dag, men det gjorde ikke så meget fordi så havde vi tid til at ordne nogle af de pratiske ting på Fuglestationen bla. at forberede dagens spændende aldersbestemmelses session af småfugle!

Morgenen startede med at Jonas og jeg tog ud til solopgang for at morgenobs'e, det blev en kort fornøjelse da der næsten ingen sigt var og da det bare blev ved med at regne.. Så efter en halv time pakkede vi sammen og tog tilbage til Fuglestationen. Her gjorde Daniel, Laima og Michaela klar til at lappe spejlnet - one down one more to go!

Jonas og jeg lavede computerarbejde og fik styr på beskrivelser til hjemmesiden samt natlytsoptagelser! Simon var også på stationen og har idag fået bestil nye waders og telt - så der kan ringmærkes i læ for vinden og helt uden at blive våde når vi går gennem vandpytterne ved kabeltromlen!

Daniel forberedte vores eftermiddagssession og fik sorteret vores billede arkiv samtidig, så det kan bruges af os frivillige som hjælp til bestemmelse af fremtide fugle der skal ringmærkes! Daniel og jeg færdiggjorde også vores "rørskovs-spejlfælde" *mere info senere, i fremtiden!

Det var også en dejlig overraskelse da Niels Eriksen kom forbi hen af formiddagen med kage til de frivillige - den smagte dejligt! Han afholdte en guidet tur med 10 detagere som trodsede vejret og blev belønnet med bl.a. Snespurve helt tæt på, inden for 5 meters afstand!

Lidt Senere kom en anden ven af Fuglestationen på besøg, nemlig Rita Pate. Hun havde medbragt en dejlig kurv med lidt påskehygge og lækkerier til os frivillige - fantastisk, mange tak! Der var også lidt ekstra til næste indkøb, så vi kan købe ind til et fint måltid en dag i fremtiden.

Så da det blev eftermiddag var tiden endelig til at vi skulle afholde vores spændende session omkring aldersbestemmelse af småfugle (foto)

Her fik vi diskuteret dragtkarakterer hos bl.a. Gransanger, Rørspurv, Jernspurv og Træløber. Alle billederne var af fulge vi selv havde haft i hånden, som blev undersøgt og aldersbestemt - heldigvis havde vi ramt rigtigt med alle fuglene vi gennemgik (det havde vi nu også regnet med).

Derefter tog Simon og jeg ud for at hente en "ny" cykel som vi har været så heldige at få fra nogle venner af Fuglestationen, nemlig Trine og Jeppe som havde en cykel i overskud. Jeg cyklede den hjem og den kørte bare super godt, den er vi glade for - tak!

Da vi kom tilbage skulle vi faktisk til at lave aftensmad og holde aftenmøde - men så kom meldingen: "Ulv set fra Grenen ved Grenensøen" 1,2,3 og vi var alle ude af døren på jagt efter ulven! Jeg tog på Grenen, Jonas, Daniel, Laima og Michaela tog til en bakke nord for Ellekrattet og Simon tog til Nordstrand. Selvom vi rykkede hurtigt og ledte (i to timer for Daniel, Jonas og jeg) så fandt vi desværre ikke nogen ulv. Simon mødte dog vores gæster fra lejligheden på Nordstranden - hyggeligt! Men spændende var det og vi fik da også selskab af to syngende Traner på vej tilbage til Fuglestationen! Og vi er selvfølgelig klar på at rykke hurtigt igen næste gang der bliver meldt ulv!

Nu er vi alle trætte og klar til dejlig aftensmad som Michaela har stået for! I morgen blæser det nok for meget til at der kan ringmærkes.. desværre. Tilgengæld skal der trækobs'es og vi møder 4 mand høj til solopgang og får selskab af Knud Pedersen på Grenen til en forhåbentlig dejlig trækdag.

Ingen ringmærkning i dag: så 0 fugle.

Folk: Laima Bagdonaite, Simon S. Christiansen, Daniel Bloche, Michaela Berdougo, Rita Pato, Niels Eriksen, Jonas Pedersen, Trine, Jeppe og Mikkel Friborg Mortensen.

Ja, søndagens vejrudsigt bød på noget anderledes vejr fra de andre dage hvor en diset horisont dominerede. Idag skulle vejret blive fint med noget vind og en lille solstråle.
Daniel og vores nyankomne frivillige Mikkel tog ud for at observere, samtidig med at de ville fange lidt snespurve med det nye "whoosh-net". Det skulle dog ikke blive en succes da de ikke var så tiltrukket af de små fine korn idag.
Til gengæld var observationerne fine, med mange sortænder igen. Efterfølgende tog de til kabeltromlen hvor Laima, Michaela, Simon, Jørgen, Igor og jeg ringmærkede.

Vi stod noget tidligere op, men grundet det forvirrende skift til sommertid sagde uret at vi fik en time mere. Nettene blev åbnet og vi kunne mærke i luften at der var godt med fugle. Første runde bød på fuglekonger, min første gransanger for året og andre godter. De mange fugle blev ved og jeg panikkede en smule da en stor flok mejse var røget i nettet. Vejret var nemlig koldt og fingrene havde ikke meget mobilitet til at få de små fugle ringmærket. 

(Billede: Erik Christophersen) (Den fine sortstrubede bynkefugl han)
Fuglen skulle naturligvis meldes på zello og simon havde hurtigt telefonen fremme. Han skulle dog have tænkt sig lidt om før han snakkede, han fik nemlig meldt en ringmærket sortstrubet jernspurv ud på zello, og jeg kunne forestille mig at samtlige twitchere i Danmark allerede havde sat sig i bilerne. Simon giver kvajebajer!

Knud er også kommet tilbage og idag havde han en lille gruppe rundt for at fortælle dem om fugle, de var naturligvis forbi kabeltromlen for at se lidt fugle i hånden.

Da de var på besøg skulle vi også være så heldige at se årets første rørhøg, det var fedt.
Hjemme på fyret var famileforeningen også på en tur rundt på grenen.

Efter en forholdsvis lang dag i felten var det hjem. Da der var spist frokost meldte Mikkel hurtigt ud at han skulle på havnen for at se gråmåge, jeg var på! Vi tog afsted og det var muligvis lidt en fejl, det regnede nemlig, meget..
Vi fik dog købt ind, set den nye havneudvidelse, 3 tejster og en fandens masse måger, dog ikke nogen der var grå. Vi var selvfølgelig fuldstændig gennemblødte da vi kom hjem. Men vi skal afsted igen!
Laima er jo så god, og hun fik rengjort laboratoriet, det er vi glade for, der var nemlig meget lort på bordet og det er nu væk. Daniel fik opdateret vores billedsamling og Michaela fik arbejdet med ringmærkningsdataen. 

Hey hey!

The morning started off misty, so we didn't go ringing. Michaela and Jonas woke up early and went out observing at Verdens ende 3 but the visibility was quite low and they could only see approximately 500m over the sea.They did have some scoters (Sortand), sparrowhawks (Spurvehøg), stock doves (Huldue) and 4 terns (Terner), so it wasn't that bad!

Back at the station, Daniel and I got to sleep in until 7am, however being used to waking up, both woke up way before that.. around 5-6am. I made some beetroot hummus for the sandwiches when we go out ringing. And after breakfast we started working on our whoosh net outside. We also opened the lighthouse garden nets and caught some robins and goldcrests, however it soon started raining, so we had to close the nets and go inside. 

As we were closing the nets, Michaela and Jonas came back from observations, so we decided to have breakfast together and I made pancakes! After breakfast, we played some card games. Then, since it was still raining and we couldn't continue working  on the whoosh net, we decided to continue working on the mirror trap instead. With different bits and pieces we picked up in the city yesterday, we successfully finished the trap! 

Meanwhile, Michaela and Jonas were going through night recordings. They heard some migrating thrushes. Also Jonas got to ring a goldcrest! Simon was working on ideas for the project birds for all, where children will come and learn about nature! Then he picked up our new volunteer Mikkel Friborg Mortensen who will stay with us for one week! Then he did some reparations at the guest's apartment and had a nice conversation with them!

After lunch it finally stopped raining, so Daniel and I went outside and finished the whoosh net, too!  We tried it a few times in the garden and then decided we should all head to the beach and try to catch some snow buntings with the new whoosh net! Unfortunately, there were no snow buntings (Snespurv) this time. But we will try again tomorrow!

Ringing (Det Grå Fyr):

Rødhals - 5

Solsort - 1

Fuglekonge - 7

Sum = 13 

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: Jonas Pedersen, Simon S Christiansen, Oluf Lou, Mikkel Friborg Mortensen, Berit Alfrida and her sister, Daniel Bloche, Michaela Berdougo, and  Laima Bagdonaite.

Hi folks! 

Hope you are all doing well and are ready to start the weekend. 

Our day was pretty exciting today! Daniel and I woke up at 4:00 am to open nets up and as we did, Daniel flushed either a Long-eared Owl (Skovhornugle) or a Short-eared Owl (Mosehornugle). Laima came to join us for the first round while Jonas, on his end, went observing at Verdes Ende 1. Oluf joined us for ringing, and so did our guest Berit. Little did we know that Anders and Dorte, our guests from the second week, would suprise us with a visit at Kabeltromlen! It was so lovely seeing them again. 

As for ringing, we caught our first Chiffchaffs (Gransanger), and a male and female Reed Bunting (Rørspurv). We also had the chance of catching a control Blackcap (Munk), ringed in the Netherlands, which was super exciting! 

Gransanger

 Rørspurve female (left) and male (right)

Munk from the Netherlands

Jonas on his side had 6311 Scoters (Sortand), 2 Black Guillemots (Tejst) including one adult in summer plumage, and because his eyes were on the sea, focus was taken away from the land birds. I therefore went to help him out for a bit but as things slowed down, I went back to ringing. 

We got back for lunch, all took a nap and relaxed a bit before cleaning the house ang going for the biggest grocery shopping ever. We also bought necessary equipment for finishing the reed mirror trap, as well as for buidling a woosh net.

We received pictures of watercolour paintings a orevious volunteer, Hebe Denny, made. How incredible do they look??

Michael Ancher has been ringing today at Jennes Sø, and two Golden Eagles (Kongeørn) were seen by Erik Christophersen at Hulsig Hede.

Ringing (Jennes Sø - Nordstjernevej) : 

Nordlig Gråsisken - 1 

Lille Gråsisken - 1 

Rørspurv - 1 

Rødhals - 2

Solsort - 1

Bogfinke - 1

Gulspurv - 1 

Ringing (Kabeltromlen) : 

Gærdesmutte - 7

Rødhals - 6

Solsort - 4 

Gransanger - 2

Fuglekonge - 3

Blåmejse - 1

Musvit - 7

Rørspurv - 1

Sum = 31

As I am writing this blog post, Jonas is next to me playing guitar which is pretty amazing. 

Tomorrow morning looks rainy so no ringing planned, but maybe some observing if the rain isn't too bad. Wishing you all a very happy weekend! 

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: Jonas Pedersen, Simon S Christiansen, Oluf Lou, Anders Østerby, Dorte H. Jensen, Berit Alfrida and her sister, Erik Christophersen, Daniel Bloche, Laima Bagdonaite, and Michaela Berdougo. 

This morning, Michaëla and Jonas went observing from Worlds End 1. Although the wind on top of the dunes was shaking in their scopes, Jonas found three Shags (Topskarv). Besides that, they had an Artic Skua (Almindelig Kjove) and even more migrating Common Scoters (Sortand) then yesterday as well as many different Geese species; Barnacle- (Bramgås), Greylag- (Grågås), Pink-footed- (Kortnæbbet Gås) and Brent Goose (Knortegås). Some of them also flew over us in the ringing. On their way back they found this little Salamander.

Salamander

Meanwhile, Laima and I spend the morning in the ringing-site at Kabeltromlen. Again the ringing was dominated by Blackbirds (Solsort) but also Blue Tits (Blåmejse). However, this time we were better prepared for many Blackbirds and had enough collection tubes for the tick samples. So, we stayed quite busy during the first rounds taking ticks of the Blackbirds to send them in for further analysis and research. Although, Blackbirds are common birds its always nice to handle them. It´s great to see the variations between individuals and always amazing to see these beautiful male adult birds. We also got visited by Søren, a local bird-watcher, and our guest Berit.

Male 3K+ Blackbird (Solsort)

In the evening we had a small tournament in Klask and Shuffleboard. Of course, I won all the games (@Simon: I think I earned an ice cream for that). To let the others feel better I let them win the card game rounds we had afterwards. All in all, a good observation and ringing day with a fun evening!

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

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen)

Solsort  - 11

Sangdrossel - 1

Musvit - 3

Blåmejse - 12

Bogfinke - 1

Sum (28)

Folk:,  Simon S Christiansen, Berit Alfrida and her sister, Søren, Michaëla Berdougo, Laima Bagdonaite, Jonas Pedersen og Daniel Bloche. 

Ja, som der står, en sort dag. Ikke fordi det har været en særligt dårlig dag. Men fordi vi har haft nogle meget mørke arter. 

Dagen startede tidligt for Daniel og Laima som stod op og åbnede nettene. Planen for dem var klar. Op, ringmærkning hvor de fik fint selskab af Oluf Lou som deltog i ringmærkningen. Hjem i god tid for skole.

Michaela og jeg tog ud for at tælle træk, blæsten var ikke slem så vi satte os på verdens ende 1 og blev mødt af fire trækkende fiskehejrer, en art der bestemt ikke har været mange af her for tiden. Det var koldt og klamt vejr og det var meget diset ude i horisonten så bestemmelse var besværlig i det mørke vejr. En særlig art stak ud i dag. En meget mørk art, nemlig sortanden som der trak mange af mod sydøst, vi nåede op på 2000 individer og der skulle nok være flere der trak efter vi stoppede med at tælle.

I ringmærkningen havde de også gang i en mørk art, solsort var nemlig en talrig art med 27 indivder som fik ring på, udover det havde de også sangdrossel og rødhals, så en drossel-dag så at sige.

Jørgen og Igor var også forbi for at sige hej og det var jo som altid en kæmpe fornøjelse.

Efter vi kom hjem stod den på afslapning og nogle huspligter.
Michaela og jeg tog et smut til Jennes sø for at se om der skete noget, det gjorde der ikke. Men vi fik set nogle af Michael Anchers net og vi hørte nogle sjove lyde ude i rørskoven.

Så var det hjem igen hvor der blev spillet brætspil og hørt musik. 
Vi lavede noget lækker vegansk spaghetti med (kødsovs?) og nu er det vidst tid til en film eller måske noget mere musik.
Imorgen er det mere ringmærkning og observation og vi håber på nogle lækkerier.

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

Ringmærkning (kabeltromlen)

Solsort  27

Sangdrossel 1

Sum (28)

Folk: Simon S Christiansen, Oluf Lou, Jørgen Kabel, Igor, Daniel Bloche, Michaela Berdougo, og Laima Bagdonaite

Hey hey!

In the morning Michaela and Daniel went to Verdens ende 1 to observe sea migration, while the rest of us went ringing at Kabeltromlen.

When we were opening the nets, a woodcock flew just across our path! Then, on the first round we found a cute mouse in the nets and quickly released it unharmed.

Later on, we had quite a few birds, the majority being blue tits (Blåmejse), which Jonas had the pleasure to practice his ringing on. Jørgen joined us with Igor, as well as Berit.

We could hear many bearded reedlings (Skægmejse) flying around, but unfortunately, none of them went into the nets. The jewel bird of the morning was a beautiful magpie (Husskade) we caught in the last net on the last round. It was the first magpie for the station, and the first one I've ever handled and ringed! We were all quite happy with this catch! 

When we came back in the afternoon, we relaxed. Then Michaela and Jonas went to the cormorant (Skarv) collony, however no nesting cormorants were present there. After that, they took the bikes to the city and also went to the store for some food. 

Back at the station, I made onion soup and Daniel baked bread for dinner! The rest of the evening we spent entering ringing data and raptor summary. 

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

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Husskade - 1

Solsort - 2

Sangdrossel - 1

Musvit - 1

Gærdesmutte- 1

Dompap - 2

Blåmejse - 12

Bogfink - 1

Fuglekonge - 1 

Sum: 22

Folk: Jonas Pedersen,  Simon S Christiansen, Berit Alfrida and her sister, Jørgen Kabel, Igor Daniel Bloche, Michaela Berdougo, og Laima Bagdonaite.