This morning Simon came to the station to pick us up because we had some ringing plans in Skagen today. 

So we packed our ringing equipment. Before we left we heard a nice Stonechat (Sortstrubet Bynkefugl) singing in front of our window. And some Honey Buzzards (Hvepsevåge) circling over the lighthouse. Just before we finally wanted to leave, Hanelie caught a Sand Lizard (Markfirben), a nice green one.

Sand Lizard (Markfirben)

First we went to the harbour to look at some Gulls. And also our Guests Jeppe and Linda joined. We found quite a lot of Kittiwakes (Rider) and two Black Guillemots (Tejst). Four of the Kittiwakes were also colour ringed but unfortunately they were too far away to read the rings.

On our way out of the harbour we also looked if we could find some Common Ringed Plover (Stor Præstekrave) chicks. We actually found one but it was already too big and fast to be caught.

Our next stop was the house of Tina who has some Swifts (Mursejler) breeding in her nest boxes. But when we got out the leather we could see that they were too far up to reach.

So we ringed the Great Tit (Musvit) chicks from another nest nest box instead. There were five of them in the nestbox.

In the afternoon Hanelie went back to the harbour to try to get on to some roofs to catch and ring some Gull chicks. And she actually found some people who let her on to a roof. She rang two Herring Gull (Sølvmåge) chicks. 

Ringing Herring Gull (Sølvmåge) chick at the harbour

Ringing Skagen By:

Musvit 5

Sølvmåge 2

Highlight of the observations:

Kittiwake  (Ride) - 64

Black Guillemot (Tejst) 2

Honey Buzzard (Hvepsevåge) 4

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

People: Cora Köberle, Hanelie Sidhu, Andrew Jacobs, Simon Sigaard Christiansen and our guests Jeppe and Linda 

… in up to 17,5 m/s, gusting to 25,8 m/s from west. This weather was not very inviting to spend the morning outside, so we got a little more cleaning and some office work done, Andrew put pictures in the picture archive and Cora and I standarised all comments in the ringing data of this season.

In the early afternoon, our new guests Linda and Jeppe arrived. We were very thankful that they drove Cora to the grocery shop, biking in today´s wind did not sound like a good idea. There was also space for me and the new ringing table for Cormorant lake in the car so they dropped me at Nordstrand before continueing to the shop.

Holding the light aluminium table, by its handle I made my way to the lake. The wind would have liked to take it from me, but I grabbed it tight, wounder if I would have flown away if i had such a wide arm extension on each side. Of course not, but in this weather it´s easy to imagine being carried away by the wind.

Nevertehless, it was actually a quite warm and very sunny day and no matter the wind, I wanted to use the oppurtunity to be driven to also do the Cormorant „Skarv“ count. I saw a lot more 1K birds than adults in the colony, most already quite big and are sitting outside of the nests in the colony. Nevertheless, I saw two birds that got fed by one of the parants in a windshaken nest. There was not so much other than Cormorants „Skarv“ at the lake today.

Cormorants "Skarv" through the telescope. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

I walked back to the station and Cora and I finished the ringing comments.

While Cora was cooking, Andrew and I went to the beach and found a sheltered place close to a bunker to do some seawatching. Highlights were some Arktic Skuas „Almindelig Kjove“ and Kittiwakes „Ride“.

Today´s observations of observers in the area typed into DODbasn can be seen here.

After a good dinner, it was time for Wingspan.

Playing Wingspan. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Although part of the night was very windy I had the lights on but not many moth came, they also do not like to fly in very windy weather. Nevertheless, I do not run out of moth content to show to you, as the night before was very good with 43 different species, of which I would like to show one more highlight. Calophasia lunula „Kappeugle“ is a vulnerable species on the danish redlist and there are rather few observations, 206 of it on Arter.

Calophasia lunula „Kappeugle“. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

At the station: Andrew Jacobs, Cora Körbele, Hanelie Sidhu

Today was the big cleaning day around the station where we deep cleaned the station using up the majority of the day.
Hanelie had 43 species of moths in the traps today with new for the season including Soothsayer Dart, Toadflax Brocade Moth, Bordered Gothic, Rhodophaea Formosa, Bilberry Tortrix and several other species.
Later I did some window seawatch pointing the scope out towards the tip where some Arctic Skuas ended up flying past.
Cora and I went out late in the evening to see some more birds along the beach where a male Velvet Scoter was floating just offshore and a few more Arctic Skuas flew past.
As we headed back in we could see the storm starting to come in, it’s supposed to get very windy overnight.

Cleaning the fridge photo Hanelie Sidhu

Peppered Moth photo Hanelie Sidhu

Highlights
Arctic Skua 6 (Almindelig Kjove)
Velvet Scoter 1 (Fløjsand)

Observations in the area on DOFbasen today

People: Cora Köberle, Hanelie Sidhu, Andrew Jacobs, Simon Sigaard Christiansen

After not so much sleep my day started as the last night had ended, I went to the moths trap, took pictures of some moths outside and took some inside to wait until they were calm and take pictures. While it had been calm outside some hour ago when we came back from nightcatching, it was very windy now. Wind is never so good to get many moths but most of the night had been calm and althogether, I had 40 different moths species! That was so far the best night in Skagen for catching moths but, if the weather plazs along and we would not get too many more windy nights, Juli is actually the best months to get many different moth species. I had six new species for me in the trap today, there are a lot mor moths species than birds, but I usually do not get that many new. I will show some highlights from the traps. 

Six of today´s 40 moths species. Pictures: Hanelie Sidhu

Later in the morning Simon and Lisa came to finish the data work and say goodbye to Tue, who left the station today after some exciting spring months at Skagen. It was very nice meeting you here Tue and we with you the best luck with future birding and ringing and for your biology studies in autumn! 

Around noon, it was time to do a big cleanup in the attic above the lab. It took a while to organize all the boxes and traps up there but now it looks way more tidy than before.

Hanelie, Cora and Andrew cleaning up the attic. Picture: Simon S. Christiansen

At the station: Tue Baaner, Lisa Vergin, Simon S. Christiansen, Andrew Jacobs, Cora Körbele, Hanelie Sidhu

The morning started with me shortly checking the wall at the moths trap before Tue and I left for ringing at the CES site Skarvsøen at 2.45. it takes a while to get there, first biking to the parking at Nordstrand, then walking to the lake. Nets were open at 3.45 and Cora joined us for the first round at 4.15. We had quite a nice morning at Skarvsøen with Beardedd Reedlings „Skægmejse“ in the nets as well as a partially leucistic Reed Warbler „Rørsanger“ which had some white feathers.

Tue and Hanelie with four 1K Bearded Reedlings "Skægmejse". Picture: Cora Körbele

Partially leucistic Reed Warbler "Rørsanger". Picture: Cora Körbele

Jørgen and Igor visited us just after we had a yero round, so the waiting time until next round went over fast as we had nice company. Together, we saw some Honey Buzzards „Hvepsevåge“ circling over the lake. 

In the meantime Andrew took a walk at the beach and saw a Little Tern „Dværgterne“ in a flock of Terns and many Arktic Skuas „Almindelig Kjove“ over the sea. When it was time for his tour with twobritisch cruise ship passengers, these birds were unfortunately gone but it was still a good tour as the saw the Grashopper Warbler „Græshoppersanger“ and heared a Rosefinch „Kamindompap“ calling.

Today´s observations of observers in the area typed into DOFbasn can be seen here.

Ringing totals CES Skarvsøen
Rørsanger 7
Gærdesanger 4
Skægmejse 3
Blåmejse 1
Gransanger 3
Tornsanger 6
Total 24

Highligs in the nets

Skægmejse

partially leucustic Rørsanger

Highlights in the field

Dværgterne

Mallemuk

Almindelig Kjove

Græshoppersanger

Skovmår

 Back at the station, I checked the inside of the moth traps but it was only 14 species that had found their way to my light that night. One ewas new for me though, Rhyacia simulas „Simulant ugle“. As it was not so many I would like to show some highlights of the last days.

Some moths of the last days. Pictures: Hanelie Sidhu

Simon came to the station both in the morning and again in the afternoon to do some office work and check some data with us.

 After dinner we went out all together for some seawatching. We saw a good number of Fulmars „Mallemuk“ and some Arctic Skuas „Almindelig Kjove“, it had been worth to go out.

 It had been a full day but it was not over yet. We waited until it was dark, which is very late that time of year. While waiting, Cora and I saw a European Pine Martin „Skovmår“ in the garden. At midnight, Cora, Tue and I went out to the beach with thermal binocular and handnet, but we did not catch anything. We walked back on the Sandworm track and heared the Grasshopper Warbler „Græshoppersanger“ singing in the middle of the night.

Back at the station we looked at the moths traps and I stayed outside a little longer to take pictures, as there were many moths, but I will leave that for tomorrow.

At the station: Simon S. Christiansen, Tue Baaner, Cora Körbele, Andrew Jacobs, Hanelie Sidhu

Today I went out to the beach where large numbers of seabirds had gathered off of the tip with hundreds of Common Terns, European Herring Gulls and Great Black-backed Gulls feeding offshore. Two of the large puddles towards the tip remained today a large flock of roosting gulls had about 90 Lesser Black-blacked Gulls in it which is a pretty high count for the roosting flocks this season.

I then went to Batteriskov to look for a singing Common Firecrest which had been heard the day before and by the others a little while earlier. It was quite easy to hear (if you can hear the high pitched sounds) but not so easy to spot as it mostly hung out high up in the conifers peeking out of the dark places time to time.

Common Firecrest (Rødtoppet Fuglekonge)

Common Ringed Plover (Stor Præstekrave)

In the afternoon we went to the beach again but this time to ring some ringed plovers to make double ringed plovers. We found some young Common Ringed Plover chicks and ringed them with steel rings so that the ring doesn’t corrode around the water, took some weight measurements and then handed them off to the awaiting Plover parents nearby.

After the plovers we went to take a look at the large roosting gull and tern flock on the beach where we managed to read a couple of colour rings and saw nine Black-legged Kittiwakes rooting on the beach with the Common Terns, Sandwich Terns an Common Gulls.

Tomorrow we will be back out at Skarvsøen for more CES ringing, last time there were many birds with eggs and young fledglings about so we will see how the breeding birds are progressing there!

Highlights

Common Firecrest (Rødtoppet Fuglekonge) 1

Black Kite (Sort Glente) 1

Common Tern (Fjordterne) 700

Observations from on area today on DOFbasen

Ringing: Grenen

Common Ringed Plover (Stor Præstekrave) 4

People: Cora Köberle, Tue Baaner, Hanelie Sidhu, Andrew Jacobs, Simon Sigaard Christiansen and Lisa Vergin

Today we slept a longer bit after enjoying the huge Sankt Hans fire at the beach yesterday night. It was also very windy the whole day. So we started indoor doing some datawork. 

The Sankt Hans fire from yesterday

Later in the morning Lucas' family visited the station to pick him up. It was a bit sad to say goodbye to him after living together for almost four months now. Also Simon and Lisa passed by the station in the morning. 

Later we continued our datawork and Andrew went out to the beach. Out these he found the beach completely fluted because of all the wind.He saw many Terns and Gulls. Among them were two young CommonTerns (Fjordterne). The first young ones we have seen this year.

The flooded beach 

After dinner we could see many Terns flying over the sea, so we went out to the beach to do a little evening seawatch. Out there we saw a young Wheatear (Stenpikker) sitting on the stones. We put out our trap to try to catch it but it didn't work out.

And there were also some Gulls feeding on a dead Seal on the beach. Andrew tried to catch them without success.

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

People:Lucas Corneliussen, Cora Köberle, Tue Baaner, Hanelie Sidhu, Andrew Jacobs, Simon Sigaard Christiansen and Lisa Vergin

 Another day, another early morning waking up at the wonderful lighthouse, which we call home. This time, for me, will be the last time I wake up early to open the nets. Waking up before 3 AM, Hanelie and I headed out to Kabeltromlen to open the nets. Despite the incoming weather system, we headed out to Grenen and opened most of the nets. 

 Over the course of the next several hours, we caught 13 birds with the majority of those being likely breeders or young birds. The last bird I rung before I went home for the morning for the last time was a Common Reed Warbler (Rørsanger). This will likely to be the last bird I have in the hand for the foreseeable future, so I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it.

 My last bird in the hand!

In the afternoon, we spent the day cleaning the station and catching up on data from our trip to Hirsholmene. We also welcomed back Simon, who was abroad in Iceland, ringing sea ducks with Lisa. We had a long meeting about things which needed to be completed by the end of the month, and we were also lucky enough to have Simon present to us about Infectious diseases and ornithosis.

 Tornsanger Chicks!

Now we are getting ready to head to the annual Sankthansaften festival in town to celebrate the summer solstice.

On a little side note, I would like to thank all those who have made my time in Skagen over the last 5 months great. I hope to see you all again! To all of those in this year's spring crew, it was a pleasure working with you all. Keep in touch! I ended up getting nine lifers over the season, with my favorite being Dotterel (Pomeransfugl). Lastly, I would like to give a massive thanks to Simon for his endless dedication and masterful teaching. I would not be where I am today without him. Thank you, Simon.

 And so, my time in Skagen has concluded, but for those still here, they will have to wait and see what happens tomorrow! I will miss you all, but this will not be the last time I will be in Skagen!

Vi Ses!

Lucas Corneliussen

Ringing: Kabeltromelen

Gærdesmutte 1

Rørsanger 2

Gærdesanger 2

Tornsanger 6

Havesanger 1

Rørspurv 1

Total: 13

People: Lucas Corneliussen, Andrew Jacobs, Cora Köberle, Tue Baaner, Hanelie Sidhu, Simon Sigaard Christiansen

Hejsa folkens, så er endnu en dag gået. 

I dag vågnede vi op til en helt fantastisk morgen på Hirsholmene. Solen skinnede, og fuglene sang, eller mågerne skreg, burde man nok nærmere kalde det, men skønt var det. Vi brugte den tidlige del af morgenen på at lave en optælling over hele øens bestand af småfugle, samt deres adfærd, for at få en bedre forståelse for hvilke og hvor mange småfugle der yngler på øen. 

Efter det brugte jeg et par timer sammen med Tejsterne ned på molen med kameraet. Det var super fascinerende at sidde midt i kolonien om morgenen, imens de socialiserede, sang og fangede mad til ungerne. Sådan et sted giver en unik mulighed for at kunne opleve fuglene på en helt anden måde end vi er vant til, hvor man virkelig kan komme tæt på og observere deres naturlige adfærd. Desuden fik jeg også et par gode billeder med hjem.

Ynglende tejst på molen  

Tejsten yngler mellem sten og sprækker ud mod kysten, hvilket ikke rigtigt naturligt forekommer her i landet. Derfor finder man dem mest ynglende på moler og havneområder. Der er et par små kolonier rundt i landet, men langt den største er den, vi besøgte på Hirsholmene, så det var en fantastisk oplevelse at se de mange Tejst.  

En af de andre fugle som er til stede på øen, som vi også så en del til, er Skærpiber. Vi ser dem tit på træk her oppe i Skagen i det tidlige forår. Dog er det en sjælden ynglefugl, som også har størstedelen af landets ynglepar omkring Hirsholmene. 

Skærpiber

Derudover blev morgen brugt på at kigge på alle øens mange Terner, Måger og andre Havfugle. Hen mod slutningen af formiddagen fandt vi også lille Kobbersneppe, ude på en af mudder fladerne, samt to topskarv. 

Efter vi havde kigget på fugle og pakket alle vores ting ned, skyndte mig og Cora os ned til vandet for at hapse en hurtig dukkert. Vandet var iskoldt, men selvfølgelig stadig skønt. Tilsidst drak vi en kop kaffe, og spiste et par småkager med kjeld inden færgen gik hjem af.

På vej hjem med færgen

Alt i alt havde vi en helt vildt fantastisk tur, med en masse dejlige fugle og endnu flere gode oplevelser og minder til at tage med hjem. Desuden vil vi gerne give en helt særlig tak til Kjeld, som tog rigtigt godt imod os, og viste os hans meget spændende arbejde omkring overvågningen af øens fugle. 

Nu vil vi takke af for idag, og se frem til hvad der kan ske af spændende ting i morgen 

Vi ses derude.

Higlights Hirtsholmene: 

Tejst 

Skærpiber 

Topskarv 

Lille Kobbersneppe 

Lomvie 

Hunredvis af Terner og Måger 

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

Today’s raptor summary from the Skagen area

People: Lucas Corneliussen, Cora Köberle, Tue Baaner, Hanelie Sidhu, Andrew Jacobs, Kjeld Tommy Pedersen. 

Another day, another day of paradise in Skagen. As the final day of the ringing season had come to a close the day before, for the first time since my tenure at the station in February, we officially had no more mandated reasoning to go to Grenen. With that, we decided to take our first official non-project day and head south to Fredrickshavn for an adventure!

The day started off well with all of us sleeping in well past our usual wakeup call. Once up, we began to pack our things and begin the journey south to wonderful island of Hirsholm. It was a trip we had been talking about all season, and we were finally able to do it! A good trip to send off my time at Skagen Fuglestation. 

 Our guests, Anne and Jesper were nice enough to drive some of us down to the train station while Tue and Cora took bikes. We then began the journey to the island. Arriving in Fredrickshavn, we quickly walked around the harbour before the ferry left and we managed to see a beautiful 2k male Black redstart (Husrødstjert). Hoppin on the ferry a little later we headed out to the island. Along the way, we managed to see two Whooper Swans (Sangsvane) migrating south. Maybe they are early post-breeding dispersals? As we got further out we also saw many Black Guillemots (Tejst), foreshadowing what was to come. When we arrived at the island, the jetties were lined with guillemots (Tejst), numbering into the hundreds! Wow. We also saw a Rock Pipit (Skærpiber), the only breeding site of these birds in Denmark.

 Once on the island, we were introduced to Kjeld Tommy Pederson, the biologist and ringer of tens of thousands of gulls and terns in Denmark. He showed us to our living arrangements for the evening and we headed out to do some birding. Most of the time was spent admiring the seabird colonies, particularly the Tejst. 

 Sildemåge chick

In the evening, Kjeld offered to take some of us at a time into the colony. Andrew and I went first and we were shown the entire colony as well as had the opportunity to color ring a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls (Sildemåge). He also showed us the process of ringing the chicks and explained all the projects he works on at the island. A few hours later, the others had the opportunity to do the same! A wonderful experience for all.

Kjeld color-ringing 

Around 10 PM, we all headed to bed in the provided lodging. A great way to spend a day. And so, another day passes for those of us affiliated with Skagen Fuglestation! What will tomorrow bring? We will have to wait and see!

Highlights:

Sildemåge ringing!

700 Tejst 

  Observations from today on DOFbasen

People: Lucas Corneliussen, Andrew Jacobs, Hanelie Sidhu, Tue Baaner, Cora Körbele, Kjeld Tommy Pederson, and our guests Anne and Jesper Sandfeld