Vækkeuret ringede 03.50 så jeg havde god tid til at smøre min madpakke og pakke mine ting. Amandine og jeg stod på Grenen allerede klokken 04.30 som de første birdere, men inden længe kom der flere. Dagens morgenobs bød på arter som storkjove, sølvhejre, islandske ryler, strandhjejle og meget andet. Da vi kom hjem fik jeg besøg af mine forældre som skal være i Skagen den næste uges tid, så det bliver hyggeligt. Vi gik en tur ud ad sandormesporet for at se om vi kunne finde brilleænderne. Det kunne vi! Ellers er dagen gået med rigtig meget dataarbejde og en omgang madlavning på højt plan ???? Her til aften skal vi til Sandmilen for at se om vi kan fange natravne igen. Vi håber på en masse, men det er ikke sikkert det bliver til noget fordi det desværre allerede ser ud som om det begynder at regne ved 02.00-03.00-tiden. Vi håber dog stadig vi kan nå at fange nogle stykker.

foto: Erik Christophersen, Art: Karmindompap, Sted: Skarvsøen

Folk: Amandine Doré, Rasmus Matthiesen-Juhl, Marc and Lærke Desholm, Henning Ettrup, Lars-Bo, Lucas Corneliussen, Erik Chrisophersen, Rolf kristensen, Ulla, Lotte, Maya and Max

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The day started ealry at Jennes Sø, where we carried out a CES ringing session with the help of Henning. We caught very few birds, however we got two very nice ones : a juvenile Goldcrest (Fuglekonge) and a recaptured Tree pipit (Skovpiber). Uller, Lotte, Maya and Max joined us at 6am and got to see quite a few birds, including the Goldcrest, a Great tit juvenile (Musvit), a Crested tit (Topmejse), 2 Wrens (Gaerdesmutte) and a Chiffchaff (Gransanger).

Juvenile Goldcrest (Fuglekonge)

Tree pipit (Skovpiber)

Moulting Willow Warbler (Løvsanger)

After the CES ringing, we went to the Cormorant Colony (Skarv) for the breeding survey. Counts were identifical to the last time we went, and fortunately, no more nests have been predated this time !



In the evening, Henning brought us to Jerup strand to see if we could find some Sandwich terns (Splitterne) with rings and try to read them. We indeed found some Sandwich Terns, but none of them were wearing a ring, metal or color rings. Alongside the terns were a lot of waders such as Dunlins (Almindelig ryle), Oystercatcher (Strandskade), Bar-tailed Godwit (Lille kobbersneppe), Common Ringed Plover (Stor præstekrave). We also saw some Cranes (Traner) and a lot of Gulls (Måge) !   

Ringmærkning (Jennes Sø):

Gransanger – Chiffchaff – 2
Fuglekonge – Goldcrest – 1
Gærdesmutte – Wren – 1
Topmejse  – Crested tit – 2
Løvsanger – Willow warbler – 1

Total: 7

People:  Simon S. Christiansen, Amandine Doré, Rasmus Matthiesen-Juhl, Marc, Lærke and Malthe Desholm, Henning, Uller, Lotte, Maya and Max

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Morgenen startede totalt tidligt kl. 4.00, hvor Rasmus og Amandine tog ud til søde Rolf på Verdens Ende for at morgenobse. Morgenens bedste fugle udgjordes af to sølvhejre, et par trækkende små regnsporver og den sædvanlige sortandeflok, hvori der stadig huserer to brilleænder og en amerikansk sortand. Få fugle men klart fede arter!

DOF var i morgennyhederne på DR-TV, hvor Mark blev interviewet (med det grå fyr i baggrunden) til en live-snak om DOF’s ørne-tv, som jo har haft over 1,6 mio. unikke sidehenvisninger i år – det er for vildt!!!

Kl. 14.00 blev der afholdt guidet ringmærkningstur med formanden for Danmarks Ringmærkerforening og bestyrelsesmedlem for Skagen Fuglestation Henning Ettrup, hvor den eneste fugl i hånden desværre, var super-fugle-fangst-kvinden Amandine’s håndfangne brevdue, som nu på Simons mellemkomst fremadrettet skal agere sæddoner i Knud Petersens brevduehold, hvor indavlen har trygget lidt på det sidste. Der var 9 deltagere på turen, der fik set fire skønne og lokale tårnfalke over de tomme eftermiddagsnet.

Til aften var Amandine og Rasmus ude ved Jennesø, for at gøre klar med buskryderen til morgendagens – eller rettere den ekstremt tidlige morgen-morgen’s CES-fangst. Den utrættelige Henning deltager igen med hultangen – og hvem ved, hvad mon der kommer til at ligger i netlommerne??? Imens fik Lærke og Mark sig en løbetur ud over heden, og Malthe fik spottet fede biler i Skagen med sin tilrejsende klassekammerat.

Aftenen blev afsluttet med lækker aftensmad tilberedt af Lærke, og Amandine udviste endnu en gang hendes utrættelighed, ved at hoppe i løbeskoende og kaste sig ud i Skagens vidunderlige og gyldne aftensol.

Tak til Skagen for endnu en gang at levere en skøn dag i selskab med skønne mennesker og skønne fugle omkring Skagen Fuglestation.

Folk: Simon S. Christiansen, Amandine Doré, Rasmus Matthiesen-Juhl, Marc, Lærke and Malthe Desholm, Henning Ettrup, Ulla, Lotte, Maya and Max

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This morning, I went opening the nets with Kristina for 4:45 and we’ve been then joined by Simon, Marc and Rasumus for the first round at 5:15, and for a short time by Lærke and Malthe. After the days of bad wether, it was good to be out again at Kabeltromlen and do some ringing !

It was actually a very good catching day, warm and sunny. Again, we caught mostly juvenile birds from Common Whitethorat (Tornsanger), Lesser Whitethroat (Gærdesanger), Blue tit (Blåmejse), Greta tit (Musvit). We also got a beautiful juvenile Yellowhammer (Gulspurv). Kristina and Rasmus were learning how to take birds out of the nets.

In one of the last net checks, we caught a ”special bird”: a juvenile Green sandpiper (Svaleklire) ! You can tell it’s a juvenile because the wing feathers are new, are from the same generations (different generations in adult) and the spots are brownish, while they are white on the adults.

We also got a quite interesting recapture, an adult female Blackacap (Munk) with an Italian rings... We should get some more information on this bird very soon !

There were also some cool birds at sea today : two Surf Scoters (Brilleand) and Black Scoter (Amerikansks Sortand) on a visit from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean!

Photo: Erik Christophersen

In the afternoon, we completed different office tasks as usual, data entering, data checking,etc...

While sitting at the Birder’s club to answer visitors questions about birds, a young couple came to me asking if I could do anything for the seals: apparently there was a seal cub on Grenen tip, that people were petting... I decided to go to have a look and found a huge crowd of people around this very young seal. This baby seal was in fact injured, explaining why people had managed to come so close and ”pet” it. It looked very exhausted, both from the injury and the stress caused by the crowd, who unfortunately did only care about getting pictures with seals, even when this little one was dying.  Signs are put up on the beach to warn people to stay away from the seals, both for their security (seals can bite and carries a lot fo bacteria, who can generates important infection) and for the seals’s tranquility, but very few respect the 50m distance recommended. I tried to get people away from the seal cub and some nice people helped me keeping away the increasing amount of tourists coming to the tip.

Seal cub 

Two reporters, who came to document the area of Skagen, have been of very great help and were truly concern about the seal. We then called for some help from professionnals, but unfortunately they had to put down the young seal, probably too injured and too weak. It was shot on the beach, in the middle of the crowd.

This shows how close people get to the seal in Grenen, while they should respect a distance of 50m. 

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen):

Green Sandpiper - Svaleklire - 1
Yellowhammer - Gulspurv - 1
Great tit - Musvit - 3
Marsh warbler - Kærsanger - 2
Willow warbler - Løvsanger - 1
Redpoll - Gråsisken, Lille (cabaret) - 7
Reed warbler - Rørsanger - 3
Common Whitethroat - Tornsanger - 19
Blackcap - Munk - 2
Blue tit - Blåmejse - 3
Chiffchaff - Gransanger - 8
Reed bunting - Rørspurv - 2

Total:52

People:  Simon S. Christiansen, Amandine Doré, Rasmus Matthiesen-Juhl, Marc, Lærke and Malthe Desholm, Kristina Sønderkjær, Uller, Lotte, Maya and Max,
Thanks to Erik Christiphersen for the Surf scoter picture

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Dagen startede med regn, og af den grund havde vi mulighed for at kunne sove lidt længere i dag. Jeg vågnede ved 9-tiden dejligt udhvilet og klar til dagens opgaver, som i dag stod på Birders Club og en fuldt booket ringmærknings tur. Selvom vejret ikke vær egnet til ringmærkning lykkedes det os alligevel at fange en flot Gulspurv som var til stor begejstring for de mange deltagere, og især børnene var meget imponerede fuglen. På turen fik Skagen Fuglestation en masse spændene spørgsmål fra de mange børn bla. "Er en ørns snabel lang?" "Kan en ørn godt få børn?" Vi svarede på de mange spørgsmål efter bedste evne. Desværre måtte vi lukke nettene ret hurtigt igen da, det begyndte at regne.

Her til aften har vi fået lækker vegansk mad som Lærke har lavet, og Amandine er på vej ud for at tælle terner. Alt i alt har det været en rigtig hyggelig dag selvom mængden af fugle ikke har været noget at råbe hurra for. Vi glæder os til en ny dag i morgen

Ringmærkning (Fyrhaverne)

Reed bunting - Gulspurv - 1

 Folk: Simon S. Christiansen, Amandine Doré, Rasmus Matthiesen-Juhl, Marc, Lærke and Malthe Desholm, Kristina Sønderkjær, Uller, Lotte, Maya and Max

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This morning, Rasmus and me woke up early to try to find roosting Sandwich Terns (Splitterne) but this was unsuccessfull. We only saw some roostings gulls (måge) and Common terns (Fjordterne).... It has been several days that we haven’t seen them roosting, only fishing... It might due to the amount of tourists in Skagen right now.... People go out early and late to watch the sunrise/sunset and this might disturb the Sandwich terns (Splitterne)....   

Common terns (Fjordterne) adult and juveniles

Rasmus and me decided then to split up and go bird-watching and do some countings of other species. There were hundreds of Common Scoters (Sortand) in the sea, on their way to migrate. I also went for some "seal watching"...before tourists scare them off !



On my way back, I also saw two now almost fully grown Common plover (Stor Praestekrave) chicks, and one of them was one the chicks we ringed ealier in the season. Surprisingly the second chick was not ringed, although we had ringed two full clutches....  Maybe we had missed one of the chicks?

Common Ringed Plover chick ringed

In the afternoon, we went to survey the Cormorant (Skarv) colony and our new guests, Uller, Lotte, Maya and Max came along. The chicks are of adult size right one, and start to resemble juveniles from last year.... Which makes it tricky to count them ! And unfortunately, we found out today that 3 more nests have been predated, in the Western part of the colony this time.... Hopefully the chicks fledge very soon and there won’t be more predation... We also saw some chicks from Red-necked Grebe (Gråstrubet lappedykker), which was very nice !

Red-necked Grebe (Gråstrubet lappedykker) chicks

In the end of afternoon, Marc and his two children, Lærke and Malthe arrived at the observatory and will stay for 2 weeks here, helping with the work at the observatory.

A future volunteer, Kristina, who will spend the autumn in Skagen, also joined us for a couple of days, to have a first idea of how it will be like to work at the observatory later on.

Now the station is full again !

People:  Simon S. Christiansen, Amandine Doré, Rasmus Matthiesen-Juhl, Marc, Lærke and Malthe Desholm, Kristina Sønderkjær, Uller, Lotte, Maya and Max

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I dag har været en meget stille og rolig dag fuglemæssigt pga. den kraftige blæst. Det er også dagen hvor sagde vi farvel til Martina og til den familie, som har boet i lejligheden ved siden af i den sidste uge. Det var rart og hyggeligt at møde jer, selvom det kun blev til 2 dage sammen med jer for mit vedkommende. Efter Martina tog afsted, stod den på rengøring i hele lejligheden og laboratoriet. Jeg har haft en meget stille og rolig dag som bla. blev brugt på at printe nye tegninger til børnene i ”Birders Club”, svare på spørgsmål fra nysgerrige turister, og på en dejlig tur langs stranden med rigtig mange terner.

Vi glæder os til en ny dag Imorgen

Folk: Amandine Doré, Rasmus Matthiesen-juhl, Simon S. Christiansen

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Today actually started yesterday at 10pm when we went with Lars Bo to catch nightjars (natraven). Pernille and Rasmus also came in the hope of seeing these cool birds. At first we were a little bit disappointed because last time we had been we heard several singing even before sunset whereas this night we didn’t hear any singing at all at first. We had to set up the nets based on where we thought was good locations but it soon became clear that we chose the good places: even while we were setting up the nets, Rasmus, Pernille and I saw at least two nightjars fly around very close to us. It was the first nightjars that Rasmus had seen, so he was very happy. Then we put on the playback and waited.

Simon came out to say good-bye to me and in the hope to see a nightjar but had to wait for a while for his first. He was just about to leave when we finally caught one male. Rasmus junior and Pernille were really happy as it was the first time they had held one. Simon left and then we caught two more nightjars in one net check. One male and one female. The female had an egg that you could actually feel in her belly. It must be a second clutch that she started, either because the first clutch already fledged or because it was lost. We hope for the first option, of course.

After the ringing we came home at around 5 am and everybody went to sleep. I went to the tip in the hope of seeing ringed sandwich terns (splitterne) before but there weren’t any. I think probably the many tourists stop them from roosting on our beach now. They only come when the bad weather keeps the tourists away. There were several seals, some common terns, gulls, plovers (stor præstekrave), and a red-throated diver (rødstrubet lom), which was nice enough. Also just offshore there was a large group of at least 300 black scoters (sortand) roosting in the water which is the biggest flock I have seen here.

After that I went home to sleep as well. In the afternoon we did some maintenance work on the nets and antenna but nothing too exciting.

I will leave tomorrow, after having been here for almost two months. It has been an amazing two months that is hard to put into words. I met a lot of interesting people, learned how the birding community here in Skagen works and wish that it would work like this elsewhere. I saw so many cool birds and ringed many of them. I also became famous without wanting to. I guess things like that just happen to you. Me, I love terns and shorebirds, so being able to watch the sandwich terns through the window all day long as they take the fish they catch around the tip towards their chicks on Hirsholm is by far the best thing about this place. But the experience here has just been phenomenal due to the whole mix of everything, the landscape, the people, the seabirds and the birds in the ringing, even the raptors, and somehow also even the rails. I would much rather be remembered as the girl who loved the terns so much she would talk about nothing else all day long and couldn’t concentrate on the Vikings game when there were terns flying by, than the girl that discovered the lille rørvagtl but I guess different people have different priorities…

It would be really hard to explain to people who have not been here, why you choose to go out birdwatching in the evening and then still get up at 2.15 in the morning to open the nets while you get eaten (or drunk) by mosquitos and do that for weeks on end but this place and everything about it is just so special you want to make use of every hour you have even if it means you don’t sleep enough for two months straight. I guess if it costs me a few weeks of my life time then the energy was well invested. I won’t try to explain and I know that pictures can only give you a little glimpse of the reality up here but there are no words, nor pictures to describe the experience here. The only way is to come and see for yourself. As far as I am concerned, Simon already knows that he will have to put up with me again next year. I am already looking forward to coming back!

It remains to say thanks to everybody who made my experience here so memorable and enjoyable. I will miss it all – but especially the terns!

Ringmærkning (Sandmilen):

Natraven - Nightjar - 3

Folk: Martina Hillbrand, Simon S. Christiansen, Amandine Doré, Rasmus Matthlesen-duhl, Lars Bo Jacobsen, Pernille Roed

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This morning, we went ringing at Kabeltromlen under a very sunny weather ! And for the first times in many days, there was no wind, which felt very nice ! A lot of birdwatchers were at Kabeltromlen this morning, hoping to hear or see the Zitting Cisticiola (Cistussanger) that had been sighted by Rolf yesterday. However, we did not hear it during the morning.

The catching was slower than yesterday, but we still got again a lot of juvenile birds, especially Common Whitethroat (Tornasanger), Lesser whitethroat (Gaerdesanger) and Chiffchaff (Gransanger).

We also ringed a juvenile Black Redtsart (Husrødstjert) and a Spotted Flycatcher (Grå fluesnapper), species that we do not catch so often !

I had to the ringing leave earlier for a meeting at the lighthouse, and let Martina close alone, which was harder than she thought because they were a lot of birds in the last rounds !

In the afternoon, I went out with Knud to try again to find the camera at the Cormorant Lake, that needed to be checked because it does not seem to work anymore. Knud knew the way, but still it was not easy to find it ! After some time walking and crossing reeds beds and bushes, we finally got to the camera ! It was actually also a very nice place to watch the cormorants (Skarv) and get close to them.

Into the danish jungle...

On my way back, I went to do some checkings on the antenna and tried to protect it from the playful cows in the field, that forced us to take down the receiver around 2 weeks ago.

In the end of the afternoon, Martina and Pernille went to the Cormorant lake to count the chicks. Most of them are now fully grown and have adult size. It becomes harder and harder to distinguish them from the adults, and it seems that some have already left the nest. Doing the counting and aging of the chicks becomes more challenging now ! The chicks of the Wtestern part of the colony were numerous and look healthy, which is good to see after the unfortunate killing of the chicks from the Eastern part of the colony.

A new volunteer, Rasmus, who had been here for a week last year, arrived today for a 2 weeks internship in the observatory.

After a nice dinner prepared by Rasmus and Pil, we are now getting ready to go catching nightjars (Natravn) again with Lars Bo. Hopefully, this night will as successful as the previous one and will try to beat the record of 5 nightjars in a night ! Lars Bo predicted 7 nightjars and 1 woodcock (Skovsneppe), and I hope he’s right !

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen):

Great tit – Musvit – 7

Black Redstart - Husrødstjert  - 1

Reed Warbler – Kærsanger – 2

Spotted Flycatcher - Grå Fluesnapper – 1

Lesser Whitethroat -      Gærdesanger – 8

Reed warbler – Rørsanger – 1

Blackcap – Munk – 5

Common Whitethroat – Tornsanger – 8

Blue tit – Blåmejse – 1

Chiffchaff – Gransanger – 5

Total : 39

People: Martina Hillbrand, Simon S. Christiansen, Amandine Doré, Rasmus, Pil, Falke, Sally, Rasmus Matthlesen-duhl, Rolf Christensen, Knud Pedersen, Lars Bo Jacobsen, Jørgen Kabel, and Igor

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After a day full of first year whitethroats (tornsanger) today we had a little bit more colour in our ringing. We opened the nets at the usual time, half an hour before sunrise and had a very busy first net check (which is unusual). Part of the reason for this was probably very young birds taking their flying exercises in the early morning – or so it seemed, because we caught two blackbirds (solsort) that could barely fly and this yellowhammer (gulspurv) which has probably only just jumped out of the nest.

The day continued with some more unusual birds, showing that the breeding season is getting to an end and birds are starting to move around more. This stonechat still in its juvenile plumage probably fledged around two weeks ago somewhere south of here and had to leave the territory of the parents so it came up north to visit us. It was apparently only the second one caught in Skagen.

We also caught an adult male Linnet (tornirisk) brought some colour to our nets.

For the rest we still had a lot of juvenile whitethroats and chiffchaffs (gransanger) showing that the breeding success seems to have been pretty good. Also we had the first juvenile wren (gærdesmutte) and the regulars like baby blue and great tit (blåmejse og musvit) and blackbirds (solsort). Pil came out early to visit us at the ringing which was a good choice because that way she got to see a lot of birds.

While we were ringing, we suddenly heard the message from Rolf on Zello about a Zitting Cisticola (cistussanger!). It is hard to believe that a non-migratory bird that lives in the Mediterranean region would end up in Skagen but we could hear it again afterwards and by the evening there was a recording of the call as proof.

Trine, a veterinary from Aalborg Zoo and Aalborg University came to visit us during the day. She was very interested in the work we are doing and we hope to maybe collaborate with her in the future on some projects.

Back at the lighthouse we had a ringing tour with so many people it was split up according to languages (Danish and German). Everybody seemed to be very interested in our work and luckily they also got to see a single icterine warbler (gulbug) being ringed.

In the office part of the day we had a nice surprise from Belgium: a bird that we had caught on April 4^th with a Belgium ring on was finally reported back to us: it was a dunnock (jernspruv) which was ringed at the end of October in Belgium as a first year bird.

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen and Lighthouse Garden):

Munk – Blackcap – 2

Rørsanger – Reed Warbler – 4

Gærdesanger – Lesser Whitethroat – 3

Blåmejse – Blue Tit – 2

Lille Gråsisken – Redpoll – 2

Musvit – Great Tit -4

Gulbug – Icterine Warbler – 2

Gransanger – Chiffchaff - 5

Tornsanger – Common Whitethroat – 10

Kærsanger – Marsh Warbler – 1

Solsort – Blackbird – 1

Gærdesmutte – Wren – 1

Tornirisk – Linnet – 1

Sortstrubet Bynkefugl – Stonechat – 1

Karmindompap – Rosefinch – 1

Rørspurv – Reed Bunting – 1

Gulspruv – Yellowhammer – 1

Total: 42

Folk: Martina Hillbrand, Simon S. Christiansen, Amandine Doré, Rasmus, Pil, Falke, Sally, Erik Christopherson, Rolf Christensen, Jørgen Kabel, Trine Hammer Jensen, and Igor

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