Good evening everyone,

As you can see below, Aksel had a great sunset when going to World End 3, where he met Knud and was later joined for 3 hours by Egon Østergaard, chairman of DOFBasen. At the beginning of the day, two big groups of gannets, totaling more than a thousand individuals, were feeding on fish along the shore using their specific and stunning preying technique: from as high as 40m above the sea level, they would dive almost vertically, with their wings thrown back as they strike the water at 100km/h, to pursue their prey underwater at greater depth than most airborne birds. Aksel also had the chance to observe closely a young kittiwake and its recognizable dark "W" pattern across the wings.

As from the ringing team, capture rate was slow as only 23 birds got ringed this morning before we had to close the nets around 10:30 because the wind was rising; we were glad to have Anton visiting today as he kept us entertained between rounds ! We were quite happy with the species captured, as the goldcrest Fuglekonge, the reed bunting Rørspurv and the great tit Musvit are the most appreciated birds of respectively Johanna, Diana and I (don’t judge : there wasn’t any Musvit where I grew up, and I only discovered them when I was 20 years old !). We also got 4 bullfinches Lille Dompap, two of them recaptured from previous sessions; I was quite happy as, again, I never saw one before coming here. A flock of crossbills flew over our heads and we can’t wait to trap one someday.

As usual, we entered ringing, observing and nocturnal migration data on the different databases, before splitting in teams : Diana went observing at the tip until rain interrupted her drawing session while Hanelie and Johanna went grocery shopping; then Johanna took a bike ride and hike around, Hanelie started to cook and I was analyzing some more nocturnal migration recordings – hopefully I will soon be able to tell birds apart, even if all I hear is just a pip !

Fieldwork can be physically hard, and therefore we finished our day by having a yoga session to stretch our muscles;  we will probably try to give bird names to the different positions so as to motivate us to add it to our routine, we will let you know how it goes !

People at the station : Simon Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Knud Pedersen, Diana Sciandra, Hanelie Sidhu, Solenn Boucher, Johanna Veentjer, Aksel Munkholm, Egon Østergarrd, Anton Arnesson and Jørgen Kabel (& Igor)

Today´s observations from the area on DOFBasen

Ringing totals at Kabeltromle:

Gransanger: 3

Fuglekonge: 1

Gærdesmutte: 4

Jernspurv: 4

Rødhals: 2

Rørspurv: 4

Lille Dompap: 2

Munk: 2

Musvit: 1

Total: 23 birds

Hej derude

I dag stod dagens første time efter solopgang for de største oplevelser for både observationsholdet og ringmærkerne. Jeg var draget afsted mod verdens ende 3 (grenen) for at lave morgenobs sammen med Knud, mens resten af stationens frivillige stod for ringmærkningen ved kabeltromlen sammen med Simon og Lisa.

Ikke længe efter at jeg var ankommet til verdens ende 3 (grenen) udspillede der sig et større drama for øjnene af Knud og mig. En gærdesmutte havde fået forvildet sig ud på stranden, hvor den desperat prøvede at flygte fra 5 hættemåger, som havde udset sig et nemt morgenmåltid. I stedet for at vælge den sikre flugtvejen over klitterne og ned i havtornen tog gærdesmutten turen ud mod vandet. Ud på mågernes hjemmebane... En hættemåge fik hurtig fat i gærdesmutten, men tabte den igen i vand. Dette tiltrak hurtigt opmærksomheden fra flere sølvmåger og kort herefter blev den slugt i en mundfuld.

Knud og jeg havde nær ikke fået pulsen ned fra det tidlige morgendrama før vi fik en meddelelse om at de ved kabeltromlen havde fanget en høgesanger! Af sti afsted hen over klitterne og igennem havtornen, for den blev vi nødt til at se.

En høgesanger var blevet set i området allerede i går, og vi havde snakket om, at det måske kunne lykkedes at ringmærke den. Den var allerede i nettet i første omgang og er kun det 7. individ fanget siden 2017, så vi var glade for at forhåbningerne gik i opfyldelse.

Sikke en morgen!

Herefter vendte Knud og jeg tilbage til obsen, hvor resten dog foregik i et stille tempo. Vi havde en alm kjove og dværgmåge som højdepunkter resten af formiddagen. Jeg valgte, på grund af det rolige tempo, at bevæge mig ned for at tælle de vadefugle som stod yderst på grenen. Jeg benyttede i samme omgang lejligheden til at beundre sælerne som lå og nød morgensolen.

Ved kabeltromlen havde de en rigtig fin dag med 55 ringmærkede fugle i alt og 16 forskellige arter i nettene. Se Facebook for billeder af nogle af de fugle vi har ringmærket i september. For Johanna var det en stor dag, da det var første gang hun prøvede kræfter med ringmærkning. Hun fik holdt flere fugle og ringmærket sin første fugl. Vi håber på at ringmærkningen bliver lige så stor en succes som i morgen som det var i dag.  

Efter en god frokost havde vi alle en rolig eftermiddag med dataindtastning og middagslur. Inden aftensmaden tog vi et spil wingspan. Resultatet heraf behøver vi dog ikke en længere udredning af…

Dagens observationer kan ses her

Ringmærkede fugle ved kabeltromlen:  

Sanddrossel: 1

Musvit: 1

Høgesanger: 1

Gulspurv: 1

Rødhals: 5

Gærdesmutte: 4

Jernspurv: 4

Grønsisken: 1

Sortmejse: 2

Munk: 5

Blåmejse: 13

Rørspurv: 8

Dompap: 1

Gransanger: 5

Nordlig træløber: 1

Fuglekonge: 2

Total: 55

Folk på stationen:

Simon Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Knud Pedersen, Diana Sciandra, Hanelie Sidhu, Solenn Boucher, Johanna Veentjer og Aksel Munkholm

Hi everyone!

Tonight me and Johanna were up for night-catching stormpetrels (Lille stormsvale) and nightjars (Natravn), but unfortunately we didn’t catch anything. I hope we will try again soon because I would really want to see a stormpetrel (Lille stormsvale); I have never seen one and just the thought to have the chance to catch one and seeing it so close is amazing! We tried also to use the thermal camera to locate them in the dark of the night but no birds appeared. In the morning we slept, but the other volunteers were quite busy.

Solenn went observing with Knud at Verdens Ende 3; September is proceeding and observations change week after week: yesterday with Knud we observed one of the first rock pipit of the season, today they saw an increased number of Razorbills (Alken) and Common guillemots (Lomvie) passing by. In general they saw a good diversity of species: amongst them there was also a Great crested grebe (Toppet lappedykker) and a group of Northern pintails (Spidsand). Moreover, a Great skua (Storkjove) was resting at the beach: probably it was the same we saw yesterday during the Fulmar (Mallemuk) survey.

At Kabletromle there were many people; Hanelie, Aksel, Lisa were accompanied by Werner Larsson and his dog Saga, and Jørgen Kabel and his dog Igor. It was a successful day: 50 birds were found on the nets (3 of them were recaptures). Amongst them have been ringed: a beautiful male Brambling (Kvækerfinke), one barn swallow (Landsvale), 7 dunnocks (Jernspurv) and 7 wrens (Gærdesmutte). It is interesting to have seen a Barn swallow (Landsvale) in the nets: they will go to Africa very soon! This individual, caught on the first day of autumn will be probably the last of the year. 

In the afternoon a school came to visit the ringing station: unfortunately there were no birds, but Simon explained them our activity very well.

My personal highlight of the day was a razorbill (Alk) found by Lisa and Simon, very close to the beach: it was my first one ever! Extremely beautiful!

People at the station:

Simon Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Knud Pedersen, Diana Sciandra, Hanelie Sidhu, Solenn Boucher, Johanna Veentjer, Aksel Munkholm, Jørgen Kabel (and Igor), Werner Larsson (and Saga).

Ringing totals at Kabeltromle:

Fuglekonge: 3

Gransanger: 4

Rødhals: 7

Gærdesmutte: 7

Rørsanger: 1

Munk: 5

Rørspurv: 2

Musvit: 1

Lille Gråsisken: 2

Kvækerfinke: 1

Jernspurv: 7

Landsvale: 1

Bogfinke: 1

Lille dompap: 1

Blåmejse: 1

Gulspurv: 1

Sangdrossel: 2

Totals: 47

Today’s Observations from the area on DOFBasen

Hi everyone,

today was, once again, too windy to open the nets, so we decided to put some effort on seawatching and bird counting. Diana, Aksel, Simon, and later Johanna went to World End 3 for seawatching with Knud, where they saw a Sooty Shearwater „Sordfarvet Skråpe”– we are definitely grateful to see so many Procellariidae these last few days ! They also had a Great Skuas „Storkjove”, and spent some time detailing the shorebirds to be able to better identify them on the field.

Dunlin "Almindelig Ryle" in the back and Little Stint "Dværgryle" in front

In the afternoon, Simon dropped them at Gammel Skagen for a 10 km long Fulmar  "Mallemuk" survey : the goal is to collect dead Fulmars "Mallemuk" in order to study the amount of microplastic contained in their stomach. They found on sadly encountered dead 37 Gannets, six Guillemots „Lomvie”, one Razorbill „Alk” and one Sandwichtern ”Splitterne“. Along the way, in honor of the World Clean Up Day that happened last week on the 17 of September, but also because we care about the safety and health of our seabirds, they collected 4 kg of waste along the shore – mostly transparent plastic, that seabird might mistake with jellyfish, and fishing ropes, in which seabirds can get entangled.
In the meantime, Solenn and I had a very different day. In the morning went with Rie to Jerup Strand to look at waders ; we had good numbers of Dunlins „Almindelig Ryle“ and Oystercatchers „Strandskade“, and happily identified Bar-tailed Godwits „Lille Kobbersneppe“ and one single Greenshank „Hvidklire“ ; on the way back, we had some Ruffs „Brushane“ on a field and very good views on a sparrowhawk that decided to rest for a moment on a pole.

After our nap, I continued analysing the nocturnal migration recording while Solenn entered the observation data and started cooking dinner and baking some biscuits and cookies, which hopefully will help Diana and Johanna to stay awake tonight as they have the nightwatch today for our stormie + nightjar night catching session. We´ll ceep you updated on the results of that session!

While Diana and Johanna will probably be sleeping tomorrow morning, Solenn, Aksel and I will be in the field, so see you tomorrow!

Observations of the day in DOFbasn from observers in the area 

Hanelie

People at the station: Simon Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Knud Pedersen, Rie Voertmann, Diana Sciandra, Hanelie Sidhu, Solenn Boucher, Johanna Veentjer, Aksel Munkholm

Hi everyone,

The weather definitely doesn’t wish us luck recently ; the morning was very windy again, enough to keep our nets closed for the third day in a row. All five of us therefore took our chances and went to Verdens Ende 3 with Knud, who returned yesterday afternoon, and managed to see the Calonectris sp. individual ! This presumed Scopoli’s shearwater Scopolis's skråpe has been around for the last four days, and went close enough to the beach today to allow all of us to have a good glance at it, specifically the light underwing – a criteria to distinguish it from its sister species, the Cory’s shearwater Kuhls skråpe.

We also saw a great skua Storkjove attacking two grey herons Fiskhejre – not to eat them, but to feed on their prey. This behaviour is called kleptoparasitic foraging : if skuas rely heavily on this type of foraging, some other species like gulls måger can do it opportunistically. It also exists in other mammal and arthropods species, like hyenas hyæner.

At the pond, near the tip, there were some common terns Fjordterne resting; one Arctic Tern Havterne was sitting next to one of them and it was therefore easy to see that the Arctic Tern has shorter legs and bill than the common one.

After two hours of wind blowing sand all the way up to our faces, Diana, Johanna and I decided we froze enough at the beach and went to Cormorant’s lake instead, where we could see ruffs Brushane, dunlins Almindelig Ryle, snipes Dobbeltbekkasin, grey plover Strandhjejle and little stints Dværgryle – before a sparrowhawk Spurvehøg scared all the birds away from the lake, at which point we went back home while eating Havtorn fruits collected on the way.

In the meantime, Knud explained Hanelie and Aksel the visual clues to distinguish juvenile gulls ; he also pointed out the fulmars Mallemuk far out at sea, and their specific « jizz », i.e. the combination of the general shape of the bird (big/small, elongated/round, pointy or round wing shape, etc) and its way of flying (soaring / flapping its wing constantly, up and down / straight, close to the water / high in the sky, etc).

After lunch and nap, we spent the afternoon entering or checking datas. Then everybody went back out again, for birding along the shore (Aksel took a swim in the sea !) or at Cormorant lake, while I was analysing nocturnal migration – or at least tried to, as there was a lot of parasitic noise on the recordings, such as TV, human voices, cars, and high level of background noise.

We will now enjoy some home-made pizzas and Scopoli’s cake Johanna made for us – have a nice evening !

People at the station: Diana Sciandra, Hanelie Sidhu, Solenn Boucher, Johanna Veentjer, Aksel Munkholm, Knud Pedersen

Today's observations of the area on DOFBasen

Hi everyone!

The day started quite slow for us, as the weather was too rainy and windy to go ringing. Luckily the weather became better late in the the morning and Solenn and Aksel went to Worlds end 3 for observations. They saw a Golden Plover (Hjejle), Common Terns (Fjordterner) and Razorbills (Alk). Aksel saw his first Red-throated Divers (Rodstrobet lom)!

I joined them later and then went back to the station with Solenn, while Aksel stayed at the observation point and was joined by Diana then. She also made some beautiful paintings of birds today as you can see in the picture below.

Hanelie went to Batteriskoven in the afternoon and she saw two Great Spotted Woodpeckers (Stor Flagspætte), a lot of Chaffinches (Bogfinke), Crested Tits (Topmejse), Siskins (Grønsisken), a Eurasian Treecreeper (Træløber), a lot of Goldcrests (Fuglekonge) and Great Tits (Musvit) as well as Blue Tits (Blåmejsen). Then she went to the industrial area and saw some Goldcrests (Fuglekonge) and Yellowhammers (Gulspurv) and a bit further on the horse fields four Lapwings (Vibe) and also four Common Snipes (Dobbeltbekkasin) in a ditch. Afterwards she went to Grenen near the tractor track and met Knud and some other birders there and they saw the Scopoli’s Shearwater ( Scopolis's skråpe) and two Great Skuas (Storkjove). 

Solenn, Aksel and I did some data work in the afternoon. We were interrupted by some people who brought a Common Kestrel (Tårnfalk) they had found in the street ; the bird was probably hit by a car. We put it in a card box in a cool spot and called the animal protection (1812) who could take better care of the bird ; one of their volunteers picked it up two hours later, hopefully to its full recovery.

People at the station: Diana Sciandra, Hanelie Sidhu, Solenn Boucher,Johanna Veentjer, Aksel Munkholm, Esben Hansen

  Obersvations of the day from observers in the area

Hej allesammen

I dag har været min første fulde dag her på Skagen fuglestation. Dagen startede kl. 5 (liiidt tidligere end hvad jeg er vant til) hvor nettene fra nattens forsøg på at fange stormsvaler skulle pilles ned. Herefter dragende Esben, Solenn og jeg afsted mod kabeltromlen for at starte dagens ringmærkning, mens Johanna og Hanelie stod for morgenobs.

Vinden var ikke med os i dag, så det var lidt en sløv dag ved kabeltromlen. Vi endte med i alt at ringmærke 19 fugle og en genfangst.  Det lave antal fugle betød dog, at der var bedre tid til den enkelte fugl, hvilket var dejligt for en ny ringmærker som mig. Jeg fik lært en masse omkring fældning og kønsbestemmes og fik også selv ringmærket et par fugle til sidste på formiddagen, heriblandt en gulspurv (yellowhammer).

For observationsholdet var det også en blandet fornøjelse i dag. Igen i dag blev Kuhls skråpen (Scopoli’s Shearwater) spottet ud fra kysten, og observationsholdet forsøgt om de kunne spotte den. De missede den dog akkurat, men vi krydser fingre for at der er en mulighed igen i morgen.

Efter hjemkomsten fra ringmærkning stod det på en omgang frokost og en dejlig lur. Da jeg vågnede fra min lur, besluttede jeg mig for at udnytte det godt vejr og valgte at følge menneskestrømmen ud mod grenen. Det syn bliver man nu aldrig træt af. Resten af eftermiddagen blev brug på rengøring og indtastning af data på stationen.

I anledning af Simons mors fødselsdagsfejring var der også arrangeret fremvisning af ringmærkning samt en tur til bunkeren med Hanelie som guide.

Jeg vil nu lægge skivepinden fra mig og gå til køjs, mens jeg krydser fingre for at vi undgår alt for meget regn og blæst i morgen tidlig.

Fugle ringmærket ved kabeltromlen:

Fuglekonge: 5

Gransanger: 7

Rødhals: 1

Rørspurv: 2

Dompap: 1

Munk: 1

Gulspurv: 2

Total: 19

People at the Station: Diana Sciandra, Hanelie Sidhu, Solenn Boucher, Frank Osterberg, Johanna Veentjer, Aksel Munkholm, Simon Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Esben Hansen 

Today’s Observations from the area on DOFBasen

Yesterday has been a very exciting day, for all of us! Both ringing and observing have been very successful. I went ringing with Hanelie and Simon and we caught 71 birds and also caught 5 birds which have been previously ringed: recaptures are always super interesting, also if the birds were ringed in the same ringing station. Between the 76 birds checked today there was a super cute group of 8 Long-tailed tits (Halemejse; picture above); one of them was a recapture, and me and Solenn discovered that the bird was ringed by Skagen Fuglestation in Kabletromle in June!

Today we saw 14 different species of bird at the ringing table and it has been very didactic for me and Hanelie: for the last rounds also Solenn and Frank joined us. They were very happy about their morning: at Grenen they saw hundreds of Fulmars (Mallemuk) and 4 Sooty Shearwater (Sodfarvet skråpe)!
The sea had another (bigger) surprise for the evening: a Scopoli’s Shearwater (Kuhls skråpe)! Me, Hanelie and Johanna ran at the tip to try to see it (at the same moment Simon was seeing it from the lighthouse and he helped us from there to locate the bird). We managed to see it, Hanelie found the bird by herself, when I was running towards Erik Christophersens and Rolf Christensen, two birdwatchers who helped me to find and observe the bird (Erik let me use its scope to observe the bird; thank you very much! In the picture above you can see one of the beautiful pictures he managed to take yesterday while I was there), and it was the first time she observed this species (usually common in Mediterranean sea)!

Picture by: Erik Christophersen

It has been a wonderful day, and, moreover, at the Skagen Observatory arrived two new volunteers: Johanna, who will stay here for two weeks, and Aksel (who will stay until December). Also Esben joined us yesterday, to help us with ringing in the next days.

Ringing totals at Kabeltromle:

Fuglekonge: 10

Gransanger: 17

Halemejse: 8

Traløber: 1

Rødstjert:1

Rødhals: 15

Gærdesmutte: 8

Rørsanger: 1

Gærdesanger: 1

Broget fluesnapper: 1

Munk: 5

Tornsanger: 3

Rørspur: 1

Stor flagspætte: 1

Musvit: 1

Totals: 74

People at the Station: Diana Sciandra, Hanelie Sidhu, Solenn Boucher, Frank Osterberg, Johanna Veentjer, Aksel Munkholm, Simon Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Esben Hansen 

Today’s Observations from the area on DOFBasen

Hi everyone!

Today was the last day that we had company from Martina and her school class. But although they had to pack down their tents in the morning, they visited the different groups visited us at Kabletromle and at Verdens Ende 1. Frank and Solenn were Ringing today and Lisa joined them for a while. Unfortunately, she left before the Great Sptted Woodpecker in the last round which was the highlight of todays ringing. Solenn was very happy to ring it although it pecked her fingers quite hard. Diana and I went to Verdens Ende 3.

Right when we arrived, there was a Bar-tailed Godwit „ Lille Kobbersneppe“ restig at the tip which was a nice start for the morning. In the first hour we also had a Fulmar „Mallemuk“ which was the highlight of the observations for Diana as it was her first Fulmar „Mallemuk“! In the secound and third hour Martina and a group of students joined us. They were looking at the Scoters „Sortand“, Gannets „Sule“, of which there were also many again today as well as the waders resting on the beach: Sanderlings „Sandløber”, Dunlin ”Almindelig Ryle”, Red Knot ”Islandik Ryle”, Little Stint ”Dværgryle”.

Diana also went to read some rings in the last hour of the observations. Then we went back, entered the data and had lunch. And it was finally time to say goodby to our guests from Hamburg and to take a last group picture in the yard. We hope they had a safe travel home.

In the afternoon we all had a nap apart from Frank, who was still preparing his presentation about Shorebird ageing and sexing. At four, the session finally started, now we are all a bit smarter and hope we can also use our new skills in the field. Mange tak, Frank!

After the evening meeting Frank, Solenn and I went to the cormorant lake to check how manz waders were there. There were not many but a Grey Plover ”Strandhjejle” and two Garganeys ”Atlingand” were nice. On the way back Frank went to Ellekrattet and Solenn and me went to Batteriskoven but we just heard some Goldcrests ”Fuglekonge”. When we came back, Frank was waiting for some German Tourists who found a injured Gull on the beach. The gull turned out to be a Fulmar ”Mallemuk” but it was in a very condition and died a few minutes after it was brought to the bird observatory. Diana had cooked dinner today, Simon and Lisa joined also.

Tomorrow we´ll be out again, see you in the field! Take care, Hanelie

Observations of the day in DOFbasn from observers in the area

Ringing totals at Kabeltromle:

Fuglekonge: 6

Gransanger: 4

Rødhals: 4

Lille Gråsisken: 1

Jernspurv: 1

Rørsanger: 1

Munk: 2

Tornsanger: 1

Musvit: 1

Stor Flagspætte: 1

Totals: 22

People at the Station: Frank Osterberg, Solenn Boucher, Diana Sciandra, Simon Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Hanelie Sidhu, Martina Hillbrand

I will first leave the keypad to Emma, one of the students visiting us :

“Today was our third day at the Skagen Fuglestation and my group’s turn to go birdwatching. We left for the beach in the north, where the North Sea and the Baltic Sea meet, and kept an eye out for certain types of birds whilst the sun rose : gannets Sule, lesser black-backed gulls Sildemåge, common scoters Sortand and barn swallows Landsvale – although we only managed to see 3 of those, way less than in the previous days.

At the beach we were confronted with multiple weather factors that had taken influence on the number and types of birds we were able to see. On this particular morning, there were more waves than the last few days, which for one attracted gannets Sule, but also flooded the beach more, which lead to the gulls having less space to rest. There were also stronger winds, making the tip of the beach less attractive for resting common scoters Sortand, so we saw fewer of these too. We were however able to see a great number of sanderlings Sanløber, up to a few meters close to us! A special and exciting experience we dauntingly embraced.

All in all, Skagen is a fantastic location to learn about bird migration; we shared many unique first impression of bird migration, either on the sand bank between the two seas or between the dunes with Diana and Hanelie, also keeping an eye out for birds from inland.”

Because of the wind, today has also been a very slow day for ringing ; only 11 birds of 4 different species have been visiting our nets, forcing us to close only 3 hours after the start. Frank and I therefore had a lot of time to discuss ringing with the students.

After we entered the data with the students this afternoon, and cleaned the optic equipment that was exposed to sand these last windy days, Frank worked on his presentation while I read more about bird migration and Hanelie showed Diana how to analyse nocturnal migration recordings. Diana and I have a great deal to learn about migrating bird calls !

Simon took a glance at bat diversity around Skagen lighthouse, thanks to nocturnal bat recordings from the garden ; hereafter is an example of a soprano pipistrelle Dværgflagermus, recognizable by the high frequency of its calls (above 57 kHz), recorded in the night from the 1st to the 2nd of September.

We also said goodbye to our two guests Kristin and Carl, pictured below with our volunteers ; thank you for visiting us, we hope you had a great time !

People at the Station: Solenn Boucher, Frank Ostenberg, Diana Sciandra, Hanelie Sidhu, Simon Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Martina Hillbrand and her students, and our guests Kristin and Carl.

Ringing (Kabeltromlen)

Goldcrest / Fuglekonge : 1
Robin / Rødhals : 4
Blackcap / Munk : 3
Garden Warbler / Havesanger : 1

 Today's observations of the area on DOFBasen