Good evening bird enthusiasts,

After a cosy evening at the café, we all got up bright and early today. Hanelie and Alice especially as they had to go open the mist nets as the ringing season has officially started! Nevertheless, morning observations are also still on the planning, so Robbe and I also got up before sunrise to go to Nordstrand. The migration was rather slow today both over land and sea apart from the first hour of the day. We still had a nice time and, contrarily to the birds, we appreciated the little amount of wind and the sun keeping us relatively warm. As they weren’t that many birds, we had the time to both check out big flocks coming by such as some Eurasian Teal (Krikand) or even a more unusual flock of 18 Common Snipe (Dobbeltbekkasin). At around 9 am, we also spotted a very small bird following two Common Guillemot (Lomvie). After taking a good look at it and checking our bird guide to make sure, we concluded it was either a Little Auk (Søkonge) or an Atlantic Puffin (Lunde) which is very exciting! Unfortunately, it was too far to be able to distinguish between the two or be fully certain of the identification. Due to the slow day, we stopped the migration count an hour early and decided to go have a look at the cormorant lake to see if we would have more luck with resting birds. We had also heard a Eurasian Bittern (Rørdrum) multiple times in the previous hours and we were hoping to catch a sight of it. This did not happen today, but we will stay persistent. On the lake, many cormorants were resting, including some on the nests but it is still uncertain if they will breed there this year. We also saw Goldcrests (Fuglekonge), Reed Buntings (Rørspurv) and Eurasian Wrens (Gærdesmutte) resting.

In the meantime, Hanelie and Alice had already opened all the nests, 19 in total. During the first round, they caught quite a lot of birds including Common Blackbirds (Solsort), Goldcrests (Fuglekonge), Dunnock (Jernspurv) and one Reed Bunting (Rørspurv). Simon joined them and rang most of the birds to begin with in order to demonstrate and detail how every step is done. They also saw a Eurasian Woodcock (Skovsneppe), Eurasian Sparrowhawks (Spurvehøg) and Common Buzzards (Musvåge) while touring Kabeltrommelkrattet. The second round was also rather successful, and after that, each round got a bit quieter. But this gave Hanelie and Alice the chance to ring as well and discuss with other passing-by birders. Overall, this was an exciting first ringing day, especially for Hanelie who had been trying at the station’s garden for a while but usually only got 2 or 3 in one morning. Simon also had the first sighting of a European Serin for this season! Now the goal for the next few days is to get more habituated to Kabeltrommelkrattet as they realised today you can easily get a bit lost and hopefully catch other species as well.

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

Sum of the Raptors in the area based on observations typed into Dofbasen the same day

In the afternoon, we were all busy with a big clean-up of the flat and parts of the station. Simon also used this free afternoon to clean his place as well as his car. Therefore, we have now removed a couple of pounds of sand which seems to appear everywhere even though we take precautions to limit it. We also got the chance to enjoy a nice dessert made by Robbe which was mainly a mascarpone cream with red berries. It was very tasty and was appreciated by everyone as snacks seem to be something we all agree is important.

Tomorrow, Alice, and I will open the nets but as it is forecasted that it will be a foggy morning, the others will also join us later. If the weather clears up a bit, Hanelie and Robbe will have the chance to accompany Thomas Kjær to test out the laser binoculars, which will be at the centre of the radar project. For now, it is time for us to go to bed but see you tomorrow for another blog promising many updates.

Ringing (Kabeltrommelkrattet):

Gærdesmutte – 8

Jernspurv – 3

Rødhals – 10

Solsort – 5

Gransanger – 5

Fuglekonge – 13

Sortmejse – 1

Blåmejse – 1

Musvit – 1

Bogfinke – 1

Rørspurv – 1

Total: 49

Good night everyone,

Marion

People: People: Simon S. Christiansen, Robbe Cool, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Marion L'Huillier-Hunsinger

Hey there!

Today, we all got the privilege to sleep a bit longer. Although we could use this sleep, Hanelie was too triggered to watch birds and joined Knud in the morning observations. She finally saw some bearded reedlings “Skægmejse”. Other nice species were the rough-legged buzzard “Fjeldvåge”, sandwich tern “splitterne” and black guillemot “tejst”. In the meantime, Alice and I woke up and stretched our legs for a short walk. Simon told us about a mysterious bunker so we set our goal today to find this bunker. Unfortunately we couldn’t find it although we had an adventurous walk through some mangrove-like forests with our waders. Back at Kabeltromlen, we checked the nets together with Simon, tightened them a bit and set up the tent.

For Simon, it was a short night because he had to a give a guided tour earlier this morning and heard a green sandpiper “svaleklire”. When we were finished, Hanelie arrived from the observations. She joined us with our second attempt to find the bunker. With the good indications of Simon, we found it this time. While exploring, Hanelie found her roots by disguising as a German soldier.

Back at the station I finished the nocturnal night call recordings of last week which you can find in this link:

https://trektellen.nl/count/view/2601/20220315

Among other things, I had a nice call of a wood lark "hedelærke", a long call of a coot "blishøne" and the nocturnal flight call of the waterrail "vandrikse".

Marion was already busy with cooking for tonight. We finally got to meet everyone working at the lighthouse (restaurant, exhibition and bird observatory). But therefore, we had to make a big meal for fifteen people. We cooked the whole afternoon for a big festive meal.

After his meeting about transect counts with recorders, Simon went to the shop to buy the drinks for the evening. All our dishes were just finished on time and we were ready for a lovely evening. Everyone was in a good mood and we all enjoyed the food and each other company. We couldn’t make it too late because tomorrow is the first day we are ringing, although I have to wait until Wednesday. See you tomorrow with our first ringing data!

Robbe

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

Sum of the Raptors in the area based on observations typed into Dofbasen the same day

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Robbe Cool, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Marion L'Huillier-Hunsinger, Knud Pedersen,

Hi everybody!

Julie, Robbe, and Knud took the morning Obs today, a few of Robbe's friends are also in Skagen this weekend and supported them. Today was the best day for Jackdaws "Allike" this March so far and Robbe also watched a flock of Bearded Tits "Skægermejse". I also considered accompanying them, however, I then decided to work on my report for university. However, since I had already gotten up in time for the Morning Obs, I was actually quite productive before Alice and I left for Kabeltrommeln later in the morning to set up the rest of the nets. Marion, Simon, and Esben were also able to leave a little later but left the station about an hour before the two of us at eight. They were preparing practical work for the Raptor GPS project again today. Robbe showed his friends the bird station after observing, they climbed also the lighthouse, then Robbe joined Marion, Esben, and Simon. And guess what he saw when he got to them? A Golden Eagle "Køngeorn"! The joy was great and now only Alice needs to see one so that joy can be shared by all. Everyone was very busy and productive today. Alice and I installed 9 nets today. Yesterday we were already at Kabeltrommeln, and now all nets are installed. Alice taught me how to install nets and also how to fold them into a bag and how to make the knots.

When we stretched the last net we could already catch the first bird! This was not planned, but a Robin "Rødhals" was very curious about what we were doing there and finally flew into the net. Unfortunately, we did not have any rings with us, so we only greeted this first bird caught this year, joyfully and released it.

3K+ Robin "Rødhals"

At sunset, we left Kabeltrommeln and Alice and I were quite proud of our work, all nets are now up!

But also otherwise it was a good day for Skagen. Rolf Christensen found a Short toed Treecreeper at Verdens Ende 1 today. This is a real rarity here, the second Short-toed Treecreeper in Skagen, the first was found on 23 April 1996! Also, Simon made a cool observation: He found the English subspecies of White Wagtail, a Pied wagtail (yarelli) "Sortrygget hvid vipstjert" in Stald Grenen. Dinner and the Evening Meeting we had unfortunately without Julie, because she left us again this afternoon, her father picked her up and they were able to take some nice pictures also of the Pied Wagtail "Sortrygget hvid vipstjert". But will Julie will come back in May for two weeks. Robbe cooked today and then there was a long Evening Meeting that degenerated into a chat round and so once again my prediction for a late blog today proved true.

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

Sum of the Raptors in the area based on observations typed into Dofbasen the same day

So sleep well, see you tomorrow!

Hanelie

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Robbe Cool, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Marion L'Huillier-Hunsinger, Julie Kokholm, Esben E. Hansen, Knud Pedersen, Jørgen Kabel & Igor

This morning, Robbe, Hanelie, and Julie went to Grenen to observe the migration with Knud. They saw many Jackdaws (Allike) and Chaffinches (Bogfinke), and a second calendar Rough-legged Buzzard (Fjeldvåge). But, for the last two hours, the land migration was quite slow. Julie had the opportunity to learn many things about the sea migration from Knud. Esben joined them after a while, and they also met Jørgen, Igor, and Erik. They also installed one more time the trap to attempt to capture the Snow buntings (Snespurv).

Hello everyone,

This morning Hanelie, Alice and Julie woke up early to go to Grenen for migration count. It had been a while since we counted there, but today’s wind conditions were more appropriate for Verdens Ende 3 than for Nordstrand. However, they were quickly reminded that this location makes passerine migration count harder as individuals fly higher up there and use many different paths. They still managed to see many Eurasian Jackdaw (Allike), Hooded Crows (Gråkrage) and Wood Pigeon (Ringdue). Robbe also joined them later to help out with the land migration as he is the most experienced with it and he recognises most of the common species calls. On the sea, the first two hours were rather busy although no new or surprising species flew by. Numerous Common Buzzards (Musvåge) finally migrated today after many migration attempts in the past week and their number increasing around Skagen. A Red Kite (Rød Glente) also passed by really close to the counting volunteers, but this individual ended up turning back so you might also get a chance to see it in Grenen or in the surroundings tomorrow. During the observations, they also had set up a trap for Snow Buntings (Snespurv), but this was yet again unsuccessful.

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

Sum of the Raptors in the area based on observations typed into Dofbasen the same day

In the meantime, Susanne and Bjarne, unfortunately, had to leave Skagen Bird Observatory and will be travelling home today, stopping in nice places along the way. It is sad to see lovely guests leave again, but they left a very sweet message in the station’s guestbook that we can look back onto to remember their stay here. This week, the guest apartment will be empty which will leave a bit of a void, but thankfully this weekend Julie and Esben are with us so the flat will still be full of life.

Simon was, as always, busy this morning with different meetings and workshops. One of the meetings was concerning a project with the hunter society to mitigate the number of raptors killed by spreading awareness.  I also worked for part of the morning to make some progress on my data analysis for the internship. Once everyone got back, we had some quiet time. Some people enjoyed a warm shower or some rest and Robbe and I were writing the blogs with calming music in the background. Then after lunch, Alice, Julie and I decided to go to town for the groceries and to look for Bohemian Waxwings (Silkehale). But this time we did not ride our bikes but drove there thanks to our driver Alice and Simon’s car!

While our Waxwings (Silkehale) excursion was a fail this time, we got the chance to see a Hawfinch (Kernebider) spotted by Alice! This was particularly exciting for me as I have been out multiple times in the past year specifically to look for them but never managed to find them. This individual was resting by a bush, so we even had the chance to observe it for a little while and see its impressive bill and colours. It was also a good walk to clear our minds and enjoy the warmth now that the sun is back. Back at the station, Robbe was finally building the compost which was a long-awaited project.

The groceries done, we came back to the station, and all took some time to go through how we enter the morning observations into DOFbasen with Simon to figure out if we could make the process faster. We figured some little details that might make it faster, but we might just have to accept it will still remain a lengthy daily process. Simon then also went through the night recordings with Robbe and Alice to help them identify calls they could not recognise. Their findings will soon be uploaded on Trektellen and we will put the link on the blog so you can check it out if interested. Meanwhile, Hanelie was entering some more of the observations and, Julie and I went to the lab. Our task there was to take photos of the puffins’ heads with rulers placed so the bill measurements were visible. These photos will be sent to a researcher in the United-Kingdom for a related project of his.

Once this was all completed, Alice got started on the dinner. On the menu tonight is a great vegetarian take on Mexican fajitas. If we find the time, we might also play Wingspan tonight which is a boardgame showcasing dozens of American and European bird species. I have not yet played it but from Hanelie and Robbe’s praises, it sounds very promising.

Tomorrow, we will go to Grenen again for morning observations and in the afternoon we will put up the nets for the ringing season.

Marion

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Robbe Cool, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Marion L'Huillier-Hunsinger, Julie Kokholm, and  Esben E. Hansen.

Good morning!

Although this blog post had some delay, it’s worth reading it. Today we could finally go out for the morning observations after some foggy days. The weather was quite harsh with the wind speed going from 14m/s to 21m/s. The land migration was very slow but we saw some really exciting species over the sea. The first surprise was the great northern "islom" diver flying together with a red-throated diver "rødstrubet lom" which made it easy to compare their general structure and size (jizz). He landed in front of us, but with the wind, he wasn’t easy to observe. Meanwhile, Marion made a walk to the cormorant lake to search for roosting whooper swans "sangsvane" because there were a lot flying around in the morning. She wasn’t lucky and went back to the station to continue working on her master thesis. In the last hour, the sea migration slowed down too, the calm before the storm. Suddenly, I had a dark bird in my scope with a big white mirror on the wings. Hanelie announced it as a weird velvet scoter but once he was close, we had a great observation of a black guillemot "tejst" in summer plumage. The first one for me! With the adrenaline I had since this morning, I cycled back at my pace and made spicy hot chocolate for those who were a bit later.

(Searching shelter in a bunker while watching birds)

The afternoon started really chill with resting and entering data. Meanwhile, Julie had arrived but was sleeping to recover from a busy night. She is a Danish birdwatcher staying here until Sunday, but she will come back in May if she likes it here.

When I finished the data, I had to go out to get some fresh air. Hanelie thought the same and together, we made a walk to the harbor. Along our way, we found some really cool bunkers, dead common scoter "sortand" and unfortunately a black guillemot too…

(black guillemot summer plumage)

Once arrived in the harbor, the weather was really annoying and it began to rain. We tried the station's camera Simon brought us, but we struggled too much with the different settings to take good pictures. We really enjoyed our walk and therefore almost missed the evening meeting. When we arrived after a successful hitchhiking attempt, Alice was working further on the Nocmig and Julie explained to the others how to work with the camera. We continued the evening with the meeting where we said goodbye to our guests Bjarne and Susanne. They had a lovely stay here and saw three species that were new to them. During the day they had a free coffee in Brøndums Hotel and met a birdwatcher from Skagen, who had a citrine wagtail "citronvipstjert" in his garden some years ago.

Simon had a busy day as usual with a meeting with the people from Aarhus University, writing on the report of yesterday's meeting and he did some groceries.

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

Sum of the Raptors in the area based on observations typed into Dofbasen the same day

From tomorrow on it’s gonna be nice weather for both us and the birds.

Carpe diem and enjoy the nature

Robbe

People: People: Simon S. Christiansen, Robbe Cool, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Marion L'Huillier-Hunsinger, Julie Kokholm, Susanne Olsen and Bjarne Johansson