This morning Robbie, Max, and I walked all the way to the tip for morning observations. The sun rose slowly as we looked upon the sea. We got nice sightings of a dark morph Arctic skua (Almindelig Kjove), a few waders passed by, and there was many Gannets (Sule) fishing in front of us.

Nathan left the station this morning, we really enjoyed his presence here and wish him a good trip to the northern countries !

People:  Alice Scalzo, Max Laubstein, Robbie Lawler, and our guests Margit and Jesper.

Hello everyone,

Today was my last day in Skagen. It started with a morning of observations at the tip of the beach. We had a great view of Arctic Skua chasing gulls and terns above the water. We also spotted a Caspian Tern roosting in the middle of the flock.

Arctic Skua flying above the beach

It was also Benjamin last day with us; We all hope he comes back as a volunteer for the Fuglestation in a couple of years.

Unfortunately, it was also my last day here.. I learned a lot when it comes to ringing, identifing and aging birds or seawatching. I want to thank every volunteers I have worked with here, who are amazing people but also the amazing birder community of Skagen that supported us through this month.

I really hope I'll be back soon to see even more of that amazing region.

Take care Skagen !

Nathan Delmas

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

People: Alice Scalzo, Robbie Lawler, Nathan Delmas, Max Laubstein, Benjamin Bech, Peter Kristensen, Knud Pederson, and our guests Margit and Jesper.

This is my first blog since Last November and it’s great to be back here in somewhat sunny Skagen. The last time I stepped foot in Skagen it was snowing/sleeting, and the streets were relatively empty. I was greeted by bustling streets and the calls of summer species when I arrived at the station a few days ago. Some things stay the same and some change and unfortunately just as last time there I was here there is yet another immediate threat to seabird populations in Northern Europe. In Autumn 2021 there was an Auk wreck in Britain and other areas of Northern Europe, which we saw arrive on the shore on Skagen through an unusually high number of dead Razorbills (Alks) and Guillemots (Lomvies); this issue is largely thought to be caused by a decline of certain prey species and possibly linked with climate change. The threat today is bird flu, which is less obviously connected to the degradation of ecosystems but has still nonetheless been exacerbated by human activity. I will write more about this in time here but hopefully, we don’t see the beaches fill with a high number of infected birds.

Today Oluf oversaw the ringing and whilst we weren’t inundated with high numbers, we did see an increase on the past few days and were treated to a Green Sandpiper (Svaleklire).

Today was most probably Nathan’s and Alice’s last ringing session due to poor weather conditions and Simon being away for a couple of days, The ringing today encompassed therefore some farewells; our loss is someone else’s gain. Benjamin joined us again today and was excited to see the Green Sandpiper (Svaleklire) up close. 

Max sat at World’s End staring out to see and managed to spot a Black-throated diver and a Great White Egret. Several egret species have greatly expanded their range and numbers in many parts of Europe in recent decades and it is probable that such birds will become a much less notable occurrence here in Skagen in comings years. 

Apologies for the late upload, I had some technical difficulties.

Robbie Lawler
 
Birds ringed at Kabeltromeln:
Gransanger        3
Rørspurv             1
Munk                    2
Tornsanger        7
Lille Gråsisken 2
Rørsanger         5
Svaleklire          1
Gærdesanger  4
 
Total: 25
 

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

People: Alice Scalzo, Robbie Lawler, Nathan Delmas, Max Laubstein, Benjamin Bech, Peter Kristensen, Oluf Lou, and our guests Margit and Jesper.
 

Hi everyone!

The events of today's blog began as the clock struck midnight, while Robbie and I scanned the beaches of Grenen in the dark in an attempt to find (and capture) roosting shorebirds.  While our attempts were in vain, we did manage to see several of the common ringed-plover chicks (stor praestekrave) which we ringed several weeks ago roaming the beach in the dark.  

A short few hours after our return to the lighthouse, the sun began its ascent towards the horizon, and Alice and Robbie left to open the nets for a morning of ringing, and Nathan left for World's End 3 to conduct a seawatch, where he was joined by Benjamin.  Undoubtedly, the highlight of the morning's field work was a long-tailed skua (lille kjove) spotted by Benjamin and Nathan!  This makes the second sighting of this uncommon species here at Skagen in the past few weeks.  Long-tailed skuas breed in the high Arctic and spend the non-breeding portion of the year in the open oceans of the Southern hemisphere.  They typically don't pass through Denmark as they make the autumn journey South, so this is quite a noteable observation.  Large numbers of long-tailed skuas were observed in Skagen one autumn in the late 1980's, putatively attributed to poor productivity on the breeding grounds.  As for our two sightings so far this year, whether they can be explained by some systematic phenomenon further North, or simply randomness, is yet to be determined; we'll keep an eye out for more!

After the morning's fieldwork, we received a call from Lisa that she had captured a magpie (huskkade), which she brought to the fuglestation so it could be ringed.  It was a treat to inspect the incredible irridescence of the magpie up close, and it put that classically snarky magpie persona on display by constantly biting its handler.

Peter Kristensen then joined Simon, Nathan, and I on a visit to get our local Motus tower back in working order.  Motus is an international network of radio telemetry towers that can detect birds carrying transmitters as they migrate by.  Today, we installed an extra transmitter on the tower (and a solar panel to power it) so that data collected at the tower can be wirelessly sent to us at the fuglestation for analysis.  Projects like Motus generate incredibly valuable data for understanding where, when, and how birds migrate, which can correspondingly be used to predict the impacts of anthropogenic environmental changes on migration, and advance theories in migration ecology, among other things.  

The Motus tower (Photo: Nathan)

Overall, it was quite a productive day!

Cheers,

Max

Birds ringed at Kabeltromeln

Garden warbler (Havesanger): 2

Common whitethroat (Tornsanger): 2

Eurasian blackcap (Munk): 1

Total: 5

Birds ringed at Fyrhaven

Eurasian magpie (Huskkade): 1

Today's observations in DOFBasen from observers in the area

Hello everyone !

Very early this morning, and thanks to Alice's efforts, we caught 2 Red Knots on the beach near the lighthouse ! It was very exciting for everyone to be able to see from so close a bird we are used to see through the scope.

A Red Knot ringed by Skagen Fuglestation (Max)

Soon after, Martina and I went to open the nets while Max went observing on the beach. Simon joined later accompanied by Benjamin who is going to help us during this week. Benjamin is 13 years old danish boy who has been introduced to birding by his uncle and wanted to learn more about ringing with us. We managed to catch and ring a beautiful spotted flycatcher ! A bit later, Alice joined to help us despite the fact that she worked all night.

A spotted flycatcher (Nathan)

After that, we went back to the station and it was time for Martina to pack her bag and go back to Germany to prepare her classes. We deeply thank her for all the work she has done for the Fuglestation and also for all the valuable knowledge she transmitted to other volunteers.

That is it for today, we wish you a great evening and we will see each other tomorrow for more exciting news about birds !

Ringing (Kabeltromeln):

Munk (Blackcap) 2

Løvsanger (Willow Warbler) 1

Tornsanger (Common Whitethroat) 4

Grå Fluesnapper (Spotted Flycatcher) 1

Ringing (Stranden Det Grå Fyr):

Islandsk Ryle (Red knot) 2

Total: 10

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

People: Alice Scalzo, Nathan Delmas, Max Laubstein, Martina Hillbrand, Simon S. Christiansen, Benjamin Bech and our guests Finn and Marianne

Max and Simon were out again last night in the hope of catching more storm petrels (stormsvale), but the weather was not really good any more since it was starting to get windy and I guess we have been lucky once so we shouldn’t complain about not getting more.

In order to make up for the bad luck they had had at night, Alice and I went to the ringing at Kabeltromlen early in the morning and we did get quite lucky! We had a fair number of birds on every net check, not too many and not too few. It was actually a perfect day for ringing. We had mostly the same old species and still not a lot of migration or birds that we only catch on migration but again lots of juvenile Whitethroats (tornsanger og gærdesanger), showing that obviously it has been a year with good breeding success for these species.

To brighten up our day even more, a great spotted woodpecker (stor flagspætte) came for a visit around the area. We heard and saw him first and then suddenly we couldn’t hear him any more so I had an inkling that maybe it was in one of our nets and it was! It was a juvenile, probably born rather recently in one of the forested areas around Skagen that was wondering about to explore the area.

Another woodpecker species, the wryneck (vendehals) also visited us again at the ringing. It was caught in the nets in the last net check before closing and the ring it had revealed it was the same bird that we ringed the other day.

In the late morning Simon guided a walking tour around Grenen and he took the visitors to also see the ringing. They got to see the obligatory tornsangers after looking at some rare orchids on the way out.

While Alice and I were ringing, Nathan did the sea watch. There wasn’t a lot of migration happening, but he did see quite a few shorebirds roosting on the beach, including 18 dunlins (almindelig ryle). Other than that he saw 4 dead young seals on the beach, which was very sad. We don’t know what they died from but hope there won’t be more!

In the afternoon after the obligatory data entry, we welcomed our new guests for the coming week. It is their first stay here, so they don’t know yet what they are up for but we hope they will enjoy it anyways.

And a rather sad notice: I am leaving tomorrow to go back to Germany where the summer holidays end in 2 weeks and I have to work again. In order to not have to miss all of autumn migration, I made arrangements to take a group of students on a field trip to Skagen in September. Hope everything works out fine.

I have been here less than a month this time and, of course, time flies. It’s sad that I didn’t get the busy days of migration, but we did get two foreign recaptures and despite them getting a bit boring after ringing so many, I do love tornsangers and gærdesangers and I am happy that they have lots of babies. Obviously the single most thrilling event during my stay here was the catching and ringing of the storm petrel (stormsvale) yesterday in the early morning. They are such amazing creatures and lead such an interesting life. Also, their plumage is very thick and soft and they have a gland on their nose to get rid of salt from sea water. The gland makes them look a bit strange but they are extremely pretty birds.

So, all that is left to say for now is thanks for all the good birds and for the good times and hope to be out again soon! Take good care everyone and keep birding!

Ringing (Kabeltromeln):

Stor flagspætte (Great Spotted Woodpecker) 1

Solsort (Blackbird) 1

Musvit (Great Tit) 1

Tornsanger (Common Whitethroat) 16

Munk (Blackcap) 10)

Løvsanger (Willow Warbler) 1

Gærdesanger (Lesser Whitethroat) 3

Rørsanger (Reed Warbler) 3

Kærsanger (Marsh Warbler) 2

Gransanger (Chiffchaff) 1

total: 39

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

People: Alice Scalzo, Nathan Delmas, Max Laubstein, Martina Hillbrand, Simon S. Christiansen and our guests Finn and Marianne

Last night Martina was on duty to check the nets every now and then while we were sleeping soundly. I remember being suddenly awake at 01:55 in the night by the sound of her voice saying "if you want to see a Storm Petrel (Lille Stormsval) it's now". Luck was on our side ! It was only one bird, but it was the bird we were all hoping for. A few birders also came to see it. We were all so happy about our catch that it was hard to go back to sleep afterwards.

This morning was less eventful. I was on sea watch while Nathan and Max went ringing with Simon, Lisa, and two Swedish friends. The hours passed slowly as there was very few birds migrating, only the last hour brought some waders migrating and a resting Black tern (Sortterne) on the beach.

We also got news from a color ringed Greater Black-backed gull (Svartbag) who was ringed in Hirsholmene in 2010. We saw it a few days ago at the beach, which makes it  12 years old gull, and funny thing is that he was spotted a few years ago in a town where I lived in France !

People:  Rita DeLucco, Alice Scalzo, Nathan Delmas, Max Laubstein, Martina Hillbrand, Simon S. Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Per Österman, Johanna and our guests Margit and Jesper.

This morning was my last morning opening nets for the Skagen Fugelstation this summer, and as usual we were greeted with a beautiful sunrise and several mosquitoes. As I walked down the same winding paths I walked countless times this summer, I thought of everything I learned, my colleagues who helped me, Esben and Martina who trained me, and of the many birds I extracted, bagged, and rung. I find that it's easy to get caught up on all the things you need to improve on, that you ignore the progress you are making and on that early morning net check it all came flooding back to me. In 40 days I have met colleagues who have come and gone, different supervisors with different ways of closing mist nets, a member of parliament, countless photographers, all whom are interested in birds and in love with Skagen. The enthusiasm and breathtaking scenery that draws people to this location every year makes Skagen Fuglestation a unique place to work, and my time here has made me a little more curious, a little more skilled, and definitely a little more interesting.

The morning itself without nostaligia and introspection was much like earlier in the week. Martina and I opened the nets around 4 AM and we had a low number of birds in the first few rounds, but by the end we did manage to process 10 different species. One of the species we processed is one that is common to many, but uncommon in the nets and is the skovspurv ( tree sparrow), and it brought a smile to Martina’s face as it brought back memories of her early ringing days. But the last bird I rung was a perfect representation of my time at the ringing table this summer. Ater we closed the nets, I pulled out a fresh tornsanger out of a little red bird bag as I had done many times before. I don’t doubt I will come across other tornsangers in the future, but it was definitely the perfect way to say goodbye to KAB.

Skovspurv. Photo credit: Martina

My last night here is far from over, after a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant in downtown Skagen with the team, we all got ready for the long night ahead that will hopefully be filled with interesting birds including the sought-after storm petrel (Stormsvaler). Last night’s first attempt this summer to catch the small petrel with the aid of mist nets and a megaphones with playback was not fruitful, but the team remains hopeful. Check back tomorrow for updates on the night catching, and the activities of the Skagen Fugelstation team!

Nets on the beach near the lighthouse for nightcatching. Photo credit: Rita DeLucco

Thank you and Goodnight!

- Rita M. DeLucco

Solsort (Blackbird) 1

Gærdesanger (Lesser Whitethroat) 3

Tornsanger (common Whitethroat) 7

Munk (Blackcap) 3

Kærsanger (Marsh Warbler) 1

Rørsanger (Reed Warbler) 1

Gransanger (Chiffchaff) 1

Musvit (Great Tit) 1

Skovspurv (Tree Sparrow) 1

Gråsisken (Redpoll) 1

Total 20

Local observations of the day in DOFBasen

It has been one of the very few mornings with no clouds around here which makes the sunrise look completely different.

As we did the last few days, we split up and Max and I did the sea watch while Simon went ringing at Kabeltrommlen with Rita and Nathan. Both sites were quite slow and less eventful than the last days, however, the weather was considerably more enjoyable than earlier this week.

Goodies of the day were 3 bearded reedlings (skægmejse) at the ringing and the largest number yet counted of terns roosting on the beach (more than 600!).

Not a bird but a very special rarity was spotted by Simon also at Kabeltrommlen during the morning: Apatura iris (Iris). This butterfly has never been observed in Skagen before!

Photo by Alice who came out to "twitch" the butterfly!

An interesting situation occurred, when a common guillemot (lomvie) came to shore, probably because it is sick and needed to rest. This meant that it also allowed tourists to get really close to it and take pictures. People even called to say they found a little penguin! For future reference, if you find a bird that looks unhealthy around here, you can always call animal rescue at the phone number 1812 and they will tell you what to do or whether they can help the bird.

Tonight we will start a marathon of ringing day and night, hoping to catch storm petrels (stormsvale) at night which we want to establish a research project on in the future if we can get enough of them. This is a test run trying to see how best to catch these birds that normally spend almost al their life out in the sea and only come to land for breeding and even this is done mostly on islands far out at sea. One of the biggest breeding colonies can be found on the Faroe Islands, so technically, Denmark is a very good place for this species. Contrary to most birds, petrels have a very good sense of smell, which allows them not only to identify their partner but also to find food at night. Storm petrels are long distance migrants, but since they are so rarely spotted on land it is very hard to study their migration. We will see if we can help with that in the future. Wish us luck!

Ringing at Kabeltrommlen

Landsvale (Barn swallow) 1

Løvsanger (Willow Warbler) 2

Gransanger (Chiffchaff) 2

Tornsanger (Common Whitethroat) 6

Gærdesanger (Lesser Whitethroat) 1

Munk (Blackcap) 2

Skægmejse (Bearded Reedling) 3

Lille Gråsisken (Lesser Redpoll) 2

Rørspurv (Reed Bunting) 1

Total: 20

Local observations of the day in DOFBasen

People: Rita DeLucco, Nathan Delmas, Alice Scalzo, Max Laubstein, Martina Hillbrand, Knud Pedersen Simon S. Christiansen, and our guests Margit and Jesper.