Nu er vi nået midten af april og der er ikke kommet mange fugle udover vinterhavfuglene. Det seneste østenvind har dog ændret på dette og vi har haft lidt steppehøge og nogle kjover, dog intet stort. Det skulle ændre sig idag.
Morgenen blev delt i at Simon og Knud tog på morgenobs fra Nordstrand og Daniel, Rasmus, Michaela og jeg tog til kabeltromlen for at ringmærke. Laima sov længe og Michaela og jeg åbnede nettene.
Første rundte lovede godt med lidt fugle, bla en vindrossel men det skulle ikke holde og vi lukkede nettene tidligt pga mangel af fugle. Vi fik dog fragtet nogle ting ud til kabeltromlen som vi skal bruge fremover og vores kære gæster hjalp til med transport og fik da også set nogle fugle der fik ring på. Bla. denne vindrossel

Da vi var kommet hjem mødte vi Laima der heldigvis havde kunnet sove længe og fik senere klaret noget godt arbejde som videoen på jernspurve aldersbestemmelse, Whooshnettet og syning af net. Lige da jeg havde lagt mig kommer der en melding fra Nordstrand om en springende pukkelhval fundet af John Frikke. Vi fræser derud på cykel og Laima og Michaela kører med gæsterne. Vi bliver mødt af en hær af mennesker der desværre må meddele at pukkelhvalen ikke ses. Vi møder dog Simon der har haft den og en fin morgen med bla. Steppehøg, mange blå kærhøge, over 50.000 finker?!?!?!?(de kommer sent formentligt på grund af det kolde vejr) og nordisk lappedykker.

Video af dagens pukkelhval på Nordstrand

Simon tog efterfølgende til byen for et møde og derefter hjem for at besøge sin mor. Vores kære gæster var jo også ved nordstrand, og på trods af mangel af pukkelhval var de imponerede over mængden af fuglekiggere, de har også skaffet en lille kost til os så vi kan få fejet trappen ordentligt, mange tak for det!

Da vi igen kom hjem og lige da jeg havde lagt mig igen kom bomben. Rolf melder om sortbrynet albatros. Der er komplet kaos og panik i os og Rasmus og jeg løber mod cyklerne. Vi kigger på hinanden og konstaterer hurtigt at der ikke er noget at gøre. Rolf melder at den trækker vest og er ud for batterivej snart. Det er håbløst men adrenalinen pumper rundt og kroppen og vi skal afsted uanset hvad, vi SKAL give det en chance. Vi tager den samme tur til Nordstrand, bare dobbelt så hurtig denne gang. Men det var håbløst og selv dem ved nordstrand havde ikke set albatrossen. Sådan går det bare nogle gange... Det var Alex Sand Frich der fandt den og det har været det største for ham, stort stort STORT tillykke til ham herfra.

Feltskitse og udmeldinger på dofbase indtastning af ASF

Wow en dag... Vilde oplevelser og det er fedt der sker noget nu, og at der er flere birdere der befinder sig i Skagen. Man kan virkelig mærke den fede forårsmagi der sker heroppe i det nordligste Danmark

Ringmærkning(Jennes sø(Michael Ancher)):
Rødhals 2
Solsort 1
Gransanger 5
Musvit 2
Skovskade 1
Bogfinke 5
Grønsisken 1
Lille gråsisken 2
Sum: 19

Ringmærkning(Nordstjerne-Nordlysvej(Michael Ancher)):
Rødhals 2
Gransanger 2
Musvit 2
Bogfinke 3
Kvækerfinke 1
Sum: 10

Ringmærkning(Kabeltromlen):
Gærdesmutte 1
Jernspurv 3
Rødhals 2
Solsort 1
Vindrossel 1
Gransanger 5
Musvit 1
Sum: 14

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området 

Klik her for at se opsummeret observationer af rovfugle i Skagen

Folk: Simon S. Christiansen, Michael Ancher, Jørgen Kabel, Igor, Knud Pedersen,  Rasmus Matthiesen-Juhl, Michaela Berdougo, Daniel Bloche, Laima Bagdonaite og Jonas Pedersen

Hi folks!

I really hope you had a great week and are now looking forward to the weekend ahead! :)

This morning was extremely exciting for us!
Laima and Daniel left to open nets at 4:50 am as sunrise was at 6 am. Jonas and Rasmus woke up at 5:20 am, and I tried to sleep in as I had the day off. I woke up very confused to Rasmus waking me up, telling me that a Long-eared Owl (Skovhornugle) had been caught at Kabeltromlen! Since they didn't have the rings and Jonas had to bring them, I had about 10 minutes to get ready and go to see it, and it was the best thing ever!! She was a very calm, lovely second-year female.
Now a bit of a backstory: Daniel flushed a bittern while opening the nets on the south side, and activated the reed trap. Once he opened the last net, he saw a big bird in the first net on the north side. Because it was dark, thinking it was a Woodcock (Skovsneppe), he ran towards the net but failed to see the rope holding the pole up, tripped over it, and faceplanted in the mud. The bird was still in the net, and after that fall, he was super excited to see it was a Long-eared Owl (Skovhornugle)! He got caught by her talons though, but succeeded in the extraction. :)
Long-eared Owl :))))

Daniel practicing wing measurement on a bigger bird

While Laima ringed the owl, Daniel went on the next round and actually came back with the first Redwing (Vindrossel) of the season!! What a great start to the day. :)

After the Redwing got processed, Jonas and Rasmus left for Nordstrand to meet up with Knud for morning observation, I went back home and started sorting the 1 000 pictures I took with the station's camera.
The day slowed down in the ringing area with a total of 17 birds ringed. Marianne and Kurt came to see the ringing, and so did Oluf, Jorgen, and Igor.
After closing the nets at 10:30, Laima and Daniel got surprised by flushing a really closeby Bittern (Rørdrum), and that was the first ever for Laima; and a Great-grey Shrike (Stor tornskade) was hanging around the nets. :) They then set the two new nets up, making it a total of 23 nets.
Jonas and Rasmus came back at 10:30, with highlights such as a total of 12 Arctic Skuas (Almindelig kjove) and 1 Great Skua (Storkjove).

Simon is a brand new man as he got his hair cut and his beard trimmed. He went to meet Michael Ancher at Jennes Sø this morning and caught 3 Redpolls. Here you can see a comparison between Mealy Redpoll (Stor Gråsisken) and Lesser Redpoll (Lille Gråsisken).

Mealy and Lesser Redpolls

Marianne and Kurt went to Frederikshavn to see the harbour.

After lunch, Jonas left to see his nephew, his sister and her partner as they are here to visit for a week, and in the meantime, we all took a nap. Daniel entered Data, Laima worked on preparing the lecture video we had the other day, Rasmus then went to Storsig and saw two Black Kites (Sort Glente) and an Osprey (Fiskeørn)! He then prepared dinner with Laima, while Daniel and I went for a walk and failed at taking pictures of Sandwich Terns (Splitterne) feeding really close by. We did get to see a Long-tailed Duck (Havlit), and Common Eiders (Ederfugle) displaying.

As the days are getting longer, we will soon be going to bed! Have a lovely evening and talk to you soon. :)

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Skovhornugle 1
Gransanger 1
Fuglekonge 1
Rødhals 4
Jernspurv 6
Gærdesmutte 2
Musvit 1
Vindrossel 1

Sum 17

Ringing (Jennes Sø - Nordstjernevej):

Jernspruv 1
Rødhals 3
Solsort 1
Fuglekonge 2
Musvit 3
Bogfinke 5
Nordlig Gråsisken 2
Lille Gråsisken 1
Grangsanger 1
Kvækerfinke 1

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området 

Klik her for at se opsummeret observationer af rovfugle i Skagen

Folk: Simon S. Christiansen, Michael Ancher, Jørgen Kabel, Igor, Knud Pedersen, Oluf Lou, Marianne and Kurt, Rasmus Matthiesen-Juhl, Laima Bagdonaite, Jonas Pedersen, Daniel Bloche og Michaela Berdougo.

The gorgeous flaming sunrise

Hey hey!!

It was another sunny and not so windy day! The morning started with Michaela and Jonas opening the nets. Rasmus and I joined for the first round on which we had some birds, but that slowly changed and the rest of the morning was not so interesting ringing-wise. Simon joined us too, and set up the recorder in case there was a rare bird flying by!

The recorder

During some of the later rounds we had two song thrushes (Sangdrossel) at the same time – one adult and one second calendar year, so it was very educational and fun to see them side by side and look at the differences. Same later happened with two Chiffchaffs (Gransanger)!

Two song thrushes (Sangdrossel) Top - Adult, bottom - juvenile due to a constrast in the greater coverts. 

Michaela and I, happy to see Igor. 

Apart from that, we had the nice company of Oluf and Soren, Jorgen and Igor who stayed with us the whole morning. We got to see the first Pallid harrier (Steppehøg) of the spring flying low over water! It was a nice adult male and we were all super happy!

A photo of the second individual, taken by Knud from his garden! What a gorgeous bird!! An adult male. 

We didn’t ring for very long as there were not so many birds. After coming back to the station, eating lunch and then napping, we all enjoyed the nice sunny weather. Jonas spotted spring’s first wheatear through the living room window and all of us went out to see it, but it took some time until we spotted it again! There were some raptors flying over, so Jonas and Rasmus went up to Kap gadagong where I joined them just as the second Pallid harrier of the way has passed by. Some minutes later we had another one flying by quite close! Three adult male Pallid harriers in one day!!!

Newly returned Wheatear!

Jonas and Rasmus on Kap gadagong

After that, we split up, the guys went back to the station, and I went for a walk in Elle Krattet and walked back on the beach where I watched some Sandwich terns (Splitterne) and saw some Rock pipits (Skærpiber)!

Rock pipit (Skærpiber)

Daniel spent the afternoon going shopping with Simon for the supplies needed to make the new whoosh-net as the one we made before got stolen last weekend.. He also went to help Michael Ancher to set up some nets in Jenne Sø with Rasmus. Michaela also went for a walk in the afternoon, she found and photographed some snakes, and also saw some lizzards.

Common European Adder (Hugorm)

It was a nice day with nice birds and lovely sun, and the most amazing sunrise and sunset! 

Amazing sunset.

Dagens ringmærkninger (Kabeltromlen):

Sangdrossel (Song thrush) - 2
Musvit (Great tit) - 1
Gærdesmutte (Wren) - 2
Rødhals (Robin) - 2
Gransanger (Chiffchaff) - 5
Fuglekonge (Goldcrest) - 2

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området 

Klik her for at se opsummeret observationer af rovfugle i Skagen

Folk: Simon S. Christiansen, Michael Ancher, Jørgen Kabel, Igor, Knud Pedersen, Søren Skov,  Oluf Lou,  Rasmus Matthiesen-Juhl, Michaela Berdougo, Jonas Pedersen, Daniel Bloche og Laima Bagdonaite.

This morning Laima, Jeppe and Rasmus opened the nets. Finally, the wind weather was predictable without showers or wind. They had a cold but beautiful sunrise with mist, frost and amazing colours. For me personally they had the best found already before they even opened the nets, since they found my glove on the road, which I lost yesterday. Although the day started freezing cold, it turned out to be a very warm and sunny day. Also, it was a lovely ringing day with 34 birds and 8 different species. Meanwhile, Jonas was observing together with Knud at Nordstrand. They had a good day with 15 Long-tailed Ducks (Havlit), an Artic Skua (Almindelig Kjove) and a Black Guillimot (Tejst).

Frozen nets during sunrise

I slept in today to be fit for my university exam at noon. After breakfast I went for a walk to go through some lecture notes again and joined a bit in the ringing. We didn´t had many exciting bird observation from Kabeltromlen, however, our guests Marianne and Kurt spotted a Submarine in the Kattegat, what was quite exciting to see. Michaëla took 37 tick samples from a Blackbird (Solsort), which had 43 ticks in total on it. That is quite impressive and I guess the bird is happy to got them removed. Unfortunately for Michaëla who began to enjoy the tick sampling, we will stop soon to sample more ticks, because most Blackbirds are stationary ones now, since the migration mostly stopped. The highlight in the ringing was a Chiffchaff (Gransanger) recapture ringed in Sweden. Just after I left the others to go back for my exam, they caught it in the last round while closing the nets.

2k Chiffchaff (Gransanger) from Sweden

After Jonas observation morning, he spend the day with his Sister´s family, who came visiting us later this afternoon. Also, Rasmus and Jeppe went to Saftevandsbakken and spotted a Great Grey Shrike (Stor Tornskade). Unfortunately, Jeppe had to leave us today. It was really nice and funny with him here and we are looking forward to his next visit. In the afternoon Simon came back from his summerhouse, were he went a bit birdwatching but didn´t found many exciting birds. That can change now that he´s back in Skagen.

Dagens ringmærkninger (Kabeltromlen):

Lille Dompap - 1

Gærdesmutte - 6

Rødhals - 13

Jernspurv - 3

Rørspurv - 2

Bogfinke - 2

Fuglekonge - 6

Gransanger - 1

Total: 34

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området 

Klik her for at se opsummeret observationer af rovfugle i Skagen 

Folk: Simon S. Christiansen, Knud Pedersen, Marianne and Kurt, Michaëla Berdougo, Laima Bagdonaite, Jonas Pedersen, Rasmus Matthiesen-Juhl, Jeppe Overgaard og Daniel Bloche

Jeg ankom i går til Skagen Fuglestation efter en lang rejse med offentlig transport. Min første hele dag i Skagen startede klokken 05.25 med klargøring til morgenobs og herefter morgenobs i 3 timer før Jeppe og jeg pakkede sammen fordi vi syntes det var ret tyndt til sidst.

De første 3 timer gav ellers mange alk/lomvie, rødstrubet lom og en hel masse suler. Da vi kom hjem, stod den for nogle på data, imens andre fik sig en god lur. Ved 14-tiden tog Jeppe, Jonas, Michela, Kurt, Marianne og jeg hen for at tælle og følge skarvene i Skarvsøen. Det var super hyggeligt og vi fik desuden set nogle fede arter som fjeldvåge og atlingand. Alt i alt observerede vi 84 skarve og fandt 6-7 nye reder. Efter de fede fugle i Skarvsøen besluttede Jonas og Michela sig for at gå hjem til stationen langs med stranden hvor de fandt en død lomvie og så fjeldvågen slås med en rørhøg.

Imens tog vi andre ned på havnen for at kigge efter gråmågen. Den var desværre ikke at finde da vi var der, men så var det jo godt at man kunne proviantere i Netto i stedet. Nu står den på aftensmad, måske en aftengåtur? Og selvfølgelig PSG-Bayern hvis jeg altså kan holde mig vågen. Jeg syntes det har været en rigtig god første dag i Skagen. Jeg ser frem til at tilbringe resten af april, maj og juni heroppe.

Dagens ringmærkninger(Kabeltromlen):

Gransanger-Chiffchaff 2

Gærdesmutte-Wren 2

Rødhals-Robin 2

Sangdrossel-Song Thrush 1

Jernspurv-Dunnock 1

Gulspurv-Yellowhammer 2

Total: 10

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området 

Klik her for at se dagens observationer på dofbasen af Rovfugle i Skagen

Folk: Marianne and Kurt, Laima Bagdonaite, Daniel Bloche, Jonas Pedersen, Michaëla Berdougo, Rasmus Matthiesen-Juhl, Jeppe Overgaard

I dag har være præget af vind, kulde og hagl hvilke påvirkede observationen af trækfugle og ringmærkningen. 

Fra morgen tog Daniel og jeg ud for at åbne nettene og klargøre til ringmærkningen. Dette var til den skønne lyd af rørdrumens (Eurasian bittern) Pauken.
Laima kom lidt efter vi var komme tilbage, med dejlig varm kaffe. 

Men fornøjelsen var kort, da vi efter tre runder måtte lukke nettene igen, grundet vejeret. 

Ved Verdens ende 3 sad Jonas og Michaela klar til at tætte trækfugle. Vejret var også imod dem, med hård vind og hagl. Efter tre timer måtte de pakke sammen.

Tilbage på stationen blev der malet fugle, studeret og fugletur ud af huset. Som et frisk indslag hoppede Daniel og jeg en tur i bølgen blå. 

Ved 14.00 tiden tog Laima, Jonas og jeg ind for at hente den nye frivillige her på fuglestationen hvorefter vi skulle på det ugentlig indkøb. 

Vi tager alle godt imod Rasmus som vil være her på fuglestation det næste stykke tid. Rasmus har taget den lange vej fra Grenaa og ankom glad med træt efter en lang transporttid. 

Rasmus var dog ikke for træt til at skulle på fælles indkøb. Netto blev indtaget og båndet blev fyldt om med madvare til hele ugen. Min lille bil var godt pakke med mennesker, poser med mad og tasker. Hjem til fuglestationen det gik.  

Imens vi andre var ude af huset, blev Michaela og Daniel hjemme for at gøre rent på stationen.

Da de praktiske gøremål var overstået, var der tid til Yoga, gåture og en lille lur. 

Vores nye gæster, Marianne og Kurt, nåede desværre ikke meget ringmærkning, men gik istedet ud på Grene for at se på sæler og fugle. Her til aften tager de en tur til Gammel Skagen for at se solnedgang. 

Laima laver i aften dejlig aftensmad som er traditionel polsk mad – Pierogi. Det ser vi alle frem til. 

Rigtig god aften til alle der læser med. Vi er på pletten igen i morgen.

Dagens ringmærkninger(Kabeltromlen):
Gransanger (Chiffchaff) 2
Fuglekonge (Goldcrest) 2
Gærdesmutte (Wren) 1
Rødhals (Robin) 1
Jernspurv (Dunock) 1
Total:  7

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området 

Klik her for at se opsummeret observationer af rovfugle i Skagen 

Folk: Marianne and Kurt, Laima Bagdonaite, Daniel Bloche, Jonas Pedersen, Michaëla Berdougo, Rasmus Matthiesen-Juhl, Jeppe Overgaard

Hi folks!

Hope your weekend went well and you are all refreshed for the week ahead :)

Today was a day without much wind which was very nice after so many windy days!
With the ground slightly frozen and a breath-taking sunrise, Daniel and Esben opened the nets for 5:45 am and got to see a migrating Marsh Harrier (Rørhøg) while doing so. As the wind was so low, they didn't have to think about which ones to open, therefore opened them all. :)
Laima and I joined for the first round. Jørgen and Igor joined us for a while, and obviously, Igor got to get a lil' snack. :)
We caught a total of 51 birds, including 3 Song Thrush (Sangdrossel) (first one ringed for me :)), a Reed Bunting (Rørspruv), and 24 Goldcrests (Fuglekonge). I spotted the second Barn Swallow (Landsvale) of the spring which was my first because I failed to see the first one, which I was super excited about!

Laima, Daniel and Esben ringing this morning at Kabeltromlen

In the meantime, Jonas, Kristine, and Martin drove to Nordstrand to meet up with Knud at Nordstrand, which is the first time doing morning obs there for Jonas. While expecting lots more land birds, the Gannet (Sule) migration was the best ever for spring with 4.345 individuals (1.300 in the first hour!), most of them flying to West, to Scotland! They also had more than a thousand Guillemots/Razorbills (Lomvie/Alk), four Shovelers (Skeand), a Merlin (Dværgfalk), and Jonas' first Osprey (Fiskeørn) of the year. It was also Jonas' first fall from his chair, as he was looking up to a bird and fell backwards in front of 5 other birders, knocking his scope over in the fall. We are so sorry we missed the fall, but hopefully it made the birders laugh! :DKristine and Martin visited us in the ringing area for a while, before heading back to Nordstrand, and drove back to Det Grå Fyr when it started raining, while we closed nets and started making our way back. It was super nice to come back to leftover lasagnas after getting soaked on the bikes hehehe.

Kristine and Martin left shortly after with Esben, as they kindly offered to drive him back to Aalborg. It was such a pleasure to have the 3 of them with us! We will definitely miss you and hope you'll come back soon, Esben maybe early may and Kristine and Martin late April. :)?

Incredible sketches and very nice note left by Kristine and Martin

After relaxing and/or taking a nap, Daniel studied for his exam on Wednesday and we ordered some waxed cord to make necklaces with Aporrhais pespelecani (Pelican foot); Laima entered the ringing data, went for a walk in the rain, and painted; Jonas entered observation data on DOFBasen, and I looked at accommodation opportunities in Lund for next year.

After our new guests, Marianne and Kurt, arrived after driving from Copenhagen along the coast, Daniel started making pita bread for tonight. Big day for Daniel though, as he finally managed to get a date! In his mouth, after throwing it in the air. :P

Jeppe, a former volunteer, arrived shortly after the evening meeting and will be staying with us until Wednesday.
Who is to say if we are losing our mind, or just very funny people, but because Daniel has such long eyelashes, we got him to put mascara on. Laima and I are both veeery jealous of how good he looks!

I mean, look at those lashes! And notice the necklace. Those are the ones we will be making soon. :)

We will now have dinner, and go to bed probably very early to be ready for tomorrow!

Enjoy your evening, and speak with you soon ?

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Solsort 2
Sangdrossel 3
Rørspurv 1
Rødhals 10
Gransanger 5
Gærdesmutte 6
Fuglekonge 24

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området

Klik her for at se opsummeret observationer af rovfugle i Skagen

Folk: Kristine Rasmussen, Martin Bjerre Nielsen, Esben E. Hansen, Knud Pedersen, Jørgen Kabel and Igor, Marianne and Kurt, Laima Bagdonaite, Daniel Bloche, Jeppe Overgaard, Jonas Pedersen, Michaëla Berdougo

Idag var det lørdag og lørdag er jo en fin dag
Igen idag skulle der være meget vind og jeg valgte derfor for første gang at tage en morgen fri hvilket var en fremragende beslutning
Vi var nemlig så heldige at Esben, tidligere frivillig, er på besøg og han kunne hjælpe Daniel med at tage morgenobsen.

Laima, Michaela og jeg blev altså hjemme da der var for meget vind til ringmærkning.
Esben og Daniel havde også en fin dag derude på trods af vinden. Morgenobsen gav bla Mallemukker, Rider og Skeand som vistnok er den første på grenen i år. De fik også besøg af Simon og vores kære gæster Kristine og Martin
Herhjemme stod den på natoptagelser, ringmærkningsdata og småkager.
Da morgenobsen var ovre satte Esben sig i laboratoriet og læste samtidig med at han holdte øje med whoosh-nettet i haven.
Michaela, Daniel og jeg tog med Kristine og Martin til skarvsøen for at lave vores tællinger og efterfølgende tog vi til Jerup strand. Her gik jeg med et ønske om en tidlig vadefugl eller måske en sølvhejre men det skulle ikke være. Til gengæld var der kortnæbbede gæs, gravænder og en stor flok af knortegæs. Daniel og Michaela gik amok i muslinger, konkylier og andet godt fra havet og det endte med at være en helt fin tur, tusind tak til Kristine og Martin for kørsel. Det er jo også desværre deres sidste dag i Skagen imorgen, det har været en kæmpe fornøjelse at have jer på besøg, i er utroligt passionerede og interesserede og det har været fedt at se på fugle med jer!!

Det skulle så faktisk vise sig at det var en succes med Whoosh nettet da der var en hvid vipstjert der gik til foderet og den fik efterfølgende en fin ring på, Daniel var hårdt ramt da han ikke var hjemme til denne begivenhed på trods af at han har arbejdet med den fælde.

It‘s been windy and rainy the whole night, making it a little difficult to sleep. When Jonas and I got up to have breakfast before leaving for morning obs, it was still raining, therefore we decided to postpone leaving the station for another hour. That allowed us for more sleep, and then it was actually sunny!

Clad in our snowsuits, we set off to world’s end 3 and began observing the sea. We stayed for 3 hours in total, and even though windy, it was not too cold (thanks to all the layers we wore!!). We had quite a nice migration of scoters (Sortand), some auks (Alkefugle), 1 arctic skua (Almindelig kjove) and a number of different birds. The way back was a little tough with all the sand being blown in our faces, but we were very lucky to observe a 2k year white-tailed eagle (Havørn) from quite close!

My new best friend on a windy day is a snow suit

Cold morning obs

Back at the station, Michaela and Daniel had a productive morning; Michaela was working through night recordings, and Daniel was studying for his upcoming exam. When we came back, Daniel made everyone pancakes and set off the fire alarm! Nevertheless, we then had lovely elevenses (reference to The Hobbit, and their habit at eating at 11:00 :D).

Simon also had a nice day, he worked on more rarity committee stuff in the morning, and in the afternoon went to town to buy some bamboo sticks and a long stick for us to use at Kabeltrommlen to hang bird bags. He also got a sledgehammer, and ordered the new passerine flight identification book! Looking forward to reading it! Then he had an interview about mute swans with a newspaper.

Daniel on the walk by the sea

The afternoon was quite chill, Jonas had the longest nap of his life which was well deserved as he’s been getting up early every morning. I also had a nap, and after that worked on fixing the last net with Daniel in the attic. Then we finished the leftover sushi, and Michaela and Daniel went out to take photos of the stormy sea. They got carried away and instead of filming the sea, started filming themselves doing hand stands! Also, congratulations to Michaela who got admitted to a master’s programme in Lund!!

Michaela's cool headstand

After the evening meeting we played a game of bird charades which was won by Jonas! Esben arrived tonight for the weekend! No ringing was done today, and we won’t be able to ring tomorrow either, but hopefully soon the wind will go down and we can catch birds again!

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området

Klik her for at se opsummeret observationer af rovfugle i Skagen

Folk: Simon S Christiansen, Daniel Bloche, Jonas Pedersen, Michaela Berdougo, Esben E. Hansen and Laima Bagdonaite

Finally, the wind went down, so Laima, Michaëla and Jonas went ringing at Kabeltromlen this morning. Kristine, Martin and I went observing with Knud at Worlds End 3. The observation started quite nice with a roosting Merlin (Dværgfalk). It hunted successfully a Chaffinch (Bogfinke), which it was eating quite close from us on the beach. Just when we were enjoying this interesting observation, I got a call from Laima, that they caught a Water Rail (Vandrikse) in their first round. So, we left Knud alone and went into the ringing site to see this amazing bird. Actually, it was Laimas first Water Rail to see and not only hear and for all of us volunteers the first to see in hand. It was very exciting. It´s pretty amazing to realize how long their legs are and how beautiful their colours, especially because we caught an adult bird (3k+). Just in the moment we were about to release the bird, Simon spotted a Glaucous Gull (Gråmåge) migrating North, another nice observation this morning.

Male, adult Water Rail

Unfortunately, not many birds followed after the Water Rail. The nets kept quite empty, although we had relatively many recaptured birds. They are interesting, because we get a lot of data from recaptures. Jonas was very happy to age a Blackcap (Munk) correctly. These ones are tricky birds to age sometimes, so we had a moult session on how to age these birds yesterday. Apparently, Laimas little presentation already helped us understanding their moult better and to know for what to look in these birds. Besides that, its also noteworthy that we have new waders now. It is very nice to be in the ringing area now without getting wet feet. After the Water Rail was released, I went back to Knud helping him counting some birds. A bit later also Simon, Kristine and Martin were joining us. It turned out to be a fairly good observation morning with quite some Fulmars (Mallemuk). Also, we had one lonely Snow Bunting (Snespurv) left on the beach, while the others already left to their breeding grounds. In the afternoon Michaëla took some pictures again with the station’s camera. She got some Eiders (Ederfugle) and a Great-spotted Woodpecker (Stor Flagspætte) in front of the lens. Jonas helped us by doing some of the less fun office tasks during the afternoon. In the evening Laima made Sushi. It turned out to be amazing, and the rolling of it was also really fun. It was a very lovely dinner! Unfortunately, Kristine and Martin needed to leave for Copenhagen this afternoon, but we hope they can come back soon.

Making Sushi

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Gransanger - 1
Gærdesmutte - 3
Rødhals - 1
Bogfinke - 1
Vandrikse - 1

Sum = 7

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området

Klik her for at se opsummeret observationer af rovfugle i Skagen

Folk: Simon S. Christiansen, Kristine Rasmussen, Martin Bjerre Nielsen, Knud Pedersen, Michaëla Berdougo, Laima Bagdonaite, Jonas Pedersen og Daniel Bloche