Knud, Martin and Jeppe were migration counting today at Verden’s Ende 3. But still in the first hour they had to change the location because of the strong wind. So Knud made his way to the Kattegat Bunker and when he arrived there, Martin and Jeppe came after him, so they didn’t have to stop the counting in between. The migration today was slow and they mainly counted Alcids. Jeppe also counted all the resting birds. He was also happy to learn some aging of female Eiders (Ederfugl) with Knud.

Jeppe took a picture of this handsome male Velvet Scoter (Fløjlsand):

Christina and I stayed at home to do some indoor tasks. Christina was working on a session for us about bird ringing and conservation and I was sorting the picture archive and updating the guidelines for the new volunteers in spring.

Simon went birdwatching today (only for 10 minutes, though), he saw a Longtailed Duck (Havlit) resting close to the lighthouse. Then he had an online meeting about a project for next year about getting children into nature.

Martin and Jeppe were working on the nocturnal migration recordings in the afternoon. Jeppe is very interested to learn about the bird calls and also how to use the devices and softwares, so Martin is teaching him.

We’re looking forward to go ringing tomorrow for probably one of the last times this season…

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

People: Knud Pedersen, Jeppe Overgaard, Martin Grienenberger, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Amelie Zeller

Today was another indoor day for all of us since the weather wasn’t cooperating for either ringing or migratory seabird counts. As much as we enjoy spending time in the field, we need to wrap up end-of-season activities and get the station ready for winter. We took the opportunity to do a bit of cleaning around the station.

Amelie did an excellent job of tidying up and wiping down the bookshelves in our extensive library:

Look how organized it looks now:

I started to clean all of the drawers and cupboards in the kitchen. Even though we have a regular cleaning schedule here, it is amazing how crumbs and dust still manage to settle in the nooks and cracks.

Speaking of crumbs: Since we need to finish off as much food in the pantry as possible before we leave, I also decided to make some date bars today. A sweet treat on a grey November day!

Jeppe spent the morning in the attic fixing one of our mist nets. Now we only have 15 nets left at Kabeltromlen, which we will be taking down at the end of this week and try to fix before all of us leave. Jeppe also went to the lab to take the Sparrowhawk (Spurvehøg) skull from the water bath and placed it into hydrogen peroxide. That way, the solution can dissolve more of the meat and tendons over the next three or four days.

This afternoon, Martin held an informative and instructive presentation on raptor identification. I had been looking forward to this session for a while because I am terrible at identifying raptors in the field. Martin has many years of bird identification in the field and is always happy to share his knowledge with others. His presentation today was quite valuable for all of us.

We will upload a video of Martin’s session on Youtube and Facebook in the coming days, so stay tuned for updates!

I will be working on my own session over the next couple of days and will present it on Friday. I will be talking about the value of bird ringing and tagging for conservation efforts. If we have time before we leave, we will videotape the presentation as we did the other sessions and make it available online so that everyone can watch it.

Martin and Amelie are going night catching this evening and are hoping to catch another Woodcock (Skovsneppe). If they do, they will let me ring it so that all of us have ringed at least one Woodcock (Skovsneppe) during our stay – keeping fingers crossed that they have a successful night!

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

People: Jeppe Overgaard, Amelie Zeller, Martin Grienenberger, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn

Hele temaet var idag ude ved Nordstrand for at tælle trækfugle. Morgen var der ikke meget at klage over med hård vind og skyfri himmel. Fra start stod det klart at vi ville få en god dag. Alt imens vi kom på plads én efter én begyndte folk at tælle.

Martin var fast på hans teleskop, alt imens Amelie, Christina og jeg tog skift ved de to teleskoper vi har på fuglestationen.

Simon kom forbi for at sige hej og tælle med. Fuglene kom i en lind strøm og det var en god dag for Rødstrubet lom (Red-throated diver).Vi kan med glæde melde, at vi idag har haft en rekord ved at tælle 1.316 Rødstrubet lom (Red-throated diver) på en efterårsdag.

Tilbage på fuglestationen var der der forskellige opgaver at se til. Amelie havde i dag et skype-møde med en tysk biolog, da hun gerne vil skrive hendes bachelor om et projekt der omhandler at få Kirkeuglen (little owl) tilbage til naturen i de Bayerske skove.

Simon og Christina indtastede imens data fra Jennes sø. Martin arbejdede på hans session om rovfugle, som han vil afholde i morgen. 

På loftet gik jeg rundt med nål, kaffe og tråd i hånden for at syn mere på de huller vi har fået i vores spejlnet.  Amelie har i aften lavet lækker suppe som vi ser frem til. God aften til alle som læser med.

Tak til Erik Christoffersen for lån af billederne af den Rødstrubbet lom. 

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

Folks : Amelie Zeller, Martin Grienenberger, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn og Jeppe Overgaard.

Our morning was dedicated to another kind of birding this morning : storm birding ! It consists in sitting on the same spot a whole morning looking for the eventual scarce pelagic bird you really want to see while you don't see any other  bird crazy enough to fly in that kind of weather. And unfortunately, that bird might never want to show its pretty face to those crazy birders sitting in a ferocious wind for hours …

That’s pretty much how our morning went at Buttervej. We saw at most 40 birds during 4 hours of sea watching while the most wanted Leach’s Petrel was seen in Grenen. Sometimes it’s just about luck !

Tea break time in the car before going in the storm

Simon joined us for a while, and then went to Nordstrand to try to see Storm Petrels with Knud, joined by Erik alter on.

In the afternoon, we worked on pretty diversified activities : Jeppe and Amelie cleaned and put some stuff away in the attic and the birder’s club, Christina took some nets dowckn in kabeltromlen, and I was working on the session I’ll run in the next few days.

Jeppe carried on with his skull work, and it looks like a pro job.

Pernille had sadly to go back to Aalborg but we hope to see her again next weekend !

In late afternoon, Amelie and I went out again for night catching, hoping to be as successful as last night. And it went even better than yesterday ! We caught 2 Woodcocks tonight ! This time, the 2 birds were adults and it was quite interesting to check on the features after the 1^st year from last night.

Ringmærkning (Grenen):

Skovsneppe - Woodcock: 2

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

Folks : Jeppe Overgaard, Amelie Zeller, Martin Grienenberger, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Marian & Michael Ancher og Pernille Roed, Knud Pedersen, Erik Christophersen

I dag kunne vi alle sove længe, da blæsten og regnen ikke gjorde det muligt for os hverken at ringmærke eller at tælle fugletrækket på Grenen. Så var det godt, at vi havde planlagt en “Kom med på møgvejrs-tur” i stedet for. 

Møgvejrs-turen er startskuddet til DOF’s nye projekt “Formidling på tværs af generationer”, som for alvor bliver sat i gang i januar 2021. Projektet går ud på at få flere børn ud i naturen, og hvem er bedre til at formidle end forældre og bedsteforældre? Derfor er planen at give inspiration til sjove og spændende aktiviteter for børnene. Det hele bliver samlet på en ny hjemmeside, som i skrivende stund er ved at blive udarbejdet. Stay tuned for mere information. 

Jeppe, Amelie, Simon og Pernille brugte lidt af morgenen på at gøre klar til turen, og kl. 10.00 begyndte vi online-streamingen. Vi startede med at gå ned på stranden for at samle ting, som vi ville undersøge - kunne de mon flyve eller flyde? Efter nogle sjove test af vores fund, gik vi ind i klubhuset for at drikke varmt saftevand samt male fugle. 

For at male fuglene helt korrekt brugte vi DOF’s Fuglebog, som er en rigtig fin gratis app, man kan bruge til at lære om fugle. Udover at man kan få hjælp til at identificere de fugle, man har set, kan man også krydse fuglene af, således man kan lave en liste over sete arter. 

I samme øjeblik som vi afsluttede turen, ankom et par familier til Det Grå Fyr. Simon fortalte dem om ringmærkning samt viste vinger og fødder fra forskellige fugle frem. Især børnene syntes det var ret spændende. 

Du kan se Møgvejrs-turen på vores side på Facebook. 

Hjemme på Det Grå Fyr arbejdede Christina og Martin på deres video-sessions. På mandag vil Martin fortælle os om, hvordan man identificerer rovfugle, og torsdag vil Christina fortælle om, hvordan ringmærkning og gps-sendere kan bruges til at monitorere og beskytte truede fuglearter. Begge video-sessions vil blive uploadet på youtube. 

Over middag gik Amelie, Martin og Christina i gang med at reparere net oppe på loftet, så vi kan blive klar til forårssæsonen, alt imens Jeppe, Simon og Pernille tog ind til Skagen for at handle ind. Vi skulle blandt andet bruge nogle kasser til at pakke laboratoriet ned, således det kan blive istandsat inden foråret. 

Vi fik også besøg af Michael Ancher, som medbragte dejlige kanelsnegle, som hans kone havde bagt til os. De smagte himmelsk - tusind tak :-) 

Da mørket faldt på, gik Jeppe i gang med at lave mad, og Martin og Amelie tog på natfangst. De fangede dagens eneste fugl - en fin skovsneppe, hvilket især Amelie var glad for, da det var første gang, hun prøvede at ringmærkede sådan en. 

Herefter var det tid til aftensmad. Udover at tale om alle dagens sjove oplevelser, talte vi om danske ordsprog samt hvad de betyder. Eftersom de fleste frivillige på fuglestationen kommer fra forskellige lande, taler vi altid engelsk sammen, og det blev til mange grin af ordsprogene, når de blev oversat til engelsk.

Ringmærkning (Grenen):

Skovsneppe - Woodcock: 1

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

After several days of bad weather, including a very windy day yesterday, all of us went to World’s End 3 this morning in high spirits to count seabirds with Knud. Two Leach's storm petrels (Stor stormsvale) were seen at Nordstrand yesterday, so we were quite excited to try and see some today. I went for a short walk to try to take some nice pictures of the Snow buntings (Snespurv) but they were too quick for me. We counted over 85 of them, though. Michael went ringing at Jennes Sø and caught 32 birds – very nice!

We saw two Great northern / White-billed divers (Islam / Hvidnæbbet lom) and counted around 2,200 Kittiwakes (Ride).

I went to Kabeltromlen at noon to take down two nets, which we will fix in the attic over the next couple of days. Tomorrow it’s supposed to be windy again, and we will be spending most of it indoors.

I also went to Ellekrattet to check on our three nets there, which we still have up for the ICARUS project. I discovered that one of the nets had been struck by a downed tree during the stormy weather these past few days.

It didn’t take long to remove the branches, and fortunately, the net was not damaged. We will hopefully be able to open these nets next week when the tagging of the Blackbirds (Solsort) resumes. We are eager to use our remaining tags on them! Simon and Amelie checked the receiver today and downloaded the data for the Blackbirds (Solsort) we already tagged. It will be interesting to go through the data and see where the birds are now and follow their movements.

After we finished counting at World’s End 3, we had a quick lunch and then headed back outside to enjoy the last few hours of sunshine – and, of course, we were still hoping for a glimpse of that Leach's storm petrel (Stor stormsvale). Sadly, we did not see any, but there were plenty of Eiders (Ederfugl) and Scoters (Sortand). The sun was surprisingly warm! We enjoyed each minute we could spend outside, especially now that the sun sets at 4 pm already.

Do you ever get tired of this view? I certainly don't!

Ringmærkning (Jennes Sø):

Skovskade – Eurasian Jay: 1

Blåmejse – Blue tit: 10

Musvit – Great tit: 4

Fuglekonge – Goldcrest: 1

Spætmejse – Nuthatch: 1

Gaærdesmutte – Wren: 2

Lille Gråsisken – Lesser Redpoll: 5

Stor Gråsisken – Mealy Redpoll: 5

Rørspurv – Reed Bunting: 1

Skovspurv – Tree Sparrow: 2

Total: 32

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

People: Jeppe Overgaard, Knud Pedersen, Amelie Zeller, Martin Grienenberger, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Michael Anker

Grundet vejret har vi ikke ringmærket eller været ude at observer ved Grenen/Nordstrand. 

Amelie og jeg cykler fra morgen ind til bageren efter morgenbrød. Vi ville lave lidt god morgenmad til de andre på fuglestationen.
Efter morgenmaden gik Amelie og jeg i gang med at syn på de ny nedtaget net fra Kabeltromlen. 
Nede i stuen sad Simon, Christina og Martin. Simon arbejder på den live session som vi skal have på lørdag. Christina og Martin arbejder på deres kommende session, hvor Christina vil tale om en naturvidenskabelig tilgang til ringmærkning og Martin vil tale om rovfugle.

Vores session på lørdag skal handle om, hvad man som forældre kan lave med ens børn når vejret er blæsende.
Som en slags for primær blev udstyr og lokation afprøvet og testet af. 

Eftermiddagen blev brugt på at observer fugle i skagen havn. Med Simon som frontmand, kørte vi til forskellige positioner.

Der var ikke det store at se på, men det var dejligt med en gruppetur i det blæsende vejr. 

Som afslutningen på dagen tog Christina, Amelie, Martin og jeg til Nordstrand i håbet om at se den Store Stormsvale som blev meldt ud af Søren tidligere i dag. Dog ville heldet ikke tilsmile os. Dog havde vi en rigtig flot solnedgang med flotte store hvid bølger i horisonten. 
Søren var så venlig at sende os billederne han tog af den Store Stormsvale.

I morgen tager vi alle ud og observerer ved Grenen. Vi tror der bliver meget at se på, efter dages blæsende vejr. 

People: Martin Grienenberger, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Amelie Zeller, Søren Skov og Jeppe Overgaard. 

It takes more to prevent us to go birdwatching than another grey November day. Three motivated birders went to World's End 3 today to count migrating birds: Jeppe, Knud and I. As usual, Knud brought his tricky umbrella, which has the power to always prevent the rain to fall. Well, almost always, since it rained almost all morning long! The conditions were also quite challenging with very little light and dense fog. As Knud said, when all the boats in Kattegat are honking, you know it's a difficult day! The bird, for their part, were sleeping in, and we counted less than 500 in 2 hours. But lack of quantity and lack of qualityare not mutually exclusive. We enjoyed a nice Little Auk (Søkonge) and a lovely flock of adult Little Gulls (Dværgmåge) foraging around the place, with one even getting really close to the counting spot!

Christina and Amelie were in a ringing mood despite the weather. They opened the nets in the garden and enjoyed 4 nice birds: Greenfinches (Grønsisken) and Great Tits (Musvit).

In the afternoon, Simon went out to gather a lot of apples that will be used to attract Blackbirds for the Icarus project. The Icarus team is hoping to fix the GPS issues in the begining of the next week. That would allow us to tag a few more birds before the station closes.

In the afternoon, Jeppe worked on a dead Little Auk and Sparrowhawk skulls.

Amelie and Christina went to Kabeltromlen to take down 2 more nets. The end is near!

Rie paid us a visit with these lovely homemade buns. We spoke about how to get local people more involved in the lighthouse association.

Ringmærking (Fyrhaven):

Musvit - Great Tit 2

Grosisken - Greenfinch 2

Total 4

People: Jeppe Overgaard, Martin Grienenberger, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Amelie Zeller, Knud Pedersen

Jeppe and I spent a very nice morning together at Verden’s Ende 3. It was rainy and windy, the birds, though, didn’t care about the weather and we counted over 900 Alcids in the first two hours and we enjoyed observing a lot of Sanderlings (Sandløber) and some Snow Buntings (Snespurv). It was the first time for Jeppe and me to go observing without Knud or Martin, so we were happy to take the challenge and were proud of ourselves that we managed to count at least the common species.

Christina and Martin worked from home today on the video about nocturnal migration and on a session about raptor identification. Christina did a very nice job and made a video about Martin’s work on recording the nocturnal migration here in Skagen. You can follow this link to watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lts2Ufnwrew.

When Jeppe and I came home from the field, we checked some data sheets together and in the afternoon we celebrated a little, because today it’s Christina’s birthday! We played some Wingspan together and who wouldn’t like such a beautiful birthday table?

Jeppe recreated the station kitchen to a Pølsevogn and made Hotdogs for the happy birthday girl :)

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

People: Martin Grienenberger, Jeppe Overgaard, Christina Stinn, Amelie Zeller

This morning we woke up to the windows rattling in their frames – it was far too windy to go ringing. With the wind coming from the south, it was not even possible to ring in the Lighthouse garden. So, we prepared for a day spent working inside.

Amelie and Jeppe sewed a mist net in a very bad condition. This is the last net we have here, which is why the plan tomorrow is to get more nets in from Kabeltromlen. With so few birds migrating now, we are starting to wrap up our ringing activities in Grenen, prepare the station for winter, and get ready for the next ringing season in the spring.

Martin went to World’s End to count migratory seabirds. The numbers of migratory birds continue to decrease for him as well, although he was quite busy counting during the first hour. The sun came out and provided excellent light qualities. The common species appeared in good numbers in the strong winds, and Martin even saw a Barn swallow (Landsvale) gliding elegantly through the frothing waves.

I spent all day finishing the nocturnal migration movie. We will upload it on Youtube tomorrow and share it in the Facebook group, so make sure that you keep an eye on our social media channels!

This afternoon, the four of us went for a swim in the sea. The water is definitely starting to get colder now! The waves were quite turbulent in the wind.

After our hot showers, we played another round of Wingspan – it is truly an addictive game! We are having a lot of fun with it. We have even joined the Wingspan Facebook group with over 13,000 other bird nerds who take this game as seriously as we do.

As I’m writing this article, Martin is preparing a delicious pasta dinner for us. It is always nice to have a warm meal together at the end of the day – it’s just hygge.

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

People: Jeppe Overgaard, Knud Pedersen, Amelie Zeller, Martin Grienenberger, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn