Sandwich terns (Splitterne): we tried again…

Yesterday day, we drove down along the East coast until Hals to go and try again to catch some Sandwich Terns (Splitterne)  for the Lisa’s master project. Henning and Lars Bo joined us for the catching, as well as Esben who came up to Skagen for the weekend. Filip, Simon’s brother, and his girlfriend also joined for a little while. Sandwich terns had been seen roosting there in high numbers previously, and we were hoping that Hals would be a good catching site. 

We arrived in Hals around 8pm and had some pizzas while watching the sunset over the beach…



After dinner, we started setting up the nets among the sandbanks, looking for the best locations to catch terns. When everything was ready, we came back to the car and waited an hour until the next round.



The first round was empty, and unfortunately all the following rounds as well…. We however manage to catch an Oystercatcher (Strandskade) which was very exciting !





Even though we did not catch any terns, we enjoyed still the night very much: the weather was warm, and the place was beautiful. The sky was very bright and a lot of stars. Amelie and me lied down on the floor and saw a couple of shooting stars. In early morning, the fog started to thicken, creating an almost magic atmosphere. Everything was so quiet and peaceful.  

We finished putting down the nets and packing the car around 5:30am and drove back to Skagen.

Viktoria and Martin had decided to stay at the station during the night and went catching birds at Kabeltromlen instead of joining the night-catching. Oluf came along to help them with the ringing. They caught a very nice juvenile male Bluethroat (Blåhals), which started to get some of the shiny blue feathers typical of the adult male.

We came back to the station at 7am, and Simon and me decided to come out to Kabeltromlen and joined the ringing, even though we had spent the whole night out...  

In the afternoon, we completed our daily tasks: data entry, birder’s club, social media… and also got some sleep ! Lisa and Simon left during the afternoon leaving Victoria, Amelie, Martin and me in charge of the station until Wednesday.

Martin went up into the lighthouse with his scope to observe some birds from the highest point of Skagen, while Viktoria and Amelie went for a swim, enjoying this very hot summer day in Skagen. 

The new guests, Niklas and Laura and their two children arrived and will stay at the station until Friday. We had our first meeting together, and they seemed excited to join our observations and ringing activities during the following days.

After dinner, we went down to the beach to drink a beer and enjoy the last rays of sunshine before going to bed. Martin also showed of his drawing skills on the sand … Can you guess which species is that bird ?

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen + Hals):

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

People: Henning Ettrup, Lars Bo, Oluf Lou, Viktoria Mader, Martin Grienenberger, Simon S. Christiansen, Amelie Zeller, Amandine Doré, Henning Hvid Ettrup, Lisa Vergin, Lars Bo Jacobson, Esben E. Hansen, Filip