An exciting ringing at Fyrhaven and living birds observations.

Hello fellow birders and bird enthusiasts,

I hope some of you had the chance to catch the lovely sunrise this morning and enjoyed the clear sky and sunny weather. From our side, we were already on our way to Grenen and during our walk there we got to admire the sky painting in bright colors and the sun slowly rising. This morning was particularly nice to go bird watching as there was very limited wind and the warmth of the sun. It was under these nice conditions that Alice, Robbe and I met Knud for the first time during our walk and we all settled down with our telescopes ready to observe the daily migration.

For any of you that have the time, the next two days should hopefully also be sunny with very little wind so it could be a nice opportunity to watch the sunrise. From the beginning, all of us appreciated the golden lighting turning some of the majestic birds into silhouettes carved out in the sky. Knud explained to us how we count and record these numerous birds and spread out the task. The observations then started with all five of us ready. We especially appreciated seeing all these birds flying past after seeing so many dead ones yesterday. For some of us, we had our first sightings of some sea birds, for others it was a chance to see more individuals than they had in the past.

Some of the species that granted us the pleasure of their presence today include numerous Common Eiders (Edderfugl), Northern Gannets (Sule), Common Scoters (Sortand). In lesser numbers, but nevertheless, interesting sightings, included Eurasian Wigeons (Pibeand) and Light-Bellied Brent Geese (Lysbuget Knortegås). The highlights was a young Iceland Gull (Hvidvinget måge) and a Shag (Topskarv). The latter quite far away though, migrating out of Kattegat. On the other hand, we are still waiting to see our first living Atlantic Puffin (Lunde). This session was also truly useful to get used to the species commonly seen at this time of year and the communication within the group as well as Knud's expertise promoted a great learning experience.

Today's observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

From now on, we will also summarize all the raptor observations made in Skagen the previous day and add the link to that summary. Today's summary is very short as only one observation was entered.

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

When we came back to Skagen Bird Station, we got to enjoy a fresh and yummy meal to refuel our bodies. This food was offered to us by lovely people who met up yesterday at the station to have a discussion session around the theme of the sea. Their goal was to raise questions and give their opinions on what the sea inspires them on a poetic level but also the economic and ecological aspects that come with it. We had the chance to get introduced to some of them while unknowingly attempting to catch mice as mentioned in yesterday's blog by Robbe. Around this meal, we also learn more about each other and the joyful atmosphere in these moments shows great promise for the future and the team cohesion.

For a short digestive walk, Hanelie, Alice and Robbe climbed up the lighthouse to see the view from the top. Later on, we tried to capture some European Rock Pipits (Skærpiber) using traps and audio recordings on the beach. We had previously spotted individuals with rings and were hopeful to trap one of these. As soon as the trap was in place and the call was playing, a ringed individual approached it! Unfortunately, dogs and people enjoying a nice walk passing by scared it away a couple of times. In the end, even with no distractions, it got close to the trap again but did not end up going in. So, this mission is postponed to another day so look out for future updates on it.

Meanwhile, Simon also had multiple meetings, one of which was around the idea of ??building an educational platform around birds. While this project is still far away, you should keep an eye out for it as it could be a great tool and more accessible than regular written guides. He also got his car back thanks to Rie Voertmann again who gave him a lift. He will then be off to Aalborg tomorrow. Karin discovered more of Skagen today and enjoyed a visit to the art museum which she has now recommended to all of us.

Afterwards, Simon introduced us to multiple guidelines and in particular the ones used to conduct night recordings. He then went to place a recorder outside, in Skagen, which will record sounds from 18:30 to 6:30 in the hope of hearing some special or rare birds. To this night-time activity, we added night captures. For this, we use audio recordings and nets as well as thermal binoculars to locate and capture species that can otherwise be very cryptic and discrete. While birds were quite absent tonight, we saw a couple of deer. Cloudy conditions might help for the next time.

However, even before we did these night captures, we got a really exciting capture at the station: a Gray Partridge (Agerhøne)! After yesterday's failed attempt and subsequent time spent chasing mice, a partridge granted us to pleasure to fall into the trap we had set up. Simon was the one who found it and then invited us to the lab to ring the first individual of this species by Skagen Fuglestation. Hanelie was in charge of putting the steel ring on the bird and managed to do it perfectly. After that, we spent quite a while trying to figure out the age and sex of this individual. We established it was a young 2k partridge, but we could not determine the sex. Luckily, we had the time to take photos of the different elements that can help sexing which include: primary feather and primary covers, the belly area, and the head. We will further investigate these photos to determine the sex and keep you updated if we manage to reach a conclusion. Alice then released the bird which ran away in its characteristic, and quite funny, walking style.

It is quite likely that this partridge alongside numerous others was released last July by a local hunter close to Grenen Camping. But this does not take away from the fact that it is a beautiful bird and we hope to ring more in the future.

One new addition we thought could be nice is to add the meals we make in the evening as we all have different cooking skills and recipes.

Dinner of the day: Volcano, for the recipe contact chef Robbe

We will now also be posting on social media and you can go check the first Facebook post on the account “Skagen Fuglestation”.

Tomorrow, you will discover Alice's first blog which will give all the interesting details on the observations at Grenen but also information on any bird we might catch and ring tomorrow at the station's garden.

Ringing (Fyrhaven):

Partridge: 1

Total: 1

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