Feathery Farewell

Good evening!

For this morning's fieldwork, Frank, Diana, and I went to Kabeltromlen to ring, and Hanelie and Solenn did a seawatch at World's End 3.  The ringing brought an uptick in numbers from the past few days and a good diversity of species.  Nothing rare, but more goldcrests (fuglekonge) and robins (rødhals), which have only begun passing through in larger numbers in the past few weeks, plus both expected acrocephalus (kærsanger and rørsanger), phylloscopus (løvsanger and gransanger), and a wren (gærdesmutte) were treats.  Sadly, today is my last full day here at Skagen, so to have a broad sample of species I've worked with and seen nearly every day was special. 

Rødhals

Meanwhile at World's End 3, Solenn and Hanelie saw three young black guillemots (tejst), good numbers of dunlin & sanderling (almindelig ryle & sandløber), and a mass of foraging cormorants (skarv) and gannets (sule) offshore, but suprisingly none of the velvet scoters (fløjlsand) that passed through in record numbers yesterday.

In the afternoon, we did our routine weekly cleaning, and then I went to Skarvsøen to do some shorebirding.  I found 2 juvenile little stints (dværgryle), 2 juvenile curlew sandpipers (krumnæbbet ryle), 30 ruff (brushane), and a singular greenshank (hvidklire) with the expected snipe (dobbeltbekkasin) and dunlin.  But, overall, numbers were lower than they have been in previous day, but maybe more birds will accumulate as the day progresses.  Diana spent some time birding and drawing birds on the nearby beaches, while Frank worked on a presentation about aging and sexing shorebirds, Solenn napped, and Hanelie did some work back at the station.

Diana paiting eiders (ederfugl)

Little stint at Skarvsøen

It's been nearly two and a half months since I arrived here in Skagen, and as I get ready to leave tomorrow morning, I'm so pleased to reflect on how much I've learned here, how much experience I've gained, how many lovely people I've met, and of course, how many incredible birds I've seen.  I feel so fortunate to have been able to spend this time here in Skagen, and want to thank all the people I've met along the way for making my stay so enriching!

 Ringing totals:

Redstart (Rødstjert): 3

Willow warbler (Løvsanger): 2

Chiffchaff (Gransanger): 1

Marsh warbler (Kærsanger): 1

Reed warbler (Rørsanger): 1

Lesser whitethroat (Gærdesanger): 1

Robin (Rødhals): 1

Garden warbler (Havesanger): 2

Blackcap (Munk): 3

Goldcrest (Fuglekonge): 2

Total: 17

Local observations of the day in DOFBasen

People: Solenn Boucher, Max Laubstein, Simon Christiansen, Frank Osterberg, Hanelie Sidhu, Diana Sciandra, Lisa Vergin, Hella Lemke, Yves Bötch, and our guests Jette & Anders