A Great-Black-Backed Gull ringed in Sussex

Hi everyone,

This morning, we split up in three teams: Solenn an I went to Verdens Ende 3 to do the morning observations. The sea was very flat and there was not much migration going on. But apart from resting Gannets „Sule“ and Common Scoters „Sortand“ we had some Razorbills „Alk“ migrationg and quite a lot resting on the water. There was also a Great Scua „Storkjove“ and a lightmorph Arctic Scua „Almindelig Kjove“ and it was nice to see them together. There were also a lot of passerines over Land, bur they were not really migrating: Goldfinches „Stillits“, Reed Buntings „Rørspurv” Chaffinches ”Bogfinke”, Starlings ”Stær”, I even saw one Fieldfare ”Sjagger” and the Goldcrests ”Fuglekonge” were coming our dune and sitting in the high grass on the dunes! Later, Solenn went to the tip to cout the waders and read some Gull Rings. She was very succesfull with reading rings and there was even a Great-Black-Backed Gull ”Svartbag” with a orange ring! Later, Solenn found out, that it ringed in Sussex in Great Britain. But the ring has been read in Skagen already in 2019. In the flock of Gulls, there was also a Great Scua ”Storkjove” resting and Solenn took a very cute picture.

Great Skua "Storkjove"

In the meantime, Diana and Prescillia went to the Cormorant Lake. There were many waders as Little Stint ”Dværgryle”, Ruff ”Brushane” Grey Plover ”Strandhjeile”, Lapwing ”Vibe”, Dunlin ”Almindelig Ryle” and they even saw a Jack Snipe ”Enkelbekassin”.

Jack Snipe "Enkelbekassin"

Johanna took the train to Jerup, she had to bike very fast, as she left the staton quite late. But she managed to catch the train and arrived at a very foggy Jerup.

But she had a very nice morning there, she saw 17 Bar-tailed Godwits ”Lille Kobbersneppe”, a lot of Dunlins ”Almindelig Ryle”, also Sanderlings ”Sandløber”, Ringed Plover ”Stor Præstekrave”, Oystercatchers ”Strandskade” and impressingly big flocks of Greylegs ”Grågas”.

When we were all back from our mornig activities, we hanged the bird bags, that we had washed, to dry. It was not as easy as it sound as all the strings of the bags were tangelt, so we had to entangel them first, which took some time. Finally, when we managed, we went to town all together because Johanna wanted to eat with us at her favorite Fish and Chips restaurant at the harbour.

Afterwards, we went quickly to the backery for a little dessert, then we headed back to the station.

We welcomed our new guests Åse and Bent, who I knew already from their visit in March! Then Diana, Johanna and Prescillia went tho the Radar mast as we needes to cut some bushes there to put up the solar pannel soon. Solenn and I went to Kabeltromlen to moove some nets to another place. While we were working, Simon called. He was back in Skagen from his weekend at Aggertange and proposed us to go wader-nightcatching at Jerup. That was a very spontaneous plan an when we went back to the bird observatory, we had less then one hour to prepare all necessary things for nightchatching: Rings, Poles, nets, speakes, USB-Sticks with wader-sounds … But we managed, it was very good team work and when Simon arrived at 19 o´clock, he admitted to be a bit surprised, that we were ready. But when we arrived at Jerup, there were hunters hunting ducks and geese and nearly no wades on the beach. We were a bit annoyed and drove back because like that, nightcatching would not make sense. When we were back and having dinner, Aksel also came back from his weekend that he spent at his grandmas birthday.

Tomorrow it will probably rain but we will check if we can still go out in the morning, otherwise we will maybe be out in the field later, depending on the weather.

Observations of the day in DOFbasn from observers in the area

So lets hope that the waether the next days will be better than the forcarst.

See you soon!

Hanelie

People at the station: Diana Sciandra, Hanelie Sidhu, Solenn Boucher, Johanna Veentjer, Prescillia Lemesle, Aksel Munkholm, Simon S. Christiansen

Today's observations in the area on DOFBasen