Peregrine Falcon !

/!\ One of our volunteer is really keen to go see the yellow warbler but doesn't own a car. Anyone willing to go there and having a spare car seat to offer is invited to please get in touch with us !

Hi everyone,

This morning I went observing with Prescillia. While counting the 360 eiders Ederfugl resting around the bunker, I spotted a strange-looking bird and got the scope out to get confirmation from Prescillia : itw as my very first golden eye Hvinand !

We then joined Knud at World Ende 3 for three hours of shivering in the wind. The highlight of the morning was a very nice peregrine falcon Vandrefalk flying to the north west ; it stopped to rest on the beach long enough to allow us to take shaky pictures of it through our scopes (hence the bad quality picture !).

We were later joined by Aksel, Louis and Diana who finished yesterday’s beach fulmar survey, finding less than 10 seabirds including fulmar Mallemuk, gannets Sule, and alcids Alkefugle – they saw a purple sandpiper Sortgrå Ryle on the way, but the story doesn’t tell whether itw as the one we ringed... At that time I decided to take a walk to the tip to warm myself up ; I really enjoyed to see the sanderlings Sandløber trying to take shelter from the wind behind some pile of algae ! Of course, it was at that time that the team spotted a migrating red-necked grebe Gråstrubet Lappedykker and a curious weasel walking on the beach…

At the same time Simon had an interesting morning : after dropping Hanelie at the train station for her way back to Germany, he was invited to speak about the american Yellow warbler Gulsanger on  TV news ! You can find the link by clicking here (in danish).

The beach-survey team headed home shortly after joining us ; Aksel then showed Louis how everything works, as he is his mentor. Prescillia and I joined them around lunch time, where we decided to finally go see the exhibition : it took us no less than 1 month to visit the place downstairs ! We enjoyed seeing the art and explanations and invite anyone who hasn’t been there yet to hurry before the exhibition changes. We also went all the way up to the top of the lighthouse (205 stair cases, no less !), where we gazed at the landscape while the wind was making our hair fly high.

As soon as we got down, Simon made a session about skull ossification, a process still ongoing for young birds on their first autumn ; it is a very helpful age criteria for some species difficult to age based solely on their plumage, like treecreepers Trælober and goldcrests Fuglekonge. He showed us some pictures for us to know what to look for, and then we headed to the lab where we practiced our skills on birds taken out of the freezer.

After the evening meeting, Simon had another meeting about fun ways to support the station, like species sponsor opportunity ; Prescillia finished one of the new snowbunting traps, while Diana put out the sound recorder for the night, Aksel cooked a delicious meal as always and I finished my presentation for tomorrow, which hopefully we will have time to do – or should I wish instead for many birds to ring, enough to keep us busy most of the day ? Let’s see what happens tomorrow…

People at the station : Aksel Munkholm, Louis Kristoffer Poulsen, Diana Sciandra, Solenn Boucher, Prescillia Lemesle, Simon S. Christiansen, and our guest Kirsten Bregn.

Today’s observation of the area on DOFBasen