Citrine Wagtail and the journey of our Black-winged Kite

One of my bucket list wishes was to catch and ring an Owl. When we started trying it in the old lighthouse garden I‘ve got closer to my dream but with every try without success I realized that Skagen might not be the best place for ringing Owls. This should change yesterday evening when the wind dropped down and a lovely pink coloured the sky. After Magnus spotted three Short-eared Owls (Mosehornugle) hunting in the dawn we opened our Owl net Hanelie and I set up some weeks ago. The first net checks brought me back to reality how hard it can be to succeed, but the nice phone call in between the checks made it worth staying awake. When I finally decided to close I saw a bird flapping in the net and there it was!

Pictures say more than 1000 words, so enjoy my pictures of Skagen Bird Observatory‘s 2nd every Shorty!

You can recognize that it was born last year, since the wing feathers are from one not moulted generation and still from the juvenile plumage. If you see Shortys close (f.e. in the hand) it is quite easy to sex them. Two main features help: First of all the underwing of males is bright white (and can even shine pinkish), while females have some less bright white or beige colouration. Just have a look at the picture of our female:

One more very helpful feature is the outermost tail feather. While males have no or just a weak banding, the outermost tail feather of females is quite heavy banded. 

The nightly catching session caused a very short sleep until we went out in the morning.

It must have been the toughest for the ringers, who opened the nets at 04:45 am.  The weather felt already a bit more like spring but the explosion of arriving birds will happen the next days, not today. In anyway, the numbers at Kabeltromlen were way better than in the previous week. The stars of the days were several finches - mostly Chaffinches (Bogfinke) but also a Brambling (Kvækerfinke).

In the meanwhile, the count was still very slow. This does not mean, that we did not get nice birds. A adult Great Nothern Diver (Islom) in breeding plumage flew by and showed up so good, that we were able to study its proportions and head moving behavior. That was very helpful because it is hard to always just rely on the bill colour to say if it could not also be a White-billed Diver (Hvidnæbbet Lom). A Great Skua (Storkjove) was another highlight. The species used to be a frequent migrant here in spring but since avian flue killed a big part of the population the numbers went as low, that we are happy about every single one. It was fun to see Magnus from the lighthouse-shop-autumn-team again and he got a new nick name: BigMag. This helps us to keep the overview about all the Magnuses around. I - Simon Jr. - talk out of experience! Should we call Station’s Magnus now FyrMag? One Arctic Skua (Almindelig Kjove) a outflying Crand (Trane) and a close 2nd cy Rough-legged Buzzard (Fjeldvåge) were nice, too. 

During the entire morning Hanelie joined at the radar and experienced -like I did yesterday- how fun it is to see how high the birds fly out. Even if the numbers of migrating raptors were quite low („it’s at least better than ringing three birds like yesterday“) the highlights from WE1 could also been seen from here.

 Talking about the radar:

Yesterday our Black-winged Kite (Blå Glente) made a migration attempt in the morning at Grenen. At 12:06 it made a second attempt and flew for at least 5 minutes straight north over the sea, which is rare in this species since they don't like the open sea. It gained hight from 51 to 137 meters and flew straight out until we lost it around 2 km away. Today Norways first ever Black-winged Kite was found at Elingård, Frederikstad, which is straight north of Skagen. We can not say it for sure, but since the time, behaviour and age of the birds fit, it is probably our bird. It is very rarely documented, that this species flies such a long distance out - no wonder it is the first ever for Norway now. Isn't it exciting?!

On my way out this morning a Greenshank flew over and telled me with its characteristic „djü djü djü“ that winter is finally over. I thanked it for the nice news and continued my walk to World‘s End 1. If you ask yourself now „What? Why does Simon (Jr.) walk to the count and does not take his bike?“ I‘ve got the answer for you. After I broke my arm one and a half weeks ago I was told to not do dangerous things anymore until my bone is starting to grow together. This makes sense since I want to be fit as soon as possible to also carry all the heavy stuff again (and not just like now with my right arm). But how can you know if the arm heales? Right - you go to the hospital again. Therefore I went to Hjørring hospital again. Our guests were so nice to drive me to Skagen St., than I took the train. In the train I met my good friend Hans Christophersen and his wife, who were guests last autumn. Hans and I feel very connected since we found Denmarks first Eastern Yellow Wagtail (Østlig Gul Vipstjert/Alaskavipstjert) together, so it was nice to see him and his wife again. The trip took some time and it was annoying that exactly now the years first Citrine Wagtail (Citronenvipstjert) (I love pipits and wagtails!!) showed up in Skagen. Fortunately, the X-ray showed that everything is how it should be. Simon Jr. 2.0 is back on his peak of existence!

While I writhe the blog and migrate back north, the other volunteers migrate south of town to twitch the Citrine Wagtail (Citronenvipstjert). It is a second year male (thanks to Simon Sr.'s Batman-eyes). Luckily, Jan picked me up so we met up at the flooded field and enjoyed the great views of the ????.

Citrine Wagtail (Gyvelmarken)

Since I can't get enough of it - here is one last picture of the Owl! :-)

Ringing (Kabeltromlekrattet):

Total: 20

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area.

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

People: Hayley Land, Isis Khalil, Hanelie Sidhu, Magnus Houen Lauritsen, Simon Kiesé, Simon S. Christiansen, Helle Rasmussen and Johan Deichmann.