Clickers and Cookies

For the first time in many days, Simon Jr and Magnus finally had a reason to use their clickers at the migration count. After so many quiet days it was great to get some good numbers of a couple of species again. The highest count went to the Common Gull (Stormmåge) with almost 2000 individuals clicked. Also seen in impressive numbers were Velvet Scoters (Fløjsand). In fact, the total clicked today is equal to the second-best count of this species in spring in Skagen ever! Other highlights from the count included a White-billed Diver (Hvidnæbbet Lom) and two Rosefinches (Karmindompap).

Unfortunately, it was much slower in the ringing, the first round producing no birds at all! Luckily we did manage to catch a few birds over the five hours but not many. As it was so quiet, there was plenty of time for Kirsten to practice her ringing skills, particularly focusing on fat scores to determine the condition of each bird. Our highlight was the first Spotted Flycatcher (Grå Fluesnapper) in the ringing this spring. Such a beautiful bird!

Spotted Flycatcher (Grå Fluesnapper)

Whilst at Kabeltromlen, we also received a very generous bag of cookies and a donation from Brian which was a lovely surprise. These will definitely keep us well fuelled during the ringing and counting for many days! Thank you so much Brian!

In the afternoon we focused on inside tasks including data entry, updating the picture archive and raptor summaries. We then had a picture session with Simon Sr where we looked at some bird of the photos that we have taken in the field to determine their age. It was a very interesting session and will hopefully help prepare us for when we catch more difficult birds in the field!

This evening we have been treated to a delicious dinner cooked by the staff from Blink. We ate together with the people from the lighthouse, it was quite a party! We have been looking forward to it for ages and were not disappointed. The sunny weather was perfect, the food was amazing and the company great! Thank you everyone for a really nice evening.

We finished the evening by checking a House Sparrow (Gråspurv) nest above Blink to see if there were chicks inside old enough to ring.

Unfortunately, it was empty but with the adults close by we hope they will have eggs soon!

Finally, some of the children that visited us here at the station have been inspired by our blogs to write their own. You can read all about their birding adventures in Skagen here.

Ringing (Kabeltromlekrattet):

Total: 11

A link to today's observations from volunteers and local observers.

Sum of observations of raptors on DOFbasen from today.

People: Seán Walsh, Hayley Land, Isis Khalil, Magnus Houen Lauritsen, Simon Kiesé, Simon S. Christiansen, Kirsten Bregn, and our friends from Blink and the lighthouse.