Back at it again

Today we finally could do migration count as the rain had stopped/quieted down, though the wind was blowing quite strong from SW, but wind usually equals birds so me, Mara and Emma went to Worlds End 3, while Thomas and Eleanor went out to look for Water Pipits (Bjergpiber). The migration count was quite a success! Even though the very light rain really messed with the conditions and made it somewhat hard to see the birds that were further out (It is possible to find and ID birds at 4-5 km distance under acceptable conditions), we still managed to see loads of kittiwakes (Ride), alcids (Alkefugl) and divers (Lommer) migrating SE and among the specialties we had Caspian Gulls (Kaspisk Måge), a very nice Great Skua (Storkjove) that came by close towards SE, same did a Sooty Shearwater (Sodfarvet Skråpe), but the observation-conditions really hampered the views on a Great Northern Diver (Islom) that went southeast and made it impossible to ID three big divers that went same direction, but they were probably Great Northern Divers too.

Atleast the gulls were close - a Herring Gull with extensive black in the primaries, looking rare

But even with a nice, warm morning/day like today, one bird left a somewhat bitter taste in my mouth, as I picked up a large shearwater that went southeast and a few hours later went northwest. Big, brown with white underparts, off-white underwings and slightly backswept primaries and flight style pointed towards Great Shearwater (Storskråpe), but it was far away and the conditions did not permit to nail down the ID for this very rare shearwater species! It would have been 11^th record for Denmark and the first record for Skagen since 1982 of this quite exclusive shearwater, and it would have been the cherry on the top for an astounding seabird season for Skagen, as it would have been the fifth(!) shearwater-species recorded in Skagen this autumn with Manx Shearwater (Almindelig Skråpe), Sooty Shearwater, Balearic Shearwater (Balerisk Shearwater) and Cory’s Shearwater (Kuhl’s Skråpe) being the other ones. But maybe we will see another one tomorrow as the wind slows down tomorrow, fingers crossed. After this successful obs we went back to the station, where Simon still was busy with a board meeting. I took a long nap as Thomas and Eleanor came back, though they hadn’t found any Water Pipits, they found Crested Tit (Topmejse) and Treecreeper (Træløber) during their long walk along Jennes Sø, Batterivej and North Beach.

Jennes Sø without ice, a great spot for passerines

The rain set in and now we have had a cozy evening, though we got a mail from the Russian ringing center concerning two Herring Gulls (Sølvmåge) we had read the rings of. Both were ringed near Murmansk in northeastern Russia and one of them was in ringed in 2007 on the nest! 17 years old and still going, which is crazy. The other one was ringed in 2008 at the same spot, “only” 6 years old. Just proves why ringing is such a useful tool that will keep on giving new and interesting nuggets of knowledge about the life of birds

Answer-letter from russian ringing central concerning or 17 year old Herring Gull!

Highlights from obs:
Sooty Shearwater – Sodfarvet Skråpe 1, it is getting late, but somewhat expected with this exceptional autumn season for this trans-atlantic migrant

Great Skua - Storkjove 1

Caspian Gull – Kaspisk Måge 3

Great Northern Diver – Islom 1

Link to today's observations from observers in the area