THE BIRD RACE!!

The day we have been planning and waiting for! Today, May 10th, is the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's International Big Day and we at SKAF used this as an excuse to choose the day to run a fundraising campaign for the station. Starting a week ahead of time, we meticulously planned and scouted to ensure we could see as man species as on the day. 

Before I begin to discuss the breakdown of the day, we at SKAF would like to graciously thank our generous donors for supporting our efforts to fundraise for the station. We are pleased to announce we have raised over 8000 kroner and will be used to purchase necessary materials and supplies to assist in our ongoing monitoring efforts, both in observations and in ringing. The Spring 2025 SKAF team hopes that this can become a yearly event to help the place we have all come to love.

 

And now to breakdown the day!

This years team consisted of four people (Tue, Cora, Andrew and I) with the addition of Simon for parts of the day. Our rule was that in order for a species to count for our list, 2 or more people must see or hear a species. Throughout the entire day, we only had one ‘dirty’ bird, Sanderling/Sandløber, which was seen only by me at Grenen. The other 142, were seen by minimum 2 people.

At 01.45 AM, our alarms went off to be out the door by 2:15. We got all of our gear, food and supplies and headed for the car. Our first stop Gylvemarkerne. We were hoping to find the continuing Tawny Owl and the pair of Spotted Crakes. We unfortunately, were not able to find the crakes, but after our first bird of the day, Common Teal/Krikand, we were happy to find the Tawny Owls singing away! We were also happy to find a Short-eared Owl, cruising over the wetland. A nice way to start the day.

From there, we headed to Batteriskov, to try and hear our first passerines of the day but without much success. Cutting our time short, we headed back to the lighthouse and picked up the ringing gear and the rest of our equipment for the morning at Grenen. But first we stopped at Elle Krattet for the first time where we got our first passerine of the day, a singing Reed Bunting/Rørspurv and later a roosting Long-eared Owl/Skovhornugle. The ringers (Tue and Cora) then left to go open the nets and Andrew and I took some time to pick up some our first passerines as the dawn chorus started. Walking slowly down the Sandormentrak towards Kabeltromlen, our only Redwing/Vindrossel and Sedge Warbler/Sivsanger of the day stole the show. Arriving at Verdens Ende at 04:40, we were delighted to get several waders migrating predawn including Green Sandpiper/Svaleklire, Little Ringed Plover/Lille Præstekrave and Dunlin/Almindelig Ryle. As the sun came up, we were starting to get our first influxes of Fulmar/Mallemuk and the first Red-throated Divers/Rødstrubet Lømm migrating into Kattegat.

While Andrew and I were busy at Grenen, Cora and Tue caught the first Wheatear/Stenpikker of the day and our only Dunnock/Jernspurv of the day. They had a nice morning of ringing and caught some nice birds until about 09:00. 

While the others were ringing, Andrew and I got lots of the ‘one off’ birds (birds that were not seen elsewhere), including Arctic Skua (Almindelig Kjove), Greenshank (Hvidklire), Brambling (Kværkefinke) and surprisingly the only Common Redstart/Rødstjert of the day. By 08:00 we were closing in on 90 total species and we decided to head elsewhere. 

Having heard about a European Golden Oriole/Pirol, Marsh Warbler/Kærsanger, and Garden Warbler/Havesanger in Elle Krattet we decided to head to Elle Krattet to try and track them down, but were only able to locate the latter two. Fortunately, we were able to find our only Spotted Flycatcher/Grå Fluesnapper and Pied Flycatcher/Broget Fluesnapper of the day along with our 100th bird of the day: European Goldfinch/Stillits. 

Andrew and Vigo looking at bird #100

After about 45 minutes, we headed back to the station to recoup and meet up with the ringers. Fortunately we were able to see the only Rough-legged Buzzard/Fjeldvåge of the day from the parking lot. We then met up with Cora and Tue and headed to Batteriskov in hopes of finding a Wood Warbler/Skovsanger. No luck. But we did find a nice Crested Tit/Topmejse and the first Coal Tit/Sortmejse of the day. From there we headed to Stald Grenen hoping to find a roosting Ring Ouzel. Once again, no success, but we did find our only Icterine Warbler/Gulbug of the day.

We then headed to Drogden to look for Black Redstart/Husrødstjert, without any success but did lead us to find Eurasian Tree Sparrow/Skovspurv and a Whinchat/Bynkefugl. We then started to get word that the raptor were starting to move so we quickly ran down to Gylvestein to pick up any last forest birds before the morning hours came to a close, but alas we were not able to get anything other than a Mistel Thrush/Misteldrossel. 

We then headed to Pælebakken Klit to try and spend a few hours during the middle of the day searching for raptors. We were able to get our first Eurasian Hobby/Lærkefalk, a nice 2k male Pallid Harrier/Steppehøg and a White Stork/Hvid Stork for the day but unfortunately missed Osprey/Fiskeørn, Peregrine Falcon/Vandrefalk and Monatgu’s Harrier/Hedehøg to name a few. By 13:40, we decided it was time to head south to Trold Kær to try and find Eurasian Curlew/Storspove and Crane/Trane both of which we were able to find but also able to find later at the next stop at Hulsig Hede along with our second Eurasian Goshawk/Duehøg of the day.

With only a few targets remaining we headed up to the nature agency forest near Skagen Havn with hopes of finding a Nuthatch/Spætmejse but after only a few minutes of searching, we got a call about two Lesser Spotted Eagles/Lille Skrigørn at Flagbakken. Fortunately, we were close by so we headed to Gylvemarkerne and had the pair flying directly over our heads at fairly low altitude, absolutely stunning.

Lille Skrigørn

Shortly thereafter, we decided to try once again for Black Redstart/Husrødstjert, and after about 10 minutes we were able to locate one. Then it was time to pick up out first Stonechat of the day at Højen Fyr.

The evening then took us to Nordstrand where we picked up the continuing Glaucous Gull/Gråmåge before heading to Skarvsøen where we got our 140th species: Garganey/Atlingand. From there we made one small stop at Stald Grenen once again to check for Ring Ouzel/Ringdrossel without success before heading back to the station to quickly eat our premade dinner before heading back out to finish the day. With the sun setting we went up to Sandbunker at Grenen to try and see if we could find any migrating Lomvie or Fiskeørn without much success, but with the sun started to get low in the sky, Simon called us and told us he had a Ring Ouzel/Ringdrossel in Storsig. We went out and saw it for our 141st species.

The crew after seeing #141 Ring Ouzel

With just 20 minutes of light remaining we headed to the Black summerhouse at Nordstrand to try and see if we could find a singing grasshopper warbler/græshoppesanger without success so we headed to Sandmillen to try and get out final bird of the day: Eurasian Nightjar. At 22:30, we found one singing, our 142nd bird. A great final new bird of the day. We then made two quick stops at Gylvemarkerne and Elle Krattet to see if we could turn anything else up without much luck. Our day ended at 11:30 PM after over 21 hours of birding and tons of birds later! 

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Personal comments: 150 species is definitely a realistic number with a bit more planning and slightly better conditions. Potentially waiting a week longer could be beneficial for waders and rarities and better chances at breeding birds as most of the wintering species have already left, hence balancing out the tradeoffs. We missed ~10 easy species which were seen elsewhere in Skagen on the day which hurt, but confirmed what I thought to be true above. Also, I do not think Trold Kær would be worth the time investment again unless absolutely necessary. Most everything can be found further north.

Special thanks to Simon for scouting for us during the day and finding two crucial species for us! Much appreciated. And also to Helene Overby for allowing us to borrow her car for the day so we could do this bird race! We sincerely appreciate the generosity. 

And so, another day passes at Skagen fuglestation. What will tomorrow bring? We will have to wait and see!

Highlights:

• Lesser Spotted Eagle/Lille Skrigørn
• White Stork/Hvid Stork
• 800 Barnacle Geese/Bramgås
• Glaucous Gull/Gråmåge

 

Ringing: Kabeltromelen

Stenpikker 1

Solsort 1

Sjagger 1

Rødhals 2

Gærdesmutte 1

Jernspurv 1

Gærdesanger 1

Skovpiber 1

Tornsanger 2

Gransanger 1

Total: 19

Summary of Raptors in Skagen from todat

People: Lucas Corneliussen, Tue Baaner, Cora Köberle, Andrew Jacobs, Simon Sigaard Christiansen, Rasmus Matthiesen-Juhl, Hans Christophersen, Lars Grøn