An Extravagance of Eagles

Today I went out ringing where we had a nice weather day and a good number of birds. More females started to show up for species like European Pied Flycatcher (Broget Fluesnapper) and Common Redstart (Rødstjert) which was good to see. Two Sedge Warblers (Sivsanger) in the nets were another highlight if we can ring enough of them later years may be able to tell how old they can be from the recaptures as they undergo a complete moult and cannot be aged by plumage in the spring. As the day warmed up quite a few raptors started to come out towards the station where the Booted Eagle (Dværgørn) came in and did several passes directly over us which was quite the spectacle.

Sedge Warbler (Sivsanger)

Booted Eagle (Dværgørn)

We decided to go to Flagbakken to see if the Steppe Eagle (Steppeørn) from yesterday would come back around today. As we got there a trickle of raptors was going through with a few of each of the regular species coming past. The same Booted Eagle (Dværgørn) from earlier in the day came by and passed directly over us again in a second location for the day. We got a zello that the Steppe Eagle (Steppeørn) had been spotted to the south and then it seemed it had been spotted to the north and gotten past us. We manage to spot the Steppe Eagle (Steppeørn) far out to the north as it slowly came towards Flagbakken and flew very close by giving a great display. We hung around finishing a bit of work up between birds coming past and a White Stork (Hvid Stork) showed up doing a couple of passes.

Steppe Eagle (Steppeørn)

We then got a zello about a Citrine Wagtail (Citronvipstjert) which we went over to take a look for however it was down in the brush with a large flock of other wagtails. We then got a zello about an Eastern Imperial Eagle (Kejserørn) which was on the move and we set off after it as it was unlikely to hang around in one spot to go after later. We managed to catch up with the Eastern Imperial Eagle (Kejserørn) quite distantly at one spot then closer at the next spot as it travelled south west eventually disappearing behind the trees while being chased by a crow, but not before displaying its massive size and much different patterning than the other eagles we had seen.

Eastern Imperial Eagle (Kejserørn)

After all of the eagle excitement we got home and were having a meeting where at the end we got a zello about a European Bee-eater (Biæder) just outside at Ellekrattet so we ran out and this time we managed to spot it in the distance gliding above the forest, all in all a very good end to a very good day.

Today’s sightings from observers in the area on dofbasen https://dofbasen.dk/search/result.php?design=table&soeg=soeg&periode=dato&dato=12-05-2025&omraade=stor&stor=588&obstype=observationer&species=alle&sortering=dato

Ringmærkning: Kabeltromlen:
New
Broget Fluesnapper 2
Rødstjert 4
Løvsanger 5
Gærdesanger 9
Skovpiber 1
Sivsanger 2
Rødhals 2
Tornsanger 6
Munk 2
Bogfinke 2
Recaptures
Solsort 2
Gærdesanger 1
Tornsanger 1

Highlights from the observations:

Eastern Imperial Eagle (Kejserørn)
Steppe Eagle (Steppeørn)
Booted Eagle (Dværgørn)
Citrine Wagtail (Citronvipstjert)
European Bee-eater (Biæder)
White Stork (Hvid Stork)

Today’s raptor summary from the Skagen area

People: Cora Köberle, Simon Sigaard Christiansen, Lucas Corneliussen, Andrew Jacobs, Anders and Dorte Østerby.