North Meets South on a Rainy Day

The story of this spring has once again returned. The rain and strong wind has come back once again. Yet another day this spring without observations and ringing due to intense weather. Waking up around 8 AM, the crew had been up early in the morning hoping the weather would have cleared; however, it did not much to out dismay. This allowed us to get caught up on some needed data entry and tasks around the station that needed completing, such as cleaning!

Around 11 AM, once we had thoroughly cleaned the station and the feather-covered lab, Cora and I jumped on our bikes and cycled down to Batteriskoven, Stald Grenen and Jennes Sø. Unfortunately, the wind was still quite strong and the fog quite thick leaving us relatively empty handed. A nice flock of Hawfinch (Kernebider) was quite nice, along with some of the regular breeding species such as Spotted Flycatcher (Grå Fluesnapper). While we were south of the lighthouse, Andrew opted to head out to Grenen in search of gulls and waders and was rewarded with a 3k Iceland Gull (Hvidvinget Måge). A beautiful white bird which was hanging out near the tip of Grenen with the other gulls. 

Hvidvinget Måge

The rest of the afternoon was quite slow and many of us took naps to catch up on sleep, something we don't get much of these days. After dinner, I then decided to take stroll along the rocks outside the lighthouse as the weather had cleared up. I was out in search of wheatears (Stenpikker) and Whinchats (Bynkefugl), but without any success, I began scanning Kattegat and noticed a pale mid-sized tern flying towards me from the southeast. As the bird got closer, I noticed it had a black cap and bill. Then as it passed me at approximately 100 meter range, I immediately noticed it was a Gull-billed Tern (Sandterne)!! The bird had a rounded black cap, dark edging to the trail edge of the primaries, a pale gray mantle and wings, and of course, a heavy, thick, all black bill. It *lacked* any yellow like the Sandwich Terns (Splitterne) noted at similar range earlier in the observation period. It rapidly passed the lighthouse and I followed the bird for 30 seconds more as it flew towards the Sandbunker and then eventually out of sight in the lingering mist near the tip of Grenen. This record represents the sixth record (post 2000) in Skagen!

Andrew, Cora and I immediately jumped on our bikes after it had already headed into the fog and zoomed out to Sandklit to search for the bird. We unfortunately were unable to see it again. However, we did have a nice pair of Sangsvane barreling NE towards Norway on the way to their breeding grounds as well as over 500 svale sp. (mostly Landsvale and Bysvale).

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

Highlights:

Gull-billed Tern (Sandterne) 1

Iceland Gull (Hvidvinget Måge) 1

Sangsvane 2

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

People: Lucas Corneliussen, Rasmus Mattiesen-Juhl, Cora Köberle, Andrew Jacobs, Simon S. Christiansen.