Surprise Scoter

It was an early morning today for Andrew and me, we left the station at 03:00 equipped with a trap, fish garbage and ringing equippment and handnet. The goal was to catch gulls at the beach. On our way we saw a Common Scoter „Sortand“. We were a bit worried it was sick as it is rather unusual here to see them on the beach, we usually only see them in the water. As we had steel rings in all sizes with us and a handnet it was quite tempting to go for it and we decided to do so and release it, if it would not seem well. The Common Scoter „Sortand“ tried to escape but Andrew was faster with the handnet. When we had the duck in hand we saw, why it was a bit slow: it was moulting all its flightfeathers! It is nomal for most ducks and geese to have a period when they can not fly due to their moult of flight feathers. So we did not need to worry, the Common Scoter „Sortand“ got a ring on its leg and got weighed and after some pictures we released it, it went into the water and we saw that it could swim and dive very well. We followed it with our binoculars until we could not see it any more, then we continued our way with the gull trap.

Sortand han. Picture: Andrew Jacobs.

Moult of flight feathers of the Common Scoter "Sortand". Picture: Andrew Jacobs.

Ringing totals

Sortand 1

We did not succed to catch a gull and went back before people came to the beach. While keeping an eye on the trap, we did some seewatching, we saw a few Arctic Scuas „Almindelig Kjove“, Kittiwakes „Ride“and resting Common Terns „Fjordterne“ and Gulls. There was not so much going on, it was a rather quiet morning on the sea.

On our way back we spotted another birdwatcher: Knud is back from his holiday in Norway and Sweden! After a nice chat combined with some birdwatching we continued our way back to the station.

Back there, I went to the moths traps. It was a quite windy night but I still got 23 different species, one of them was new for me, Macrochilo cribrumalils „Græssnudeugle”. And I want to show a rather common but nice one, Phalera bucephala ”Måneplet”. It is the first time I caught it here in Skagen. It is a nice and very well camouflaged moth, that looks a bit like a stick.

Phalera bucephala "Måneplet". Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

We got interesting news from Knud on zello: he had some Manx Shearwaters Almindelig Skråpe” on the sea later in the morning!

The rest of the day, I did a bit of datawork and tidied up the lab, took a nap and checked the nets at Cormorant lake, as it was quite windy the last days since we ringed there last. It is important in that weather to ckeck that the nets are properly closed so no sad accidents happen.

Cora as well had some datawork to do and worked on her presentation about Terns that we will enjoy one of the coming days. Andrew took a long nap and Pauline cooked us an early dinner before be left to Jerup with Linda and Jeppe.

At the beach in Jerup we could observe many waders, highlights were Bar-tailed Godwits ”Lille Kobbersneppe”, a Spoonbill ”Skestork” and – not a wader – a Little Gull ”Dværgmåge”, that Andrew found! After a verz nice evening we returned back to the Grey Lighthouse.

Birdwatching at Jerup. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu.

Little Gull. Picture: Hanelie Sidhu

Highlights in the field in Skagen:

Arctic Skua/ Almindelig Kjove

Manx Shearwater/Almindelig Skråpe

Today´s observations of observers in the area typed into DOFbasn can be seen here.

Highlights in the field Jerup:

Little Gull/ Dværgmåge

Spoonbill/ Skestork

Bar-tailed Godwit/ Lille Kobbersneppe

At the station: Andrew Jacobs, Cora Körbele, Knud Pedersen, Pauline Nähring, Hanelie Sidhu and our guests Linda and Jeppe.