Bugs and Birds

Hanelie, Sarah and Louise were the first ones to get up today for ringing at Kabeltrommeln. It was quite windy, so they didn’t open all the nets. Because of the wind, they only caught five birds today, but they still had a nice morning with an amazing sunrise, and they had time so that Louise could learn how ringing works and how to handle a bird. Which was a great experience for her. 

Ringing at Kabeltrommeln

Meanwhile, Markus, Rose and I headed to World's End 3 and started counting at 05:16 today. We were also able to see that beautiful sunrise. The conditions for counting were much better than yesterday. We saw seven Arctic Skuas (Almindelig Kjove), some Razorbills (Alk) were swimming quite close to the beach, and there were some waders, like Grey Plovers (Strandhjejle) and Bar-tailed Godwits (Lille kobbersneppe) After that, Markus and I decided to get closer to the gull flock, and we saw five Caspian Gulls (Kaspisk måge). We managed to read 15 colour rings, one of them, a Lesser Black-backed Gull (Sildemåge), had a Spanish ring, so it had made its way all the way up here to Skagen!

After ringing and counting, most of us took a short nap or just relaxed a bit. Once we were all rested, we spent our time entering data. Around 3 PM, Simon Sr. came to the station, and a few moments later Simon Kiesé (aka Simon Jr.) arrived with his father. His father will stay here until next Wednesday, and Simon Jr. will stay until the beginning of September. It's nice to have him back at the station after his volunteer year in 2023–2024. 

Then we had the evening meeting and planned for tomorrow. After we finished, Simon Jr. wanted to take a short walk to see the area again. I joined him, and we headed to World's End 1. There were many bugs there, and on our way back we saw a Spotted Redshank (Sortklire) flying over Ellekrattet with 11 Wood Sandpipers (Tinksmed)

Common Club Grasshopper (Myrmeleotettix maculatus)

Now Sarah is cooking, and it already smells delicious!

Tonight, we will try to catch Nightjars (Natravn) and Storm Petrels (Stormsvale) again. Maybe we will even catch some waders in the Storm Petrel net. We’re all very excited to see what will happen tonight and whether we’ll be successful. We’ll let you know tomorrow in the blog!

Ringing Kabeltrommeln:

Tornsanger 3
Gærdesanger 1
Tornsanger 1
Total: 5

Highlights from our Observations:

7  Arctic Skuas (Almindelig Kjove)

Spotted Redshank (Sortklire)

Caspian Gulls (Kaspisk måge)

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

At the station: Sarah Partridge, Markus Kemp Clément, Rosemary Fricke, Simon S. Christiansen, Mio Brix, Simon Kiesé, Louise Buksti-Ladefoged, Hanelie Sidhu