Strikes and skuas!

Last night and this morning Skagen received the off-end of Storm Floris that hit the UK yesterday. Thankfully, the only effect of this pressure system at Skagen was that we couldn’t go ringing this morning! Instead, we braced the wind to do a large group effort migration count. Because there were six of us out, we decided to split – Markus, Sarah, and Louise taking the usual spot at World’s End III, and joined by Knud, while Simon, Mio, and I walked to World’s End I, which has a higher viewpoint but less visibility on the beach. This allowed us great coverage of anything happening out there with the birds!

Spotters getting spotted (Sarah, Markus and Louise) at World’s End III

The weather was unstable all morning, with showers intermittent so we got a great view of a double rainbow in front of Nordstrand.

The wind brought some fantastic waves to the point, as well as a speed boost for birds heading east. This included more Razorbills (Alk) than in recent days, some Fulmar (Mallemuk) far out, and a group of 7 Red-breasted Merganser (Toppet Skallesluger). Early on we also had some Red-throated Divers (Rødstrubet Lom) and a Razorbill resting close to shore, as well as some close Common Scoter (Sortand) rafts along the coast. Just after the 4 hours were up, and we had left World’s End I, the others saw a Honey Buzzard heading south, and Markus and Knud stayed an extra hour, seeing a few Arctic Skua (Almindelig Kjove).

Hanlie has been busy at the obs today, going through moth data from her recent days of moth trapping, and preparing her presentation on Curruca genus warblers for us. We are all looking forward to it!  As a treat this afternoon we all went bowling, having been invited by Simon’s dad. We were all surprisingly good, though Simon’s dad really blew us all out of the water with his stirkes!! Thanks to Kersten for the great afternoon, and for helping us with a big food shop afterwards.

Bowling!

Now some of us are preparing for an attempt at night netting some resting waders who might be making use of the puddles along the coast, while the others are resting the bowling arms and mentally preparing for some hopefully exciting days of migration watch as the winds die down.

Work is never done: Hanelie preparing her Curruca session at 10 pm. 

Click here for today’s observations on Dofbasen.

Highlihghts:
Arctic Skua (Almindelig Kjove)
Fulmar (Mallemuk)
Honey Buzzard (Hvepsevåge)

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