Rain, Wind, and Reward

Last night Cora and Yuri was in charge of night catching. Unfortunately, luck was not on their side, and they had to close the nets at 02:30 due to rain. Markus and Yuri did spot two nightjars (natravne) near the nets, and Yuri almost managed to catch a skylark (sanglærke).

This morning, Simon and I opened the nets and had a pleasant start to the day with some good birds, including a spotted flycatcher (grå fluesnapper). Cora joined us for the third round, where we had six birds in the same net with, which included a bullfinch (dompap). We were also joined by our guests, Grete and Stig, who were happy to see the many birds they recognize from their garden up close. Unfortunately, the wind picked up, forcing us to close the nets earlier than planned.

a beautiful little spotted flycatcher (grå fluesnapper)

Meanwhile, Markus and Sarah took care of morning observations at World’s end III. I was a calm and nice session, highlighted by an arctic skua (almindelig kjove) and some razorbills (alk) in the water, as well as some sanderlings (sandløbere) running around on the beach. The gull numbers were impressive. Amoun them, they counted a staggering 1679 resting herring gulls (sølvmåger)!

At midday, Sarah and Rose enjoyed lunch at Blink to celebrate Rose’s birthday yesterday. They highly recommended it for the rest of us. Later, Rose and Cora tested the thermal gear and even ventured to the attic in search of Fuglestationen merch. Even though they did not find any t-shirts or caps, they did find and bring back the day’s most unusual find: a plastic crab.

Grethe and Stig kindly returned with cake and homemade sea buckthorn/apple marmalade (a big thank you – I can’t wait the have some for breakfast tomorrow during morning observations).

The attic crab and the homemade maramalade

Simon prepared an early and delicious dinner so that he, Markus, and Cora could head to Grenen for some evening birding. Their efforts were well rewarded with the sightings of a sooty shearwater (sodfarvet skråpe). What a spectacular way to round off the day!

the sooty shearwater (sodfarvet skråpe). 

Today’s observations by observers in the area of Skagen typed into DOFbasen can be found here.

Ringing at KAB: 

2 Gærdesanger

1 Grå fluesnapper

1 Rørsanger

1 Blåmejse

3 Løversanger

2 Munk

1 Dompap

2 Gransanger 

Total: 13

At the station:
Markus Kemp Clément, Simon Kiesé, Louise Buksti-Ladefoged, Sarah Partridge, Cora Köberle, Rosemary Fricke, Simon Sigaard Christiansen.