Batman is actually afraid of bats

Last night we put up the Stormsvale and Natravn nets, in the hopes of catching some late Lille stormsvale or Stor stormsvale. We put Florian and Gabriel to work straight away putting up the nets on the beach, and then I took the first half of the night shift. This was mostly uneventful, until I went to do one last round around 1.30 and saw there was not a Natravn but a Myotis bat trapped in the net. This was my first bat extraction and I was glad that  Jeppe was there to provide some company for the extraction, which was a bit long since I was wearing gardening gloves to avoid its rabid jaws. The bat was very agitated and loud and extremely cute. Jeppe and I admired it for a minute and then released it and I was sad I forgot to take a picture! But after I went to wake up Janna to take over the rounds, she immediately found another bat in the net, maybe the same poor soul trapped again! She was switched on enough to take a photo. Simon was glad he didn’t have to come over to extract the bat because he is afraid of them, yet another suspicious similarity with Batman.

In the morning I went with Barbara and Florian to go observing at World’s End III. It was a fantastic morning and Florian is superhumanly observant and very fun to seawatch with. Within about 30 seconds of arriving, he spotted an Arctic Loon (Sortstrubet Lom) and before I turned my scope to look at it he also spotted an Artcic skua (Almindelig Kjove), setting us up for an eventful morning. We also saw one bat flying over the sea, bringing the total number of bats I have seen in Skagen to 2. Sadly the observation was cut short by the rain, which reduced visibility a lot so we left after only three hours.

Janna, Selina, and Gabriel went ringing with Simon this morning, which was also very eventful before the rain. They trapped 26 sortmejse today, in the midst of a large sortmejse influx, which is not occurring every year. They also trapped one each of spotted and pied flycatcher (grå and broget fluesnapper), two rødstjerts, and two havesangers, among many others.

When we came home cold and wet, we smelled some delicious baking and saw that our guest Helle was cooking us a tasty treat of fresh bread! In the afternoon Janna and I went for a cold swim in the rain, and then Helle kindly drove us to the shop. After that I went for a nap, and Gabriel and Janna went birdwatching and saw the first Jack Snipe (enkeltbekkasin). After some data entry and office tasks, the crew are playing cards together and showing off magic tricks, a very cozy atmosphere in the lighthouse.

Ringing totals:

Rødstjert 2
Løvsanger 4
Grå fliesnapper 1
Sortmejse 26
Jernspurv 1
Broget fluesnapper 1
Dompap 1
Havesanger 2
Munk 8
Blåmejse 1
Gransanger 2
Total 49

Highlights from World's End III

Sortstrubet Lom, Almindelig Kjove, Fløjlsand, Dværgmåge, Hjejle, Tejst. 

Obervations from the area can be found here. 

People:
Barbara Leone, Gabriel Axelsson, Florian Hatt, Selina Veng, Janna Ouedraogo, Sarah Partridge, Simon S. Christiansen, Jeppe and our guests Helle and Johan.