The Shrimp Cake

Today was the first really nice, busy day for the migration count in quite a while. Miles and Florian headed out to Worlds End 3 where the north-westerly winds seemed to be pushing all the birds closer to the shore, leading to nice views of three Sooty Shearwaters (Sodfarvet Skråpe). Even the ringers at Kabeltromlen managed to see them pass by. There were also more Fulmars (Mallemuk) than usual, at least 500 over the morning, and both Arctic and Great Skuas (Kjoves) too! A highlight was also 8 Purple Sandpiper (Sortgrå ryle), a species which we have been seeing more and more in the last week, and we all love so much!

Observers counting lots of birds this morning!

Over at the ringing station at Kabeltromlen, we had a windy start to the morning, so we didn’t have most of the nets open at first but then opened more up as the morning went on and caught 57 new birds in the end. It was lovely to have a Norwegian photographer, Hilde, and her family, join us and take some photographs as part of her upcoming project focused on birds, bird ringing and current environmental issues (link to her website is here). We were also visited by Linda and Jeppe who hold a ringing licence so helped Sarah, Gabriel, Simon, Esben, Florian and I with the ringing this morning.

Although we didn’t catch any rare species today, it was nice to have so many retrapped birds (22 in total), including a gorgeous Crested Tit (Topmejse) which Sarah and I caught 10 days ago. Since then, it has increased in body fat but decreased in weight by 0.1g which I find quite confusing.

Once we got back to the lighthouse, Sarah, Florian, Miles, Esben and I had a refreshing dip in the sea, much to the shock of the many many tourists which were sat in their coats and woolly hats clutching hot drinks whilst we walked past them in just our swimsuits. The sun was out and the water was probably the warmest it has been since I arrived here in September.

This afternoon we said goodbye to Lars Bo and Esben who have helped us so much this week and I know we’re all extremely grateful for all the knowledge and funny stories they’ve shared with us! Lars Bo is a terrific ornithologist and specialist on Little Owls (Kirkeugle) in Denmark and has just yesterday been interviewed on TV about the project; you can find out more about it here!

Gabriel is sadly also leaving us tomorrow but it’s his birthday in a few days, so Miles and I baked him a secret surprise chocolate torte whilst he went out birding with Sarah and Florian for the quarterly waterbird counts. They visited Skarvsøen (Cormorant Lake), North Strand, and then did the final count from the top of the lighthouse at sunset. They did have to almost run up the 210 steps to make it before it got too dark to count birds! Their highlights from the waterbird counts were lots of Great Crested Grebes (Toppet Lappedykker) from Northstrand, some Purple Sandpipers (Sortgrå ryle) and a Great Grey Shrike (Stor Tornskade) on their bike ride between count locations!

Florian, Sarah and Gabriel completing the final waterbird count of the day, from the top of the lighthouse, as the sun sets.

After a delicious dinner of Chilli and homemade Cornbread made my Miles, Gabriel gave us an interesting presentation on the identification of Scotor (Melanitta) species. I definitely learnt a lot from it; I had no idea that there were 6 different species globally. We then surprised Gabriel with his birthday chocolate cake which we decorated with powdered sugar in the shape of a traditional Swedish Shrimp. We’ll all miss him so much, but we wish him lots of luck as he returns to Sweden to finish writing his master’s thesis on Hummingbirds and carry out lots more wildlife surveys this Autumn!

Chocolate Torte with a Shrimp decoration for Gabriel's birthday

Then, just as we sat down on the sofa finally ready to relax, Miles sent us a message saying that the Northern Lights were visible. We all sprinted outside as fast as we could and we could see the green glow, wow! As we watched it for a while, we listened to the tseep tseep calls of Redwings (Vindrossel) as they migrated above us under a sky full of stars. What a fantastic end to a great day!

Northern Lights / Aurora Borealis from the Lighthouse Garden

 

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Vindrossel 3

Sangdrossel 2

Grønirisk 2

Musvit 1

Gærdesmutte 12

Rødhals 3

Dompap 1

Stor Dompap 3

Lille Dompap 3

Kvækerfinke 10

Bogfinke 3

Blåmejse 3

Munk 2

Fuglekonge 9

 

Ringing (Jennes Sø):

Gærdesmutte 3

Rødhals 2

Fuglekonge 7

Sortmejse 1

Blåmejse 6

Musvit 2

Træløber 1

Grønirisk 1

Lille Gråsisken 11

Stor Dompap 2

Total new birds: 93

 

Highlights from Worlds End 3:

Sooty Shearwater (Sodfarvet Skråpe) 3

Fulmar (Mallemuk) 500+

Purple Sandpiper (Sortgrå ryle) 8

 

Today’s observations from the area can be found here

 

People: Gabriel Axelsson, Florian Hatt, Sarah Partridge, Amira Nuseibeh, Miles Scheuering, Michael Ancher, Simon S. Christiansen, Lars Bo Jacobsen, Esben Hansen, and our guests Linda and Jeppe.