Our Cold but Cozy Nook

Today was a real test for us, battling against the coldest and windiest weather we’ve experienced so far this Autumn. I was excited to be wearing the big cozy boiler suit for the first time for this morning’s migration count and I’m super, super glad I had it! It was too windy for any ringing so all 6 of us, and Knud and his friend, all bundled into the cozy nook at Nordstrand. The counting started off pretty busy with a nice rush of Kittiwakes (Ride), including some first year birds which are rarer to see and quite beautiful, and three Little Auks (Søkonge) too!

However, the volume of migrating birds died down very quickly after the first hour and so we enjoyed celebrating some of the more common species to stay motivated and warm, including some lovely Goosander (Stor Skallesluger), Red-Breasted Merganser (Toppet Skallesluger), and Velvet Scoter (Fløjlsand). I really enjoyed the combination of the slow pace of migration and being sat between Florian and János because there was time for them to teach me about identifying and ageing Common Gulls (Stormmåge) as they flew by, which I appreciated a lot.

Despite all our layers, our heated socks and lots of running around and gymnastic exercises to keep warm, we were all very excited to be warmed up by the cycle home and enjoyed a lunch all together at the kitchen table. This is an extremely rare occasion, but today we have ended up eating dinner, lunch AND breakfast together which has been very nice.

After lunch, Miles and I headed to Flagbakken, a nice woodland sand dune area on the far side of Skagen town, where the Sunken Church (Tilsandede Kirke) is. It seems the snow yesterday was much heavier there and it’s more sheltered, so the sand and fallen trees were lined with a thin layer of crisp snow; it felt like a winter wonderland! The trees were alive with Goldcrests (Fuglekonge) and Coal Tits (Sortmejse), and Miles even saw an Otter (Odder) running across the path which is very cool.

Meanwhile, Lise and Mathilde visited the centre of Skagen which is very pretty this time of year with all the Christmas trees and decorations everywhere, and they also made a visit to the bakery too. Florian was at the beach at Grenen this afternoon and spotted two  of our regular Stonechats (Sortstrubet Bynkefugl) as well as the usual flock of Snow Bunting (Snespurv), which he also put out seed for in the hope that we can maybe catch and ring them in the coming week if we’re lucky!

No ringing today. But today was officially the last day of our standardised ringing season so stay tuned for a full summary of the Autumn season!

Link to today’s observations from the area

People: Miles Scheuering, János Schadl, Florian Hatt, Amira Nuseibeh, Lise Mastrup, Mathilde Lundt Larsen, and Simon S. Christiansen.