Warm Air and Warm Sea

Today was surprisingly warm when Lise, Amira, János and I went out to World’s End III. Therefore, I decided not to take the warm boiler suit but to enjoy the warm weather (around 10°C) in my own clothes.


Observers at World's End III

The wind blew strongly from the south-west, which did not really result in many birds. But there were some nice birds resting. For example Black-throated Diver (Sortstrubet Lom) and a small group of Great Crested Grebes (Toppet Lappedykker). When looking inland we got some nice views of a juvenile female Hen Harrier (Blå Kærhøg) and of the pair of Stonechats (Sortstrubet Bynkefugl) that is hanging around in the area for many weeks now. The Kittiwakes (Ride) were a bit more numerous than other species, and some came very close, since a large part of the beach got flooded today. We even had to move our bicycles a little because the water level rose rapidly during the observation period! Also, the tourists couldn't walk all the way to the tip, which meant that some of them came to World's End III instead and talked to us. After the first 2.5 hours Knud went down to the beach, as there wasn't much going on with the alcids (alkefugle) that he was counting as always. Just then, two Brent Geese (Knortegås) flew in and made a few rounds over the beach. Knud was lucky and was standing in the right place, so he was able to take a great photo of them.


Lysbuget og Mørkbuget Knortegås, Photo by Knud Pedersen

It was really nice to see them so close, and even more fun was the fact that one was of the light-bellied and the other was of the dark-bellied subspecies. After that, I took over counting the auks, which at first was actually very little work, but then surprisingly increased significantly in the last hour.

Afterwards, I stayed outside and walked along the outermost row of dunes towards Nordstrand. I spent some time with a very skulky Reed Bunting (Rørspurv) and unfortunately could never see it properly to rule out a rarity for sure. But I saw two Water Pipits (Bjergpiber) flying around over the reed beds, always nice to hear and see them!

Miles had an office day today and, among other things, recorded a tutorial on how to fold paper Christmas stars correctly. Now we can finally all get started and decorate our little tree with lots of stars! You could watch the tutorial here: https://youtu.be/vi1YSKKjflY?si=6xSqAdUkR8jhkFte 

In the afternoon, Miles and Amira went swimming in the sea again. They described it as surprisingly warm! Amira also went for a walk to Guldmajssøen and went upstairs to the lighthouse in the evening. Afterwards, Lise presented her session about her time at Blåvand and Geddser Fuglestation!


Lise's presentation

It was very interesting to see how the stations differ and which bird species are most common there. Now we're waiting for dinner, which János is preparing. It smells really good already!

Standard ringing finished

Highlights from World's End III
Bjergpiber (Water pipit) 2
Sortstrubet Lom (Black-throated Diver) 2
Lysbuget og Mørkbuget Knortegås (Light- and dark-bellied Brent Geese very close!)

Link to today’s observations from the area.

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