The Storm

Picture 1 – Sun rise

We knew today was going to be a bit stormy, but we did not know when or how extreme it would be. However, our day started around 8am, whereby we woke up and got ready before going out and seeing a rather lovely sunrise over the sea – in fact this was the only time we fully saw the sun today which was a bit of a change to the past few days.

Picture 2 – Forgotten fish!?

Simon arranged to pick us up for some Gull feeding at the harbour around 10am, so the morning was spent chopping up left over fish that was found in the freezer. We presume that this was left by the autumn team, but unsure of its origins, we thought it would make good gull food!

Picture 2 – Gull feeding  

Picture 3 – Colour ringed Herring Gull (Sølmåge)

It was great to see Simon and we headed over to the harbour in search of gulls. On the drive we hardly saw any gulls (Måge) heading towards Grenen, so we presumed they must be somewhere else. That location was indeed the harbour, and, on our arrival, we found large flocks of Herring Gulls (Sølmåge), Great Black-Backed Gulls (Svartbag), a few Common Gulls (Stormmåge), and a couple of Black-headed gulls too (Haettemåge). Eleanor and Simon were using some of the bread to entice the birds over, whilst I used some of the fish that we prepared earlier. The gull feeding was a great success, and many gulls came over to the food! We ring read a Herring Gull (Sølmåge) from Norway and called this one ‘Elsa’ or ‘Sven’ as it was originally ringed in Arundal and thought we must stick to the current Frozen scenes in Skagen. This is not massively far from the observatory, but it was great to see this bird hanging around the harbour and enjoying our fish, plus posing for a photo or two too. We checked other areas of the harbour and found a Long-tailed duck (Halvit), a few auks (Lomvie/Alk) and about 50+ Eiders (Ederfugl) all sheltering from the wind. A big thank you to Simon for the trip and dropping us back off.

Picture 4 – Sanderling (Sandløber).

Back in time for lunch, and a walk to see whether our bird feeding efforts were being successful resulted in food still present at the lighthouse net but no obvious birds in the vicinity whilst we were there. We decided to walk along to Worlds End three to check the Snow Bunting (Snespurv) food, which was half eaten but still present for our Bunting friends. On our walk, we ended up finding three Snow Buntings (Snespurv), two rather showy Sanderlings (Sandløber), and a single Dunlin (Almindelig Ryle) amongst the sea foam.  The wind was strong, and snow started to fall so we walked along the Sandormen track whereby a Woodcock (Skovsneppe) was one of the only birds seen in the storm.

Getting colder in temperature, we spent an afternoon and evening completing admin tasks and relaxing, much needed as the storm intensified outside.

Highlights:

• Snow Buntings (Snespurv) at Grenen
• Long-tailed duck (Havlit) in the harbour

Link to Dofbasen: https://dofbasen.dk/search/result.php?design=table&soeg=soeg&periode=dato&dato=12-01-2026&omraade=stor&stor=588&obstype=observationer&species=alle&summering=yes&sortering=dato

Observers: Thomas Weston, Eleanor Harris, Simon S. Christiansen