Waterbird count

This weekend is the winter date for the national waterfowl count. For us, this means that we have to count all the resting sea ducks and other seabirds from the harbor in Skagen to Nordstrand. The weather today was excellent for this purpose, with light winds and good visibility. After breakfast, we started at the lighthouse tower, from where we had a very good view.

View from the lighthouse

Some highlights where two Black-throated Divers (Sortstrubet Lom) and Long-tailed Ducks (Havlit). From there we went on towards Grenen stopping now and then to scan the sea. At the tip we saw a flock of 20 Snowbuntings (Snespurv), so maybe they found our feeding spot and the Sanderlings (Sandløber) where also back, which was nice. 

Counting at Nordstrand

On our way to Nordstrand we saw a Rough-legged Buzzard (Fjeldvåge), a Scaup (Bjergand) and surprisingly a few groups of Mallards (Gråand) and Teals (Krikand) which might be due to the still frozen lakes. Further good birds where a Little Gull (Dværgmåge) and a Turnstone (Stenvender) as well as good numbers for both Velvet Scoter (Fløjlsand) and Great Crested Grebe (Toppet Lappedykker).

Successful end of the count

We walked back through the dunes and had a short lunch break at the lighthouse befor Simon picked us up, to get the new bikes we got donated from the Lions Club and Mikkel Stig. They where much needed since many of the old ones have problems with the gear or the breaks and are generally quite exausting to use! 

New bikes!!!!

We biked back and finished the day with very good pizza by Eleanor.

Link to today's observations from the area.

People:  Thomas Weston, Eleanor Harris, Simon S. Christiansen, János Schadl