Last day

The day started with a long walk to Nordstrand for me. I arrived at the observation site, and sheltered from the easterly winds, I started counting. There was a nice stream of Guillemots (Lomvie) with an obvious increase of breeding plumage birds compared to December, which was nice to see. Next to good numbers of Red-throated Divers (Rødstrubet Lom) a first highlight was a Black Guillemot (Tejst) and a Long-tailed Duck (Havlit). After a while, Knud arrived, and we counted for three hours at the end, with birds of note being a Whooper Swan (Sangsvane) and two female Shelducks (Gravand).

Knud and János observing at Nordstrand

Thomas and Eleanor had been brought to Gammel Skagen by Simon in the morning, to do a Fulmar walk, where they look for dead birds on the beach, which are then collected for scientific purposes. When they reached Nordstrand we had a short conversation, and later they also found a dead Gannet (Sule), which is now in our freezer in the lab. Further, they also found a dead Catfish (Havkat) and saw a Fox (Ræv) on the beach. On my way back, I saw two Bean Geese (Sædgås), which apparently were also seen by Thomas and Eleanor, and a Pintail (Spidsand).

Beach finds of Thomas and Eleanor

After lunch, Thomas and Eleanor went for a walk, and I did some data entry work. Later Simon visited us, and we had a very good dinner made by Thomas. We tried nightcatching Woodcocks (Skovsneppe) again, but without success. 

It was my last day in Skagen and tomorrow I will be heading back to Germany. It felt very good to spend the week here with good people and birds, and I am looking forward to come back in spring.

Link to today's observations from the area.

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