Fulmar Survey Highlights

*** We recieved news of our first ever ringed Treecreeper (Træløber) caught from elsewhere. This was a bird ringed in Finland on the 18th September 2025 and recaught by Michael Ancher at Jennes Sø on the 17th October 2025. An amazing 955km SW in 29 days.***

Today was the final Mallemuk/Fulmar survey of the month, and it ended up being a very good bird day too! Due to the wind direction slightly changing to an NNE direction, we were advised by Simon to walk from Det Grå Fyr to Gammel Skagen to complete the survey. Our 10km walk started well, a brief auk spp looked interesting but never came to anything, and some resting Eiders (Ederfugl) and Common Scoters (Sortand) were always great to see.

Picture 1: Colour ringed RW '4C9' Cormorant (Skarv).

Walking towards Grenen we saw a pair of Whooper Swans (Sangsvane) fly in off the sea before heading south. We then saw a small flock of 12 Snow Buntings (Snespurv) and enjoyed watching them in the strong winds. As we turned west from the tip, we checked the small flock of hardy Herring Gulls (Sølmåge), Great Black-Backed Gulls (Svartbag), and Cormorants (Skarv). We noticed one of the Cormorants (Skarv) had a Danish red colour ring and proceeded to read the colour code - an exciting find and we are looking forward to hearing more from this individual.

Picture 2: 5k+ White-tailed Eagle (Havørn)

Looking out to sea we noticed a male Goldeneye (Hvinand) flying very fast east into the wind. Looking further behind it, we noticed why there was such a hurry, it was a rather unusual observation of a ‘migrating’ White-tailed Eagle (Havørn) heading NE out to sea flushing every duck along the way. This was particularly unusual given the wind direction and the time of year. However, we lost it far out to sea, so maybe it is now in Finland? Moving on, the lack of any dead birds for the survey was apparent, but we found some nice Velvet Scoter (Fløjlsand), Gannets (Sule), and another flock of 8 Whooper Swans (Sangsvane) migrating South. With a bit of sun, it felt almost autumnal, though -2’c with windchill of -9’c quickly reminded us that it was January.

Picture 3: Sanderling (Sandløber)

Nordstrand approached and our fun flocks of Sanderling (Sandløber) were present with a single Turnstone (Stenvender). In the bushes a large flock of Fieldfare (Sjagger) resided. By this time, we were over half the way and only a few gull wings were found for the survey, so we continued onwards. Walking past Højen Fyr, and onto the final stretch, a sad looking oiled Herring Gull (Sølmåge) was noteworthy for the wrong reasons. The end was now in sight and conversations about species we would like to see ended up us finding one on the groynes: it was a Purple Sandpiper (SortgrA Fyr). These perky, showy little waders are always great to see and proved rather photogenic.

Picture 4: Fastelavn Bun

One unidentified cetacean later and Simon picked us up at the end point, thank you so much! A quick stop in Skagen, our second home the harbour, and back in time for lunch and tea. Simon provided us a Fastelavn Bun to celebrate Fastelavn. This traditionally involved "Hitting the Cat in the Barrel”, but this is now celebrated with sweets and fruit inside a hanging cat pinata, rather than cats in barrels, a bit more ethical. However, it was delicious and would highly recommend after our 10km/15,000 steps today. Now time to chill and relax….

Highlights:

-  Goldeneye (Hvidand) in front of a White-tailed Eagle (Havørn) - Grenen
-  Purple Sandpiper – Gammel Skagen
-  Great-northern Diver (Islom) – Skagen Havn

Link to Dofbasen here.

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