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Cool birds!
mandag 30. marts 2026
Today’s ringing session started with a beautiful view of the setting moon over the dunes. The weather was quiet and clear. The whole morning was filled with an overall lower number of ringed birds than the previous days, but that was due to the fact we had a much lower amount of Blue Tits (Blåmejse) that day.
Diversity-wise, the day was interesting with the highlights being a female Bullfinch (Dompap) and two Redpolls (Gråsisken), one of them being a Lesser Redpoll (Lille Gråsisken) (subspecies cabaret) and the other being of the flammea subspecies (Nordlig Gråsisken) which is fenno-scandinavian. These two individuals were particularly interesting to compare as they were caught at the same time, so we could study their differences and notice the subtle variations of these two subspecies. Both were adult males, which made their plumage especially enjoyable as well.
Female Bullfinch (Dompap)
Lesser Redpoll (Lille Gråsisken) (subspecies cabaret) on top, and the fenno-scandinavian subspecies flammea (Nordlig Gråsisken) on the bottom.
During the morning at the ringing site, some of us were lucky to hear a Waxwing (Silkehale) call around the nets, as well as see a beautiful Golden Eagle (Kongeørn) soaring above us.
Around 9 o’clock we had the visit of a group of birders guided by Simon who wanted to learn more about the process of ringing. The group was really happy to witness us ringing a few birds and hearing about interesting facts about them from Simon, as well as more details about the various steps of ringing.
On the side of migration, the numbers of overall migrating birds were a little lower than the previous days, but still decent. The observers spotted a couple of Fulmars (Mallemuk), a Little Gull (Dværgmåge), a Peregrine Falcon (Vandrefalk) resting on the beach and calling, as well as two Arctic Skuas (Almindelig Kjove) which were a pale morph and a dark morph respectively.
In the fourth hour of migration, a Black-Winged Kite (Blå Glente) was called out on Zello, just south of the counting spot, and despite trying to see it immediately, the observers missed it by a few seconds as it flew behind dunes. They only managed to watch around 20 bird watchers watching the bird unfortunately!
This sighting of Black-Winged Kite (Blå Glente) was the second ever record of this species in March in Skagen.
3 orcas were also spotted during the morning, which is always a pleasure to witness!
A few days ago a GPS-tagged White-tailed Eagle (Havørn) was spotted flying over Grenen, so we contacted the person in charge of the tagging project and received some interesting information about this individual! It was originally tagged in 2022 in Vilsted Lake, and is an adult male. It is always amazing to spot tagged or ringed birds and learn more about their life and history.
GPS-tagged White-tailed Eagle (Havørn)
In more station news, a new volunteer, Julia has arrived tonight and will stay with us for a few days and participate in our daily activities. She is Danish and currently studying. Welcome Julia!
Highlights of today:
1 Black-Winged Kite (Blå Glente)
2 Arctic Skuas (Almindelig Kjove)
1 Golden Eagle (Kongeørn)
2 Redpolls (Gråsisken)
3 Orcas (Spækhugger)
Ringing numbers (Kabeltromlen)
Musvit - 6
Gærdesmutte- 1
Rødhals - 3
Jernspurv - 1
Gråsisken - 2
Dompap - 1
Blåmejse - 6
Gransanger - 3
Total: 23
People at the station: Alvin Johansson, János Schadl, Alix Bortolussi, Julian Helbig, Dylan Daunt, Simon S. Christiansen, Julia Skytte, Knud Pedersen, Katrin, Tove, Eik and Inger.
