Windy but interesting day

The weather today was getting quite stormy, with some very strong winds throughout the day. For this reason, we could not ring any birds today, as the strong winds would have made it unsafe for our feathered friends. 

János and Dylan still bravely went out for some migration counting and sat in a more sheltered area at Grenen, which unfortunately meant that their view of the sea and inland was not as ideal as usual. They were even joined by a young local birder, Alfred! They still had some nice numbers of birds all throughout and enjoyed seeing their behaviour in such strong winds and harsh weather conditions, because their flight styles can change quite a bit in these conditions and big waves meant the resting birds were also challenging to see.

On the way there Dylan saw a washed up squid on the shoreline and promptly returned it to the waters!

Alive squid found on the beach at Grenen, and returned to the waters

In the meantime, Alvin, Julian, Shuyu and I enjoyed a slow morning that felt like holidays. I made pancakes for everyone, it was really cozy! The counting team could also enjoy some when they came back home from their morning, which they loved!

Pancake breakfast

After that, Alvin and I went out with his parents and brother who were visiting for the weekend, and enjoyed a very windy tour of the lighthouse, a good lunch at the cafe and a visit around the Skagen town with a sandy ending at Stokmilen, a very high dune with a beautiful view.

Alvin on Stokmilen sand dune

View from the top of Stokmilen sand dune

In the meantime at the station, Julian started the « storm preparations » which included securing nets with extra ties at the ringing site, as well as taking down our equipment tent and the equipment for safe keeping indoors at the station until the weather clears up. As you can see in the picture, bringing everything back in one bike ride was challenging, but he succeeded! 

Nets securing

Julian with all of our equipment, clever packing!

We also had the pleasure of having the visit of Peter Brodersen and his son from the University of Copenhagen today, who were here to pick up some feather samples for their project about DNA in vagrant birds. They had a variety of feathers to choose from, and we will be taking more samples for them in the future as the occasions arrises. Their interest for this project would be to see if and what genes could be the cause for birds flying « wrong » by looking at the DNA in feathers of vagrant birds we have encountered here.

Peter Broderesen and his son picking out feathers for their project on vagrant birds DNA 

People at the station: Alvin Johansson, János Schadl, Alix Bortolussi, Julian Helbig, Dylan Daunt, Simon S. Christiansen, Shuyu Deng, Katrin, Tove, Eik and Inger, Peter Brodersen and his son, Alfred Godsk Geckler.