Five icecream on a bike

With only a little wind from the SW, this morning was a bit more exciting than yesterday. And while I had a very calm migration count, the ringing worked quite well with a nice diversity of birds in the nets. Today was the first day for Alvin at the station, after he visited Alix for a week in Blavand. He had an amazing stay there, finding a Woodchat Shrike (Rødhovedet Tornskade) and a Greenish Warbler (Lundsanger) and also seeing Denmark's first record of a Great-tailed Grackle (shipp assisted). We are happy to have him back in Skagen though! Also, his mother visited him today, and he showed her the bird ringing and the Skagen area. We were also joined in the field by Neve today. She is an Australian PhD exchange student from Aarhus University.

It was also the last day for our guests Ole and Annette. We hope they had a good time here!

Since the migration count is starting to become very quiet, and one person counting is enough, Dylan decided to do some birding in the morning instead of the standardized tasks. He went for a long walk with a few good species like a Green Woodpecker (Grønspætte), a Rosefinch (Karmindompap) and a Quail (Vagtel). The highlight was probably a singing Golden Oriol (Pirol) though.

Simon, Lisa, and Neve, as well as a few others, went south of Skagen to Hulsig Hede and another place to look for butterflies in the early afternoon. They saw many, but unfortunately not the goal species. Shortly after they started driving back north, a Black Stork (Sort Stork) was called out at Hulsig Hede.

Glanville Fritillary

Group looking for the butterflies

Dylan wanted to see the bird and decided to drive to Flagbakken even though the bird was already going south. As expected, he didn't see the bird but found a singing Greenish Warbler (Lundsanger) there instead and a Crested Tit (Topmejse) nest. He also proved his eating skills, eating five ice lollys on his bikeride from Lidl to Flagbakken. 

The rest of the team spend the afternoon catching up with some office tasks or going for small walks without special sightings. In the evening our new guest Kerstin arrived, and we had a very tasty dinner by Julian topped with a rhubarb crumble cake.

Rhubarb crumble

Link to today’s observations in DOFbasen from observers in the area

Summary of today's raptor migration in DOFbasen

People: Alvin Johansson, János Schadl, Julian Helbig, Dylan Daunt, Olga Fernández Enríquez, Simon S. Christiansen, Ole & Annette, Kerstin