Mediterranean Gulls in the rain!

This morning Olga, Alvin and I were at the standardised ringing. Given the recent weather conditions, we have hoped to have been catching lots of birds in the recent days. But the last days or so have been a lot quieter around the nets and today it remained that way. When we catch less birds, we do get to have longer looks at each bird we catch which can help us learn a lot more about each individual. I can also imagine how tired we would be if we caught lots of birds every morning!

Julian was taking part in the migration count this morning. The numbers of birds moving was better than expected with higher number of finches than the previous days. The stars of the show today though we the Canada Geese (Canadagås)! Even though they are not native to Europe they still have an impressive migration past Skagen between every late May and early June in Skagen. Today’s count was 687 birds migrating NE out to sea which is double the previous record count! We all wonder where the birds come from, but we have also seen that Canada Geese (Canadagås) have also been migrating in large numbers further South in places like Germany so we can only assume that they come from that direction.

Atmospsheric morning sky

After the ringing the weather remained rather wet for the rest of the day. That didn’t stop Alvin going out though! He had a really nice to around the tip at Grenen. Seeing a second and a third calendar year Mediterranean Gull (Sorthovedet Måge) and a Quail (Vagtel). Most of us then spent the rest of the day completing some indoor tasks and we enjoyed a very delicious meal prepared by Kirsten. In the late afternoon Simon also found a Turtle Dove (Turtledue) in Skagen By whilst driving home so we all hope that it sticks around. Fingers crossed for some good days to come…

Mediterranean Gulls (Sorthovedet Måge), the left and right hand birds in the close group of four

People: Alvin Johansson, János Schadl, Julian Helbig, Dylan Daunt, Olga Fernández Enríquez, Simon S. Christiansen, Kirsten