...and took it away

Jule, Simon, and I were the first to breathe in the fresh Skagen air that morning. We went out to World’s End 3 to do the migration count. Later, we were joined by Leona and our guest, Mette.. As the combination of yesterday’s and today’s blog titles suggests, there was not much migration over the sea, and the numbers of roosting terns (terne) and gulls (måge) were lower than on the previous days. Nevertheless, an adult light-morph Arctic Skua (Almindelig Kjove) and several Fulmars (Mallemuk) kept us watching the sea. Fortunately, the smaller flock of terns on the flooded beach at Grenen was quite close, so we were able to read some colour rings.

Ringed Sandwich Tern (Splitterne) from Poland

After the standardized count, we all headed back to the station. After a short nap, we were woken by Sebastian, who had cooked a delicious lunch for us. This motivated Leona, Sebastian, and me to go to Skarvsøen to cut reeds and branches so that the nets would be clear for the next CES ringing session tomorrow.

After cutting down the reeds around the first net, I walked up and looked over Skarvsøen . I immediately noticed a white bird with its typical foraging behaviour: a Spoonbill (Skestork)! It was the first July record for the Skagen area. Normally, Spoonbills appear here during the spring season. Simon also came by to see the bird.

  1K Spoonbill (Skestork) foraging

After Simon had enjoyed watching the bird and Leona, Sebastian, and I had finished cutting down the reeds, we headed back to the station. There, we welcomed Alexander, who will be staying at the station for one week.

Now, after our usual evening routine of dinner and the evening meeting, we will all go to bed early so that we are ready for CES ringing and the migration count tomorrow.

Let’s see what the next few days will bring!

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

Highlights from the observations:

Spoonbill (Skestork)-1

Arctic Skua (Almindelig Kjove)-1

Mediterranean Gull (Sorthovedet Måge) - 1

People at the station: Mio Brix, Simon Kiesé, Alexander Nyholm, Jule Tappe, Leona Gottschalkson, Sebastian Jurr, Simon S. Christiansen, Mette Breede.