Basking Shark!!!

Today we saw a rare Basking Shark!!!! But let me start in the beginning…

Today is a perfect example of how even slow days have their highlights. We did not expect the big highlight in the afternoon, when we left the station in darkness and strong winds at 4 am. My place for the morning was Kabeltromlen. I don’t want to spend too much time writing about the 1 (ONE!!) bird, we ringed today, because the observations were fine. The counters used the weather and pulled birds out of the sky, as a magician pulls rabbits from a hat: 5 Arctic Skuas (Almindelig Kjove) and even more exciting 3 close Great Skuas (Storkjove). Since we did not have anything else to do at the ringing, we also looked at the sea and could enjoy those birds together with the counters out at World’s End 3. Another highlight we shared was this doubled rainbow, that announced a cold shower:

Doubled Rainbow over Grenen. Foto: Mio Brix.

Mio, Moritz and Knud spotted a Little Stint (Dværgryle) in the company of four Dunlins (Almindelig Ryle), which landed on the beach for ten seconds before deciding that they wanted to fly towards the end of the rainbow(s) to look for a pot of gold or something.

There were more Guillemots (Lomvie) than the past days, a Temminck‘s Stint (Temminksryle) was flying over the last dune row, and Knud’s stories kept us warm during the rain shower.

After the morning activities, Katia and I decided to walk to town and find a nice café. We succeeded in our search, and while we were enjoying a Danish pastry, my phone went off with the news that there was a Basking Shark Cetorhinus maximus (Brugde in danish) in Ålbæk, just 20 km south of Skagen. Since Jørgen also wanted to see this rare shark, we quickly jumped into his car to head to Ålbæk. After arriving at the beach, we saw no shark, just happy faces that told us “yeah, it was here, so close, just two minutes ago”. Okay, we might need some patience. After ten minutes I spotted it swimming quite far out, but it directly dived away before Jørgen and Katia were able to have a look themselves. Ten more minutes later it finally showed up. Close to the beach, as close as before. We saw it for over an hour foraging in the shallow water.

Basking Sharks are ram feeder, so they swim around to filter the shallow water for zooplankton. We were able to observe this natural behaviour out of less then 10 m distance from the beach. Stunning!

Phone video of the foraging Basking Shark. Video: Simon Kiesé

As the second biggest shark of the world Basking Sharks usually become 8 meters long. This one was around 4.5 meters long, which was big enough to impress us and the other people at the beach.

Tonight Karen Cecilie Cæsar plays a concert in front of the lighthouse, so after eating dinner (Moritz cooks Curry, I can’t wait for it) we will go there and enjoy the music.

Highlights from Observations:

Great Skua (Storkjove) - 3

Little Stint (Dværgryle) - 1

Ringing (KAB)
Blackcap (Munk) - 1
Total: 1

Link to today's observations in the DOF base from observers in the area.

People: Jule Tappe, Mio Brix, Moritz Morteani, Simon Kiesé, Katia Kit,Alexander Nyholm, Simon S. Christiansen, Knud Pedersen, Jørgen Kabel, Erik Christophersen.