Cats and dogs? Its raining skuas and more skuas

Hello, everyone! I am a new (but very easily recognizable) face to the observatory and blog so this will be my first entry. My name is Laura and as mentioned in a previous blog, I come all the way from Estonia. I will be residing here til the 19th of October and hopefully will be able to write all kinds of lovely and exciting stories for you all.

 

Laura Tamminen and Pengu are sending their warmest greetings and best wishes to you all

 

Me, Pauline and Páll started our morning setting up the nets at 5.40. It was a calm and peaceful morning and seeing how the nets are set up was a first for me (Even though I have been around mist nets hundreds of times…). Right before we were about to go on a round to check the nets, Jule joined us as well. We had less birds than yesterday, but there was still a bird that took longer to analyze than the others: a Lesser whitethroat (Gærdesanger).

 What made us suspicious was the fact that it was a bit late for that species to still fly into the nets. There were also colorations on some parts of the body that had us thinking that perhaps it could be one of the Eastern subspecies (S. curruca blythi/halimodendri) of said bird. We took photo and feather samples for further inspection. Later, during our evening meeting Simon (who had arrived shortly after Jule during ringing) figured that it probably is not one of the subspecies after all. But that is alright, I still think it is important to be suspicious because subspecies can look SO identical, and you never know!

Unfortunately we had to cut our ringing day short, because the rain decided to accompany us at 9 and the wind was really picking up. Still, it was an active few hours on the ringing field and I got to learn more about writing down data and how to spot moult limits.

 

One of the young male Redstarts (Rødstjert) being held by Simon. Photo by Laura Tamminen

 

Fierce little wren (Gærdesmutte) held by Simon. Photo by Laura Tamminen

 

Mio and Anna had a very successful day at Worlds End 3. Meanwhile the ringing ended a little before 9 they stayed at the beach til nearly 11. I was pleasantly surprised to hear the amount of skuas they spotted today: There were 4 long-tailed skuas (Lille Kjove) and 17 arctic skuas (Almindelig Kjove)!! That’s basically triple the amount of yesterday.

After the daily observations and ringing we all got ourselves some well-earned breakfast. Jule taught me how to enter all the ringing data on the websites and that was when our very lovely guests Marianne and Kurt said goodbye to us. They were so kind and curious, it was lovely having them at Skagen.

 I also had time to peek in the gift shop downstairs. Our loyal readers, my eyes instantly locked on a woodcarving of a common cuckoo (gøg) and I KNEW I had to get it. I did not even bother looking at the price, it was coming home with me no matter what. They are one of my personal favorites so that will explain my intense need for it :D. I also bought a few other trinkets to bring home, a magnet and a poster.

 

A variety of woodcarved birds could be seen in the lighthouse gift shop

 

Ku-kuu! You are coming home with me, sneaky cuckoo (gøg)

In the evening Pauline prepared an enticing dinner for us. While writing this blog I could smell it from the other room and it felt super inviting. It tasted as good as it smelled, thank you Pauline! Tomorrow will be my turn to make dinner, I have got a few ideas already.

 

Pauline prepared us pasta with a sauce made of pumpkin with some vegetables and for dessert a lemon drizzle cake with rasberries

Total: 18

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

People: Mio Brix, Jule Tappe, Simon S. Christiansen, Pauline Nähring, Páll Vang Kjærbo, Laura Tamminen, Anna Gorbunova, Kurt Håkonsson and Marianne Mølgaard