A very first day at Skagen Fuglestation

For me, it was the very first full day at Skagen Fuglestation. And it was an amazing one. I joined the morning count with Mio and Laura. The sun was shining and the wind was calm. I was told that the bird activity was rather calm which surprised me a lot as from my perspective, everywhere I looked was full with birds! There was good movement in Common Scoters (Sortand) and decent numbers of foraging Northern Gannets (Sule). For me personally, two Great Skuas (Storkjove) and two Long-tailed Skuas (lille kjove) were lifers! While counting, we were surrounded by flocks of Common Reed Buntings (Rørspurv), European Goldfinches (Stillits) and Common Linnets (Tornirisk). And a small treat also came by and was a lifer for Mio: a Lapland Longspur (Lapværling)!

Morning count at world's end 3 (photo by Mio Brix)

After the count, we went to the ringing team at Kabeltromlen who told us about their busy day so far with 55 birds in the nets of which a Eurasian Jay (Skovskade), the first 2K+ Eurasian Wren (Gærdesmutte) and a young Yellowhammer (Gulspurv) were the highlights.

1K Eurasian Jay (Skovskade)  (photo by Pauline Nähring)

1K Yellowhammer (Gulspurv) (photo by Pauline Nähring)

After a short break with lunch, nap and literature, we went out to set up a passive audio recorder in the field to autonomously monitor passing birds by their calls. Lets see what surprising records this will bring! During this activity, we got the message that a Northern Nutcracker (Nøddekrige) was spotted at Skagen Klitplantage. We're hoping to get to see some, too, in the following days.

And the afternoon, the wind peaked up from the south-east and we decided to have another seawatching session. Directly facing the wind, our endurance was rewarded with about 20 Northern Fulmar (Mallemuk), two Great Skuas (Storkjove) and four Sooty Shearwaters (Sodfarvet skråpe) (another lifer for the author)!

What a great first day here at Skagen Fuglestation, looking forward to the next three weeks!

Observation highlights:

4 Sooty Shearwaters (Sodfarvet skråpe)

4 Great Skuas (Storkjove)

2 Long-tailed Skuas (Lille kjove)

1 Lapland Longspur (Lapværling)

Ringing totals at Kabeltromlen:

Eurasian Jay (Skovskade) 1
Common Chiffchaff (Gransanger) 2
Common Blackcap (Munk) 5
Eurasian Wren (Gærdesmutte) 11
European Robin (Rødhals) 13
Dunnock (Jernspurv) 3
Common Chaffinch (Bogfinke) 1
Common Reed Bunting (Rørspurv) 12
Yellowhammer (Gulspurv) 1

total: 49

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

People: Jule Tappe, Pauline Nähring, Mio Brix, Laura Tamminen, Luis Q. Langfeld, Celine and Thomas Giver, Páll Vang Kjærbo, Dorthe and Anders Østerby