I’d like 100 packets of biscuits, please.

This morning, the ringing team of Pauline, Luis, Simon and me had a very good day, whereas Mio and Laura at the count were a bit underwhelmed.

There were very little birds around with only two Great Skuas (Storkjove) and one Arctic Skua (Almindelig Kjove). Many Reed Buntings (Rørspurv) in the bushes behind the dunes kept them company, with one Lapland Bunting (Lapværling) among them, like on the previous days.

The first two rounds at the ringing at Kabeltromlen kept us busy with around 20 birds and even though there was quite a drop in numbers later, there were still some birds around, including a flock of Blue Tits (Blåmejse) in the very last round (not one of my favourites). Species-wise, it was not a very diverse day though, with two Chaffinches (Bogfinke) being the highlight. Still, there is no reason to complain with 62 new ringed birds!

Our guests Anders and Dorthe Østerby joined both the ringing at the count for some time, before checking around Skarvsøen to see if they could hear or the see one of the Yellow-browed Warblers (Hvidbrynet Løvsanger ) that another birdwatcher had seen their earlier. Unfortunately, they didn’t but were quite pleased to see many waders in good numbers at the lake, like Common Snipe (Dobbeltbekassin), Dunlin (Almindelig Ryle), Bar-tailed Godwit (Lille Kobbersneppe) and Grey Plover (Strandhjejle).

Back at the station, we had lunch and Pauline and Luis entered data. Laura, Mio and I prepared for the beach survey to look for dead seabirds at the shore between the Grå Fyr and Gammel Skagen. Unfortunately, the Dofbasen app that we have to use for this had a technical issue today so we had to postpone our little hike.

Just after I had woken up from a half hour nap, Pauline and Luis came back from shopping with Anders and Dorthe. She told me in shock, that they had spend a lot of money at the supermarket and couldn’t explain why. A closer study of the receipt later showed why: Instead of charging for one packet of biscuits (the one that we bought), they charged us for 100!

A receipt for biscuits worth 2.295 dkk (equal to around 307 €).

This is a great example of the problems you have when you are in a country where you don’t have a feeling for the currency (yet). Even though, they already thought it was a lot at the shop, only back at the station we noticed how much money they had really payed. So we drove back to the shop and got the money for the none-existing 99 packages of biscuits back. Luckily, this was easily done. Then, Simon, Mio, Luis and I went to quickly check the bushes in the industrial area to see if we could find a cool warbler, but there were mostly Chiffchaffs (Gransanger) around.

 Luis and me watching Mio watching Chiffchaffs (Gransanger).

After our evening meeting, Laura and Simon checked sheets, Luis started cooking and Mio and Pauline set up nets for hopefully catching White Wagtails (Hvid Vipstjert) near the parking lot at Grenen. Let’s see if we can repeat our success from August.

People: Jule Tappe, Pauline Nähring, Mio Brix, Laura Tamminen, Luis Q. Langfeld, Dorthe and Anders Østerby, Simon S. Christiansen