"Many regrets. Mostly bird related."

Another sunrise, another day at SKAF. Today, Mio and Luis were at World’s End 3 for the observations and had a real autumn count. With over four hundreds of Auks (Lomvie/Alk), several Geese flocks including Brent Geese (Knortegås) in the air, they were busy. The perfect autumn songbird quartet was also enjoyed by them: Resting on the beach, they saw Twites (Bjergirisk), Lapland Bunting (Lapværling), Snow Bunting (Snespurv) and Horned Larks (Bjerglærke).

Horned Larks (Bjerglærke) on the beach (very cute). Foto: Luis Q. Langfeld.

Twites (Bjergirisk) on the beach (also very cute). Foto: Luis Q. Langfeld.

In the ringing, Simon was busy trying to get an overview of all the thrushes in the air. Several hundreds of Redwings (Vindrossel) had finally reached Skagen, with several Fieldfares (Sjaggers) and even a Ring Ouzel (Ringdrossel). There was also a calling Lapland Bunting (Lapværling) for us and of course, also some birds in the net: Two Redwings (Vindrossel), several Siskins (Grønsisken) and a Goldcrest (Fuglekonge) kept us busy, among the usual species we catch like Wrens (Gærdesmutte) or Blackcaps (Munk).

One of the beautiful Redwings (Vindrossel) we caught today.

Back at the station, everyone had a quick lunch and entered data. Jeppe brought a dead Fulmar (Mallemuk) to the station which will be added to the „Seabirds under pressure (SUPRE)“ project that you can read more about on the blog from Sunday. After the lunchbreak, we cycled into town to go to the brewery. There, local birdwatcher Karsten Klausen hold a concert with his friend and while enjoying beer and other nice drinks, we listened to their music and had nice talks. Something that birdwatchers can always talk about, are birds they would like to see or catch someday. Of course, in birdwatching, you also sometimes have regrets. This is where today’s title comes from. That’s life, though. The concert was great and it was a nice atmosphere. We especially enjoyed the „Flagbakken Blues“ that talked about birdwatching at Flagbakken. Because I had been in town before the concert already, Mio took me on the back of his bike. That was quite an adventure!

At the brewery (Laura is hiding behind Mio). Foto: Jule Tappe.

Mio and I on the bike. Foto: Sarah Partridge.

In the lighthouse, a nice dinner awaited us, cooked by Jesper and Karen Marie, which was very delicious, so thank you! After this long day, there was one last event awaiting us. Luis held a presentation about his stay at Long Point Bird Observatory last year and we were all very amazed by the North American way of „Banding“ and all the warblers.

Warblers, warblers and more warblers in the presentation about Luis's stay at Long Point Bird Observatory.

Now, I am sitting in the living room and Mio and Luis are still typing in data from the count. Busy birdwatchers, as always. At least, there are no regrets about today.