Not a half-metre-long hot dog, but a half-metre-long Northern Hawk Owl (Høgeugle)!

The day started with Louis-Marie opening all the nets at Kabeltromlen alone. He hadn't expected that he would have to open all the nets, but surprisingly, it was much calmer than forecasted yesterday. He managed to open all the nets in just 36 minutes! Louis-Marie was first joined by Celine and her mother, then Simon and later by Lisa. Sarah also passed by, but then went to Jennes Sø. However, while she was there, no birds were caught.

The highlights at Kabeltromlen today were definitely two Bearded Tits (Skægmejse) in the nets and a Reed Bunting (Rørspurv). Simon and Louis-Marie also found an Arctic Redpoll (Hvidsisken) in the field next to Kabeltromlen. This year has been very good for these little snowballs!

At the count today, Rosie, Kris Christina and I didn't have quite as much to click as yesterday, but with the calm sea, we had some good views of common migrants such as Guillemots (Lomvie) and Black Guillemots (Tejst). We were also joined by Thomas, Celine's dad, and later by the local legend Erik Christophersen. We spent some time having nice chats with them, but we were still focused on the birds (of course, because we are still doing serious science here!).

 morning observations at Grenen. Photo by Rosie Berkin.

During the first ten minutes of the last hour of the count, we received a Zello message from Jørgen Kabel saying that he had just found a Northern Hawk Owl (Høgeugle) in the small forest between Stald Grenen and Nordlysvej, right next to Bøjlevejen!!! I had to listen to the Zello message again because I couldn't believe that I had understood him correctly, but I had and he really had said Høgeugle! At exactly that moment, I saw Knud passing by and realised that he probably hadn't received the message, so I quickly went over to him and played Jørgen's message again. Then we all packed our stuff as quickly as possible and biked or walked to the location.

As soon as we arrived, we immediately spotted the owl sitting on one of the many branches of the pine trees. How awesome! Such a dream bird and the first observation in Skagen since 2013/14! Congratulations to our local legend Jørgen Kabel on this fantastic find!

Northern Hawk Owl (Høgeugle). Video by Knud Pedersen.

After we had all enjoyed the Hawk Owl (Høgeugle), we biked back to the station, had a quick lunch and then headed to the train station to catch the train to Ålbæk, where there was a Christmas market. Somehow, we had read that there would be half-metre-long hot dogs to eat, but we couldn't find them, which made Rosie especially sad. However, with some mulled wine and nice food, it was still very hygge there, even though the music was... well, let's just say a bit special.

After we got back to the station, we enjoyed the delicious dinner that Louis-Marie had prepared. With all that energy, Rosie and I headed out for some night-catching, and we caught three Woodcocks (Skovsneppe)!

Highlights from Observation:

Northern Hawk Owl (Høgeugle)-1

Ringing Kabeltromlen:

Bearded Tit (Skægmejse)-2

Wren (Gærdesmutte)-1

Chaffinch (Bogfinke)-2

Bullfinch (Dompap)-1

Mealy Redpoll (Stor Gråsisken)-2

Reed Bunting (Rørspurv)-1

Total: 9

Ringing Nordstjernevej:

Great Tit (Musvit)-1

Goldcrest (Fuglekonge)-2

Yellowhammer (Gulspurv)-1

Tree Sparrow (Skovspur)-1

Jennes Sø:

Redpoll (Gråsisken)- 4

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

People: Mio Brix, Simon Sigaard Christiansen, Sarah Partridge, Louis-Marie Gourmelon, Christina Liu, Rosie Berkin, Saxe Lind Christiansen, Gustav Juel, Michael Ancher