Tern Day

We did not go ringing again this morning since it was still very windy, however, instead we went again to count the terns and look for ringed Sandwich terns (splitterne). It was a very windy, however, also very beautiful morning. The storm from last night had moved quite a lot of sand so the beach looked very different from what we were used to and the water is still very high. Compared to yesterday there were almost no gulls which made it easier to get closer to the terns and also find some shorebirds around.

The black tern (sortterne) I saw last night was not seen again, however, we saw 3 dunlins (almindelig ryle) and 1 bar-tailed godwit (lille kobbersneppe).

We also counted 40 sandwich terns and for the first time there were 2 juveniles from this year in the flock as well. Next to that again around 20 common terns. And that was only the roosting birds: many more were out fishing!

We saw some ringed terns but unfortunately no color rings and we could not get close enough to read the metal rings. We will try again tomorrow.

In the afternoon Karsten Hansen came to interview Simon about the work of Skagen Fuglestation. We opened the nets in the lighthouse garden despite the strong winds but the birds weren’t moving so until the very end we didn’t catch anything. Just when we thought we would have to disappoint the camera team we had a single whitethroat (tornsanger) in the last net check. For us a common bird, I am sure it made the TV team very happy. And it was a good way to show one of the most important parts of the work we do here.

In the evening we will go out ringing at Kabeltromeln, partly because we miss the ringing, partly because the winds are supposed to continue for a while and this evening is probably the best few hours of the week to catch birds. Also we set up a wader net and since waders are starting to move south now we are hoping to catch something cool there. We will report tomorrow.

Frederik left today for good. Or at least until next year. If the number of reported rarities from Skagen suddenly goes down then you know why. We were very happy to have him both to help with identifying birds in flight and with the Danish names of the birds. Now Amandine and I are alone with Simon until the new volunteers for the autumn arrive. We will do our best to continue the great work on raptor counts that Frederik started.

Talking about raptors: Thom Kongerslev was so nice and sent us his beautiful pictures of the long-legged buzzards (ørnevåge) he saw in the last few days in Skagen. The pictures show that it was two different birds, which is quite interesting for such a rare species.

Ringing at Fyrhaven:

Common Whitethroat – Tornsanger – 1

People: Amandine Doré, Martina Hillbrand, Simon S. Christiansen og Frederik R. Johansen.

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