When it’s raining, most birders stay indoors, but not us. Even with lovely August weather, we set off early this morning to watch and ring birds.

After Cora and I had set up the nets at KAB, the daily rosefinch (Karmindompap) flew overhead calling – what a lovely start to the day!

Jule took down the nets on the beach, which unfortunately hadn’t caught anything last night, whilst the rest of us set off to count from World’s End 3. The morning brought plenty of waders (Vadefugl). In particular, Golden Plovers (Hjejle), Bar-tailed Godwits (Lille Kobbersneppe), but also a few Grey Plovers (Strandhejle), Red Knots (Islandsk Ryle) and Ruddy Turnstones (Stenvender) decided to head south in the light wind. Later, a rain shower came in from the south, which dampened the mood somewhat. Even in the rain, the migration of waders continued, so we stuck it out despite our wet clothes and the numbers kept rising.

The rain is a bit more of a problem when it comes to ringing, as we don’t want the birds to get wet. That’s why we decided to close the nets a little earlier. All 10 birds stayed dry, thanks to our quick reaction time.

Back at the station, there were some enchiladas left over from yesterday. Delicious! Then Simon Sr. popped round and gave a talk on ethics in bird ringing. This is an important part of life as a bird ringer, as you have to deal with various situations – such as rainy weather like today. It’s fascinating to discuss different scenarios and share "weird" stories, that happened over the time.

As you may have noticed, I’m being a bit more brief today than I have been recently, which is because we’re going to try and ring some waders this evening (following on from this morning’s sightings). That’s why we need to get everything ready straight away, set up the nets and try our luck. You’ll read more about it tomorrow. I can already smell delicious aromas wafting from the kitchen: Magnus and Johanna are cooking, and I can hardly wait. Thanks to our guests for the cake today. Food keeps the station running!

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

People: Mio Brix, Cora Köberle, Jule Tappe, Simon Kiesé, Johanna Veentjer, Magnus Houen Lauritsen, Simon S. Christiansen, Jan Hjort Christensen, Kristine Kleffel.

Yesterday evening started quite well. We had put up two nets along the coast facing Kattegat, in hope of an European Storm-petrels (Lille Stormsvale). Our mission succeded quite quickly, due to our early catch of two petrels already by 22.15 o'clock (10 pm.).

Two European Storm-Petrels (Lille Stormsvale) in one round! Thanks Erik Christophersen for this great picture!

Underwings of the Petrels. Another one by Erik

Last but not least the upperwings.The darker outermost primaries tell us it's both old birds. Photo by Erik.

Afterwards, we all went to bed except Cora, who took care of the ringing over night. She managed to catch a Nightjar around 2 pm., which some of us went to see.

Johanna releasing a European storm-petrel (Lille stormsvale).

Our alarms rang already 4-5 hours later - it was time for ringing and morning observation. At the observation at Worlds End III, we of course hoped for a Longtailed skua (lille kjove) or a Shearwater (skråpe), but we had to settle with the single arctic skua we got. Beside that, we got two Mediterranean gulls (Sorthovedet Måge), two Caspian Gull (Kaspisk Måge) and a Merlin (dværgfalk).

Me on my way from Worlds End III to Det Grå Fyr mimicing a hornet.

At Kabeltromlen, the ringers were empty handed after the first two rounds, but were later able to extract five birds from the nets in total. One Willow Warbler (Løvsanger), two Black caps (Munk) and two Chiffchaffs (Gransanger). Again today, they were accompanied by a Rosefinch, which didn't fly in the net.

Simon (SK) and i went for shopping in town, which was rather successful, because of Simons find of a old male Goshawk (duehøg).

Simon Kiesé made a nice dinner, before we checked Kattegat for birds. Later we put up nets for another - hopefully positive - Petrel night-catch and eat cake.;-)

Highlights from the observation:
Mediterranean gull (Sorthovedet måge) - 2
Caspian gull (Kaspisk Måge) - 2
Merlin (Dværgfalk) - 1
Arctic skua (Almindelig kjove) - 1

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

People: Mio Brix, Cora Köberle, Jule Tappe, Simon Kiesé, Johanna Veentjer, Magnus Houen Lauritsen, Simon S. Christiansen, Jan Hjort Christensen, Kristine Kleffel, Odin

It was still quite windy this morning, so Jule and Simon, who did the ringing today, left a bit later to open the nets. Because of that wind there were not many birds flying into the nets, but one of the birds they caught was a Pied Flycatcher (Broget Fluesnapper) which is always a really nice bird to have in hand. In the end of the morning the wind had slowed down and they got some more birds in the nets. 

Still they had a good morning because they got to see some very nice birds flying out on the sea. These nice birds were also seen by Mio, Johanna, Knud and Me who were out at Worlds end 3 today.

Like the last few days there were not too many birds migrating today, but we got some nice Waders (Vadefugle) like Turnstone (Stenvender), Red Knot (Islandske Ryle) and Ruff (Brushane) migrating very close over our heads.

There were also some Yellow Wagtails (Gul Vipstjert) migrating today and it was interesting to notice that it was mainly the subspecies thunbergi today and not flava which was dominating the last days. And there were also more Kittiwakes (Ride) migrating which was very nice to watch.

Observers trying to find some good birds

In the last hour we suddenly spotted two Skuas (Kjove) flying out on the sea and after a few moments we were sure that they actually were first year Long-tailed Skuas (Lille Kjove).

There was also an Arctic Skua (Almindelig Kjove) flying with them so we got the awesome opportunity to see the difference in those species.

Luckily the  Long tailed Skuas (Lille Kjove) were not migrating very straight, they were flying around for quite a while  and we could observe them for almost twenty minutes.

We all really enjoyed this observation and also the Ringers got to see these fantastic birds, which were also lifers for Jule and Mio.

After we all came back we did some data work and later went grocery shopping. 

Later Simon came to the station after he picked up our new guests Kristine and Jan. 

After our evening meeting Johanna made a delicious dinner. Later in the evening we all went out again for some evening observations.

Johanna and Jule went to Sarvsøen, where they found many nice Waders (Vadefugle) like two Ruff (Brushane) and again very high numbers of Common Snipe (Dobbeltbekassin).

Therwile Simon K., Mio and I went to Worlds end 4 for some Sea- and Gullwatching. On our way back we passed the Seal Bunker where we refound the Longtailedduck (Havlit) which has been hanging around with the Eiders (Ederfugle) for almost a month now. Additionally there was also a very cute Black Guillemot (Tejst) sitting on the Bunker and a very close second calendar year Black-throated Diver (Sortstrubet Lom) swimming in the evening sun.

Evening obs from worlds end 4

Now we will go to bed dreaming of all the fantastic birds we saw today and looking forward to some nice observations tomorrow. 

Highlights from the observations:

Long-tailed Skua - Lille Kjove 2

Arctic Skua - Almindelig Kjove 2

Spoonbill - Skestork 1

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Icterine Warbler (Gulbug) 1 

Great Tit (Musvit) 5

Blue Tit (Blåmejse) 2

Lesser Whitethroat (Gærdesanger) 2

Willow Warbler (Løvsanger) 1

Pied Flychatcher (Broget Fluesnapper) 1

Reed Bunting (Rørspurv) 2

Total: 13

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

People: Mio Brix, Cora Köberle, Jule Tappe, Simon Kiesé, Johanna Ventjeer, Knud Pedersen, Simon S. Christiansen, Jørgen Kabel, Jan Hjort Christensen, Kristine Kleffel.

Dark sky, peaceful surroundings and tensioned nets: If all these characters matching, we call it nightcatching! 

On this night, Jule did the night watch and checked the Storm-petrel (Stormsvale) and Nightjar (Natravn) nets every hour. Only the Nightjar net was successful this night. We caught 3 Nightjars! 

1K Nightjar (Natravn)

After we ringed the last Nightjar, which was caught in the closing round, the sky over Skagen slowly turned from dark to light. This meant that Simon Jr. and Cora were already at Skarvsøen, where they opened the nets. Unfortunately, they caught only 7 birds during the 6 hours of ringing, also due to the wind, which picked up during the ringing. But they used the time between the net rounds to check the lake. This turned out to be very successful! With 133 roosting Common Snipes (Dobbeltbekkasin), 1 1K Spotted Redshank (Sortklire) and a 1K Goshawk (Duehøg), they still had some great birds to watch!

While Cora and Simon Jr counting the Snipes, Johanna and I biked out to World's End 3 for the migration count. We started with a good first hour, with some Redshanks (Rødben) and Snipes (Dobbeltbekkasin) migrating in flocks. But, as on the days before, there was still not much migration on the sea. However, the continuous scanning paid off a bit. We managed to see two migrating Black-throated Divers (Sortstrubet Lom) and a Great Skua (Storkjove).

Johanna counting birds at Worlds End 3

After ringing and the count, there was not much happening at the station. But when I woke up, I heard from Cora that she would make pizza for lunch, so that kept us motivated to do some data work, such as typing in the observations from our trip on Thursday (check out this blog to see what was happening there), which was done by Simon Jr with his fast fingers!

While doing that, we could already smell the pizza coming from the kitchen. While eating this delicious dinner, we had very nice and funny conversations about everything! And, of course, we also talked about what we will do (and wish for) tomorrow.

So, let's see what the next day will bring!

Ringing Skarvsøen:

Reed Warbler (Rørsanger)-3

Blackcap (Munk)-1

Chiffchaff (Gransanger)-2

Willow Warbler (Løvsanger)-1

Total: 7

Highlights of the observations:

Great Skua (Storkjove)-1

Spotted Redshank (Sortklire)-1

Goshawk (Duehøg)-1

Spoonbill (Skestork)-1

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

People: Mio Brix, Cora Köberle, Jule Tappe, Simon Kiesé, Johanna Ventjeer, Simon S. Christiansen, Ole Jørgensen, Brigitte Jørgensen, Lisa Vergin.

Loyal readers of this blog might know already what happy new I get to announce to today… Even though we all went to bed totally exhausted last night, there was more than one good reason to get up after midnight: We caught not one, but two European Storm Petrels (Lille Stormsvale) marking the fourth and fifth of this season. This is the station’s record since never before, so many Storm Petrels have been caught in one season.

The first bird was found in the net at around 1 am, the second about an hour later. With tired eyes, we all admired the mysterious birds that just made history! Cora also got to ring her first Storm Petrel so it was an exciting night for everybody.

One of two European Storm Petrels (Lille Stormsvale) we caught very early in the day.

Late in the night (or early in the morning), Mio replaced Simon Sr. with the night shifts and later, he and Cora closed the nets before going to World’s End 3 for migration count. There were not many birds around but some Arctic Skuas (Almindelig Kjove) and to Black-throated Divers (Sortstrubet Lom) brought nice variety.

In the meantime, Simon Jr. and I were on our way to Kabeltromlen, opening nets and getting ready for another morning of ringing. We caught two Pied Flycatchers (Broget Fluesnapper), some Acrocephalus warblers and our usual favourite: Common Whitethroats (Tornsanger).

Mio used the time to look for passerines, visited us at Kabeltromlen to join for two rounds and set up an audio recorder. Later, he looked at Gulls (Måger) at Grenen with Cora.

After the morning tasks, data entry and quality assurance awaited us, followed by a much sought-after nap.

Cora and Mio decided to go birdwatching at Nordstrand and Skarvsøen, where they saw many Common and a couple of Velvet Scoters (Sortand, Fløjlsand). Also, the Spoonbill (Skestork) that we wrote about a couple of days ago is still there, today joined by a Spotted Redshank (Sortklire).

While most of us were sleeping, our guests Brigitte and Ole drove into town to buy the ingredients for dinner tonight. And they really cooked!

After this super successful day for each of us as well as the station, we all enjoyed a delicious meal in the lighthouse garden, perfected by a dessert of koldskål and champagne to celebrate the record.

Also, with the arrival of Johanna, our team expanded today and will be enriched by her for the next two weeks.

Then it was time to prepare for another night of catching birds: Setting up the Nightjar (Natravn) and Storm Petrel nets.

While writing this blog, I was interrupted since I had to check the nets and I can tell you already that we have been successful with catching two Nightjars so far. Let’s see what else the night brings and if we can expand our Storm Petrel record tonight!

 One of the Nightjars (Natravn) we caught very late in the day.

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

People: Mio Brix, Cora Köberle, Jule Tappe, Simon Kiesé, Simon S. Christiansen, Ole Jørgensen, Brigitte Jørgensen, Jeppe Madsen, Lisa Vergin, Johanna Ventjeer.

Did you know, that SKAF stands for Sleep Kisses you After Fieldwork?
To be fair – and not make fun of you, the intellectual blog reader – this is not the real definition. Some rumors even say, it simply means SKAgen Fuglestation, but let me get to my point now. Carrying out daily tasks such as ringing or counting often causes us volunteers to wake up early in the morning. The equation is easy: less sleep for more birds. One of the best examples for this trade-off is today. Are you ready for good birds, good company and no sleep?

Even the most unusual days start with committing to our standardised tasks in the early morning. With one eye open and the second one still asleep Mio and I opened nets at Kabeltromlen. On our way there we flushed a Woodcock (Skovsneppe) on the road. An unusual sighting in August. After low numbers the day before, we were enlighted by some pretty birds. One Pied Flycatcher (Broget Fluesnapper) and a young Spotted Flycatcher (Grå Fluesnapper) enhanced our mood a lot. Suddenly, Simon Sr. said “shh” and after stopping chewing on my delicious cookie also I could hear the shark calls of a Greenish Warbler (Lundsanger) just next to Kabeltromlen. Click here to listen so Simon Sr's audio recording of its calls.

Another highlight was a young Marsh Warbler (Kærsanger) and an old (4K, known age due to ring) Reed Warbler (Rørsanger). Usually their measurements of the wing length and the notch on the second outermost primary help us to verify our species identification, but interestingly both birds today had the same measurements (wing: 67 mm, Notch P9: 10 mm).

In the meantime Jule and Mio used the count to scan the flock of Gulls (Måge) and Terns (Terner) multiple times. A pretty Black-throated Diver (Sortstrubet Lom) was resting. Even though there were only a few Seabirds, the migrating Waders (Vadefugl) entertained the counters. Jule mentioned it was also really silent at World’s End 3, since there were hardly any noisy Sandwich Terns (Splitterne).

After heading back to the lighthouse to have a quick breakfast, Ole and I drove us volunteers to Vejlerne, two hours Southwest of Skagen. It’s a huge wetland area and we agreed with Knud to go there today for a fun birding trip.

Knud arrived early and watched the known Griffin Vulture (Gåsegrib) hanging in one scope field with a White-tailed Eagle (Havørn) and a Caspian Tern (Rovterne). When we arrived the Vulture was gone unfortunately and no one knew, where it went. This did not kill our mood, since there were still many birds to enjoy: Two Peregrine Falcons (Vandrefalk), a stunning flock of more than 1200 Sand Martins (Digesvale) and 450 Golden Plovers (Hjejle).

Cora watching birds.

On the way out I spotted two Clouded Yellow (Colias crocea, Orange høsommerfugl). A rare butterfly up here, that spreads north recently. On the way back to the car we saw a Scarce Cooper (Lycaena virgaureae, Dukatsommerfugl). Afterwards we went to some other spots at Vejlerne.

Mio on his way to the next hide.

The big highlight was a young Red-necked Phalarope (Odinshane) swimming on a pond. Super cute birds! Other good waders included three young Little Stints (Dværgryle), a Pied Avocet (Klyde) and three young Black-tailed Godwits (Stor Kobbersneppe) of which two belong to the continental subspecies limosa and one with features of the icelandic ssp. islandica.

After being awake for more than 13 hours with birds but no breaks, we stopped in a supermarket before heading back to Skagen. After arriving tired at 8 pm, we enjoyed 30 minutes of rest before setting up nets for another night of Storm-Petrel catching. Such a fun day with a variety of nice birds. This is SKAF!

Spoiler about tonight:

Lighthouse eclipse. Picture by Simon Kiesé

Observation highlights:

Greenish Warbler (Lundsanger) - 1

Ringing (KAB):

This morning I woke up after sleeping through the whole night. Sadly there was no nigtcatching success tonight. But so we could get some good sleep for the day.
I started my day with opening the nets at Kabeltromelen together with Simon K.
After opening we could watch a nice sunrise at Grenen. And got the help of Alma and also Ole came out to Kabeltromelen.
In our first round we caught some nice Willow Warblers (Løvsanger) and took that as a nice sign for a good ringing day.
The next rounds got a bit slower with fewer birds, but there were some really nice ones like a young Spotted Flycatcher (Grå Fluesnapper) and also some old birds.
It was nice to not also catch young birds and get a little challenge with aging old Chiffchaffs (Gransanger).
Between the rounds we also found some very nice Sand Lizards (Markfirben) in the dunes.

Løvsanger (Willow Warbler), Foto Simon Kiesé

Mio also found his way out to Grenen again this morning to do the migration count. He got good company from Hugo, a french birdwatcher who is in Skagen right now.
Like yesterday there was not much migrating over the sea, but they still got some Waders (Vadefugl) like some nice Turnstones (Stenvernder) migrating over the beach. Because it was not very busy they had time to have some good talks about Seawatching in France.
Just before they wanted to finish the count a huge flock of 362 fouraging Gannets (Sule) forming a bird tornado over the sea, that must have looked very impressive.

After finishing our field tasks we went back to the Station, where we met Simon Sr. and said good morning to Jule who stayed up all night for the nightshift.
After doing data work we all got some good naps and I went for a swim in the sea where I found a beautiful purple Starfish (Søsterne).

In the evening Jule cooked a very delicious dinner with Tofu which was joined by our guests Brigitte and Ole.

After dinner we could already see many people gathering next to the Lighthouse waiting for the solar eclipse. So we also grabbed some solar eclipse glasses and went out to watch this special astronomical event. Down there we also met Páll and Sophie. Later Simon, Lisa, Jørgen Kabel and Jeppe Madsen also joined us.

We all got some very nice and impressive pictures of the solar eclipse and the people from the lighthouse shop even brought out some cake which made the evening perfect.

Solar eclipse (Foto by Simon Kiesé)

Highlights from the observations:

Solar eclipse - Solformørkelse

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Løvsanger - Willow Warbler 4
Munk - Blackcap 3
Gærdesanger - Lesser Whitethroat 1
Tornsanger - Common Whitethroat 1
Gransanger - Chiffchaff 1
Jernspurv - Dunnock 2

Total: 12

 People: Mio Brix, Cora Köberle, Jule Tappe, Simon Kiesé, Alma Wingård, Lisa Vergin, Simon S. Christiansen, Ole Jørgensen, Brigitte Jørgensen, Jørgen Kabel, Hugo Bassuyaux, Páll Van Kjærbo, Sophie Booker, Jeppe Madsen.

Slowly, the first glimmers of sunlight could be seen over Grenen. By this point, Moritz and Simon had already opened all the nets and were setting off on their first round deep into the tangle of Kabeltrommelkrattet. After the next rounds, more and more visitors began to arrive at Kabeltrommeln. At first, there was a brief fear that there might end up being more visitors at Kabeltrommeln than birds in the nets, but the long distance migrants, such as Willow Warblers (Løvsanger), a young Pied Flycatcher (Broget Fluesnapper) and even a young female Whinchat made that impossible. What a lovely combination: lots of interesting conversations with interesting people and also fantastic birds to ring! 

Many vistors at Kabeltrommlen. Foto: Simon S. Christiansen

Today’s migration count was interesting in a different way. We (Knud, Cora, Jule and I) all set off for the Worlds End 3 dune with high hopes (especially Knud, who, in his enthusiasm, arrived a bit earlier than the rest of us and even overtook Jule on the way). Why were our hopes so high today? As you might have read from previous blogs , we’ve been experiencing a prolonged period of strong westerly winds, which are now almost completely dying down today. This is ideal for spotting birds such as shearwaters, which are blown into the Kattegat by the strong wind and then fly back out again when the wind drops. Unfortunately, neither Shearwaters (Skråpe) nor a single Skua (Kjove) made an appearance today. Nevertheless, we were able to pass the time by observing a few migrating Waders (Vadefugl) and Fulmars (Mallemuk).

Today it is Moritz’s last day at the station. To round off his stay in Skagen we decided to enjoy the view over the whole Skagen area from the lighthouse. 

View from the Lighthouse. Foto by Mio Brix

Afterwards, we headed to Kap Gadagung to look for some raptors. We enjoyed the view up there and were able to see a 1K Goshawk (Duehøg), as well as some overflying Greenshanks (Hvidklire) and Bar-tailed Godwits (Lille Kobbersneppe).

On our way back across Reservatet, we spotted around 18 Whinchats (Bynkefugl) and 6 Wheatears (Stenpikker).

Meanwhile, Simon Sr and the guests from Oldenburg had been at the antenns in Reservatet to check if it still receives data of radio-tagged birds.

Checking antenna. Foto by Simon S. Christiansen

In the evening, we set up two nets at Grenen Parking to catch White Wagtails (Hvid Vipstjert). While the nets were being set and we enjoyed a delicious meal prepared by Simon, a total of 10 White Wagtails were caught in the nets!

We are hoping that we can continue this catching success in the next episode of night-catching Storm-Petrels (Stormsvale) and Nightjars (Natravn). Find out how it went in our next blog post!

Highlights from the observations:

Goshawk (Duehøg) - 1

Whinchat (Bynkefugle) - 18

Green Woodpecker (Grønspætte) - 1

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Total: 22

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

 People: Mio Brix, Cora Köberle, Jule Tappe, Moritz Morteani, Simon Kiesé, Alma Wingård, Lisa Vergin, Simon S. Christiansen, Ole Jørgensen, Brigitte Jørgensen, Knud Pedersen, Jørgen Kabel (+Igor), Laima Bagdonaité, Jule Koch, Thiemo Karwinkel, Hugo Bassuyaux, Sophie Booker, Emmeli Agerskov Claré, Páll Van Kjærbo.

Cora, Jule and Simon took care of the ringing today and opened the nets at 04:30. Weather conditions were very windy, with a bit of rain, so numbers stayed low, but a few interesting birds were caught nonetheless. The first Sedge Warbler of the season, with a fat score of 7, was a herald of the autumn migration season. Furthermore, a Blackcap with an oddly shaped bill was caught. This can probably be explained by avian keratin disorder.

A Blackcap (Munk) with the upper mandible beeing much longer and more curved then normal.

The Migration count 05:30 this morning was covered by Mio and me. We we're welcomed by a btit of rain which later turned into very nice weather. Sadly, migration was slow, and accordingly there is not much to report. But we got one highlight with a migrating Caspian Tern (Rovterne) over World End 3.

In the afternoon, we undertook an excursion to get groceries and search for the Silver-spotted Skipper (Hesperia comma). After walking through the stormy grassland south of Skagen for an hour, we found it and could enjoy this rare species.

Simon showing 100% percent efford on the search for the butterfly.

As I am writing this blog right now, a strong westerly storm is shaking the house. This is supposed to drop tomorrow morning, promising good conditions for shearwaters. We're excited to see what tomorrow will bring!

Highlights from the observations:
Caspian Tern (Rovterne) – 1
Rosefinch (Karmindompap)– 1

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):
Gærdesanger – 3
Tornsanger – 4
Munk – 1
Gransanger – 1
Sivesanger – 1
Rørsparv – 1

Total: 11

Link to today's observations in the DOF base from observers in the area.

People: Mio Brix, Cora Köberle, Jule Tappe, Moritz Morteani, Simon Kiesé, Simon S. Christiansen, Ole Jørgensen, Brigitte Jørgensen