We went out this morning for ringing at Grenen but we closed the nets early again, because there were barely any birds. There was also a guided tour for two German guys by Simon and Daniel, so they opened the nets at the Lighthouse Garden for two hours. They also caught birds, but it was about as much bird activity as at Grenen (so not that much…).
Sasha and Morten went out sea watching with Rolf Christensen. They talked a lot about identifying birds flying over the sea and bird observation at a different spatial scale. The usual Gannets foraging at Grenen were very close to shore and they also saw Great Skua (Storkjove), Arctic Skua (Almindelig Kjove), Fulmar (Mallemuk) and lots of Reed Buntings (Rørspurv).

In the afternoon we had another great session with Simon about moult strategies and he created a game with different scenarios we had to solve. We learned quite a lot.
But the best part from the afternoon was the cake Morten brought for us from the café. That was very kind and delicious.

Later at the day, Simon’s dad Gunnar arrived with pizza and we celebrated Sasha’s last evening (sad to say!). We`ll miss her very much!

Birds we ringed: 3 Blackcaps (Munk), 2 Robins (Rødhals), 1 Reed Bunting (Rørspurv), 1 Dunnock (Jernspurv), 1 Blue Tit (Blåmejse).

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Gunnar Simonsen, Morten Christensen, Molly Brown, Sasha Munters, Daniel Bloche and Lisa Vergin

Daniel, Sasha and I started the day by opening the nets at Grenen again we were then joined later by Simon and Lisa who arrived in time for our biggest round with 16 coal tits! The ringing session was quite successful. We were accompanied by 2 Danish people on a guided tour, so it was good for them to see us ring some birds as well and Jørgen and Igor also joined us. We then came back to the station and had started to sleep and enter data when we got a call saying there was a Nutcracker (Nøddekridge) at Batteriskoven we all rushed to Simon’s car and spent a good hour wondering round Skagen and Batterskoven. However we were again unsuccessful, although we did find a lovely park! So many Jays (Skouskades) and Magpies (Husskades) but no Nutcracker!!! When we arrived back at the station for a second time we were also called out again. This time the Pacific diver was within 200 metres of the lighthouse, and we were successful!!! A new bird for Lisa, Daniel and I and Sasha’s first in Europe. This raised everyone’s spirits after the failed Nutcracker hunt and we tackled cleaning the station, which between 4 of didn’t take long.

In the evening Morten arrived and while out jogging, Lisa saw a Short-Eared Owl! This led to a late-night expedition into the heath and woodlands surrounding the lighthouse equipped with net and torch, however this was also unsuccessful, hopefully as it becomes later in the season more Short-Eared Owls will arrive, and we will get to ring some!

Birds rung: 2 Robin (Rødhals), 2 Dunnocks (Jernspurv), 16 Coal Tits (Sortmejse), 1 Lesser Redpoll (Lille Gråsiskin), 3 Blue Tits (Blåmejse), 2 Blackcaps (Munk) and 2 Garden Warblers (Havesanger).

People: Molly Brown, Lisa Vergin, Daniel Bloche, Sasha Munters, Morten Christianson, Simon S. Christiansen and Jørgen Kabel.

Today was one of the most exciting days I have experienced at the bird observatory so far! We decided as a group to have a bit of a “day off,” but I went out early anyway to join Knud Pedersen for some seawatching. Strong winds from the South made the day warmer than it has been recently and visibility was a bit hazy over the sea. Even so, we still enjoyed some nice birds. There were waders, gulls, and terns roosting or foraging on the beach, including a Little Stint (Dværgyle) and a first-year Caspian Gull, (Kaspisk Måge). Knud is an incredible birder and is quite gracious in sharing his bird identification knowledge!

I was delighted to get another “life bird,” yesterday morning. Although they are common here, I had never seen a Great Skua (Storkjove) before. It was thrilling to see not one, but two of these powerful seabirds out over the ocean. Seawatching requires observers to look at bird field marks from very far away, and the bright white flash on the wings of a Great Skua is an ID giveaway for this species!

I left the seawatching post at Grenen a bit early to join the rest of the crew on an excursion to Råbjerg Mile, a migrating sand dune. The wind moves the dune up to 20 meters every year! We went just to see this amazing natural phenomenon and to enjoy some birding and ended up with quite a surprise. While walking across the heath just next to the dune and admiring the Skylarks (Sanglærke) flying around us, we flushed another bird that none of us were expecting: a Stone Curlew (Triel)!

Stone Curlew (Burhinus oedicnemus) by Daniel Bloche

One of these strange members of the Charidriiformes had actually been seen in Skagen in early July and I was a little disappointed to have missed it. In the end however, I really could not have asked for a better first time seeing this species. We all watched through our binoculars in silence as it took off from the ground and flew with its strongly marked black and white wings and long yellow legs across the heathland. I’ve never seen a species like this in the wild and in North America we don’t even have anything like a Stone Curlew! It was very special for our whole crew to have such a nice look at a very interesting bird. Simon sent out the rare bird alarm right away and soon after Knud and Jørgen Kabel joined us to try and resight the Stone Curlew.

We were able to spot the Stone Curlew a few more times, but not nearly as well as the first time we flushed it. Still, our exploration of the heath was wonderful and we saw some more lovely birds. The warm weather had some raptors soaring overhead and we got nice looks at Common Buzzards (Muvåge), Red Kites (Rød Glente), Kestrels (Tårnfalk), Sparrowhawks (Spurvehøg), and a Peregrine Falcon (Vandrefalk).

The crew watching raptors at Råbjerg mile

We rounded out our exciting excursion day with an early (and delicious!) dinner at Skagen Brewery and a walk around the harbor in Skagen. It was a relaxing, yet eventful day with an incredible surprise!

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Molly Brown, Sasha Munters, Daniel Bloche, Knud Pedersen, Jørgen Kabel

This ringing morning was very quiet. We caught just a few passerines. The highlight was a song thrush (Sangdrossel). It was funny how big and heavy this bird was compared to the Blackcap (Munk) and especially the Goldcrest (Fuglekonge) we held in our hand just before. But the quiet day gave me the possibility to ring my first bird, a Dunnock (Jernspurv). It was a great experience to put on the ring the first time.

Pic.1: Ringing of a Dunnock

In the evening, I went out to take pictures of Gannets (Sule). I´ve had been waiting for a long time to have the possibility to take pictures of hunting Gannets. Now at Grenen, I had the chance to photograph them in the setting sun. It was amazing to see them falling off the sky to get fish. They are so quick and it’s hard to foresee when they will start fishing. But after 30 minutes of trying to take pictures I finally got a few good shots. They are not they best but they are my first ones and I´m very happy that I was successful to photograph this spectacle. I think I´ll try the next days to get some more, better pictures of these fascinating birds.

Pic.2: Fishing Gannet

But the Gannets were not the only ones trying to hunt fish. When we got out catching some waders at night we saw a light shining into the ocean. It was a diver (no not a Loon as you might think - it was a human diver). He was trying to catch some fishes with a harpune but was as unlucky as we trying to catch birds because it was too windy so we had to cancel it.

Birds we ringed in the morning: 3 Dunnocks (Jernspurv), 3 Robins (Rødhals), 1 Bullfinch (Dompap), 1 Redstart (Rødstjert), 4 Blackcaps (Munk), 1 Coal tit (Sortmejse), 1 Song thrush (Sangdrossel)

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Molly Brown, Sasha Munters, Daniel Bloche

In the early morning, we went out for ringing at Grenen again. We saw huge flocks of siskins, finches and tits migrating during this morning. However, a flock of Coal Tits (Sortmejse) has flown into our nets, so we ringed more den 30 of them. Jørgen, his wife and their lovely dog Igor visited us at the ringing spot and told us, that there`s a Yellow Browed Warbler (Hvidbrynet Løvsanger) around the area, but we weren’t lucky enough to catch it.

Simon spent the morning with a 3 hour guided tour about Gannets (Sule). The Gannets were very close so it was nice to watch them while they were fishing. Cecile also joined the tour and drove home afterwards.

In the afternoon, there was another guided tour for a church group of Frederikshavn and Simon told them a lot about the history of the lighthouse, birds and some science projects.

After a nice dinner, we had a moult lesson with Simon and he explained us a lot about different moult strategies based on pictures we took from birds we ringed during the last days.

In the evening, the weather was quite rainy and windy – perfect conditions for night catching. Therefore, Daniel and I got dressed warm and (more or less) rainproof and went out to catch some birds and we didn`t come home empty-handed. We caught two Common Terns (Fjordterne) – the first ones who`ve been ringed here at the Bird Observatory! It wasn`t that easy to caught them and our wellies were full with water (so running/walking wasn`t that much fun…) but eventually we succeeded.

Birds we ringed this morning: 34 Coal Tits (Sortmejse), 9 Robins (Rødhals), 4 Reed Buntings (Rørspurv), 3 Chiffchaffs (Gransanger), 2 Blackcaps (Munk), 2 Redstarts (Rødstjert), 2 Great Tits (Musvit), 1 Chaffinch (Bogfinke), 1 Pied Flycatcher (Broget Fluesnapper), 1 Reed Warbler (Rørsanger), 1 Meadow Pipit (Engpiber), 1 Lesser Whitethroat (Gærdesanger), 1 Garden Warbler (Havesanger), 1 Goldcrest (Fuglekonge), 1 Willow Warbler (Løvsanger), 1 Dunnock (Jernspurv)

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Cecilie Kimose Feggé Dufresne, Sasha Munters, Molly Brown, Daniel Bloche and Lisa Vergin

Despite the weather’s attempt to deter us, Sasha and I are determined to ring as much as possible, so we set alarms and awoke at 5:20 to rain and wind. However, after carefully studying the weather forecast we went and opened the nets at Grenen. We quickly became soaked, but the sky cleared by about 7:30 and we got a steady flow of birds at every round from then on. This is brilliant for really studying each bird we process and taking pictures we can use to do moult cards later and so then when it’s later on in the season we can still age birds that don’t have features which indicate an age so easily. At 9:00 Simon appeared telling us there was a Barred Warbler (Høgesanger) quite nearby on the road to Nordstrand so we left Simon in charge and went on a quick hunt. We saw a quick flash of a large warbler we were quite sure could have been the Barred Warbler and then returned to the nets as Simon needed to leave to greet his friend Cecilie. On our way back to Simon the path took us on a net round so when we saw 3 birds in a net we stopped to extract them, at which point Sasha sent me running up to what appeared to be a very loosely caught large Garden Warbler which was close to escaping, after extracting it I then realised it was juvenile Barred Warbler! What a treat! (I think Sasha identified it straight away- she’s witnessed 5 in the hand already this year!)

Simon then let me ring it as he sent a message out to all the local birders, turns out this was the third Barred Warbler sighted this morning, all juvenile. Also heard this morning was Penduline Tit (Pungmejse) and Nutcracker (Nøddekrige)- although they weren’t sighted. While Sasha and I were out bird ringing Daniel went out with Knud and the highlights included Fulmars (Mallemuk) , Great Skua ( Storkjove), Arctic Skua (Almindelig Kjove), Little Stint (Dværgryle) and White bellied Brent Goose (Knortegås).

Daniel, Knud, Lisa and all the other nearby local birders then joined us to see the Barred Warbler just before we released it- it’s amazing how quickly everyone arrived!

In the evening Daniel and Lisa used a super human effort to enter all the data from ringing this summer with the BTO’s Constant Effort Site- about 3 hours worth of work! Then they cooked a delicious meal of halloumi, bread and salad! Simon and Cecilie then joined us for an ultimate Shuffle Ball tournament, in which Simon thrashed us all!

People: Molly Brown, Sasha Munters, Daniel Bloche, Lisa Vergin, Simon S. Christiansen, Cecilie Kimose Feggé Dufresne, Knud Pedersen and local Skagen birders.

Birds rung: Great tit (Musvit) 1, Barred Warbler (Høgesanger) 1, Redstart (Rødstjert) 3, Dunnock (Jernspurv) 6, Robin (Rødhals) 4, Coal tit (Sortmejse) 3, Siskin (Grønsiskin) 1, Blackcap (Munk) 7, Willow Warbler (Løvsanger) 1 and Chiffchaff (Gransanger) 2

Today was my second day of ringing at Grenen and I was eager to get out there after a day of many captures yesterday. Lisa, Daniel, Molly, Lars Mortensen and I set out at first light and we had another great day, despite some rain early on. It is wonderful to have Danish birders who are very familiar with the bird life of Skagen join us for ringing, as they help us to also identify birds migrating overhead by sight and sound. One of the observation highlights for me was Lars pointing out a migrating Common Ringed Plover (Stor Præstekrave) calling overhead and we were able to catch a glimpse of it flying south.

We are continuing to catch relatively common passerine species at the station, but I am enjoying studying molt limits and other aging techniques for so many new (to me!) species. I was particularly excited today because I rung a new bird species for the first time! I had observed two Bullfinches (Dompap) around the nets early in the day and was very excited when I met Molly on a net round and she told me she had a gift for me. After ringing the molting 1cy Bullfinch, it took a few moments for it to fly from my hand and you can see how excited Molly’s ringing “gift,” made me.

We missed Simon during ringing this morning, but he was doing important work meeting with Skagen Fuglestation’s board members. They came to the observatory to discuss future research initiatives and to prepare next year’s report (and to bring us cake ?). He rejoined the crew for dinner though as Lisa and Daniel had made us delicious vegetarian pizzas that we all enjoyed very much!

Altogether we ringed 37 birds today: 2 Yellowhammer (Gulspurv), 3 Great Tits (Musvit), 8 Robins (Rødhals), 7 Dunnocks (Jernspurv), 1 Redstart (Rødstjert), 2 Reed Warbler (Rørsanger), 1 Coal Tit (Sortmejse), 1 Common Whitethroat (Tornsanger), 2 Blackcap (Munk), 1 Garden Warbler (Havesanger), 2 Chiffchaffs (Gransanger), 5 Reed Bunting (Rørspurv), 1 Bullfinch (Dompap), 1 Chaffinch (Bogfinke).

People: Simon S. Christiansen, the Skagen Fuglestation Board members, Lisa Vergin, Molly Brown, Sasha Munters, Daniel Bloche, Lars Mortensen

The alarm clock went off early today, because we went out to catch some passerines at Grenen. To get up early was worth it. We had very successful 5 1/2 Hours of catching birds. Totally we had 66 birds in our nets. Unfortunately for our fingers, we trapped many tits, especially coal tits (Sortmejse). I never would have guessed that it could be so painful to get bitten by such a little bird, but it is. Besides this we learned much about ringing birds. We spend a lot of time teaching each other to sex and age the different species. Sometimes two birds for good comparison. You can see one of these moments on our live video at Facebook.

Picture: Great tit (Musvit)

In the evening when we were finished with ringing and digitizing the data, we had a great dinner by Sasha. She cooked Enchiladas for us and it was very delicious. Furthermore, Mark gave us some insights into the radar technologies. Here in Skagen we have a new radar system available for identifying migrating birds even at night. It was really interesting to see how it works and which opportunities it provides. It is planned, that visitors can get insights into this technology in the exhibition, too. Moreover, you should save the date of the 16th September when it is the Day of Gannets with a guided tour at 09:00 (meeting point: big parking lot at Grenen, Skagen).

Birds we ringed this morning: 1 Great tit (Musvit), 2 Yellowhammer (Gulspurv), 7 Dunnock (Jernspurv), 5 Robin (Rødhals), 3 Redstart (Rødstjert), 1 Reedwarbler (Rørsanger), 25 Coal tit (Sortmejse), 2 Blue tit (Blåmejse), 5 Blackcap (Munk), 1 Whitethroat (Tornsanger), 1 Whillow warbler (Løvsanger), Reedbunting (Rørspurv)

People: Lisa Vergin, Molly Brown, Sasha Munters, Morten Christansen, Daniel Bloche, Mark Desholm

This morning, Sasha, Molly and Morten went out with Knud for birding. They were very successful and saw a Great Northern diver (Islom), a Caspian Gull (Kaspisk Måge), an Arctic Skua (Almindelig Kjove), a Rock Pipit (Skærpiber), migrating Siskins (Grønsisken) and were able to read 15 color rings of Gulls and Terns. Even it was a very stormy and sometimes rainy morning (Mortens umbrella didn`t survived it…), they learned a lot from Knud and his knowledge about aging and identify birds.
Daniel and I stayed at the Observatory to help Simon with all in all 130 school children, who visited the Fuglestation as part of the “Kulturcykeltur”. They played a game, where they learned something about breeding success by playing Willow Warbler vs. Goshawk vs. Magpie. But we started a bit later than the other volunteers, so we were luckier with the weather and Daniel made a lot of good pictures – from the schoolchildren event and birds.

Later at the day, I had to do a bit of unpleasant work, because there were a few ringing protocols which weren`t the way they supposed to be, so I had to copy all of them… But the work was definitely worth it! At the evening meeting Simon gave me a little present for this – so in retrospect the work was just fantastic :-)

Then in the evening, there was a lecture about the Golden Jackal (Guldjakal) by Dorthe Schmidt in Birders Club. Even it was in Danish and we couldn`t understand everything, it was very nice and all seats were occupied.
During the session Mark Desholm arrived, who is the head of the Dansk Ornitologisk Forening (DOF) Nature Department .He`s a biologist and made a great contribute to the bird observatories in Denmark. He`s also very qualified for ringing and radar data.

Again, we tried our luck with night catching but it wasn`t cloudy enough so the birds could see us very well and we weren`t able to catch one.
Nevertheless, it was a great day at Skagen Fuglestation again.

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Mark Desholm, Dorthe Schmidt, Morten Christensen, Sasha Munters, Molly Brown, Daniel Bloche, Lisa Vergin and people from our little friend society, who visited Dorthes lecture.

We started the day optimistic as we woke at 0630 and opened all the nets in the lighthouse garden, however two hours later we only had 3 Robins (Rødhals) to show for our efforts, which was good to show some Canadians from Toronto, but we had higher hopes when we set our alarms the night before.

The relentless rain and wind meant we then shut the nets and tackled the indoors equipped with vacuum and mop! With five of us cleaning it didn’t take very long so we decided to go on a group shopping trip into Skagen in Daniel and Lisa’s car. After a successful trip some of us decided to venture into the outdoors despite the torrential downpour. Morten and Daniel went out and saw two new birds for Daniel- Arctic Skua (Almindelig Kjove) and Velvet Scoter (Fløjlsand). I also headed out into the deluge but didn’t get very far before I was soaked, and the rain was so heavy I couldn’t use the telescope, so I returned with only having seen Wheatears (Stenpikker), Eider (Ederfugl) and Common Scoters (Sortand).

In the evening we had a lovely meal cooked by Daniel and after many games of Mikado, Morten and Daniel had another more prosperous attempt at Wader catching and returned with an Oystercatcher (Strandskade).

People: Molly Brown, Sasha Munters, Lisa Vergin, Daniel Bloche, Morten Christensen and Simon S. Christiansen