Today was a slow day, ringing has quietened right down, with the progression of the breeding season, though it promises to pick up again soon with the arrival of lots of local fledglings. Some other opportunities will arise soon, the possibility to ring waders and terns is just around the corner, and another visit to our nightjar sight will be occurring soon. That said, it was a quiet start to the morning, with admin and a bit of local birding on the agenda for most of us. The two visitors Igor and Jonas were the busiest of the lot, still installing their cameras both here and and few hours south.

After said quiet morning, I took a trip after lunch to Grenen, to try and refind the ringed plover pulli we had ringed two weeks ago. After a bit of searching I found both broods, all doing well, though I couldn’t find the fourth chick of the first brood (I was content with finding the majority, and prioritised their welfare over spending too much time searching in close proximity. The single chick from the second brood has now fledged, and can fly and run around with the best of them. It’s enough to make me positive about the chances of TWO broods fledging here, though my optimism with the cormorant colony appears to have been misplaced, so perhaps I should try and maintain a sense of realism. The resident bittern flew over the road to Grenen as I was on my way up so I can assume they’re still feeding their fledglings.

After the joy of refinding the plover chicks, I was brought back to the real world by losing my sunglasses and puncturing the tyre on one of the observatories bikes . . meaning I had to to push it back to the observatory . .

When I finally returned, it was straight to the kitchen, to prepare dinner for Michele and myself (fortunately I made more than enough because the guests came in late expecting dinner, which was unexpected. A quick evening meeting and then Michele and I undertook various personal tasks before hitting the sack ready to attempt ringing in the lighthouse garden tomorrow . .

This morning we wake up at 4:00! Per and I go ringing in Grenen. It's a nice sunny and not a windy morning. Simon reaches us for the first check of the nets. During the mornings we get some recaptures, some nesting birds, and some juveniles just fledged from the nest. In the late morning we close the mist-nets and go back to the light house, to rest for a few hours. We find Johan and Igor at work with their technological equipment. After lunch, we update on the databases the ringing data and the observations data.

Today is my turn to cook dinner, by popular demand I prepare the “pasta alla carbonara” Italian style, was much appreciated, especially by Per, John and Igor who had never tried it before. During dinner Simon tells me that tonight there will be a big fire on the beach, near the white lighthouse, to celebrate the summer solstice, of course I decide to go! Immediately after dinner Peter comes back from his trip to Copenagen. Simon and Per remain at the observatory to watch the football match Sweden-Germany, go Sweden!

Ringed birds                  Recaptures
1 Garden warbler          2 Reed warbler
2 Blackcap.                   1 Lesser Whitethroat
4 Lesser Whitethroat    2 Whitethroat
1 Reed bunting             1 Reed bunting
1 Robin
1 Chaffinch

visste redan igår kväll att det skulle bli en blåsig dag idag, utan möjlighet att ha fångstnäten på Grenen uppe. Därför ägnades gårdagskvällen åt Svensk pølseret, öl, Shuffle board och andra saker. Mycket trevligt! De flesta i personalen tog sovmorgon och det började hända saker på Skagens fågelstation först vid 8-tiden denna dag. Simon började sin dag med en fågelguidning längs Grenens östra strand som fortsatte längs Sandormssporet och tillbaka genom Ellekrattet. Nöjda deltagare fick njuta av områdets häckande fåglar samt ett stort antal rastande sjöfåglar och tärnor.

På morgonen stack Peter iväg på en av stationens cyklar. Hans imponerande skägg pekade österut när han trampade in mot byn i den i den friska västliga vinden. Peter ville hinna med ett tåg mot Aalborg strax före tio och därifrån åka vidare mot Köpenhamn för att gå på en konsert med sitt favoritband "Runrig", som just nu genomför sin avskedsturné. Michele och jag gav oss ut på en skådartur och skådade längs östra stranden ut mot Grenens spets. Det var mycket rörelse över vattnet med hundratals fiskande havssulor och tärnor av arterna kentsk-, fisk- och silvertärna. En mörk kustlabb jagade tärnor en bit ut och flockar med tretåiga måsar drog fram och tillbaka. Läckert! Tättingar såg vi inte så många men en ensam forsärla och enstaka starar gjorde sträckförsök. Längst ut på Grenen rastade flockar med tärnor, måsar, trutar och vi lyckades hitta några fåglar som var ringmärkta med färgringar. Bland annat läste vi av sifferkombinationer på kentsk tärna, tretåig mås, silltrut och havstrut.

Under dagen arbetade Igor och Johan från Mittuniversitetet i Sundsvall vidare med installation och montering av den kamerautrustning som ska detektera och registrera förbiflygande fåglar. Projektet med kameradetektering av fåglar finansieras av svenska Vattenfall och ska om det fungerar som tänkt, ge ett mått på hur många fåglar som förolyckas vid vindkraftverk där utrustningen sätts upp. Intressant och inte helt okomplicerat...

Eftermiddagen spenderade Michele och jag med att länge och väl titta på storskarvar i ”Skarvsøen”. Bon, ungar och vuxna individer inventerades. Några hade små ungar, andra stora ungar och några hade döda ungar som den grovnäbbade havstruten glupskt slet i stycken. Utöver de snygga storskarvarna sågs nio gråhakedoppingar, en handfull sothöns, kricka, en gök och stressade tornseglare som jagade insekter lågt över våra huvuden. Kvällen spenderades inomhus med matlagning och Michele visade bilder från ringmärkning på Sardinien. Många bilder på exotiska fågelarter, eller vad sägs om biätare, härfågel, sommargylling, dvärguv m.m. Minst sagt triggande för en svensk ringmärkare! Simon åkte iväg på eftermiddagen för att vara med på en av sina kompisars examensfest i Hals innan han returnerade vid midnat. På vägen hem såg han en nattskärra flyga över vägen vid Ålbæk.

Michele vid Storskavkolonin

In the morning Simon took us out to a little birding trip to Jerup Strand, Tversted Strand and Hirtshals, hoping to find some rare species.

We saw some waders including Redshank, Oystercatcher, Shelduck, Sandwich terns, Common tern, Arctic terns, little ringed plover, ringed plovers, and other various species.

In Hirtshals we saw one of the last remaining Crested larks in Denmark. The only site where they still remain breeding. Apparently, in the last 50 years the population has declined, and now near extinction. Probably due to loss of habitat in urban and agricultural areas.

In the afternoon while busy working on indoor tasks a new guest arrived. Per Österman from Gothenburg, Sweden. He has a long experience as ringer and observer and will stay here until Sunday. Late in the evening Igor Fedorov and Johan from the University of Sundsvall arrived to test some 3D-cameras on migrating birds that hopefully can be useful regarding how to monitoring the effect of wind turbines on birds a maybe even give us more knowledge about how to avoid collisions. For about a month ago, a Red kite lost its life due to collision with a wind turbine here in Skagen.

After dinner, we socialized and got to know our new guests a little better through a tournament of Shuffle ball!

Igor Fedorov with the 3D-cameras

Per Österman out birding with our Swarovski Teleskope

Even today the weather is not on our side. It rains, and the forecasts provide rain and wind all day, and unfortunately it is not possible to open the mist-nets today. While we have breakfast watching the sea from the light house, we see some red-throated loons, terns, gannets, common scoters, eiders and several species of gulls. Simon and I leave at 8:30 to bring two bikes to be repaired. Upon returning Simon shows me some interesting places to see birds in the northwest part of Skagen. 

Later we return to the Lighthouse, we find Peter engaged in his outdoor tasks, and we also start ours. Today is cleaning day! In the afternoon, Peter and I clean up all the rooms and the kitchen. For dinner I prepare Italian-style pasta with mushrooms, and Simon cooking Danish sausages, a perfect match! After dinner we plan activities for the next days, hoping for good weather. It was not a good day for the observations, but a profitable day for logistics.

Today there is definitely a lot of wind, and this does not allow us to open the nets for ringing. So at 9.30am I go to monitor the cormorant colony, this is not easy in the strong wind but at least it is sunny. There are new empty nests, probably predated by the red fox. Other species observed at the lake include red necked grebes, that also seem to have lost their nests, common gulls, herring gulls, great black backed gulls and various other species including a passing honey buzzard. I go back to the lighthouse around 11am and find Peter and Simon working on their computers for the various indoor tasks and I join them to transcribe the cormorant data.

In the afternoon, Peter goes to a tower not far from the station to make observations. Simon has a meeting with Terje Axelson from Store Færder Bird Observatory to discuss radio tracking. I rest an hour and then I go into town on the bike. It was not very easy in the headwind, but on the way back I did it in a sprint! For dinner this evening Peter decides to experiment with a kind of spicy minestrone, it was very good! Accompanied by an excellent red wine. In the evening there is still the strong wind which has lasted all day, and tomorrows forecasts are not good, but we are positive!

The wind really picked up throughout the night, which meant ringing in the morning was not possible. Thankfully we had a group of schoolchildren arriving at 11 for a ringing tour, so heading to Grenen wasn’t realistic anyway. As we had time to spare, I went out to the coast at 9.30 to look for the goosander from the previous evening, which was swimming around the rocks on the beach, which was nice. It’s an unusual sighting at this time of year, but not unsurprising as the males don’t help in rearing the young, so coming down here to moult, where conditions are slightly more hospitable is a wise decision.

The ringing tour started at 11.30, though the wind didn’t provide much optimism for catching anything, However we were lucky and there was a whitethroat on the first round, and a lesser whitethroat on the second round. Showing the children how we ring birds with an actual bird was very gratifying, and they all seemed very interested. On top of that the whitethroat was a Danish retrap from elsewhere in Denmark. The weather really set in after that and we retreated inside to get one with various indoor tasks. It seems the ‘Skagen summer’ has finally arrived!

Birds ringed - 1 lesser whitethroat

Birds retrapped - 1 whitethroat

Off to ring at Grenen this morning, with some optimism, as the rain in the night and the light wind would be very good for any scarcities hanging around the area.

As it turned out we did catch some unusual birds, a returning failed breeder (presumably) pied flycatcher and a sedge warbler, the first to get ringed here this year. Aside from that we caught another 20 birds, which, whilst it was the largest number in weeks, was still not as good as we’d hoped, and without the major ‘rare’ that June can provide. However it was a very educational session, with a new bird in the hand for me (sedge warbler) and one for Michele (lesser redpoll). A nice male reed bunting was also a nice catch. Kirstine was also getting to grips with bird handling and extraction, and the fact that we were catching birds for a few hours, allowed us to show her some of the grips and positions for holding birds as well as the difficult species and how to separate them in the hand. Just before we left, the very tame fox from the ridge at Grenen appeared and followed us around for a bit, far too tame due to irresponsible feeding, we can only assume.

This was Kirstine’s last day, so after we arrived back at the Obs, she hastily typed up her last diary post and packed her belongings, before helping both Michele and I with entering ringing data and sorting the photo archive.

Heavy rain and wind put off any afternoon birding, so I occupied myself with cleaning the guests apartment, before continuing with computer work. After a quiet dinner Michele and I chatted about the differences in ringing licensing across Europe and North America and about some of the tricker birds we’d had in the hand over the last two days. Just before we retired for the night, Michele refound the male goosander he’d found earlier in the week, just offshore from the Obs. Despite dashing out 3 minutes later, I did not see it that evening.

I dag blev mange fugle ringmærket efter det standardiserede europæiske ringmærkningsprogram, CES (Constant Effort Site), hvor man blandt andet følger ynglefuglenes alderssammensætning og overlevelse fra år til år. Nettene skulle være åbne fra kl. 04.15 hvilket betød vi stod op allerede kl. 03.00. På stedet mødte vi Michael Ancher som også ringmærker fuglene. Vi fangede mange spændende fugle, blandt andet en spurvehøg hun og en meget smuk skovskade med de imponerende blå fjer. Efter 6 timers ringmærkning, var det rart med en lille eftermiddagslur men først fik jeg dejlig kaffe og kage på fuglestationens café. Sidst på eftermiddagen tog Michele og jeg hen til en høj bakke/klit med god udsigt, hvor vi så rørdrummen komme flyvende. Vi hørte også vandriksen i nærheden. Peter havde lavet en god risret til aftensmad og herefter havde vi aftenmøde. Dagen sluttede med en ”Shuffle ball” turné, hvor jeg var så heldig at vinde over Peter igen ????

Vi begyndte dagen med at tage ud på stranden på Grenen for at fange stor præstekrave unger, som vi havde set dagen i forvejen. Det blev til i alt 5 ringmærkede unger, 4 små fra det samme kuld og en lidt større unge fra et andet kuld. Det var en rigtig god oplevelse. Derudover fik Michele og Peter øje på 3 fugle med ringe (sildemåge, svartbag og ride) og der blev taget billeder af deres numre. Det bliver spændende at finde ud af hvilket sted de er ringmærket, og hvilken rejse de har været på, som ringens nummer kan vise når det bliver tastet ind på computeren. På stranden så vi blandt andet også mange terner, heriblandt en meget fin dværgterne. Efter vores morgen-fugletur lavede Michele igen en god pastaret til frokost og ved eftermiddagstid gik turen til Skarvsøen med Peter, for at registrere ynglende Skarver, antal af reder og deres unger. Her så vi også de ynglende gråstrubet lappedykker igen, og 5 reder i alt. Der var også troldænder i søen men kun hanner. En anden speciel oplevelse for dagen var Micheles fund af en stor skallesluger han, som svømmede blandt en flok ederfugle nær ved det grå fyr.