The day started cloudy and rainy. Dante and I headed to North Strand around 4:30 am and at 7 o’clock the official Morning Observation there started, during the morning around 40 other birders joined us. A quiet walk, guided of a local ornithologist, also started at 7 am. We hoped the rain would stop soon, but it rained cats and dogs all day long. While Dante and I stayed at North Strand and saw soooo many birds, although it was raining, Hebe and Joakim were ringing (in the short time period, when it didn’t rain) and catched a Sparrowhawk! Joakim ringed him. I really hope we will catch another one, I would love to have one in my hands! But meanwhile Dante and I saw Marsh and Hen Harriers (Rørhøg og Blå Kærhøg), a Whinchat (Bynkefugl), a Kittiwake (Ride), an Oriole (Baltimore Trupial), a Kestrel (Tårnfalk), a White-tailed eagle (Havørn) and some more.

But the biggest highlight of the day: WE SAW ORCAS AGAIN!! Rolf saw them first at Grenen and then they headed to North Strand. Hebe, Joakim and Simons Mum hurried to see them, and they did. They even saw the white on their heads! How incredible is this?!

In the afternoon we had another tour about ringing in Skagen as part of the program “Frisk I Naturen”, were Simon explained how and why we ring.

Ringing (Det Grå Fyr):

Løvsanger                                           1

Ringing (Sardinkrattet):

Spurvehøg                                          1

Rødhals                                               2

Sangdrossel                                        1

Gærdesanger                                      1

Gransanger                                         1

Løvsanger                                           4

Total: 11

Folk: Hebe, Joakim, Dante, Simon and his Mum, Marie

The first day of the bird festival and at 10am we all piled into the birders club (due to the adverse weather) for the opening. Lene and Simon both gave talks to a very tightly packed crowd and the festival began. A few of the planned events could not take place due to the weather but still several guided tours headed out and some good birds were seen including a Sortrygget Vipstjert and very large flocks of up to 75 Tinksmed! Late in the afternoon the sun broke through the cloud and the birds arrived. 2 Steppehog, a Hedehog, a Mallemkjove and the first Hvepsevage of the year. In the evening Jørgen Rabøl held a talk about bird migration which was very interesting. Bring on tomorrow! 

Folk på stationen: Jørgen Rabøl, Joakim Matthiesen, Dante Shepherd, Simon S Christiansen, Hebe Denny and Marie Heuberger

I dag startede dagen atter tidligt. Hebe og Dante satte sig ud på Grenen for, at holde øje med trækket. Simon, Marie og jeg åbenede nettene på Grenen kl 05:00. Dagen bød på flere fugle i nettene end vi har haft et stykke tid. Dog blev det kun til 28 fugle denne morgen, men sammelignet med de seneste dage var det rigtigt fint. Det er i sær Afrika-trækkerne, som satte sit præg på denne dag. Især løvsanger og munk dominerede i dag. Deuodover fandt også 2 rødstjert og en skovpiber vej til nettene.

Dette gav god mulighed for, at få taget blodprøver af fuglene. Det gør vi for at teste for vest-nil-virus . En sygdom som fuglene kan få en Afrika og bringe med sig hjem til Danmark. Vi samarbejder med universiteterne, som for tilsendt prøverne og analysere dem.

Derudover var det rengøringsdag, så kosten og støvsugeren blev hevet frem for en stund.

Herudover ankom Jørgen Rabøl, som holder et spændene foredrag i morgen om studier af rovfugle.

OGSÅ starter fuglefestival jo i morgen! Det glæder vi os til, og vi håber at se mange af jer! Det bliver super fedt! Det er bare ud og finde nogle fede fugle!

Folk på stationen: Jørgen Rabøl, Joakim Matthiesen, Dante Shepard, Simon S Christiansen, Hebe Denny and Marie Heuberger

Ringmærkning på Sardinkrattet:

Skovpiber: 1

Bogfinke: 1

Rødstjert: 2

Gærdesmutte: 1

Gærdesanger: 5

Munk: 7

Løvsanger: 10

Rørspurv: 1

Total: 28

Her en munk fra i dag. Dette er en hun-fugl, med brun kalot.

It was a lovely start to the day, sunny and a glowing sunrise as usual. It is still so exciting to wake up and see the sea! 

Joakim, Marie, Dante and I headed out to Grenen for observations, where we joined Rolf and many other bird watchers. It was quite a quiet morning again, but we did see some Storkjove (Great Skua) which was very lovely, theyre so big and beautiful!! And also three Rød Glente, which is always exciting. There was also a Bjerglaerke hanging around at the tip which some people also got to see.

At nine am i headed back to the obs with Marie to show her where the old lihgthouse garden nets are, which we opened in preparation for a ringing tour with Simon. I then headed back to grenen for a little while. 

Back at the Obs, we got on with daily tasks. DOF basen, raptor summaries, blogs etc.. and Simon headed out to the post office to send away the blood samples we had taken from african migrants in the pas few days. These will be used to test for west nile virus in their blood, which is a very interesting project for us! 

In the afternoon, we spoke with Simon about the coming bird festival and prepared a little. Exciting! We look forward to meeting any of you who will be coming along!!! 

In other news.. we had the exciting arrival of an Otter at the Skarv Colony!! It was spotted by Michael Fink. A really lovely find. 

Anyhoo!! Another day of bliss at the Fuglestation. Until next time!! 

 Marie and I observing in the morning!! lovely and sunny, but a wee bit chilly!!

Ringmarkening Det Gra Fyr:

Lovsanger - 1

People: Michael Fink, Joakim, Dante, Marie, Hebe, Simon and Rolf. 

Today was a calm day to gain some energy for the upcoming bird festival, which will start on Thursday. We saw a Storkjove (Great Skua) and Ride (Kittiwakes) at Grenen, which was quite nice! We also tried to catch the Husrødstjert (Black Redstart), which was jumping around in our garden. Unfortunately, we didn't make it, but instead we caught a blackbird. A little comfort, after all. Besides, Joakim showed me my first Sortstrubet bynkefugl (Stonechat), which is rare, where I live in Germany. And here it has a favorite branch in our garden, incredible! In the evening I tried our awesome Olympus camera and watched the Ederfugl (Eider) and Splitterne (Sandwich terns) near the Lighthouse. Unfortunately, the SD card was broken, so I can’t show you any pictures. Later in the afternoon Hebe and I went for a swim in the sea. It was my first one here in Skagen and it was so cold! But we enjoyed the refreshing, salty adrenaline rush.

And besides that, we got a present from Axel Mortensen & Else Marie Collin: A painting made by Peter Nilsson of Ottenby Bird Observatory, one of the three observatories which are part of the Scandinavian Triple (= a great internship opportunity to get to know three observatories in different Scandinavian countries in three months). We hung the painting in the kitchen, and it really changes the atmosphere of the room in a positive way. Thank you very much for this present Axel & Else!

Ringing (Det Grå Fyr):

Solsort            1

Total: 1 Folk: Joakim Matthiesen, Dante Shepard, Simon S Christiansen, Hebe Denny and Marie Heuberger

There were almost no birds moving in the morning due to the cold weather. However the morning quickly turned from quiet to manic when a pod of 7 Spækhuggere/Killer Whales appeared in my telescope! Wow! My initial views of the pod were very brief and very distant. I let the other birders I was with know I had seen them and we waited for them to surface again. The 5 minutes it took them to show themselves felt forever as I started to think I had imagined it! But they did come up again to my relief and were enjoyed by many for about an hour before they disappeared to the north east. Amazing! A video of the animals can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSUSzjd_uNY In the afternoon a danish TV crew came to film me for the news later in the day. That clip can be found after 15 mins here: https://www.dr.dk/tv/se/tv-avisen-med-sporten/tv-avisen-23/tv-avisen-2019-05-05?fbclid=IwAR2nWvoVvFc2N2sEND-ZRdOC7wOPHvENpqF1BgMMGtIR7zy1PadgXhO-wxc Simon cooked something danish and traditional for dinner (can’t remember the name of it) which was really good.

Folk: Joakim Matthiesen, Dante Shepherd, Marie Heuberger, Simon S Christiansen, Hebe Denny, Brian, Kirsten.

Ringmærkning Sardinkrattet and Jenne So:

Bogfinke - 2, Munk - 1, Gærdesmutte - 3, Gransanger - 2, Løvsanger - 6, Rødhals - 6, Skovskade - 1

Total 21

Selvom dagen startede næsten som normalt var det dog med et lidt andet motiv dag. I dag var nemlig Tårnenes Dag. Det betyder, at man kan melde et hold til eventet og derefter tælle arter ved sit fugletårn fra kl 05:00 til kl 13:00. Det gælder ganske enkelt om, at finde flest arter. Vinderene er sjovt nok det hold, som finder flest forskellige arter i løbet af de 8 timer. Derfor stod vi alle 5, Dante, Hebe, Marie, Simon og jeg ude på grenen kl 05:00. Her fik vi besøg af nogle lokale birdere samt Mad og Fugle, som hjalp os med at finde arter denne dag.

Den opmærksomme læser har nok bemærket er der jo ikke er noget fugletårn ude på Grenen. Derfor kan vi ikke deltage i den ’rigtige kokurrence’, da man jo skal have et tårn. Derimod deltog vi som de sidste par i den uofficelle konkurrence, hvor alle kan være med fra en ’obs-post’. Skagen plejer ALTID at vinde.

Marie og jeg gik ned i sardinkrattet og åbende nettene for, at se om vi kunne fange en fugl eller to som vi kunne vise til holdet på Grenen og derved forbedre deres vinderchancer. Det blev dog ikke til mange fugle, men vi fik da ringmærket et par stykker.

Da dagen bød på meget blæst skete det uventede. Vi vandt ikke i år! Desværre var kulde og blæst for meget for trækfuglene og vi endte med kun 66 arter sammenlignet med 109 sidste år. Den bedste art i dag blev en trækkende islom. Vi tager revanche næste år!

Herefter havde Simon et møde med Micheal Ancher om ringmærkning. Brian og Kirsten tog en tur til Gyvelstien efter at have sovet lidt længe i dag. I Byfogedskoven afholdte Poul Hald-Mortensen en guidet tur, som gik rigtigt fint trods den hårde vind.

Om aftenen fik vi sagt farvel til Brian og Kirsten, som nu har været her i en uges tid. Det har været herligt at have dem på besøg!

Folk på stationen: 

Folk: Joakim Matthiesen, Dante Shepard, Marie Heuberger, MAD OG FUGLE, Micheal Ancher, Simon S Christiansen, Hebe Denny, Poul Hald-Mortensen, Brian, Kirsten. 

Ringmærkning Sardinkrattet:

Gransanger - 2

Vinddrossel - 1

Munk - 1

Gærdesmutte - 1

Total 5

Arkivbillede af islom

We woke up to a bit of a wild and blustery day, but nevertheless were excited and ready for a morning of observations! The four of us, (Joakim, Dante, Marie and I) headed out to Grenen again to join Rolf in the cold and the wind!

The weather proved to be a bit anti bird, and we had a very quiet morning, although alongside the usual passers by, there were some lovely highlights as always, such as the first Rørsanger for the year!

Mid morning, we were joined by Brian, who heard us talking about the Lille Gulben (lesser yellow legs) and very kindly offered us a loan of their car for the day!! so this was an exciting surprise for us!! and so the four of us drove down to Ulvedybet to see the Lesser yellow legs! It was quite exciting to be outside of skagen for the first time in a few months!

We got some lovely views of the bird, as well as an incredible view of a Southern Blue throat resting in a Rapeseed field!! There were lots of other waders there too; Rødben (redshank), Strandskade (oystercatcher) and Recurvirostra (avocet) among others!

Joakim, Dante and Marie watching the birds

Back at the observatory, we got on with some tasks before a much needed dinner of Dantes signature quiches!!

Thanks everyone for another brilliant day in Skagen!!

No ringing today

Folk: Joakim Matthiesen, Dante Shepard, Anna Moulin, Micheal Ancher, Simon S Christiansen, Hebe Denny, Jan Heilmann, Brian, Kirsten og Rolf Christiansen.

I just arrived at Skagen yesterday and today was my first day working. We (Joakim, Hebe, Dante and myself) went to Grenen around five o’clock in the morning with one of our guests, Brian and Kirsten and we also met some local birders. It was windy and therefore not a good birding day. But anyway we saw many Sule (Norhtern gannets) and even more Malamuk (Fulmars). In the evening Joakim gave a lecture about counting birds. He especially explained how to count flocks. I really enjoyed my first day here, even if it was a bit calm and I’m looking forward the next two months here. I’m sure I will learn a lot!

Rining:

no ringing today, due to bad weather conditions

Folk: Joakim Matthiesen, Dante Shepherd, Simon S Christiansen, Hebe Denny, Marie Heuberger, Brian and Kirsten

All of us were up super early (3:30am) for the first CIS ringing of the year at Jennes So with Michael Ancher. It was a very quiet morning with only 5 birds ringed but we caught the first Mallard/Graand ever for the observatory. Anna had to leave for Lista mid morning and we all said goodbye. You will really be missed Anna! Marie, a new volunteer from Germany, arrived around midday. In the afternoon Simon, Joakim and I had a guided tour with 40 people which went really well. Brian and Kirsten cooked an amazing dinner! Afterward Jan had a talk about plants in the birders club. 

Folk: Joakim Matthiesen, Dante Shepherd, Anna Moulin, Micheal Ancher, Simon S Christiansen, Hebe Denny, Jan Heilmann, Brian og Kirsten, Marie

Rinkmarkening Jenne So and Det Gra Fyr:

Graand - 1, Gaerdesmutte - 2, Munk - 1, Gransanger - 1, Musvit - 2, Rorspurv - 2

Total 9