Solen skinnede allerede fra morgenstunden og vinden var sådanset næsten ikke eksisterende. Derfor kunne vi nyde dagen rundt omkring fyret. Vi åbnede nettene i haven i forhåbning om at få lidt fugle til den guidede tur kl 11, hvilket også lykkedes. 

Op ad eftermiddagen hang vi bare ud rundt omkring gårdspladsen og snakkede med diverse folk der kom forbi. Martin udnyttede tiden til at spille lidt guitar og skabe god stemning. Så det var en rigtigt hyggelig og rolig eftermiddag.

Til sidst på eftermiddagen snakkede vi (Martin, Christina og jeg) med Mark om radaren i haven. Han viste og lidt om hvordan den fungerede samt hvad den kan bruges til. Herudover snakkede vi lidt om hvad planerne for brug af radaren for fremtiden er.

Aften var sat af til natravne. Vejret var med os så natravnene kunne høres på lang afstand. Planen med det hele var, at tælle natravnene i nogle områder i Skagen Klitplantage. De næste dage er der nemlig orienteringsløb i skovene, hvilket måske kan skræmme nogle af natravenne væk? Det ved vi ikke men kan forhåbentlig finde ud af det ved at foretage en tælling mere om et par dage! Der var mange natravne, flere end forventet. Derved fik vi optalt 15 par af natravn i de områder vi gik i, i løbet af 4 timer. Vi sluttede omkring kl 03:00. Så vi kom sent i seng.

Ringmærkning (Fyhaven):

Tornsanger - 1

Gransanger - 1

Blåmejse - 1

Total: 3

Her ses et kort som dækker det område vi optalte natravne i. Når vi fandt et par blev det plottet ind på kortet.

Folk: Mark Desholm, Joakim Matthiesen, Martin Y Georgiev and Christina Ninou

The day started with an awesome ringing tour delivered by the lovely Joakim which involved 11 humans and 2 whitethroats! Since Mark is visiting us for a week we made sure to have as many interesting lectures and workshops with him such as a overall talk on the migration of birds with a focus on the response of birds to windfarms and the aerodynamics of flight. As Wednesday is our cleaning day at the station we made sure everything was squeaky clean by the end of the day. Nothing better than a sparkling house after a long day of field work. For me personally the highlight of the day was a weaver beetle (Lamia textor) which I found while cleaning the lab. The weaver beetle is a member of the long-horned beetle family and despite being a North Asian species it is widely distributed throughout all of Europe. The larvae develop in willow trees and the adults are one of the largest Coleoptera species in Denmark. We kept it in a enthomological containder for about two hours which allowed it to capture the imagination of many of our visitors during the day, especially the young ones. The size and robustness of the beetle combined with its relaxed temper made it an awsome specimen to handle which - perfect for enlightening our visitors with some amazing entomological knowledge!

Ringing (Fyrhaven):

Tornsanger – Whitethroat - 2

Total: 2

Mark Desholm, Simon S Christiansen, Joakim Matthiesen, Martin Y Georgiev and Christina Ninou.

The day started quite early, at 5o clock Martin, Joakim and me, took our bikes and telescopes and went up to Verdens ende that used to be the tip of Skagen some years ago. The aim of our visit was to find out if any migratory birds are flying by or maybe find any interesting species flying or swimming in the sea. Rolf was already there with his telescope for some time. Not more than half an hour later he shouted out to us something in a very exciting tone! A rarity!! A surf scoter swimming among a flock of common scoters! We immediately pointed our scopes at it and took a good look of that beautiful bird. Unfortunately, it was a bit far for a picture, but still observing was more than enough! After that exciting encounter, we walked on the beach heading to the tip of Skagen were Kattegat and Skagerak, the two seas, meet creating a line of beautiful waves. We took some pictures there and continued our walk next to the water, on the beach. There were three big flocks of gulls and terns, so we decided to check out the exact species, while try to find any color rings. Three tern species were there as well as three different species of gulls and some with color rings.

When we came back, we stayed at the birders club where we met up with Mark and Simon and talked a bit with the tourists. An interesting meeting with Mark took place at the birders club, were he talked to us about film making and creating short videos and exchanged some nice ideas (...more to come in the next days ;) ).

It was a good day with that rarity we saw and now the “rarity wall” in the house is full, having in total 10 rarities for Denmark this year!

Rarity wall

Interesting to say though, is that after dinner around 8o clock we decided to go look for the duck again. So, we prepared ourselves for a long walk. As soon as we got close to the beach, right next to the observatory, Mark looked at the sea with his binoculars and decided to put up his scope just to check! There it was! The evening golden light and the smaller distance, were it was swimming calmly in less waves this time, were the best conditions for a better picture. We got it!

 Mark Desholm, Simon S Christiansen, Joakim Matthiesen, Martin Y Georgiev and Christina Ninou.

I dag var vi tidligt oppe! Hvilket vi trængte meget til efter mange dage med regn og vind og alt for meget søvn om natten. Det var nemlig CES dag i dag. Så vi og afsted til Jennes sø og fik åbnet nettene så de var klar kl 04:00. Det var Michele, Martin, Christina og jeg denne morgen. Det er sådan et dejligt sted så vi nød at være der, hvilket er heldig for fuglene var desværre ikke mange i dag. Dog blev det til et par interresante fugle, som bød på svære aldersbestemmelser, hvilket altid er sjovt, så morgenen er nu godkendt! 

Tilbage igen på stationen blev det til et par ekstra timers søvn for mange af os. Martin og Michele tog til byen og fik klaret diverse gøremål. Christina kiggede rundt i området, som stadigvæk er meget nyt for hende og Martin. Jeg klarede lidt små-opgaver hjemme. Simon havde også diverse ting at holde styr på i dag og et møde eller to blev det vidst også til. Derudover brugte Mark og Simon tid sammen på at kigge på stationens radar for at prøve, at udvikle en plan for hvordan den skal bruges i fremtiden, spændende!

Det er desværre Micheles sidste dag på stationen og han tager med Ottenby i Sverige her kl 22:00 i aften. Jeg har nydt at være sammen med Michele som jeg allerede lærte at kendte på stationen sidste år. Jeg er sikker på at alle her kommer til at savne ham! Men inden han skal afsted har Michele besluttet sig for at tage ravance i forhold til den tiramisu, som gik lidt i vaksen sidste uge. Denne gang endte det faktisk meget godt selvom vi stadigvæk ikke kan finde de rigtige kiks... men den smagte nu fint! 

Ringmærkning (Jennes Sø):

Gransanger - 1

Bogfinke - 2

Blåmejse - 1

Tornsanger - 1

Rødhals - 1

Gærdesanger - 1

Rørsanger - 2

Total: 9

Her ses version 2 af Micheles tiramisu. Den endte med at blive rigtig fin denne gang.... dog lidt tynd!

Folk: Mark Desholm, Simon S Christiansen, Joakim Matthiesen, Michele Pes, Martin Y Georgiev and Christina Ninou.

The day started reasonably late with a delifhtful breakfast with Simon's family who were visiting. That was followed by some ringing in the garden which resulted in the capture of two whitethroats which some tourists were quite deligthed to see up close. Our high level of productivity during the day was further increased by us fixing the bicycle which had a flat tire the previous day, while doing this we made sure to quickly service all of our bikes since as everyone knows prevention is the best medication!

Michele (who is preparing to leave us in two days) in the meanwhile was enjoying the lovely sunrays at the beach hoping for a cheeky swim only to find a tremendous amount of jellyfish in the water which in the end spoiled his relaxing beach safari.

Christina & Joakim managed to find some time for a quick bird watching session which yielded some views of seabirds and a lovely harbour porpoise in our local Kattegat!

Since tomorrow was a day for our constant effor site (CES) the afternoon was dominated by prep work to make sure everything was up and running for our 04:00am start on the next day.

Ringing (Fyrhaven):

Tornsanger – Whitethroat    2

Total: 2

Folk: Mark Desholm, Simon S Christiansen, Joakim Matthiesen, Michele Pes, Martin Y Georgiev and Christina Ninou.

Due to bad weather conditions, a lot of wind and some rain, we didn't open the nets. Although that gave Joakim and Michele the opportunity to show us, me and Martin, some important stuff we need to know about the observatory which we will practice on during our stay. Also, we did the data entry from the previous day of ringing and went through the amazingly organized photo archive of the station checking out pictures of past events, which looked really fun!

As soon as the sun came out, we jumped up and went out too! The plan was, first to go to the exhibition and then to the lighthouse! The exhibition was brilliant! Personally, I am planning to visit it again! It is full of amazing information on the migration of birds. Monitors all around showing beautiful pictures, graphs, maps and fun facts in an interactive way of learning. We went through every single one of them, reading and pressing buttons! After that, we went up 208 stairs, reaching the top of the lighthouse. The view was breathtaking. Of course, we did some birdwatching and were observing from the top some sandwich terns (Splitterne), common scoters (Sortand) as well as herring gulls (Sølvmåge).

Later in the evening, someone from us needed to go to the center to save the bike, which was left alone all night. In the end, we realized that we had the wrong key for the locker of the bike, confusing it with the key for the postbox (!!!). So, I went to get the bike, and the ride back was so relaxing.

In the afternoon we said one goodbye and one welcome. Sander left the house but with a huge smile on his face. After that, we said a big hello to Mark. We went to dinner together and then to the Skagen Festival. It was fun, a lot of music and beer. We returned to the house late hours…  

It was a long and good day! The most important though was that the moto of the Skagen Bird Observatory "Fugle, Oplevelser, Viden, Fællesskaber" ("Birds, Experience, Knowledge, Community") is accomplished!

People: Mark Desholm, Simon S Christiansen, Joakim Matthiesen, Sander HB Villumsen, Michele Pes, Martin Y Georgiev and Christina Ninou.

Today the day starts very early, we all wake up at 3:30 am to open the nets at Sardinkrattet.

Today is the first Danish ringing day for newcomers Christina and Martin.

It's a good day, the wind is weak and the weather is warm and sunny.

We catch a good number of birds, most of them arejuveniles  Whitethroath (Tornsanger) and Lesser whitethroath (Gærdesanger), but at 10:00 on the last check we catch two fantastic Lesser Redpolls (Lille Gråsisken)!

Christina and Martin are very satisfied with the morning, they already have good experience on handling birds, very well!

After a few hours of rest in the afternoon we organize a "moult session" with the new guys where we talk about the moult strategies of passerines, and the most common birds here in Skagen at this time of the year.

After with Christina and Martin we go to the town  to do shopping.

On the way back the misfortune falls on us, and the lock on one of the bikes decides not to open anymore! After 15 minutes of vain attempts, we understand that the best solution is to go home with two bikes, and return to retrieve the other tomorrow.

So Christina and I go back on one bike, Chiristina sitting on the back of the bike, but fortunately for her ass we have a pack of paper towels that she can use as a butt-saver!

After the comfortable journey we arrive home safely a little late, I find Joakim and Sander with the cramps of hunger, as if they were coming back from a famine, so immediately I am going to prepare a super-nutritious carbonara pasta for everyone!

After dinner we have a meeting  to decide the activities for the next few days.

Joakim manages to capture the pigeon who decided to illegally occupy the Birders club, to deliver it to Knud Pedersen who will take it with himm and make sure thats its taking good care of.

We end the day with a bit of relaxation and with some good guitar music.

Ringing (Sardinkrattet):                                                       

- Tornsanger – Whitethroat    7

- Gærdesanger – Lesser whitethroat     2

- Lille gråsisken – Lesser redpoll                   2

- Rørsanger – Reed warbler  1         

- Kærsanger – Marsh warbler           1

- Musvit – Great tit     3

- Hvid Vipstjert – White wagtail          1

- Munk – Blackap       1

- Rødhals – Robin      1

Total: 19

People: Simon S Christiansen, Joakim Matthiesen, Sander HB Villumsen, Michele Pes, Martin Y Georgiev e Christina.

Vind og vejr forsætter i dag, som det har gjort de sidste par dage. Meget blæst blandet med enkelte byger hist og her. Så derfor heller ikke nogen ringmærkning om morgenen. De betød at vi sov længe igen i dag (bare rolig, vi står tidligt op i morgen). Hver torsdag fra nu af har vi en guidet ringmærkningstur på engelsk. Det betød at Michelé, Sander og jeg åbnede nettene kl 10:30 og turen startede kl 11. Til turen kom der to personer fra England. De var rigtig søde og meget interreseret i vores arbejde da de selv havde forbindelser til nogle andre fuglestationer rundt omkring. Det var en hyggelig tur omend det mest blev inde i laboratoriet da vind og vejr ikke var godt udenfor. Derfor fangede vi heller ikke nogle fugle på turen og hev derfor nogle af vores frosne fugle op af fryseren. Sådan er det nogle gange og det er faktisk helt fint! Det var en rigtig god tur.

Resten af dagen var meget indenfor med diverse småopgaver på computeren samt lidt organisering af biblotekets bøger. 

Lige inden aftensmaden ankom Martin og Kristina, vores to nye frivillige på stationen. De vil introducere dem selv her i dagbogen i løbet af de næste dage. De var spændte på at komme i gang her på stationen og vi er spændte på at få dem vist det hele her. Det skal nok blive sjovt. 

I morgen ser vejret flot ud, så det ender nok med en morgen i ringmærkningen. Det glæder vi os til!

Sådan ser det meste af vores ringmærkningsudstyr ud. Vi viser frem og fortæller om det hele på vores guidede ringmærkningsture. Nogle gange er vi også heldige at fange en fugl eller to, men det er nu ikke afgørende for en god tur overhovedet. 

Folk: Simon S Christiansen, Joakim Matthiesen, Sander H B Villumsen, Michelé Pes, Martin Y Georgiev og Kristina. 

Even today the wind is very strong but the sun is shining!

This morning we are planning a Danish ringing tour, so we open the most wind-protected nets in the garden, hoping to catch a bird for the tour.

Fortunately Joakim and Sander find a Munk (Blackcap) on the net.

The Tour starts at 11 am there are two very nice participants. An hour later at the end of the tour we say goodbye to the two participants, who go for a fresh beer at Christel and Flemming 's Cafe, happy and satisfied with the tour.

Immediately after the tour we have to do the cleaning!

Let's start with the Birder’s club, where Simon when he opened this morning, found us in a domestic pigeon that he sneaked in last night to sleep in the warmth, and that he naturally shit everywhere.

But fortunately today is the cleaning day so we settle everything in a short time.

Shortly afterwards we have special guests for a short visit, Julian and Juliet from the Prespa Wetland Reserve with a fellow Nature Interpreter Jorgen and his wife Kirsten Stubgaard, Simon shows them the structures of the Observatory and describes how he manages the logistics part, they are fascinated and very interested in the visit.

After the visit we meet for the daily meeting, to plan the activities of the next days.

Later for dinner two very nice guests arrive, Ole Shruppeltrang and Oluf Lou, today it's a special dinner, in fact Simon cooks us soiole, one of the best fish in existence!

Delicious!

Ringing (Fyrhaven):

- Munk - Blackap   1

Total: 1

People: Simon S Christiansen, Joakim Matthiesen, Sander H B Villumsen, Ole Skruppeltrang and Oluf Lou, Julian and Juliet, Jorgen and Kirsten Stubgaard.

Min fødselsdag i går bød på meget vind. Lidt træls, men det kan vi jo ikke selv styre... desværre.

Der er dog ikke noget, som er så skidt, at det ikke er godt for et eller andet! Det gælder også den hårde vind. Får når vinden er så kraftig er det godt til at se på havfugle. De bliver nemlig blæst ind mød kysten. Derved kan man se nogle af de havfugle som man ellers ikke normalt ser. Det er jo dejligt! Så det skulle vi da også prøve i dag. Sander, vores ny epraktikant kom i går. Så han var selvfølgelig klar på at tage med ud og se om der skulle ske et eller andet ude i Kattegat! Så Sander, Michelé og jeg drog afsted.

Vi havde snakket noget om, at det kunne være, at vi var heldige så der kom en almindelig skråpe over aftensmaden i går. Vind og tidspunkt på året passede nemlig helt perfekt. Skråperne bliver skuppet ind i Kattegat i hård vind også når vinden lægger sig lidt skal de ud igen. Og vinden lagde sig nemlig et par timer i dag. Så derfor skyndte vi os ud! Det viste sig at vores håb og drømme gik i opfyldelse!

Hurtigt fik vi et par storkjover i teleskoperne. De er heller ikke helt normale på denne tid af året så det var vi glade for. Ikke langt tid efter kom skråpen! Virklig fed! Hurtigt efter igen kom der 2 mere! 2 på en gang! OG de kom tæt på kysten maks 200m ude! Hold nu op det var fedt! Det lykkedes således at se hele 6 Skråper ved at bruge 4 timer ude! Det er IKKE normalt så det var helt perfekt. Vi er meget glade nu. Både storkjove og almindelig skråpe var nye arter for Sander så det var bare perfekt. 

Her ses en af dagens almindelig skråper. Selvom den ser ud til at være langt væk på billedet så er den det IKKE. Det er sjældent man overhovedet får chancen for at tage et billede! Vi er meget glade!

Ud over det lavede vi også lidt praktisk arbejde i form af at ryde op og oranisere divers ting både i lejligheden og på loftet! Det skal også gøres ind i mellem jo!

Imens vi så på skråper deltog Simon i en begravelse for Brian Zobbe i Frederikshavn. Han har været en rigtig god ven af fuglestationen og doneret utallige bøger og ikke mindst mange af hans flotte tegninger til stationen. Hans værker vil også i fremtiden hænge og pryde væggene på stationen til minde om en fantastisk fuglekigger, fuglekunster og ven.

En af Brian Zobbes utroligt flotte tegninger i et af stationens værelser.

Folk: Michelé Pes, Simon S Christiansen, Joakim Matthiesen og Sander H B Villumsen