With fog I wasn’t expecting much on my daily migration count at Grenen. However I was pleasantly surprised with a Great White Egret/Sølvhejre which I found flying in off the Skagerrak. A new speceis for Hebe who had come along with me! It was too windy to open the nets back in the garden so Peter put the traps out. Annoyingly for him the birds in the garden have becom used to the traps and they all outwitted him this time. When we arrived back Gitte had baked cinnamon rolls. They were wonderful!

In the afternoon Gitte, Jens Peder and I went to the cormorant lake/skarvsøen to see how they were getting on. Not much of an increase in breeding activity compared to Mondays visit but its always nice to get out there. Whilst the others were fixing nets in the evening Gitte and I cooked bolognese and roast cauliflower. It was Simons last evening before he heads off to Israel at midday tomorrow!

People: Dante Shepherd, Peter Denyer, Simon S. Christiansen, Hebe Denny, Gitte og Jens Peder Holm

Me out near the cormorant lake

Hebe, Dante og Rolf var tidligt afsted på Grenen og lave fugle obs. Deres bedste observationer i dag må være Duehøg og Lapværling.
Peter foretog diverse obs. ved Fuglestationen og stod for kl. 14 guidningen.
Om eftermiddagen blev alles obs. registreret på DOF-basen.
Alle deltog i den ugentlige rengøring. Jens Peder hjalp Dante med at reparere hans cykel og teleskop. Jeg bagte boller, og lovede Dante, at jeg vil bage kanelsnegle til holdet senere.

Simon har igennem hele dagen haft en del møder, bl.a. med Bjarne, Laura og Anne fra Aalborg universitet om strandfrøer. De vil komme igen til april, når frøerne er kommet frem; og med Kurt Rasmussen, Villy Hansen og Lene Kappelborg om planlægningen af Fuglefestivalen i maj.

Jens Peder og jeg gik den blå rute, hvor vi bl.a. så ravne i parringsleg; Traner, som lå og svævede rundt over området. Men det bedste obs. var en kongeørn, som viste sig fra sin mest pædagogiske side. Den svævede lige over os, så det var en flot oplevelse.

Der er ellers stor forskel på, at se på fugle i Rold Skov, hvor vi kommer fra; og så på Skagen. Det har jeg ikke tænkt over, før jeg sad på Grenen sammen med Dante den første dag. Da så jeg en stæreflok i kraftig vind, og de fløj nærmest hid og did i flokken, og ikke samlet, som man oftest ser dem. Man skal selvfølgelig også være kvikkere til at artsbestemme. Det er nemmere at genkende Hvinænder, når de ligger stille på Madum Sø, end når de komme på stor afstand over Grenen. Nå, det var et lille sidespring.

Peter lavede lækker suppe til aftensmad, og herefter kom Simon og gennemgik kalenderen med de frivillige. Vi sluttede af med aftensmøde.

Det er en stor fornøjelse at være gæster på Skagen Fuglestation. Hyggeligt og lærerigt.

Mennesker: Bjarne Huus Jensen, Laura og Anne fra Aalborg universitet, Kurt Rasmussen, Villy Hansen, Lene Kappelborg, Dante Shepherd, Peter Denyer, Simon S. Christiansen, Hebe Denny, Gitte og Jens Peder Holm

Kongeørn

Ringdue

Dante, Gitte and Hebe were up and out at Grenen by 6.15 or so this morning. Today was looking like the least windy day of the week so I opened some nets in the morning, and tried some crossbill calls for an hour on the off chance , but quickly changed it to redpoll. I caught a few birds, mostly redpolls, with one male blackbird and a great tit. Jens joined me most of the morning, before working on the bike I’d punctured the day before and changing the seat on it. At some point I assume he’s going to relax and actually have a holiday! We’re very grateful for both his and Gitte’s efforts though.

I had a bit of a kip after this, as the others made their way home. Hebe started work on the diary post, whilst Dante entered DOFBasen. Later in the afternoon a golden eagle was reported in Skagen so Dante and I dashed outside for a bit, I may have seen it briefly, but I think I got onto a white tailed eagle instead. Dante then went into the newsroom to chat to visitors, whilst I helped Hebe with entering the blog in the correct location on the Obs computer. Gitte took over the kitchen early afternoon, cooking and cleaning the kitchen as she went. At 3pm Knud turned up to take Dante, Hebe and I to look for Bewick’s swans. Whilst we sadly didn’t see any of those, we had a great afternoon with peregrines, white fronted geese and cranes in some flooded fields.

When we returned Gitte and Jens had laid on a fantastic spread with quiches and a fantastic danish cake. We devoured it all which saw the cake getting less attention than it should have done because we were so full! 

 People: Peter Denyer, Hebe Denny, Dante Shepherd, Jens Peter, Gette

The field trip team! 

Sangsvane, blisgås, grågås and Sølvmåge.

As usual, Dante was out of the Obs by 06:15, this time, him and Rolf were joined by Gitte at Grenen. They had a very windy morning, but with much excitement for Gitte, as she saw five danish species for the first time!

Meanwhile, with it being too windy for ringing, Peter and I got up a little later and headed out on our bikes in the wind to the Skarv site.There he showed me how to count and photograph the birds and theyre nests etc. From now on, we will take turns to moniter their progress each week. I was excited to see Coots for the first time! Not something that hangs around back home! On the way back, Peters bike got a puncture, ARGH! so while he made the windy walk back to the obs, i raced if to get some shopping for the house.

Back at the observatory, after me and Peter had entered the Skarv data and Dante had done some "bird maths", Peter and Dante had a rest and caught up with some DOFbasen and I went out to do some laundry.. cleverly forgetting my code for the door.. and phone.. and spending the next hour and a half learning danish bird names from a book in the ringing lab and trying to get the attention of Peter and Dante through the window !!! oh dear... eventually Peter rescued me, so we then spent some hours carrying on with net fixing.

Gitte and Jens had a productive afternoon, Jens fixing the taps in the apartment (thank you!) and then the two of them heading into Skagen and seeing lots of Sule and Ederfugle!

The evening brought us an incredible clear sky and an absolute stunner of a sunset and so, Peter, Dante and I went out to enjoy it for a while before dinner. I wandered out to the tip of Grenen where I saw a seal pup heading back out to sea and lots and lots of Sandløber.

After dinner, Peter went out in the hopes of hearing the Natugle, but sadly no luck!

Anyways, another great day!!

 People: Peter Denyer, Hebe Denny, Dante Shepherd, Jens Peter, Gette

The seal pup and Sandløber at Grenen

Most of the observatory were quite late up due to the proceedings the night before. However, Hebe and I were up on time and had a nice morning at Grenen with nearly a thousand Whooper Swan/Sangsvane, 3 White-tailed Eagle/Havørn and an adult Mediterranean Gull/Sorthovedet Måge which we found but unfortunately got no photos as it was too distant. The council meeting finished at lunchtime and all of the members left for their respective observatories. 

In the afternoon we finally finished the dreaded net which took way too long, 8+ hours probably! New guests Jens Peter and Gette arrived in the afternoon. There was lots left over from yesterdays meal so dinner was just heating things up. 

People: Simon Sigurd Christiansen, Hebe Denning, Dante Shepherd, Morten Christensen, Eva Noer Kondrup, Mette Mourits, Knud Pedersen, Inger Pedersen, Tage Legaard, John Frikke, Henning Ettrup, Hans Lind, Mark Desholm, Jens Peter, Gette

Me counting Whooper Swans above

Dante and Hebe were up and out at Grenen this morning, Dante with Rolf on Worlds End and Hebe got to meet and learn from Knud on Worlds End 2. I was up intending to do some ringing, but the wind was not conducive. So I did an hour and half’s migration watching from the ringing lab. After this I headed back inside (grudgingly as it was a good morning) to answer some emails and to put together a Facebook post about our recent redpoll recoveries. I also managed to get some photos on the photo archive before the other two came back. The ladies in the apartment were leaving today also so it was nice to be on hand to see them off.

Hebe came back first because she needed to move into our room as were having some guests coming today. Dante arrived a bit later and got on with entering DofBasen. Hebe and I put together her diary for the previous day and then went down to the Newsroom in the lighthouse to answer any questions the visitors might have about the observatory or bird migration as a whole.

During this time the Observatory Council meeting was taking place upstairs with representatives from the ringing union, Blavand and Gedser bird observatories and Mark from DOF taking part. Simon was cloistered in this meeting all afternoon. When it was finished we all sat down to dinner in the apartment, joined by Morten Christensen and Knud and Inger Pedersen. The dinner was provided by Christel and was absolutely superb. It was an enjoyable evening and the stories (and wine!) flowed well. I took an evening meeting after this with the remaining guests before heading out for a night catching session in the rain with Hans and Henning. We got soaked and didn’t see a bird but it was a good effort!

People: Simon Sigurd Christiansen, Hebe Denning, Dante Shepherd, Morten Christensen, Eva Noer Kondrup, Mette Mourits, Knud Pedersen, Inger Pedersen, Tage Legaard, John Frikke, Henning Ettrup, Hans Lind, Mark Desholm

Skål! 

Danish Bird Observatory royalty, from left, Johe Frikke, Hans Lind and Henning Ettrup

The day began at 5:45 AM, with Dante and myself planning to head over to Grenen to do migration count, Peter planning to do some ringing and Simon still away. On our way out of the Observatory though, Dante noticed a group of BEAUTIFUL Halemejse in the garden bushes!! Of course we were very excited and as was Peter who hurried down to open the nets… just in time as all 13 Halemejse flew straight into them (as well as a gulspurv a little later!). After some fiddly extractions, the birds were rung by Peter and Dante and we were joined our guests, the lovely Heidi, Eva and Mette who were able to watch for a while before Heidi, headed off to the train station. Eva was even lucky enough to have one land on her head!

So, after this excitement, Dante and I headed over to Lands End Two, where we met Rolf who told us lots of interesting things about the birds and about finding amber on the beach! After a good morning of observing, and having a look at a gorgeous grey seal pup resting on the beach, we headed back to find Peter, who had spent the rest of the morning doing some observation himself, had had a visit from Jørgen Kabel and Michael Anker (who told him about some natugle near by!) and went looking for a sumpmejse, where he saw a storspove fly over.

After saying goodbye to Heidi and looking at the Halemejse, Eva, who writes music for piano, spent the rest of day composing, while Mette went out for a walk and later on into town for some supplies.

After a bit of lunch, I headed out to buy supplies for dinner (my turn to cook uh oh!) and Peter and Dante headed down to the visitor centre to talk to the visitors. The three of us then returned to the dreaded net!! And spent some hours fixing away.

Dinner was a questionable spanish omelette and beetroot salad thing which the boys were very polite about! While Mette and Eva made a traditional Danish meal for their dinner: Rye bread soaked in sweet beer, with sugar, cinnamon and cream!! Sounds pretty epic!

All in all, another utterly brilliant day.

People: Dante Shepherd, Peter Denyer, Simon S. Christiansen, Hebe Denny, Heidi Jørgensen, Mette Mourits, Eva Noer Kondrup

Birds Ringed

Halemejse - 13

Gulspurv - 1

Halemejse!

As you can guess, I was out at Grenen for first light. Highlights were 77 Buzzard/Musvåge, 12 Woodlark/Hedelærke, a Knot/Islandsk Ryle and a Glaucous Gull/Gråmåge which showed well on the beach. Whilst I was out Peter and Hebe had the nets open but only caught one bird to their disappointment, a Yellowhammer/Gulspurv. They then headed off to town to do some shopping and on the way stopped to look for raptors on Batterivej and had some Buzzards/Musvåge along with a Goshawk/Duehøg which is getting rarer and rare up here these days. Simon headed home to Aalborg for a couple of days at lunchtime.

In the afternoon we again entered dofbasen and ringing records and completed other necessary computer work. There was so much left from yesterdays meal we had that again! 

Birds ringed at Fyrhaven:

Gulspurv - 1

People: Dante Shepherd, Peter Denyer, Simon S. Christiansen, Hebe Denny, Heidi Jørgensen, Mette Mourits, Eva Noer Kondrup

The wind was still strong today but Dante and Hebe went out to Grenen to do some migration watching. There Hebe was introduced to one of the locals. They didn’t see much, but Hebe was very pleased with watching migrating whooper swans (sangsvane) and the divers. I got up a little later and for my sins spent over two hours working on a very difficult net. The others were back from Grenen before I called it a morning and came down. I then gave Hebe a hand getting her diary post on the website. Mette was sick this morning so it was just Heidi and Eva making the morning pilgrimage to Grenen to watch the sun rise. Later on they went into town to do some shopping and got some tasty beer.

About midday Dante and I decided to show Hebe the weekly cleaning rota. With three volunteers it was pleasantly swift. After this we worked on a Facebook video for the observatory, so that Dante and Hebe can make them themselves in the future. At 2pm we started what will be a daily process of heading down to the news room to answer questions from visitors. Today was mainly working out what we’ll bring with us and how to use the big tv screen!

Simon cooked an amazing dinner for us all, with enough leftovers for us to use for dinner tomorrow, and the ladies brought a pencil sharpener for the bird observatory which is far superior to the one we have! With some delicious beer they’d brought in town it was like little midweek party! Later on Dante took Hebe through some of the shared folders on the computer and I downloaded some tree sparrow (skorvspurv) calls on the iPod for ringing tomorrow.

People: Dante Shepherd, Peter Denyer, Simon S. Christiansen, Hebe Denny, Heidi Jørgensen, Mette Mourits, Eva Noer Kondrup

Our evening meals are currently spent in the luxury of the apartment.

And our lovely present from the ladies! 

After arriving at Skagen for the first time, late monday evening, (such a beautiful clear night!) My first morning here began with a real epic of a sunrise.

While I slept off the journey of the day before, Dante had left the obs and headed over to Grenen, where he met Knud and spent the morning watching for migrating birds. It was a fairly quiet morning for him, but lots of migrating corvids. Heidi, Mette and Eva were also out and about and stopped lots of sanderlings! As well as five whooper swans flying over and ringed plovers. Simon and Peter spent the morning ringing, where I joined them there eventually just in time to see them ring a couple of stor grasisken and be savaged by a feisty wee musvit!

Peter and I then headed back inside, where he showed me how the ringing data is uploaded to the computer as well how to use DOF. We spent some time uploading the mornings catchings and tasting Christel's INCREDIBLE Romkugler (oh my goodness!!) Whilst Simon had some Skype meetings and Dante arrived in from his cold mornings adventure.

After this I headed out to explore around the shore for the first time! I was so excited to see so many gannets, eider, ringed plover, sanderling etc and snow bunting which are so Familiar from my home in the cairngorm mountains! Meanwhile, Simon went in to town for some supplies including bread to be used as a lure for the Glaucous gull at Skagen Harbour!

On returning back to the obs after a cold and windy wander, Simon, Peter, Dante, Heidi and I squeezed into Simons car with a big net, lots of bread and some cardboard boxes, and headed to Skagen Harbour. There we were met by many many gulls and lots of strange looks from the Harbour men as Dante and simon attempted to bait the Glaucous gull into their net. The gull did appear, (my first time seeing a Glaucous gull! Much excitement!) but was not fooled by the bready net and kept her distance. We left defeated for now, and headed back to the warm and dry where Peter, Dante and I spent some time fixing a very battered mist net and Simon updated the website.

The day ended with an incredible meal cooked by Heidi, Mette and Eva. ( Thank you so much! )

People: Dante Shepherd, Peter Denyer, Simon S. Christiansen, Hebe Denny, Heidi Jørgensen, Mette Mourits, Eva Noer Kondrup

Birds ringed at Fyrhaven:

Musvit - 2

Stor gråsisken - 32

Grønirisk - 1

Dante and I fixing a very battered net.

Trying to lure in the gråmåge in the harbour