Vejret kunne vi ikke prale med i dag, så morgen observationen blev lige udenfor ved fyret, hvor man kunne stå lidt i læ for regnen. Først Laia og Judith i en time før Christian tog over. Jørgen var også ude sammen med Christian.

Simon holdte et kursus for en gruppe Naturvejledere hele dagen. Vi deltog også i en lille del, da kursuset handlede om fuglestations  indsats fra frivillige. Så vi blev interviewet og lavede en lille rundvisning og fortalte om hvad vi går og laver til hverdag.

Jeg har repareret boksene vi bruger til at transportere fuglene fra nettene til  labaratoriet/kabeltromlen. Samtidig med at vi på skift tjekkede en fælde vi havde sat op i fyrhaven, en enkelt rødhals genfangst blev det til.

Judith har i dag færdiggjort et lille herbarium af de lokale planter og blomster der er i området omkring fyret.

Til aften var vi inde og spise i Skagen hvor Judith og Yotam fik den danske version af gløgg.

Efterfølgende tog  Laia og Christian ud at fange Skovsnepper. En enkelt blev det til som fik en ring på.

Christian og jeg var også ude at fange Skovsnepper i går det lykkedes at fange to. Tre af naturvejlederne Maja, Søren og Jørgen var også med for at se hvordan vi gjorde.

Under morgen observationen blev der set sandløbere og en enkelt strandskade. I øvrigt blev der også set en ubåd!

Folk: Simon S. Christiansen, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Laia Soler Iglesias, Esben Hansen, Yotam Lehnardt, Stine, Maya Møholt, Jørgen Møholt, Søren Michelsen Krag, Camilla Jensen og Anders Bloksgaard Rathe.

What a beautiful morning...

Today most of the team enjoyed the waking up in a different place, at Simon`s Mom house, in Aalborg. The smell of fresh coffee and fresh pastry was helping a lot with getting out at the bed. After enjoying the breakfast we said goodbye to Karin. Then we went to Store Vildmose to read some colour-ringed Pink-footed Geese (Kortnæbbet Gås). Chris was already wishing for that since a long time hoping to find some of “his geese”, which he was also reading in Svalbard the last summers. When we arrived in the area we were discussing where to look first. Suddenly a geese flock was flying over us and we just followed them. And indeed, it was the right choice! They just landed next to a big roosting flock of geese and swans. And under them we managed to spot 11 with colour rings – really cool! Geese can be ringed with a colour ring around their neck. This brings the advantage that the rings can be far bigger than on the legs and are though easier to read even from far away. If you see one you can easily report it on this webpage: https://www.geese.org/Ganzen/index.jsp and help with collecting important data used to learn and protect these fantastic bird species. After adding your sightings, you can even see the whole history of the bird including the ringing date and place and all the former readings. Reed more about one goose we saw today and how often it was already seen on our facebook page.

Mixed flock of Barnacle Geese (Bramgås) and Pink-footed Geese (Kortnæbbet Gås)

After this flock we tried to spot a golden eagle (Kongeørn), which should be around somewhere. Simon even managed to spot it but exactly in the moment he told us the bird was flying down from the tree and disappeared behind high grass and forests. What a pity, would have been nice for us to see it as well. But we were still very happy with seeing around 2000 Pink-footed Geese (Kortnæbbet Gås), over 1000 Barnacle Geese (Bramgås) and 88 Whooper Swans (Sangsvane). We also saw two Marsh Tits (Sumpmejse) and heard two Corn Buntings (Bomlærke).

Searching for the golden eagles (Kongeørn)

Esben stayed in Skagen over night and went out with Knud in the morning. They did the migration counts from Northbeach. The number of Alkids with over 2500 individuals were again very good, like the last days. Further highlights were one Bartailed Godwit (Lille Kobbersneppe) and a very late Fulmar (Mallemuk).

All of us came back to the station at the same time and we had lunch together. Afterwards it was time to clean the apartment, Birders’ Club and the Lab.

Chris and Yotam also put some more food for the birds in the garden and added apples. Now we hope to catch a lot of Waxwings (Silkehale) in the next weeks.

In the late afternoon Maya, Jørgen and Søren arrived. They stay in the apartment over night and participate in the course tomorrow that Simon gives about volunteers. Unfortunately, they did not bring the good weather, that they had in the beginning of their trip, with them and arrived here in windy and cloudy weather.

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Laia Soler Iglesias, Esben Hansen, Yotam Lehnardt, Knud Pedersen, Karin Christiansen, Maya Møholt, Jørgen Møholt, Søren Michelsen Krag.

Strong winds prevented us from ringing today, so we split up for seabird observations. Esben and Knud went out to Northbeach (Nordstrand) and Laia and me stayed to cover the migration over Kattegat at the Grey Lighthouse (Det Grå Fyr). Yotam went to Grenen to do diverse observations and exploring the possibilities to catch water pipits (bjergpiber) at Grenensøen. Judith did plants. Simon was in a meeting with Flemming, Christel and Lene.

Observations from The Grey Lighthouse (Det Grå Fyr)...

...and from Northbeach (Nordstrand)

The highlights of the morning observations were 5 little auks (søkonge) from Northbeach and one at the Grey Lighthouse, 20 carrion crows (sortkrage) and 12 water pipits (bjergpiber) at Grenen and 5 long-tailed ducks (havlit) at the Grey Lighthouse.

The morning was rather short today, because we left for an excursion to Hirtshals and the North Sea Oceanarium (Nordsøen Oceanarium). Anders, who works there as a teacher, had invited us to come and look at something else than birds for a change. So the entire team plus Frede went to the aquarium today. We were introduced to Anders' work and a short look behind the scenes.

Then we joined the feeding of the fish in the biggest tank. Besides many schooling fishes (stimefisk), sharks (hajer) and rays (rokker), they have also 3 ocean sunfish (kloibfisk) as their main attraction. Those huge fish are hand-fed by a diver that enters the tank - a pretty cool job.

Feeding the ocean sunfish (kloibfisk)

After the feeding we had some time to check out the exhibition. The oceanarium is huge with many different aquaria, games, information and they also have an outside area with harbour seals (spættet sæl) and grey seals (gråsæl).

Isn't he scared?

Astonishing was also an entire skeleton of a dead fin whale (finhval) that had beached three years ago near Blokhus and was dissected and prepared thereafter.

Fin whale (finhval) skeleton (thankfully the smell is not noticable here)

In the later afternoon we split up. Esben and Frede searched for the last crested larks (toplærke) in Denmark, which are residing close to a netto supermarket in Hirtshals. After the successful twitch, they went back to Skagen, but not without a detour to observe geese (gæs) and swans (svaner).

Simon, Yotam, Judith, Laia and me went to Aalborg to visit Esther and fix her phone. We continued to Karin for the evening and the night. As I'm writing this, it already smells delicious from kitchen. We are all curious what awesome dish we will get served tonight.

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Laia Soler Iglesias, Yotam Lehnardt, Esben Hansen, Knud Pedersen, Frede Jakobsen, Anders Østerby, Esther Christiansen, Karin Christiansen, Flemming & Christel, Lene Kappelborg.

The day started with Simon's dream... He dreamt that we caught 2 owls during yesterday's night catching but then he realized that we didn't... He was really disappointed about that and started to do some indoor work. He also prepared some things for a course that will take place during this week.

Christian, Judith and I went to open the nets. We had to find shelter between the bushes due to the strong wind in our usual place. Today was a quiet morning before the rain started and we managed to ring 4 new birds and 2 recaptures (2 birds for each ringer).
After looking several times the radar and the clouds approaching us, we decided to close the nets early and take down the 3 nets we decided that have priority to be fixed (we need them to be dry when we take them down). We just managed all of it on time and the rain started just after we close the nets and put those 3 nets down. Despite the rain, it was a really nice morning.

Meanwhile, Yotam and Esben were doing observations at Northbeach with Knud. Their highlights were the Little Auks (Søkonge) and a Great Northern Diver (Islom) today really close to them. Yotam was really happy to see 45 Snow Buntings (Snespurv) on the beach.
All in all, the day was really nice before the rain started.

After having lunch we sewed the 3 nets and suddenly was time for dinner.

When we finished eating, Judith and Esben went night catching but unfortunately, they didn't catch any birds.
At the same time, Simon and Yotam started to watch a football match.

Ringmaerkning (Kabeltrommelkrattet):

Sjagger - 1

Blåmejse - 1

Rødhals - 2

Total: 4

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Laia Soler Iglesias, Esben Hansen, Yotam Lehnardt, Knud Pedersen and Nullermand. 

I dag åbnede Judith og Yotam nettene i kabeltromlen, så vi andre kunne sove lidt længere. Vi skal dog ikke særligt tidligt op, fordi dagene er blevet så korte. Vi var alle ude ved kabeltromlen og ringmærke i dag. Det blev en af de bedre dage længe. 21 nye fugle blev ringmærket og 21 genfangster. Vi havde flere garvede gæster forbi i dag, da Simon hele weekenden har holdt møder med sjældenhedsudvalget.

Yotam som har ringmærket i mange år, blev især glad for at ringmærke gråsiskner, de findes nemlig ikke i Isreal. Der var ikke mange fugle som træk over os i dag. Det mest spændene var en enkelt bjergpiper. Vi holdte nettene åbne længere end vi plejer så frokosten blev sen. Efter frokost var vi nede og få taget et gruppebillede.

Foto:  Flemming Quist

Judith og Chris gik op i fyrtårnet for at nyde den gode udsigt. Laia, Simon og Yotam tog ind til skagenby for at se på de flotte krognæb. Omkring 30 silkehaler blev det også til. Laia og Yotam gik tilbage op langs stranden tilbage.

Michael var også ude at ringmærke ved jennesø.

I går aftes lykkedes det at fange en Skovsneppe. Så vi vil gøre forsøget igen i aften.

Ringmærking: (Kabeltromlen+ Jennesø)

Sjagger – Fieldfare – 1

Rødhals – Robin – 5

Jernspurv – Dunnock – 1

Lille Gråsisken – lesser Redpoll – 18

Dompap – Bullfinch – 1

Munk – Blackcap – 1

Bogfinke – Chaffinch – 1

Gærdesmutte – Wren – 2

Solsort – Blackbird – 1

Blåmejse – Blue tit – 4

Musvit – Great tit – 2

Nordlig Gråsisken – Mealy redpoll – 5

Total: 21

Folk:  Simon S. Christiansen, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Laia Soler Iglesias, Esben Hansen, Yotam Lehnardt, Michael Ancher, Erik Christophersen, Jøren kabel, igor og Sjældenheds udvalget

Another stormy and rainy morning. Due to the weather the ringing was cancelled but we were still out for doing observations. Laia, Yotam Ole Zoltan and Chris started with sunrise and found a sheltered place just next to the lighthouse. The wind and rain did not prevent Chris of doing migration countings for four hours. The others came back a little bit earlier to warm themselves up. The highlights of the observations were six Little Alks (Søkonge). Furthermore, they counted a very high number of Razorbills & Guillemots (Alks & Lomvies) with 2517 in total and also the number of Red-throated Divers (Rødstrubet Lom) with 62 individuals was very good. Yotam was very happy to see so much going on over sea and saw a lot of new species for him, as there are not the same species in Israel.

In the meantime, Esben went down to the Laboratory to fix our bird boxes. We use them during ringing when we have many birds in one round. Then we can put all birds of one species into this box and not so many bags are needed and we can ring them in one row without having to change the ring sizes. I used the indoor time to continue my work on the herbarium and managed to finish the descriptions and translations of the plants.

In the afternoon we had a children group from a hospital visiting. Of course, they were welcomed with getting ringed with a bird-bracelet. This allowed them to go up to the lighthouse and to get some additional information about the bird species that they had chosen in the exhibition. Lene explained them some general stuff about the Grey Lighthouse and also about the bird station and showed some stuffed birds and they drew some of our colouring pages of birds. To give them something with them that reminds them on this nice visit they could choose a small thing from the shop and a brochure made for kids about birds.

After putting all the stuff back Esben, Laia, Yotam and me decided to go up the lighthouse. Yotam was very fascinated by the cool idea that the stairs are numbered and on some stairs this number is used to tell some funny facts about birds. On top of the lighthouse it was very windy but we still had a nice view around. And finally Laia managed to go up there after an already 2 months long stay.

In the evening it’s again time to catch some Woodcocks (Skovsnepper). As we were so lucky to catch two yesterday everybody is very motivated to try it again. Esben even read in the book ‘Bird trapping and bird banding’ from Hans Bub about the best techniques. So wish us good luck that it works again.

Our stations hosts the Danish rarity committee this weekend. After they used some time in the morning to do observations, where they found Pine Grosbeaks (Krognæb) in the city, they started their meeting. The main topics today were Brünnich’s Guillemots (Polarlomvien), Subalpine Warbler (Hvidskægget Sanger) and Pine Grosbeaks (Krognæb). And the discussions, presentations and talks are still going on and will probably last till late in the evening.

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Laia Soler Iglesias, Esben Hansen, Yotam Lehnardt, Flemming & Christl, Lene Kappelborg, Rarity committee, Ole Zoltan.

Esben and Judith were the ones to get up early and opened the nets at Kabeltromlekrattet today - as always before sunrise. Laia and me joined later for the ringing and I did a bit of migration counts in between. Michael was out at Jennes Sø trying to catch some redpolls (gråsisken).

The highlights in our nets at Kabeltromlekrattet were the thrushes today! We got blackbirds (solsort), a redwing (vindrossel), a song thrush (sangdrossel) and, as a very rare birds in the nets, a mistle thrush (misteldrossel). From the local thrush species, only a fieldfare was missing...

redwing - vindrossel

song thrush - sangdrossel

mistle thrush - misteldrossel

The misteldrossel was only the third one ringed by Skagen Bird Observatory (Skagen Fuglestation) so far. The other two were caught in 2011 and 2014.

Michael managed to catch lesser redpolls (lille gråsisken) and also some tits (mejser).

Roughly at the same time, Simon were almost driving over some waxwings (silkehale), that were drinking water from the street. He was very surprised to see them, but managed to hit the breaks in time.

Back at the observatory, we welcomed Yotam to the team! He will stay until end of the month and we are glad to have such an experienced ringer joining us. Today he came from Århus and took bus and train to get to Skagen. He was impressed by the number of buzzards (våger) he could see from the train on the fields beside the railroad.

Flemming from the café at the Grey Lighthouse is collecting stamps with birds on them from around the world and tries to take pictures of all the species in real life. If you are more interested, you can check out his facebook page here: My bird stamp - My bird photo. Judith got a letter from her familiy in Austria the other day with a white-tailed eagle (havørn) stamp on it that Flemming saw while emptying the mailbox. Judith gladly gave him the letter with the stamp and in return Flemming gave her a beautiful ringed plover (stor præstekrage) cup. Thank you Flemming!

Then we had one of our moult sessions in which we discussed some of the more interesting birds of the last weeks that we took pictures of. Among them were some tricky to age blackcaps (munk) and wrens (gærdesmutte).

In the evening Morten, Kent, Ole and Rasmus arrived for the upcoming danish rarity committee meeting that will be hosted by us. With everyone joining, we had a large dinner provided by Simon tonight.

While I'm writing these lines, Laia, Judith, Esben and Yotam are out trying to catch woodcocks (skovsneppe) and owls (ugler) during the night. Esben and Yotam went to the closest area around the lighthouse and saw around 8 skovsneppe and managed to catch one! Laia and Judith went to the area around the stadium in Skagen and also caught one! Good job, team!

woodcock - skovsneppe 1

woodcock - skovsneppe 2

Ringing (Kabeltromlekrattet + Jennes Sø)

Common Blackbird - Solsort - 2
Redwing - Vindrossel - 1
Mistle Thrush - Misteldrossel - 1
Song Thrush - Sangdrossel - 1
Lesser Redpoll - Lille Gråsisken - 5
Eurasian Tree Sparrow - Skovspurv - 1
Eurasian Blue Tit – Blåmejse – 3
Great Tit - Musvit - 4

Total: 18

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Laia Soler Iglesias, Esben Hansen, Yotam Lehnardt, Michael Ancher, Flemming + Christel, Jørgen Kabel + Igor, Søren Brinch, Morten Bentzon Hansen, Kent Olsen, Ole Zoltan Göllen, Rasmus Due Nielsen.

Today Christian and I went to Kabeltrommelkrattet to open the nets. Esben joined us for the first round and Simon came just in time to see the birds we had in the nets. The morning was quite good with some ups and downs between rounds and many recaptures.
Simon did some observations and he really wanted to see an Asian Brown Flycatcher (Muscicapa dauurica) but unfortunately, he couldn't find any (it's a rarity so we weren't expecting him to find one). But the most important thing is not to give up!

Meanwhile, Judith went to do observations at Northbeach with Knud, Inger and Søren. They were able to see 8 little auks (Søkonge) and some harbour porpoises (Marsvin) among other cool birds.

We went back to the Observatory to take lunch. At the same time, Søren Haaning's family visit us at the Observatory. After that, we headed to Jennes Sø to take the old nets down and put new ones. Now they are ready to catch a lot of birds! We will see it tomorrow when Michel Ancher will be ringing there.

Lisa Haurum gave us some poem books about birds that are really nice, so thank you Lisa!

Ringmærkning (Kabeltrommelkrattet):

Gærdesmutte - 3
Jernspurv - 1
Blåmejse - 4
Rødhals - 4
Munk - 1

Total: 13

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Laia Soler Iglesias, Esben Hansen, Inger & Knud Pedersen, Søren Haaning Nielsen & family, Lisa Haurum.

Vinden havde lagt sig igen efter en dag med stærkt blæst. Jeg cyklede friskt mod Nordstand for at tælle trækket ude over havet sammen med Knud. De andre skulle ringmærke inde i fyrhaven. De kvæg der grasser inde i reservatet for at holde de fældede hybenbuske nede kiggede nysgærigt. Over mig lyste fuldmånen klart og spåede om en dag med god sigtbarhed.

Dagen blev en god dag med søkonger en enkelt mellemkjove og 9 dværgmåger, 1 juvenil og 8 post juvenile. et flot træk af rødstrubet lom, mens trækbilledet af alke og lomvier var lidt forvirende da de træk i begge retninginger.

Inde i haven fik de ikke mange fugle i nettene. Der var dog stadig fugle at vise frem til den fjerde klasse som fik en rundvisning af Simon. Børnene var meget imponeret over at se en musvit blive sat fri og flyve op i den blå himmel.

Efter frokost tog Laia Judith og Chris på skovtur i Byfogedskoven.

Simon og jeg tog ind til skagen for at købe nogle klammer og en hæftepistol, til at reparere nogle af transport kasserne til fugle. Jeg var et smut inden om og se Simons lejlighed, der var MEGET rent og nydeligt!

Vi var alle nede at høre første halvleg af Sørens foredrag, om alle de flotte og vidunderlige fugle han havde set i Australien.

Ringmærkning (Fyrhaven):

1 Musvit (Great tit)

2 Rødhals (Robin)

1 Solsort (Blackbird)

2 Skovspurv (Tree sparrow)

4 Gærdesmutte (Wren)

Total 10

Folk: Simon S. Christiansen, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Laia Soler Iglesias, Esben Elgaard Hansen, Knud Pedersen og Søren Skov.

All of us headed out for observations in the morning. Even with a very windy weather (15m/s) we were very motivated to find some cool birds over the sea. After being unlucky with finding a sheltered place around the lighthouse we went to the Kattegat-Bunker a little bit further north. But even there it was really hard to find a calm place to seat down. We started the bird watching anyway and found a lot of Guillemots (Lomvie) and Razorbills (Alk) and some nice close Kittiwakes (Ride). The highlight was a Little Alk (Søkonge) migrating north.

The windy and rainy weather didn’t make it easy to keep the telescope still and dry. So, I gave up early and left the others to go back in the cosy apartment. Laia was following very soon. Chris and Esben stayed out there longer, but as soon as it started raining completely they also decided to come back.

Back at the station Chris searched for a place to continue the countings and he was happy with using the window in our entrance. So he could stay inside in the dry and warm room and was still able to see all the migrating birds over sea. At the same time Knud was out at Northbeach (Nordstrand) to do the migration counts there. His highlight was a Great Northern Diver (Islom).

After this exciting morning it was time to clean the station again. Unimaginable that it is already dirty again only after one week, but with so many diligent workers during the whole week also some dust and dirt is appearing. This time we also sorted and cleaned the attic. Nice to have more space up there after we removed all the old furniture two days ago.

We also sent the collected snails and mussels to the University of Aarhus today. We are already looking forward to hear if they find environmentally dangerous chemicals in their bodies. As they are filter feeders they aggregate these substances out of the water in their body.

 People: Simon S. Christiansen, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Laia Soler Iglesias, Esben Hansen, Knud Pedersen.