Today we were many people in the ringing. The whole crew and our two visitors (Chris’s sister Inga and a former volunteer Lisa) went out to Kabeltrommelkrattet. So, we were still enough people to do the ringing and checking the nets while Simon and Chris had a guided tour about the ringing. The tour was well visited with around 10 visitors. One of them was Simon’s aunt Birthe and another one a student from Aalborg University College who is doing a small project about the bird observatory. Simon showed them also around the observatory and Lighthouse afterwards. All of the participants were very interested in our work. They got the opportunity to watch us handling the birds, got an introduction in our daily work and the research-background of the ringing.

We ringed the first Northern Bullfinch ssp. pyrrhula (Stor Dompap) for this autumn and had a very late Garden Warbler (Havesanger)! Most of this species already reached Africa where they stay over winter. And Koen spotted a Richards Pipit (Storpiber) while we did a round. Nice to find such a rarity! For Inga it was the first time to see ringing and she really enjoyed it. Especially, that Lisa showed her so much and explained everything was very nice!

Garden Warbler (Havesanger)

At Jennes Sø Michael is continuering ringing good numbers of Lesser Redpolls (Lille Gråsisken) - almost hundred of those today! And some gems in form of 6 Bearded Tits (Skægmejse) also reached the net!

Skægmejse - Bearded Tit (Photo: Michael Ancher). 

There are autumn-holidays in Denmark at the time, so we will have some special events this week for all the visitors. Tomorrow evening is a night-tour, on Wednesday evening is a talk and of course we are also present at Birders Club and in the yard to talk to the tourists and visitors that are around. Today, it was Koen’s task and he spend his afternoon down in Birders Club and also managed to do some interesting readings in books from our library when no people were here.

In the meantime, Chris and I went swimming into the sea. While we warm up with some exercises and did our swim Laia put her feet into the cold water and found some plastic rubbish between the rocks and on the beach and did a short clean-up of the beach. I am pretty sure that the birds, fish,... are very thankful about that.

The guests in the apartment changed today. Jens and Gull-Maj travelled back home and our new guests Lotte and Britta arrived. They are from Roskilde and Odense and are already looking forward to this week, having time to do some birding and spending time out in the nature.

In the evening Chris and Inga prepared a, how they called it, ‘glorious dinner’, and I would say they were right! Now we have a cosy evening in the living room with some games :)

Starter of our dinner tonight

Ringing (Kabeltrommelkrattet + Jennes Sø):

Wren – Gærdesmutte – 10

Robin – Rødhals – 10

Songtrush – Sangdrossel – 1

Garden warbler – Havesanger – 1

Blackcap – Munk – 2

Chiffchaff – Gransanger – 3

Goldcrest – Fuglekonge – 7

Great Tit – Musvit – 2

Bullfinch ssp. pyrrhula – Stor Dompap - 1

Bullfinch ssp. europaea – Lille Dompap – 1

Reed Bunting – Rørspurv – 2

Bearded Tit – Skægmejse – 6

Crested Tit – Topmejse – 1

Blue Tit – Blåmejse – 2

Sisken – Grønsisken – 4

Redpoll – Lille Gråsisken - 98

Total: 151

People: Michael Ancher, Simon S. Christiansen, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Laia Soler Iglesias, Koen Stork, Lisa Vergin, Inga Stolz, Henning Hvid Ettrup, Birthe Christiansen, Britta & Lotte, Knud Pedersen.

Like so often, the team of the observatory split up to do ringing in Kabeltromlekrattet (Simon, Judith, Laia, Koen, Lisa) observations (Knud and me). But as it happened, the observation team didn't manage to start on time, because the ringing team got a rarity in the first emptying of the mist nets: a yellow-browed warbler (hvidbrynet løvsanger) was caught! That very bird has already been around the nets for two days (see older blog-entries). Knud an me skipped the first hour of observations to see the bird up close.

The ringing continued as usual with a good first round and some interesting species. Another yellow-browed warbler was also found! Unfortunately it started to rain around 10:30, so the nets were closed for the day.

During our observations, we observed a very close migrating pomarine skua (mellomkjove) and, similar to the last days, many snow buntings (snespurv). We also counted over a thousand migrating alcids (alkefugle) - razorbills (alk) and common guillemots (lomvie). The rain was a little annyoing, but umbrella and rainclothes saved us from getting completely wet. On the way back to the parking, we found also a late wheatear (stenpikker).

During the afternoon, Koen went birding in Batteriskogen, but didn't find anything worth mentioning. Simon and Lisa went there as well but with the same result... In the meanwhile, Judith was working on her herbarium and Laia entertained visitors in birder's club. Inga arrived and I showed her around. We also had time for our daily swim, during which were suprised by a heavy rain shower.

After a quick shopping tour by Inga, Koen and me, we found also a wheatear (stenpikker) right at the Grey Lighthouse. Maybe it was the same one that Knud and me had earlier at the sealbunker?

The evening commenced with Lisa, Inga and me bringing out the audiomoth for night recordings and, to end the day, a dutch pasta dinner made by Koen and an awesome carrot cake as dessert made by Inga.

Ringing (Kabeltromlekrattet)

Coal Tit - Sortmejse - 1
Goldcrest - Fuglekonge - 1
Common Chiffchaff - Gransanger - 5
Yellow-browed warbler - Hvidbrynet Løvsanger - 1
Eurasian Bullfinch ssp. europea - Lille Dompap - 3
Common Reed Bunting - Rørspurv - 2
Eurasian Blackcap - Munk - 1
Common Chaffinch - Bogfinke - 1
Dunnock - Jernspurv - 1
Lesser Redpoll - Lille Gråsisken - 2
Eurasian Wren - Gærdesmutte - 10
European Robin - Rødhals - 8
Redwing - Vindrossel - 3

Total: 39

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Laia Soler Iglesias, Koen Stork, Jens and Gulmaj, Lisa Vergin, Inga Stolz, Henning Hvid Ettrup, Knud Pedersen.

The weather forecast predicted rain so we started late this morning. Christian, Judith and I went for observations at Ellekrattet but there weren't a lot of birds apart from the common passerines that we usually ring. For that reason, we decided to go towards Kabeltrommelkrattet and we tried to see the Yellow-browed Warbler (Hvidbrynet Løvsanger) that yesterday was around the nets. Christian was able to hear it there! Judith and I are still learning the passerine calls.

After that, we split and Christian went back to the observatory and started to hear the recordings of the previous days/nights. Judith and I went to search for the last 2 flowers she needed to collect for her herbarium. We found them and decided to go to the tip to find the Snow Buntings (Snespurv), Lapland Buntings (Lapværling), Reed Buntings (Rørspurv) and Shore Larks (Bjerglærke). We found 19 Snow Buntings! And after that, we decided to go back.

At Jennes Sø, Michael had a lot of Lesser Redpolls in the ringing, and one of them had a ring from Belgium! It will be interesting when we later get the answer from the Ringing Centre about where and when it was ringed.

In the meantime, Koen walked to Batteriskoven where he found a Black Redstart (Husrødstjert) and 15 Rooks (Råge). Then, he came back to the observatory and read some bird books from our library.

Simon had his free-day and he got a haircut. He also went for observations and found 8 White Wagtails (Hvid vipstjert).

After lunch, Judith had a visit of a friend and when she came back Christian, Judith and I went to the beach for the daily swim (I only walked in the water though).

Judith also prepared us a nice dinner!

And finally, we had a movie night!
We watched The Big Year movie from 2011 in which 2 American birdwatchers try to beat the record of spotted birds in a whole year. If you want to know if they made it, I recommend you to watch the movie!

Ringmærkning (Jennes Sø):

Rødhals - 2

Gærdesmutte - 2

Gransanger - 2

Blåmejse - 2

Fuglekonge - 10

Lille Gråsisken - 103

Musvit - 2

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Koen Stork, Laia Soler Iglesias, Michael Ancher, Jens and Gulmaj

I got up early with Laia to open up the nets at Kabeltrommelkrattet. Well, it’s not that early any more actually (lucky us). We were opening the nets at 06:30. While we were opening I saw a Short-eared Owl (Mosehornugle) and a Jack Snipe (Enkeltbekkasin)! At 07:00, all nets were open and we were ready to rock! Christian and Simon joined us for the first round and there were quite many birds and good diversity! Our guests also joined for a brief moment and they were really fascinated by the birds in the hand. A nice chance to see birds up close! The weirdest thing we saw during the ringing today was a Dunnock (Jernspurv) that had a piece of wood sticking out of it’s back! It were two pieces actually, and one of the pieces came out with quite a bit of Dunnock-flesh on it! Nasty stuff! The ringing was altogether very fun but observations in the ringing area were also really good!

The wood that came out of a Dunnock.

When I was doing a round with Christian we managed to find a nice Yellow-browed Warbler (Hvidbrynet Løvsanger). It was around the nets so we played a little bit of the song to lure it into the nets. It reacted pretty well but we didn’t manage to lure it in. But we had good views of it! Having decent views of a YBW is not that common (for me at least), most of the times you only hear their typical ‘tseeweet’-call. Other good observations from the ringing place included a fly-over Great White Egret (Sølvhejre), a fly-over group of 8 Bearded Tits (Skægmejse) and a hunting Hen Harrier (Blå Kærhøg). And Simon managed a fly-over Bohemian Waxwing (Silkehale) while we were on the round, unlucky us!

In the meantime, Judith and Knud spent their morning enjoying the Lapland Buntings (Lapværling) and Snow Buntings (Snespurv) that were still on the beach. Migration over sea was pretty quiet but there were many Gannets (Sule) around, foraging close to the shore. Judith missed the early morning, she noticed that her tripod was incomplete when she got to World’s End 3, so she went back to look for it only to find the missing part in the basket on her bicycle. She was not entirely sure that it was fully complete so she even went back to the observatory to get the other tripod. Anyways, she got back at 09:00 and had a nice morning with Knud! After observing, they went to the beach to enjoy the buntings and they found the Horned Larks (Bjerglærke) as well!

After that, we all went back to the observatory. We had lunch and Stina joined us. She and Laia entered the ringing data while Judith and Christian prepared for the German tour that would be starting at 13:00. Laia did something wrong while entering the data so I had to do it all over again with her. Christian, Judith and Stina hosted the German tour, they prepared the nets and were all set! But there were no Germans to attend the tour. So they ended up ringing a few birds and closing the nets by themselves. They caught a Goldcrest (Fuglekonge) that we ringed this morning at Kabeltrommelkrattet, interesting to see this birds moving through the area! They also managed to catch a Goldcrest by hand! It was the first time a Goldcrest could be put in the system as ‘caught by hand’!

After the ‘tour’, me, Laia and Simon went to Skagen to go shopping and we brought all our empty cans and bottles. We handed in all our cans and bottles and managed to get more than 330 crowns back! After the shopping we went birding at Batteriskoven. Quite a nice and peaceful place, it also looked really good to find vagrants! Now there was not really anything of notice around, except good numbers of thrushes, mainly Song Thrush (Sangdrossel) and Redwing (Vindrossel).

 
Birding at Batteriskoven

Ringing (Kabeltrommelkrattet, Jennes Sø, Fyrhavene):

Wren – Gærdesmutte – 9

Dunnock – Jernspurv – 1

Robin – Rødhals – 15

Blackbird – Solsort – 1

Song Thrush – Sangdrossel – 3

Redwing – Vindrossel – 1

Blackcap – Munk – 3

Chiffchaff – Gransanger – 6

Goldcrest – Fuglekonge – 15

Coal Tit – Sortmejse – 1

Blue Tit – Blåmejse – 3

Great Tit – Musvit – 3

Chaffinch – Bogfinke – 1

Eurasian Siskin – Grønsisken – 1

Lesser Redpoll – Lille Gråsisken – 148

Bullfinch ssp europaea - Lille Dompap – 1

Total: 212

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Koen Stork, Laia Soler Iglesias, Flemming & Christl, Lene Kappelborg, Jens and Gulmaj, Lyngvig-Banden.

Writing music: Bizzey

The first task in the morning was checking the weather radar: every radar showed something else. However, one showed a big rain cloud coming closer in the next hour. So, we decided to wait until this rain passed by and had 2 more hours in the morning. The reactions to this “freetime” were very different: Simon was happy to have some time for observations and we decided to use the time to get some more sleep/rest.

When we met at 8 o´clock at the ringing side Simon told us that it was not raining in the meantime (didn`t realize that in my dreams), so it would have been possible to open the nets earlier. But I think everybody was happy with having 2 hours off and so we started fresh and motivated the ringing. And it was really a very nice morning with many birds and a diverse species list. Next to some usual birds in this season as Wrens (Gærdesmutte), Robin (Rødhals) or Goldcrest (Fuglekonge) we also had some rarer birds for catching in the nets in the start of Autumn: a Bullfinch (Lille Dompap), a Meadow Pipit (Engpiber) and a Reed Warbler (Rørsanger). Especially the Reed Warbler was a highlight, as it is already very late in the season for this species - they are overwintering in Africa and most of them left Europe already. In Dofbasen we found out that it is the third-latest record of Reed warblers up here in Skagen in Autumn. It was maybe a hint greyer than most Reed Warblers in general, not really unusual though, but to be on the safe side we collected a feather if we one day would be sure to exclude the southeastern subspecies 'fuscus' on DNA. 

We also had some guests in the ringing today:
Jens from our apartment joined the ringing for a while and was very impressed to see all the different species so close and the handling of the birds. Then he went further to Worlds End 1 (Verdens Ende 1) and talked to all the birders there – it was very interesting for him to see many birders with so much knowledge and the endurance to do observations and countings all over the year.
And Flemming from the Grey Lighthouse visited us and enjoyed his free day after a very busy summer season – it was nice to see you out there!

In the meantime, Koen and Knud did observations from Worlds End 3 (Verdensende 3). The highlights were roosting Lapland Buntings (Lapvœrling), Shorelarks (Bjerglærke) and Snow Buntings (Snespurv) on the beach. They used the opportunity to study them up that close, because it`s very rare to see them so close without flying further immediately! You can see a nice video of the Lapland Bunting on facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Skagenfuglestation/videos/1404351699715320/?eid=ARANMQK7vpKS4Bq2X0x_jxqE-Qh3IXgP4w99zczjwCWIGas-k-OH1KmMsZ3TFngJPRyuUKyLkQ1TKoTO).  Other good observations were a Longtailed Duck (Havlit) and two Pale-bellied Brand Geese (Lysbuget knortegås). Also the Black Scoter (Amerikansk Sortand) is still in the area!

On the way back to the station we got very warm from the sun and decided to go swimming immediately – who know´s how long the sun will stay in this “Irish-weather”. Even Laia decided to join the swimming in the sunshine and so Chris, Laia and me went into the water. While we were swimming back we saw already very dark clouds coming from the south and decided to go back quick. And five or ten minutes after we entered the apartment the rain started again – lucky us!

The rainy weather was perfect for doing the usual “Wednesday-cleaning”. Now everything looks clean and shiny again.

In the evening we enjoyed a delicious food prepared from our guests in the apartment. A hokkaido-soup and then pizza was a very good reward for the long day!

For Simon, Chris and Laia the work was not done yet. They did a nighttour with pupils from Skagen. While Chris and Laia try to catch a bird in the darkness Simon walked with the children to the beach searching for mammals. And they succeeded! They saw a fox, seals, deer and many Sanderlings (Sandløber). It was very exciting for the children!

Ringing (Kabeltrommelkrattet):

Meadow Pipit – Engpiber – 1
Wren – Gærdesmutte – 1
Robin – Rødhals – 3
Blackbird – Solsort – 1
Reed Warbler – Rørsanger – 1
Blackcap – Munk – 1
Chiffchaff – Gransanger – 4
Goldcrest – Fuglekonge – 6
Blue Tit – Blåmejse – 8
Bullfinch - Lille Dompap – 1
Reed Bunting – Rørspurv – 12

Total: 39

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Yehonatan Ben Aroia, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Laia Soler Iglesias, Koen Stork, Knud Pedersen, Flemming Quist Jens & Gulmaj, Nullermand, Lynvig-banden.

Tuesday morning started with storm and rain,
so we slept longer without pain.

A lot of indoor work happened during the morning
Checking ringing records is not so boring.
Also planning our events in November
is something for us to remember.
So Lene and Flemming joined to discuss
the upcoming weeks at the observatory with us.

Simon wrote about the EuroBirdwatch day,
which you can find here to display.

Suddenly, when Laia observed the storm,
she saw a familiar form.
A little bird, exhausted down in the yard,
seemingly the wind had taken it hard.
Koen jumped down the stairs barefooted,
the bird did not move and he put it
into a box for it to recover.
while we were astonished to discover
that it was a migrant to africa -
pied flycatcher (broget fluesnapper).
Unfortunately this story has no happy end,
after some hours we lost our little friend.
He ended in Skagen exhausted and out of course
Migration times can be without remorse.

When the weather turned better later,
and our restlessness got greater,
we went out to jump into the sea,
even if the water had only around 1 degree.
The sea was full of jellyfish
and not getting hit by one was a valid wish.
Alas, the prayer was not heard
and on our skins some blisters occured.

In the afternoon we left for observations,
and went to Skarvesøen with expectations.
Little grebes (lille lappedykker) were found there,
but unfortunately nothing really rare.
Others had more luck (or skill?)
And saw pomarine skua and parrot crossbill.
Mellomkjove og stor korsnæb in the local language
wich knowing is here an advantage :-)

After dinner we learned about moult strategies
of greenfinches (grønirisk) that can lead to fallacies,
when you don't know how assess the gender
you can basically only surrender.

I was told to also tell about our evening meal,
which was pancakes that were not cooked ideal,
there was too little butter in the pans,
but thankfully it didn't ruin our dinner plans!

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Koen Stork, Laia Soler Iglesias, Flemming & Christl, Lene Kappelborg, Jens and Gulmaj, Lyngvig-Banden.

Writing music: Diablo Swing Orchestra - Sing Along Songs for the Damned & Delirious

Today when Koen and I went out to open the nets almost all was covered by a thin layer of ice letting us know that winter is coming.
Christian and Simon joined us afterward and Judith went out for observations at Verdens Ende 1.

It was a quiet morning, not many birds in the nets but we had a fox visiting us. And due to the board meeting, we needed to close the nets early.

Picture by Laia Soler Iglesias

Some of today's observations were: Black Scoter (Amerikansk Sortand) that was seen again!, Slavonian Grebe (Nordisk Lappedykker), at least 12 Horned Larks (Bjerglærke) and 2 Lapland Bunting (Lapværling).

After the ringing, we went back to the Bird Observatory and Simon told us that a Humpback Whale (Pukkelhval) was found dead in a local fishermen's net this morning. So, I went to the harbor to see it and to take some pictures in order to show it to the other volunteers that couldn't go. Meanwhile Christian met Judith at Verdens Ende 1 to join the observations and after that, they went to the ringing site to change some nets. But before I could find the whale, I drove my bike to all the harbor at least two times (such a labyrinth!) and after asking some kind people on my way to the western end of the harbor, I was able to find it! (thank you all for the indications!). Now I feel like I know how to move from one point to another in the harbor.

Picture by Laia Soler Iglesias

After that, as usual, Christian and Judith went for the daily swim while I was walking in the water (today the water and environmental temperature at midday were nice).

Then, Koen and I entered the data of the ringing and afterward Judith and Christian did the same for the observations' data.

We recovered the recorders that we left outside yesterday at night and today's morning. We are expecting to hear what they have recorded.

And after dinner, Koen and I went to do night catch. Tonight was mamals´ night... We saw otters (oddere), deers (hjorte) and Harbor Seals (Spættet sæl) but unfortunately, we did not catch any bird.

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlekrattet):

Rødhals 3

Rørspurv 1

Gransanger 2

Gærdesmutte 4

Fuglekonge 9

Lille Dompap 1

Grønsisken 1

Total 21

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Koen Stork, Laia Soler Iglesias, Jens and Gulmaj

Today me and Christian went to open up the nets at Kabeltromelkrattet, all nets were open around 07:00 and Simon and Judith joined us for the first round. Laia was doing observations at World’s End 3 with Knud.Rough-legged Buzzard (Fjeldvåge)

When we opened the nets it was stil very quiet, we flushed a few Snipes (Dobbeltbekkasin) from the ringing area and then waited for the sun to rise. It was a nice and peaceful morning (but very cold). Then Simon and Judith arrived and we started with the first round. The first round was pretty good, many birds! It looked pretty promising but after the first round things slowed down. But eventually we caught a Greenfinch (Grønirisk) which was very nice. Not a species we catch every day here. Observations from the ringing site were good with quite a few passerines on migration and Rough-legged Buzzard (Fjeldvåge) and Great Grey Shrike (Stor Tornskade) in the area!

In the meantime, Laia was doing observations. There was, except dexent numbers of Ganntes (Sule) and Common Scoters (Sortand), not much to see so she and Knud decided to check the many Reed Buntings (Rørspurv) that are present in the dunes at Grenen and they found a Lapland Bunting (Lapværling)! After that, they tried to relocate the Black Scoter (Amerikansk Sortand) but onfortunately they didn’t succeed. I hope it’s still around somewhere.

I left the ringing site a bit earlier to go birding down the road. I went back, changed clothes, ate something and then went out again. I took the stations’ camera with me to test it. Nobody here gets how Olympus settings work so it was far from ideal but I managed to see (and photopraph!) a nice 1cy male Hen Harrier (Blå Kærhøg), a Rough-legged Buzzard (Fjeldvåge) and some Crossbills (Lille Korsnæb). Apart from that, the weather was very nice and the place was beautiful, so I had a great walk!Hen Harrier (Blå Kærhøg)

Then, all of us went back to the observatory, had lunch and said goodbye to Yehonathan and our guests who had to leave us today. Later that afternoon, new guests and Niels arrived! Niels is here for the board meeting that will be held tomorrow. Christian, Judith and Laia went out for their daily swimming session (yep they’re a bit crazy) as well and we did some of the usual stuff such as typing in data. Christian and me prepared the microphone to record nocturnal migration calls, I’m already excited to see what we recorded!

Ringing (Kabeltrommelkrattet):

Wren - Gærdesmutte - 9

Robin - Rødhals - 4

Blackbird - Solsort - 3

Song Thrush - Sangdrossel - 1

Blackcap - Munk - 4

Chiffchaff - Gransanger - 6

Goldcrest - Fuglekonge - 2

Greenfinch - Grønirisk - 1

Reed Bunting - Rørspurv - 6

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Yehonatan Ben Aroia, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Laia Soler Iglesias, Koen Stork, Ulla Popp and Anders Jørgen Jensen.

Today was EuroBirdwatch-day! It is an event from Birdlife international with a focus on counting migratory birds and takes place all over Europe. So of course we also participated and Koen and Chris went out to Verdensende 1 to count every single bird. They got support by some other birders. In sum they counted a very good number of birds, with 3187 individuals in total. And that means that there were at least 10 or more birds in one minute! The highlight of the day was found by Erik Christophersen and was a Bluethroat! The most numerous species were Great Black-backed Gulls (Svartbag) with 339 and Common Scoters (Sortand) with 571 individuals.

Simon, Yehonatan, Laia and I went out for ringing in Kabeltrommelkrattet. We had a really good start with 27 birds in the first round. And also the rest of the morning was really nice. Dominant species were Wrens (Gærdesmutte) and Goldcrests (Fuglekonge). The highlight were two female Bullfinches (Lille Dompap). Yehonatan was hoping to catch some Bullfinches since his first day at this station and so they were like a farewell gift for him before he is leaving on Sunday.

There were also some visitors for the EuroBirdwatch-day. The guests in our apartment joined the ringing and the observations for a while and managed to find a nice rough-legged buzzard (Fjeldvåge). And three children get to know our “klickers” that we use for counting birds and had a lot of fun with helping to count all the birds that were passing by.

Chris was enjoying the observations and the sunny weather and did not want to stop at noon. So he continued the observations and went the beach and to Skarvsøen. It was totally worth it because he found some new nice birding places between the dunes and a Slavonian Grebe (Nordisk Lappedykker) and Eurasian Bittern (Rørdrum). He was so fascinated from the whole area that he stayed out till 5 o´clock.

The others used the afternoon for put in the data and having some rest. Yehonatan had to pack all his stuff and had a to-do list for his last day: climbing up the lighthouse and enjoying the beautiful view, going for a walk on the beach to say goodbye to the Snowbuntings (Snespurv) and buying some things in the shop downstairs. A wooden Crested Tit figure (Topmejse) will companion him on his journey to Copenhagen and then in one week back to Israel reminding him on the good time up here in Skagen.

In the evening I prepared some typical Austrian food: “Erdäpfelnudeln mit Kraut” (Potatonoodles with Cabbage) and as a dessert “Pflaumen-Knödel” (Plumb-dumplings). It was the last evening for our guests in the apartment (Ulla & Anders) and they present us some nice chocolate – thank you, we already enjoy the chocolate next to the coffee!

As you have read before the day was very busy and Chris and I found no time for doing our daily swim during the day. So we had to do it in the night. After finishing the dinner we went out and enjoyed the refreshment under the stars and the light of the lighthouse.

Foto

Ringing (Jennes Sø & Kabeltrommelkrattet):

Meadow Pipit – Engpiber – 1

Wren – Gærdesmutte – 28

Robin – Rødhals – 5

Reed Warbler - Rørsanger – 1

Blackcap – Munk – 2

Chiffchaff – Gransagner – 8

Goldcrest - Fuglekonge – 25

Bullfinch - Lille Dompap – 2

Reed Bunting - Rørspurv – 5

Common Redstart – Rødstjert – 2

Blackbird – Solsort – 1

Crested Tit – Topmejse – 2

Coal Tit – Sortmejse - 2

Blue Tit – Blåmejse – 2

Great Tit – Musvit – 4

Eurasian Treecreeper - Nordlig Træløber – 1

Chaffinch - Bogfinke – 1

Eurasian Siskin - Grønsisken – 2

Redpoll - Lille Gråsisken – 74

Total: 168

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Yehonatan Ben Aroia, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Laia Soler Iglesias, Koen Stork, Ulla Popp, Anders Jørgen Jensen, Erik Christophersen, Morte4n Bentzon Hansen, Thorkild Lund, Flemming Ahlmann, Jens Peter-Lund

Rainy and stormy eastern winds prevented us from ringing this morning. While most of us used the chance to stay long in bed, I couldn’t sleep longer than normal. I decided to check for wind protected places around the Grey Lighthouse with a view towards Kattegat. Many seabirds should be pushed towards land by the storm, I figured... Eventually, I set up the telescope in the office window on the upper floor, from which I was able to see the sea and beach south of the lighthouse. It was a flashy place, warm, wind protected and I even could get fresh coffee when desired. Granted, observations here are not as good as they would be from Worlds End at Grenen, but a couple of red-breasted mergansers (toppet skallesluger) and razorbills (alk) were spotted. Judith joined me for some time as well and studied the closely passing kittiwakes (ride) in their different plumages.

Ulla and Anders had in the meanwhile a slow beginning of the day as well:

Vi stod op til blæst og regn, så formiddagen blev brugt til at se på billeder fra de foregående dage. Efter frokost var vi inde og se udstillingen på fuglestationen, en lærerig oplevelse om fugletræk.

Herefter var det blevet nogenlunde tørvejr, så vi kørte en tur ud til Nordstrand. Her var ikke meget at se, nogle sortænder og et par suler. Så derfor kørte vi til Flagbakken et sted vi ikke havde været før. En fantastisk udsigt men ingen fugle. Derfor kørte vi tilbage til det Grå fyr, og gik en tur ud af traktorsporet og ind til kabeltromlekrattet. Her var vi heldig at se en stor tornskade og fortsatte ud til spidsen af Grenen. Godt vi havde taget varmt tøj på for her var der småfugle på stranden. Vi satte os på stranden og i løbet af den næste halve time fik vi set snespurv hun, bjerglærke og lapværling mellem rørspurvene. En dejlig oplevelse at vende tilbage til Fuglestationen med.

When the weather is so uninviting like today, mostly indoor work is being done at the observatory. So today we were sorting pictures for our archive and checked ringing data. To get some excitement on a day like today, we of course went swimming in the big waves. Too big for Judith, who wasn't able to swim out to the sandbank today.
Yehonatan went on his now usual beach walk trying to find some northerly species and was finally happy to study some roosting snow buntings (snespurv).

Picture by Yehonatan Ben Aroia

On the late afternoon, when the rain had ceased, we also went shopping in town. The wind direction allowed us to “sail” towards Skagen, but fully packed with all the goodies on the way back, we were struggling hard against the wind. Koen's mobile unfortunately dropped out of his pocket while riding the bike and it seems to be now broken beyond repair…

The evening was rather uneventful, Laia prepared an amazing tortilla dinner and we planned the EuroBirdwatch tomorrow!

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Yehonatan Ben Aroia, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Laia Soler Iglesias, Koen Stork, Ulla Popp and Anders Jørgen Jensen.