Først og fremmest vil jeg sige, at jeg er rigtig glad for at være tilbage på fuglestationen og ser frem til den næste måned og de oplevelser der kommer.

Dagen har været præget af et vidunderlig vejr med masser af solskin. Vores lørdag begynder med en dejlig skyfri himmel og en smuk solopgang.

I dag delte vi os op i mindre grupper hvor Chris og jeg mødes med Michael ved Jennes Sø, Christina, Amelie og Esben tog ud til Kabletromlen og Martin tog sammen med Knud ud til Verdens Ende 3 for at tælle havfugle på træk.

Ude ved Jennes Sø oplever vi et fåtal af fugle som flyver i vores net. Dette betyder at vi har god tid til at ringmærke og tale om de fugle som vi fanger i nettene.  
Jeg er stadig ny indenfor ringmærkning, så det er dejligt med god tid, således den erfarende Chris kunne rette ind på min nuværende forståelse af de elementer som ringmærkning indebærer.

Ude ved Kabletromlen oplever Christina, Amelie og Esben det samme. Der er ikke så mange fugle i nettene, derved har Christina, Amelie og Esben muligheden for at nærstudere de fugle som fanges.
Der bliver i løbet af formiddagen fanget en god flok blåmejser (Blue tit). Jørgen der er dukket op med Igor, hjælper med til at få nedskrevet data på blåmejserne. Ligeledes bliver der fanget solsorte som Amelie tog med sig, da der skal tages flåter fra dem.

Tilbage på fuglestationen åbner vi nettene i vores lille have. Vi fanger bl.a. Skovspurv (Tree sparrow), Kvækerfinke (brambling) og Blåmejse (Blue tit). Chris fik muligheden for at ringmærke hans første Skovspurv (Tree sparrow). Vi fik ligeledes set på fugle fra fuglestationen.

Sidst på eftermiddagen bliver der tjekket op på dagens genfangster, hvor vi kigger på fuglenes historik og sammenligner de biometriske mål fra da de bliv mærket og senere genfanget.

Her til aften vil vores nye frivillig Pablo ankomme, hvilket vi alle ser frem til.

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen)

Blåmejse (Blue tit)                           18

Bogfinke (Chaffinch)                        2
 
Dompap (Bullfinch)                          2

Gærdesmutte (Wren)                       2

Gransanger (Chiffchaff)                   1

Gråsisken (Redpoll)                         1

Munk (Blackcap)                              1

Musvit (Great tit)                              6

Rødhals (Robin)                              4

Rørspurv (Reed Bunting)                1

Sjagger (Fieldfare)                           4

Skægmejse (Bearded tit)                1

Skovspurv (Tree sparrow)              3

Solsort (Blackbird)                          1

Vindrossel (Redwing)                     1

Ialt                                                  48

Ringmærkning (Jennes Sø)

Gærdesmutte (Wren)                     2

Rødhals (Robin)                             2

Vindrossel (Redwing)                     1

Fuglekonge (Goldcrest)                  1

Topmejse (Crested tit)                    1

Sortmejse (Coal tit)                        1

Blåmejse (Blue tit)                          2

Musvit (Great tit)                            9

Gråsisken (Redpoll)                       20

Ialt                                                  39

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området

People: Chris Ketola, Martin Grienenberger, Knud Pedersen, Amelie Zeller, Michael Ancher, Esben E. Hansen, Christina Stinn, Jørgen Kabel og Igor, Erik Christophersen, Jenne & Jeppe Overgaard

Friday means splitting of ringing teams : Chris and Amelie went to join Michael Ancher at Jennes Sø while Christina, Aurora, Simon and I went to Kabeltromlen.

The good choice in terms of number of birds was definitely Jennes Sø this morning with a good busy round with over 60 Redpolls (Gråsisken), leading to a around 50 bird morning. And at last but not least, they enjoyed cupcakes baked by Michael and one shot of homemade alcohol with Michael and Jenne ! According to Chris, this morning was a great experience of European ringing !

Redpolls keeping social distancing !

Crested Tit

Treecreeper

Long-tailed Tit

At Kabeltromlen, things were quite different with considerably low numbers of birds, unlike we could have guessed considering the good weather the night before. Luckily, a flock of Blue Tits (Blåmejse) found its way to our nets to get at least a decent round. Being more free than usual allowed us to check around for some nice birds in Grenen and we enjoyed amazing views at a young male Goshawk (Duehog) sitting on top of a wooden pole. We also had the luck to see a few Waxwings and Parrot Crossbills migrating, not the worst birds to look at !

Blue Tits showing their usual love

Unfortunately, Aurora’s stay came to an end and she had to leave today back to her home in England. It was lovely to have you here, work and live with you during these last two weeks. We already miss you !

This afternoon, it rained.

In the evening, Jeppe and Esben arrived making us 6 now, until Palo arrives tomorrow. It looks like we’re are going to have a nice crowdy and funny weekend all together !!

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen)

Ringmærkning (Jennes Sø

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området

People: Aurora Gonzalo-Tarodo, Chris Ketola, Martin Grienenberger, Knud Pedersen, Amelie Zeller, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Leif & Lisbeth, Michael Ancher, Jenne, Jeppe Overgaard, Esben E. Hansen 

The day started with Christina and Martin opening the nets. After a few days with no ringing, it was very nice to come back. I joined them with Amelie for the first round and we had the first two blackbirds. Amelie then nun back to the lighthouse to tag them with Simon.

In the meantime, Christina, Martin and I carried on ringing. We didn’t have many birds but enough to keep us busy. In the second round, we got another blackbird and then Christina had to go back to the lighthouse to tag it.

The ringing was quite slow but some southern treats kept us excited ! Jørgen found a swift flying over the Reservatet. While looking at it with Martin, they realised that there were actually two Swifts flying together and at least one where looking like a Pallid Swift. Around an hour afterwards, the Swifts were relocated while looking at the Shrike and it appeared that both of them were Pallids !! Crazy ! It's the first time in Denmark that 2 individuals are seen at the same time ! up to 2019 there has been only 18 previous records in Denmark for that species, and those birds are number 4 and 5 in Skagen.

Photos of the Pallid Swift: Erik Christophersen

Another surprise was awaiting for us, a Red-Backed Shrike (Rødrygget Tornskade) roosted at the Grenens parking lot. Normally this species migrate to Africa and now it is to late for them to be here, so at first, we hoped that it was a different species and hopefully a more interesting one, however that was not the case. But it's the latest record ever in Skagen and maybe even in Denmark? In 1992 a 1 cy. was seen in Skagen between the 20th and 25th of October which was the latest until today.

The last surprise of the day for me was a Tree Sparrow (Skovspurv). Where I live in Bristol these species are very uncommon, I had never seen one before at my area, and of course, I had never ringed one. Today that changed and I had the pleasure to hold and ring one, making this my 96^th species of bird ever ringed. I was wishing to hit the 100, but since I am leaving tomorrow this seems unlikely.

After lunch, we spent some time installing the antenna for the Blackbirds (Solsort) tracking, but it was quite challenging due to the specifications of the equipment. A provisional installation was done but we will have to move it in a few days.

Migration counting was not too successful due to the low numbers of birds, so Chris and Knud had the opportunity to spend more time looking for the Shrike and the Pallid Swift.

One more time the team went to the city centre to try to spot the Waxwing (Silkehale), and one more time with no luck, however, we heard them by the lighthouse, still, we didn’t see them.

Tomorrow is my last day at the Skagen Fuglestation. I have had an amazing time, I have learned things I didn’t know and have made friends, I think I have accomplished by far my objectives.

Until the next time Skagen!!

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området

People: Aurora Gonzalo-Tarodo, Chris Ketola, Martin Grienenberger, Knud Pederson, Amelie Zeller, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Leif & Lisbeth 

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen):

The wind was once again too strong today for any ringing activities. We made a short trip to Kabeltromlen to take down three nets to fix back at the lab. It was actually quite fun and cozy to sew them in the attic this afternoon.

We also decided to go for a quick swim. It was Aurora and Chris’ first time in Danish waters – which were cold, but we all quite enjoyed ourselves.

Martin took some time to go through a few of the night recordings from earlier this month. The delay for the processing was due to 4 nights between the 6th and the 14^th of October. The first highlight is a new Barn Owl (Slørugle) for the year during the night of the 10^th, quickly followed by another one the night after! Quite a crazy year for that species with the sighting we had earlier in the week. The 2 most interesting nights happened on the 11^th and 13^th with a very good diversity for the former, and crazy numbers for the thrushes for the latter! At least 13 species were recorded in the night of the 11^th, including at least 3 species of Goose with numerous flocks: Barnacle Goose (Bramgås), Greylag Goose (Grågas), and Pink-footed Goose (Kortnæbbet Gås) with probably some Great White-fronted Goose (Blisgås) in that flock.

Moving on to the 13^th, that night was less diverse but quite busy: Redwings (Vindrossel) and Blackbirds (Solsort) were the most numerous with 739 and 144 individuals calling, respectively. We are really looking forward to what the next nights of nocturnal migration have to offer, so stay tuned!

You can find the nocturnal migration data on Trektellen here

The day ended in a highlight: Leif and Lisbeth made a delightful dinner for us – a great appetizer with avocado and shrimp, followed by a Danish dish that translates into “meatballs and carrots”. It was absolutely delicious!

Tomorrow looks good for ringing, so all of us will go to Kabeltromlen. It will be Aurora’s last day with us, sadly, so hopefully we get a rarity (or a tick for Aurora) in the nets!

No Ringmærkning data for today.

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området

People: Aurora Gonzalo-Tarodo, Chris Ketola, Martin Grienenberger, Knud Pederson, Amelie Zeller, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Leif & Lisbeth 

Once again the wind conspired against us and sadly we could not open our ringing nets, but everyday at Skagen is still a good day! The sun even managed to peek through the clouds in the afternoon to produce a beautiful rainbow.

Although the wind kept our nets closed, Martin and Knud braved the conditions as usual for their sea migration counting. It was a relatively quiet day with the highlight being a single Great Northern Diver (Islom) and a massive Black-Throated Diver (Sortstrubet Lom) which gave Knud the chance to share more of his limitless knowledge with Martin!

Today was Laila’s last day working in the lighthouse exhibition, her enthusiasm and great attitude will be missed! Hopefully she will be back next season!

After seeing the first Barn Owl (Slørugle) at Skagen in 18 years the night before, our team was hopeful about the prospects of catching an owl, but the wind was very strong and once again they came up empty. However the team had a great time sharing stories and boding in the dunes!

After dinner Chris and Aurora went out in the driving winds for a night catching session. Although they didn’t see any birds they did have stunning views of the moon over the Skagen Lighthouse.

Today was also te first full day at Skaegn for our new guests Leif and Lisbeth. Hopefully the weather improves and Leif can see a Bearded Tit (Skægmejse) foir the first time! 

People: Christina Stinn, Aurora Gonzalo-Tarodo, Chris Ketola, Martin Grienenberger, Knud Pedersen, Amelie Zeller, Laila Neermann, Lisbeth & Leif

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området

After we GPS-tagged the first Blackbird (Solsort) for the ICARUS Global Thrush Project yesterday evening, we celebrated all together and went out for dinner in Skagen last night. We had a nice evening and especially enjoyed having Lisa as our guest yesterday and today.

Then, this morning we were excited to catch our second Blackbird (Solsort) in our nets at Kabeltromlen in the first round! It is this first calendar year female.

We named her after our dear guest Kirsten who visits the station several times a year. We’re looking forward to following Kirsten on her journey.

Else, we didn’t catch so many birds today. Among them was this Fieldfare (Sjagger)

and this first calendar year and very grumpy Greenfinch (Grønirisk).

We closed early and used our time listening to an interesting presentation by Chris. He talked about his work in Peru for the organization “Fauna Forever”. He told us about their projects and focused on talking about the different birds they catch. It was also interesting to hear how they age and sex birds there, as you cannot think in calendar years like you do it here in Europe.

You can also take part in Chris’ session! We filmed him during the presentation and will share the link to the video in a few days.

In the afternoon, Christina was working on editing the videos from the presentation. Simon and Lisa left for Aalborg. Before sunset Chris, Aurora, Martin and I will open the Owl-Nets at Grenen and will try and catch that Barn Owl (Slørugle) we saw a couple of days ago.

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen)

Blåmejse -Blue Tit - 2

Bogfinke -Chaffinch - 2

Dompap – Bullfinch - 2

Dompap, Lille – Wester European Bullfinch - 2

Fuglekonge – Goldcrest - 2

Gærdesmutte – Wren - 2

Grønirisk – Greenfinch - 1

Jernspurv – Dunnock - 1

Munk – Blackcap - 2

Musvit – Great Tit - 2

Rødhals – Robin - 3

Rørspurv – Reed Bunting - 1

Sjagger – Fieldfare - 1

Vindrossel – Redwing – 2

Total: 25

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området

People: Christina Stinn, Aurora Gonzalo-Tarodo, Chris Ketola, Martin Grienenberger, Knud Pedersen, Amelie Zeller, Simon S. Christiansen & Lisa Vergin

Another day of rain and very strong winds. That only means no ringing so I used the morning to finish an important application for my PhD. The team also spend time on various things, Christina and I went shopping in the afternoon, Chris worked on his presentation and Amelie updated the archive pictures of the previous days ringing. Again, Martin was the only one that could do some seabird counting but he didn’t find many birds, the highlight was 2 Great Northern Divers (Islom).

However, the weather gave us a break and gifted us with these marvelous views.

The tour seemed to cancel at the beginning of the day, but that changed and some people showed up, Simon explained them various things about the station and they seemed quite happy although the terrible weather.

Later in the afternoon we put some more nets up to try to catch Blackbirds (Solsort) for the project ICARUS, but our hopes were very low as we did not see any bird during the process.

When we thought nothing exciting will happen we got an adult male Blackbird (Solsort). A tag was deployed and released. Hopefully, this project will inform us of the different migration routes that these guys take.

Now we are all going out for the station dinner, how exciting!!!

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området

People: Christina Stinn, Aurora Gonzalo-Tarodo, Chris Ketola, Martin Grienenberger, Knud Pederson, Amelie Zeller and Simon S. Christiansen & Lisa Vergin

Hygge morning at the Kabbeltromlen, with a small team composed of Amelie, Christina and me. It’s been more than 2 weeks that we didn’t ring all the three of us together ! Simon joined us for half an hour before another meeting day for him. Jørgen and Igor came by and stayed the whole morning, as well as Erik, who went also for a walk around Grenen.

We had a slow but nice morning but a few birds, including quite a few Bullfinches (Dompap). We then had plenty of time to ring them and take time to look at ageing characters. The highlights from today are those 3 beautiful Bearded Tits (Skægmejse) or this unexpected but very welcome Siberian Chiffchaff (Sibirisk Gransanger).

Fieldfare - Sjagger

Bearded Tits - Skaegmejse

Meadow Pipit - Engpiber (c) Jørgen Kabel

Siberian Chiffchaff - Sibirisk Gransanger (c) Jørgen Kabel

Chris joined Knud at World’s End 3 for his first migration counting here. He enjoyed a few lifers and great views at a Great Northern Diver (Islom). As he said, 4 hours spent counting just fly really fast and are worth fetting cold feet ! His highlights from this morning are Black Guillemot.

Aurora stayed at the lighthouse since she still had some work for her PhD applications.

A Little Auk (Søkonge) added some excitement to our afternoon. Anders Bojesen found it near a sand duneand brought it to our station. It had a small wound on its neck from being attacked. It was still feisty and after examining it quickly we released it back into the sea and it swam off. Hopefully this adorable little thing will be ok.

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen)

Great Spotted Woodpecker (Stor Flagspætte) – 1
Blue Tit (Blamejse) – 10
Great Tit (Musvit) – 5
Bearded Tit (Skaegmejse) – 3
Siberian Chiffchaff (Sibirisk Gransanger) – 1
Blackcap (Munk) – 2
Goldcrest (Fuglekonge) – 1
Wren (Gaerdesmutte) – 1
Robin (Rodhals) – 4
Redwing (Vingdrossel) – 1
Fieldfare (Sjagger) – 1
Meadow Pipit (Engpiber) – 1
Bullfinch (Dompap) – 15
Reed Bunting (Rorspurv) - 3

Total: 49

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området

People: Aurora Gonzalo-Tarodo, Chris Ketola, Martin Grienenberger, Knud Pedersen, Amelie Zeller, Simon S. Christiansen, Jørgen Kabel, Erik Christophersen

It was too windy to ring at Kabeltromlen today, so Amelie, Chris, and Aurora decided to try to catch Snow Buntings (Snespurv) at the beach in Grenen.

There was a nice flock of Snow Buntings on the beach that was merrily going about its business, but never seemed to want to go too close to the nets. As the morning wore on, more tourists came onto the beach and began to investigate the nets, which didn’t help matters. Around noon, the ringers tried to “herd” the Snow Buntings into the net from several sides, and for a moment it looked like the birds were going to fly straight into the mesh – but when the Buntings were 20 meters away, they suddenly rose higher up in the air and flew over the nets. Well, it was a sunny and windy day today, and the nets were quite visible. So, Snow Buntings: 1, Ringers: 0.

Next time, we will go out earlier when there are fewer tourists around. The early ringer catches the bird! Hopefully, it will be less windy then and somewhat overcast skies wouldn’t hurt, either.

I went to World’s End 3 this morning for migration counting. I joined Martin and Knud a little later than usual because I had a translation job to finish. Before I arrived, Martin and Knud saw two Little Auks (Søkonge) and a Pomerine Skua (Mellemkjove) – too bad I missed them! But we had nice numbers all morning, with over 600 Northern Gannets (Sule) and more than 5,500 Razorbills (Alk).

Last night, Chris and Aurora caught a juvenile Great Black-backed Gull (Svartbag) and an adult male Common Scoter (Sortand) – very exciting! Aurora has some pretty mean-looking bruises on her hands and arms because the Great Black-backed Gull was quite feisty. But she has a lot of experience ringing seabirds (including gulls), so she did not shy away from the job.

We are going night catching again this evening – this time, we are targeting a more challenging group of birds: owls! Stay tuned for updates, we will certainly let you know if we catch anything. Perhaps a Short-eared Owl (Mosehornugle)?

No Ringmærkning data for today.

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området

People: Aurora Gonzalo-Tarodo, Chris Ketola, Martin Grienenberger, Knud Pederson, Amelie Zeller, Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Stinn, Jørgen + Karin 

After a night of heavy rain, the trails around the ringing station were very muddy and flooded. Ringing was quite slow for most of the morning, however we did catch a large flock of Coal, Great and Blue Tits (Sortmejse, Musvit, Blåmejse).

Martin, Christina and Knud had a much more exciting day highlighted by many rarities including a Gray Phalarope (Thorshane), one Puffin (Lunde), White-billed and Great Northern Divers (Hvidnæbbet Lom and Islom), Pomarine Skua (Mellemkjove) and a light morph Arcitc Skua (Storkjove).

Photo: Knud Pedersen

The night before Chris and Aurora did not see any birds during their night catching session, but they did find many Natterjack toads (Strandtudse)!

In other news our Blackbird (Solsort) solar powered tracking tags arrived. These will send location data to the International Space Station allowing researchers to track the migratory movements of this species. Once the units have had a good charge in the sun we will begin attaching them to Blackbirds, hopefully this weekend.

Finally the whole team pitched in for the weekly station house cleaning session. Simon claims we have the cleanest bird observatory in Scandinavia, a title we want to keep!

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området

People: Aurora Gonzalo-Tarodo, Chris Ketola, Martin Grienenberger, Knud Pederson, Amelie Zeller, Simon S. Christiansen,