Yesterday evening Esben and Lisa went nightcatching again at Grenen and I joined them for the first time. In the beginning we tried to catch an owl Simon had just seen when he was driving home to the station. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find it, so we walked on the beach to the tip, equipped with a flashlight, a sweep net and two skilled catchers. So, we had luck and caught a juvenile Dunlin (Almindelig Ryle) around 11 pm! Lisa was happy to ring her first Dunlin.

Because it was raining in the morning, we opened the mist nets at 7:45 today. It was nice to sleep a little bit longer than usual. The weather was nice, and we were quite a lot of people at Kabeltromlen today. While Angus was counting at World’s End 3, Simon, Arne, Esben, Lisa, Martin and I were at the ringing station. Jørgen and Igor came by to visit.

In the afternoon Martin, Esben and I entered the ringing data from today. Also, Lisa baked some delicious Kannelbullar for us today and Jørgen visited the station. Unfortunately, Lisa had to leave today again, because she needs to be in the office on Monday morning. But maybe she will come again in October or November.

Before dinner Kristina and her boyfriend Mads came by for saying hello. I was really happy they brought their dog Aslan with them!

Night Ringing (Grenen)

 Almindelig Ryle - Dunlin – 1

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen):

Gærdesanger - Lesser Whitethroat – 1

Gransanger – Chiffchaff – 1

Gulspurv – Yellowhammer – 1

Løvsanger - Willow Warbler - 11

Solsort – Blackbird - 1

Tornsanger - Common Whitethroat - 2

Total: 17

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

People: Martin Grienenberger, Simon S. Christiansen, Amelie Zeller, Esben Elgaard Hansen, Angus Barnett, Lisa Vergin, Arne Anderson, Jørgen & Igor, Kristina Sønderkjær, Mads, Aslan

Ringing today was cancelled after waking up at 4am to find the winds were too strong to set up the nets. There was one bird ringed however in the form of goosander caught by Esben late last night!!

About 09:00 a red-footed falcon surfaced around the lighthouse giving me my first views of this species ever and only on the second day of my arrival. Throughout the day there was a trickling of sandwich terns along the coast and a young family of red backed shrikes in the dunes.

Later in the afternoon about 16:00 me and Martin visited Jerup Strand which proved to be very fruitful with higlights as 2 Red-footed falcons (Aftenfalk) and 3Spoonbills (Skestork) and a lot of waders.

And 9 species of waders including sanderling (sanløbar), spotted redshark (sortlire) and bar-tailed godwit (lille kobbersneppe).

Goosander (Stor Skallesluger)

The day started pretty much as every previous day : the ringing team got up early to open the nets at 05:15, and I went to Verdens Ende 1 to look out for migration.

A new member of the team joined us today. Angus arrived yesterday and will stay with us for the entire autumn season. He comes from England and is a experienced ringer. He was pretty happy today to ring his first Lesser Whitethroat (Gærdesanger) !

Although the weather has changed, it wasn’t really the case in the mist nets. It was another slow morning and only 14 birds were caught and ringed today. On the migration side, the wind was too strong to see any passerines flying. A few birds were still active at sea though, and Martin saw a putative Pomarine Skua (Mellemkjove), a Great Skua (Storkjove) and a poor determined Hobby (Laerkefalk) that was attempting to migrate, flying just over the waves and having so much trouble to get forward against that strong wind ! Let’s hope that this strong southerly winds have much more to offer for the next days !

Windy day

From the far distance, I also saw that Knud was out and satisfying his love for Gulls. Yesterday, we were together and saw this odd looking Lesser Black-backed Gull.

In the afternoon, we did some office work and little things such as data entry, social media, bike check, etc… while Esben was working on some mathematics for his incoming return to school.

In the evening, we had the chance to have Simon cooking the dinner for us !!
Lisa and Arne, Simon's good friend from Lund, joined us and will stay for the weekend.

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen):

Gærdesanger - Lesser Whitethroat - 2

Havesanger – Garden Warbler - 1

Løvsanger - Willow Warbler - 8

Munk - Blackcap - 1

Tornsanger - Common Whitethroat - 1

Total: 14

Night Ringing  (Grenen)

Goosander 1 

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

People: Martin Grienenberger, Simon S. Christiansen, Amelie Zeller, Esben Elgaard Hansen, Angus Barnett, Lisa Vergin, Arne Anderson

Today we had our last ringing day together with Amandine and Viktoria. Unfortunately, they had to leave today, because they will both start a new job soon. The Kabeltromlen will feel really empty without them…

We had a rather slow morning, but still caught some nice birds. Today we had another Wren (Gærdesmutte) in our nets.

Then I could ring a Great Spotted Woodpecker (Stor Flagspætte) for the first time.

Also a nice surprise was a Northern Wheatear (Stenpikker).

Kristina was also happy to ring her first bird today and extracted them from the mistnets!

Meanwhile Martin was doing migration counts at World’s End 1 for 2 hours, then he joined Knud at World’s End 3 and was happy to see Arctic Skuas (Almindelig Kjove), Caspian Gulls (Kaspisk Måge) and a Northern Lapwing (Vibe).

For the last few days Simon had a nice time at his summer house. He observed waders at the beach but wasn’t able to catch any.

After the ringing I baked some Goodbye-Pancakes for Viktoria and Amandine and we did some tasks at the observatory. Martin listened to the night recordings of bird calls he has taken for the last three days with his microphone at Kabeltromlen.

Then we said goodbye to Viktoria and Amandine, hopefully we’ll see you again soon!

Our guests Niklas and Falke visited Grenen and watched the seals, of course with enough distance to not disturb them. They also visited the exhibition in the lighthouse and really liked it. After that they had a swim in the sea with many nice waves today.

For dinner Niklas and Laura prepared a really delicious Couscous with Halloumi and Hummus for us and we had some Danish dessert.

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen):

Gærdesanger - Lesser Whitethroat - 1

Gærdesmutte – Wren - 1

Gransanger - Chiffchaff - 1

Løvsanger - Willow Warbler - 10

Rørsanger - Reed Warbler - 3

Sangdrossel – Song Thrush – 1

Stenpikker – Northern Wheatear - 1

Stor Flagspætte – Great Spotted Woodpecker - 1

Tornsanger - Common Whitethroat - 4

Total: 23

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

People: Amandine Doré, Viktoria Mader, Martin Grienenberger, Simon S. Christiansen, Amelie Zeller, Kristina Sønderkjær, Knud Pedersen, Laura, Niklas, Falke, Fjord

Hej! Vi er Laura, Niklas, Falke på 4 år og Fjord på 6 måneder. Vi er en naturglad familie fra Gadevang på Sjælland og vi har nu tilbragt tre dage her på Skagen Fuglestation.

Før Danmark blev ramt for af COVID-19 så vi et opslag i DOF-bladet om muligheden for at bo på og deltage i arbejdet på Skagen Fuglestation. Vi skyndte os straks at skrive til Stationsforstanderen, Simon, som var meget imødekommende og hjælpsom. Vi bookede 5 dage og har gået og glædet os lige siden.

I dag, onsdag har været en spændende dag. Vi startede dagen med at stå op klokken 6 med udsigt til en rød solopgang igennem lejlighedens høje østvendte vinduer, spise en hurtig morgenmad og så ellers komme afsted mod ”Verdens Ende”, for at deltage i morgenringmærkningen.

Da vi nåede frem efter en kort gåtur på ca. 10 minutter blev vi mødt af Viki, Amelie og Amandine som vi har lært at kende her på stationen. Derudover var der lokale Oluf, som gav en hjælpende hånd med.

Vi blev modtaget ved det lille bord i det fri, hvor ringmærkningen var i fuld gang; ringe, papirer, måleudstyr og små røde poser der hang og bevægede sig! Falke blev draget hen til poserne og vi så spændte til mens havesangere, rørsangere og en lille gråsisken blev målt, vejet, fik ring på og endelig sluppet løs. Falke fik lov til at holde flere af de små fugle i håndfladen og se dem lette efter endt ringmærkning: stort!

Og så ringede en klokke hvilket betød endnu en runde hvor de små røde poser forhåbentlig skulle fyldes op med en ny omgang fugle fra nettene. Vi gik med Amelie og Amandine ud til 4-5 net, som var opsat i krattet: med masser af mudder. Heldigvis var der gummistøvler på og vi kunne komme helt hen og se hvordan fuglene en for en blev viklet ud af nettene af kyndige hænder for derefter at blive sat i individuelle små røde poser.

Efter runden kom vi tilbage til bordet hvor vi kunne nærstudere flere havesangere og rørsangere, men også to brogede fluesnappere, en dompap og en helt utrolig sød gærdesmutte som Amelie havde viklet ud.

Vi fik alt forklaret mens det skete: hvordan man måler vingelængder, hvordan man puster på fjerene på bugen for at se fodertilstanden og hvordan man vejer dem på bittesmå vægte. Og så er der meget sjovt at vide at gærdesmutten er en lille ilter fugl, der virkelig spjætter og spræller for at komme løs. Vi nød en hel time med ringmærkningen og gik derefter hjem ad det sandede spor som sandormen bruger.

Resten af dagen gik med en lille formiddagslur, en dejlig badetur lige neden for fyret, lede efter forsteninger (vi fandt én) og flotte sten (vi fandt mange!) på stranden samt en god is på den lille restaurant ’blink’ der ligger ved siden af fyret.

Vi har sluttet dagen med at spise hjemmelavet pizza og chokolademousse med de frivillige, der opholder sig på fyret.

Det er så nemt og fantastisk at være her som en naturglad familie med små børn. Vi glæder os til de to sidste dage vi skal tilbringe her og hvem ved, gøre det til en tradition med en årlig familietur til Skagen Fuglestation i August :)

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen):

Total: 52

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

People: Amandine Doré, Viktoria Mader, Martin Grienenberger, Simon S. Christiansen, Amelie Zeller, Kristina Sønderkjær, Jørgen & Igor, Oluf Lou, Laura, Niklas, Falke, Fjord

This morning Amandine, Martin and I were going migration counting together at Verdens Ende 1. We had a rather slow morning but used the time to learn some passerine calls Martin pointed out to us. Amandine explained to me in a very well how moult cards work and how you can calculate the moult score. That was really good for me, because now I feel less overwhelmed with all the new information.

We saw 280 Northern Gannets (Sule) fishing at the tip of Denmark, a nice formation of migrating Greylag Geese (Grågås), some migrating Great Spotted Woodpeckers (Stor flagspætte) and our highlight was a Red-Footed Falcon (Aftenfalk).

Viktoria joined us later because she was preparing an Insects-Tour for today afternoon for our new guests Niklas and Laura and their children Falke and Fjord. After the counting we took a walk to Grenen where we could see the Gannets and the Seals from not so far away.

The Falcon took a short rest at the beach, as well and Viktoria was able to photograph it through her scope.

After the counting we started to clean the apartment. Viktoria was organizing her photos she took during her time here in the picture archive of the station, because sadly she and Amandine will leave on Thursday. We will really miss them! But hopefully we will meet again in winter when they come to visit the station.

In the afternoon we had a really nice Insects-Tour led by Viktoria.

We catched a really nice orb web spider.

As we are only us for volunteers at the station right now, we will go and have dinner at a nice Burger Place tonight in Skagen. We are really looking forward to going out today!

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

People: Amandine Doré, Viktoria Mader, Martin Grienenberger, Amelie Zeller, Laura, Niklas, Falke, Fjord

Yesterday day, we drove down along the East coast until Hals to go and try again to catch some Sandwich Terns (Splitterne)  for the Lisa’s master project. Henning and Lars Bo joined us for the catching, as well as Esben who came up to Skagen for the weekend. Filip, Simon’s brother, and his girlfriend also joined for a little while. Sandwich terns had been seen roosting there in high numbers previously, and we were hoping that Hals would be a good catching site. 

We arrived in Hals around 8pm and had some pizzas while watching the sunset over the beach…



After dinner, we started setting up the nets among the sandbanks, looking for the best locations to catch terns. When everything was ready, we came back to the car and waited an hour until the next round.



The first round was empty, and unfortunately all the following rounds as well…. We however manage to catch an Oystercatcher (Strandskade) which was very exciting !





Even though we did not catch any terns, we enjoyed still the night very much: the weather was warm, and the place was beautiful. The sky was very bright and a lot of stars. Amelie and me lied down on the floor and saw a couple of shooting stars. In early morning, the fog started to thicken, creating an almost magic atmosphere. Everything was so quiet and peaceful.  

We finished putting down the nets and packing the car around 5:30am and drove back to Skagen.

Viktoria and Martin had decided to stay at the station during the night and went catching birds at Kabeltromlen instead of joining the night-catching. Oluf came along to help them with the ringing. They caught a very nice juvenile male Bluethroat (Blåhals), which started to get some of the shiny blue feathers typical of the adult male.

We came back to the station at 7am, and Simon and me decided to come out to Kabeltromlen and joined the ringing, even though we had spent the whole night out...  

In the afternoon, we completed our daily tasks: data entry, birder’s club, social media… and also got some sleep ! Lisa and Simon left during the afternoon leaving Victoria, Amelie, Martin and me in charge of the station until Wednesday.

Martin went up into the lighthouse with his scope to observe some birds from the highest point of Skagen, while Viktoria and Amelie went for a swim, enjoying this very hot summer day in Skagen. 

The new guests, Niklas and Laura and their two children arrived and will stay at the station until Friday. We had our first meeting together, and they seemed excited to join our observations and ringing activities during the following days.

After dinner, we went down to the beach to drink a beer and enjoy the last rays of sunshine before going to bed. Martin also showed of his drawing skills on the sand … Can you guess which species is that bird ?

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen + Hals):

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

People: Henning Ettrup, Lars Bo, Oluf Lou, Viktoria Mader, Martin Grienenberger, Simon S. Christiansen, Amelie Zeller, Amandine Doré, Henning Hvid Ettrup, Lisa Vergin, Lars Bo Jacobson, Esben E. Hansen, Filip

I dag stod Martin og Amandine tidligt op, eftersom de skulle ud på Verdens Ende for at tælle trækfugle. Tågen fra i går aftes hang stadig tungt over Grenen, hvilket gjorde det ret besværligt for dem i de første timer. 

Imens åbnede Viktoria og Esben nettene ved Kabeltromlen, hvorefter vi andre stødte til senere. 

Også her var vi ramt af tågen, og vi havde således en stille morgen med få fugle. På et tidspunkt var der vist endda flere mennesker end fugle ;-)

Efterhånden som tågen lettede og solen kom frem, kom der flere fugle til - blandt andet denne perfekte kærsanger.

Dagens højdepunkt var dog en dobbeltbekkasin, som havde forvildet sig ind i vores net i sumpen. Dobbeltbekkasinen er med dens lange næb og camueflagefarvede fjerdragt en meget smuk fugl. Vi var da også meget glade for at fange den, da vi ofte har hørt dens specielle brummende lyd, når den flyver rundt omkring ved Kabeltromlen. Lyden frembringes i øvrigt af dens halefjer.

Vi lukkede nettene tidligt på grund af varmen, og Amandine gik herefter i gang med at rydde stierne ved nettene, da de efterhånden var groet godt til.

Da vi kom tilbage til fuglestationen, fodrede Martin og Amelie computeren med data fra morgenens observationer og ringmærkninger, hvorefter alle tog en lang middagssøvn, eftersom vi senere kører til Hals for at bruge aftenen og natten på at fange terner til Lisas opgave. 

Sidst på eftermiddagen kiggede Knud og Jørgen forbi til eftermiddagskaffe. I dagens anledning var der hele to kager bagt af Esben og Viktoria. Mmmm….. 

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen):

Total: 28

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

People: Martin Grienenberger, Simon S. Christiansen, Amelie Zeller, Amandine Doré, Knud Pedersen, Jørgen Kabel, Jan Speiermann, Erik Christophersen, Esben E. Hansen, Lisa Vergin, Viktoria Mader og Pernille Roed

Today Amandine and Amelie get up early to open the mist nets at Jennes Sø for the CES, while Esben and Lisa did the same at Grenen. The Spotted flycatcher (Grå Fluesnapper) was Lisa’s highlight of the ringing, while Esben summarized the ringing at Kabeltromlen as “a lot of uncommon common birds”, such as a Fieldfare (Sjagger) and a Sedge Warbler (Sivsanger).  

At the CES we - and especially Pernille - were happy to catch a Great Spotted Woodpecker (Stor Flagspætte).

Amandine rescued a fish.

In the afternoon Esben entered the ringing data of both ringing locations of the day – with the help of Lisa and Viktoria.

Martin counted migratory birds with Knud and Jan at the end of the world 3 in the early morning. Later on, Martin joined the CES ringing at Jennes Sø, and ringed his first (wild) birds!

Jan’s highlight of the day was a Red-footed falcon (Aftenfalk) around the lighthouse! There were also Two-barred Crossbills (Hvidvinget Korsnæb) observed at Skagen today, but we were not lucky to observe them during the ringing. Amandine left the CES a bit earlier to help Henning with the guided tour, and Lisa worked on her master’s project on Sandwich terns (Splitterne) in the afternoon.

Martin also processed the audiomoth data and updated these at Trektellen.

The day ended with a delicious dinner prepared by Jan and Kristine – the “Internet-Famous Chickpea Stew”.

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen + Jennes Sø):

Total: 51

People: Martin Grienenberger, Simon S. Christiansen, Amelie Zeller, Amandine Doré, Knud Pedersen, Jan Speiermann, Jan and Kristine Hjort, Pernille Roed, Henning Hvid Ettrup, Olof Lou, Esben E. Hansen, Lisa Vergin, Viktoria Mader

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

Klik her for at se observationer indtastet i Trektellen

As usual, two teams on the bird front today : Amélie, Amandine and Viktoria went ringing, joined later by Simon, Jan, Jan and Kristine, while Martin joined Knud for migration counting at Verdens Ende 3. It's always a pleasure to wake up that early to enjoy beautiful sunrises !

It wasn't a busy day for the ringing team, but they still catched a few adult birds for the delight of the ringers. They usually catch juvenile birds, so they were happy to have some older ones !

On the beach side, we witnessed a bit of migration with a few waders coming in or to the sea : Golden Plovers (Hjejle) and Common Snipes (Dobbeltbekassine), and 2 raptors : 1 Marsh Harrier (Rorhog) and a rare juvenile Montagu's Harrier (Hedehog) !!
Since the migration is still a bit slow at that time of the year, we went on the beach to look at the waders, terns, ducks and loons wandering around, and then at the Gulls to see if we can read a few rings. A few had one and they are mainly belonging to Danish and Norvegian programs.

Sanderlings (Sandlober) and Red Knot (Islandsk Ryle)

.

After such a work in the morning, nap time is always a pleasure !

In the afternoon, Amélie and Viktoria went out to Jennes So to prepare the mist nets for tomorrow morning, for a special ringing program.

We finally ended the day at Jerup Strand to look for Terns, and especially to count the Sandwich Terns (Splitterne) and to do a bit of birdwatching.

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen):

Gærdesanger – Lesser Whitethroat - 3

Gransanger - Chiffchaff - 1

Havesanger - Garden Warbler - 2

Løvsanger - Willow warbler - 27

Munk - Blackcap - 3

Rørsanger - Reed warbler - 2

Rørspurv - Reed bunting - 1

Solsort - Blackbird - 1

Tornsanger - Common Whitethroat - 7

Total: 46

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

People: Viktoria Mader, Martin Grienenberger, Simon S. Christiansen, Amelie Zeller, Amandine Doré, Knud Pedersen, Jan Speiermann, Jan and Kristine Hjort