Today technically started last night, with attempted storm petrel (Lille Stormsvale) and roosting tern (Terner) ringing, although the chance for the storm petrels were low we still had hopes for the terns closer to sun rise. Everyone joined for opening the nets but after the first check of the nets, Jonatan, Oskar and Taima headed back. Martina brought her sleeping bag and had her best nights sleep since arriving here. Me and Frederik checked the nets each round however after a few net checks and the weather closing in we made the decision to close and head home. Once everyone was awake it was cleaning day! so everyone mucked in to get the communal areas, stairs and bedrooms nice and tidy and free of sand from the night before. Taima, Frederik and Martina entered some missing data, Taima also made a batch of brownies for everyone, and we rung the resident White wagtail (Hvid Vipstjert) chicks in the nest just below our window alongside the lighthouse. With help from Pierre and Kristina from the lighthouse centre and some interested visitors we had 6 healthy chicks and placed them back to hopefully fledge in the next week or so, where we will hopefully see them around the lighthouse showing off their new jewelry!

Tonight, (21:30-22:00) we will head out to Grenen point and north-beach to count the roosting terns and gulls (Måger) alike and possibly search for some color-ringed birds and hope for some interesting recoveries. The counts of which will be added below:

Lesser Black Back Gull - 33

Great Black Back Gull - 12

Blackheaded Gull - 54

Herring Gull - 265

Common/Artic tern - 136 

Sandwich Tern - 14

Common Scoter - 21

Gannet - 10

Kittiwake - 2

Eider - 4

Curlew - 2

Dunlin - 4 

Ringed Plover - 5

Red-Throated Diver - 1 

Ringing : 

6 Hvid Vipstjert unger 

Click here for todays bird observations around Skagen

Today actually already started before yesterday was over. We left at 21.15 with Jørgen to Sandmilen where we set up the nets in the same locations as last time since they had proven successful. We were very early this time, so we had finished setting up the nets just before sunset even. I hadn’t expected anything to happen for another hour or so, but we had barely left the last net site when we heard a nightjar (natravn) sing. We stopped to look and actually got a good look at it sitting and flying. That was one of the first times I saw a nightjar in good daylight! It was a pretty male bird. So contrary to my initial plans to wait until it was getting reasonably dark, I turned on the playback already at 22:30. Then we had to wait. Our guests from the apartment also came to have a look, as it was Anders’ birthday and he was hoping for a very special birthday present.

We saw a nightjar here and there before the first net check but did not get a good view of another one. The first net check also did not produce any birds saw Anders and his family went home empty handed but on the way out they still managed to see at least one night jar properly!

The team that stayed back was rewarded with 3 nightjars on the next net check which was about 3 more than most of us had expected. It was two females and one male. It went quite quiet after that and there was a lot of waiting with very little reward (only one more female). The much hoped for morning peak did not come and so we went home with 4 nightjars ringed, meaning that we did not break our own record from last year but at least Jonathan, Oskar and Jørgen were happy because they had never held a nightjar before. It is quite unusual though to have more females than males in the nets and it shows quite clearly that the males are not really defending their territories much any more and the best time for catching them is over. The females are busy breeding now and should better not be disturbed in that so that we can have lots of baby nightjars in a month or two.

After we got home, I just went to the beach to check out our chances of catching terns there tonight. Chances are very small for sure but since it is supposed to be raining all day tomorrow and my sleeping rhythm is completely messed up already, we might as well go and try. We will see what happens.

After something like 4 hours of sleep I got up again to prepare for a ringing tour offered by the lighthouse this afternoon. There were only two visitors but some of our volunteers also joined and we caught definitely more birds than we normally do at this time of the day in the lighthouse garden so our visitors were very lucky and obviously happy. Frank was also happy because it was the first yellowhammer (gulspurv) we caught since he came here: a juvenile from this year - not as yellow as you would hope for, maybe...

The most exciting thing for the rest of the day was Frederik trying to find a yellow-legged gull in a herring gull for half an hour without much success…

We will see what the night might bring.

Ringmærkning (Sandmilen) :

4 Natravn

Fyrhaven:

1 Gulspurv

2 Munk

total: 7

Folk på station : Frank Osterberg, Martina Hillbrand, Taïma Lorentzen, Frederik Johansen, Jonathan Pedersen, Oskar Zeeberg Nielsen, Jørgen Kabel, Anders Rasmussen, Anna-Mette og Dagmar

Klik her for at se dagens observationer fra Dofbasen af fugle i Skagen.

Hej alle

Dagen i dag kan kun stemples som godkendt, grundet en stor(omend omsiftelig) aktivitet og mængde af fugle. Det gjaldt både i nettene og i felten. Noget der gav energi og gåpåmod oven på gårsdagens fodboldkamp. Som titlen også antyder, går vi fugleinteresere ikke kun op i en en ting. En kendsgerning der i går (onsdag) kom til udtryk via vores priotering af fodboldkampen mod England. En process, der selvom den var spændende, blev lang. Det betød en sengetid efter kl. 12, på en dag hvor stationens beboere skulle op omrking kl. 4. En dyd, der normalt kræver at gå til lagnerne omkring 9-10 tiden om aftenen. Torsdagen har derfor været præget af stor træthed og lange middagslure. Det stoppede os dog ike i at gribe dagen og nyde den i fuglenes navn.

Ringmærkningen på Grenen gav forholdsvis hurtigt pote. Den blev udført i selskab af både Taïma, Frank, Martina, mig og en forstyrrende stor mængde myg. Her fangedes som sædvanlig massere af Tornsangere (Whitethroat), og snart sad der også Rørspurv(Red Bunting) og Gulbug (Icterine Warbler) i nettet. På sidste runde (ca kl. 10) ventede sågår også en engpiber (Meadow Pippit), på at blive reddet ud af sin indfiltrede skæbne. En fin afslutning på ringmærkningen i en lettere "tør" periode. Omkring kl. 6 sås et større "boom", hvor mængden af fugle eksplosivt steg. Det forudsagede at alle dagens ringmærkere fik fugle mellem hænderne, forholdsvis ofte. For mig betød dette, at jeg virkelig fik mulighed for at træne både håndteringen af fugle (forskellige greb, såvel som fedt, -og vingemåling), og databehandling (nedfælning af ringnummer og målinger). Alt i alt en fin dag, hvor mange fugle fik lov at passere igennem mig inden de slippedes løs.

Rørspurv juv

Unge fugle, kan let blive forvirrede, som denne Tornsanger, der ikke havde opdaget at den var fri og kunne flyve væk. Derfor sad den og ventede i et stykke tid.

Den anden arbejdsgruppe stod i dag for hav-obs (måge og terne-tælling) fra Grenen og senere rovfugle-tælling fra nordstranden. Sidstnævnte bød på både Røde Glenter(Red Kite), Spurvehøge(Sparrowhawk) og Musvåger(Common Buzzard), i et imponerende antal. Der var således et fint fremmøde af fugle på begge fronter i dag. Jeg tilsluttede mig derfor også Jonatan Pedersen og Frederik Johansens rovfugle-tælling, efter min ringmærkning nåede sin ende ca. kl. 10. En god ide, da vi både fik serveret Røde Glenter på nært hold, og jeg fik hørt en snært af den Karmindompap de to "obsere" også tidligere havde opdaget.

Eftermiddagen stod, som tidligere nævnt for mange af os på søvn, men der blev her også løbet små-ærinder.  Det var bl.a. i form af Martina, der fjernede forstyrrende bevoksning på ringmærkningsruterne, eller uddeling af "flyers" fra Taïmas side. Torsdagen er dog langt fra slut, da den store afventede Natravne-mærkning stadig skal finde sted i aften. En oplevelse vi kommer til at dække i næste blog-indlæg.

Ringmærkningsdata (Kabeltromlen):

Gærdesanger 6

Gulbug 1

Gærdesmutte 1

Kærsanger 1

Tornsanger 10

Havesanger 1

Munk 3

Rørspurv 1

Bogfinke 1

Engpiber 1

Gransanger 1

Total: 27

Folk på station : Frank Osterberg, Martina Hillbrand, Taïma Lorentzen, Frederik Johansen, Jonathan Pedersen, Oskar Zeeberg Nielsen, Anders Rasmussen, Anna-Mette og Dagmar

Klik her for at se dagens observationer fra Dofbasen af fugle i Skagen.

Hej allesammen 

I dag vågnde mig og Oskar op tidlig for, at være med til ringmærkningen, ude ved Jennes sø sammen med Martina og Frank. De første tre timer kom der kun meget få fugle i nettene og efter kl. 7, kom der nærmest ingen fugle i nettene. Men vi var så heldig at vi til sidst fangede en fin lille topmejse i nettet, hvilket var en dejlig oplevelse, og jeg fik lov til at ringemærke fuglen. Ude på ringmærknings stedet, så vi mange Musvåger og røde glenter, som træk syd på. blandet andet så vi måske en mulig steppevåge (Vulpinus )

Taima og Frederik tog morgenobservationen, ude på Grenen tidlig morgen. De så også mange musvåger og rød glenter som trak syd på og nogle måger og terner. Stationslederen Simon Christensen så en hunfarvet Pirol lande i Elllekratet tidligere idag, der er stadigvæk mulighed for at den er der ude et sted. 

Hen på eftermiddagen gik jeg en lille tur for, at kigge på rovfugle, men så ikke rigtigt noget mega spændende. Derfter besluttede jeg mig til, at går op i det grå fyr, for at nyde den fantastiske udsigten og friheden, som tårnet gemmer på 

Ellers en meget stille og rolig dag i skagen, med en dejlig middagslur, lidt regn og sol. Vi håber på, at vi en af de kommende dage kan tage ud og ringmærke natravne, men det skal i nok høre mere om til den tid.

Ringmærkningen: 

Topmejse 1

Bogfinke 1

Munk 1

Tornsanger 1

Gransanger 1

Gærdesmutte 1

Total 6

Folk: Martina Hillbrand, Frank Osterberg, Taïma Lorentzen, Jonatan Pedersen, Oskar Zeeberg Nielsen, Jonatan falke rumle Pedersen og Frederik Johansen, Anders Rasmussen, Anna-Mette og Dagmar

Klik her for at se dagens observationer fra Dofbasen af fugle i Skagen.

Hej allesammen, så er jeg tilbage igen!

Oskar, Jonatan og jeg ankom til Stationen i går, og i dag var så vores første morgen. Martina og jeg åbnede nettene klokken tidligt, og Oskar og Jonatan kom til anden runde. Vi fangede i alt 33 fugle, ringmærkningsdataen står for neden.

Under ringmærkning klokken 08:43 ser jeg en hun-farvet Pirol flyve mod Sardinkrattet, en fugl som nok lige har været på trækforsøg. Mega fedt! Første gang jeg finder en selv!!! Vi lukkede nettene klokken 11:40 og tog derefter jeg til Stationen. 

Taima tog først ud til Grenens parkeringsplads for at dele fliers ud for Det Grå Fyr. Taima fortsatte senere inde i byen, og hun endte ud med at have delt 135 fliers ud!!! Crazy!!

Til eftermiddag var der nogen af os som fik en dejlig lur, og så var det ellers en god cykeltur til Netto og Brugsen. 

Ringmærkning (Kabeltrommeln):

Gulbug 1

Tornsanger 16

Bogfinke 1

Blåmejse 3

Gransanger 3

Gærdesanger 1

Løvsanger 1

Musvit 1

Kærsanger 1

Rørsanger 4

Rødhals 1

total: 33

Folk: Martina Hillbrand, Frank Osterberg, Taïma Lorentzen, Simon S. Christiansen, Jonatan Pedersen, Oskar Zeeberg Nielsen, Jørgen Kabel og Frederik Johansen.

 Klik her for at se dagens observationer fra Dofbasen af fugle i Skagen.

Hej allesamen !
Højdeepunktet i ringmærkning var en flot 1k Bjergvipstjert, hans mor kaldte på ham da vi fandet ham i nettet, men hun blev ikke fanget i nettet.Vi har også fanget en 2k+ jernspurv, for nogle fugle er lidt svært til at bestemme deres alder på den tid af året,derfor må man sige 2k+, hvis man er ikke sikker på at det er en 2k eller 3k+ fugl. 

Omkring 06:00 begyndte det at regne, så vi sluttede ringmærkning tildlig. Derefter gik vi til havnen, der så vi en mærkelig Sule i vand og et par Tejster. Vi var bange for at Sulen ikke var sund fordi den var meget passiv. Til sidst fløg den dog afsted, og vi fik taget nogle gode billleder.

Om eftermidaggen, ankom der 3 nye frivillige : Frederik Johansen, Jonathan Pedersen og Oskar Zeeberg Nielsen. Da de ankom, kiggede de gennem nogle af vores biblioteksbøgerne og tog på en lille Tur ud på Grenen. Derefter spiste vi dejlig Pizza med hjemmelavet pizza dej fra Martina.

Ringmærkning :

1 Bjergvipstjert

1 Munk

1 Jernspurv

1 Solsort

4 Tornsanger

2 Gærdesanger

1 Musvit

10 i alt

Folk på station : Simon S. Christiansen, Frank Osterberg, Martina Hillbrand, Taïma Lorentzen, Frederik Johansen, Jonathan Pedersen, Oskar Zeeberg Nielsen, Joern Kabel, Anders Rasmussen, Anna-Mette og Dagmar

Klik her for at se dagens observationer fra Dofbasen af fugle i Skagen.

So, after having to move it because of the rain the night before we finally went out with Lars Bo to catch nightjars (natravn) last night. It was the perfect night and it did not take us long to also find the perfect spots to set up nets. While setting them up we heard two nightjars singing already. We had just finished setting up the nets when two guests arrived, Ida and her husband who had stayed in the apartment a while ago but hadn’t gotten to see nightjars so they came back only for this night. They also brought home-made chocolate cake and tea and coffee for us – what a treat!

The mosquitos weren’t quite as bad as expected so it was a fine night really. And it got even better when we were waiting for the first net check and a nightjar suddenly started flying about our heads like a bat. We got a great view of it and it was really only very few meters away. It was little surprise then to find another nightjar in the net at the first check. Even better, we found 2, a male and a female! So that and the cake kept us busy until about 1.30am when we caught the next male. After that, unfortunately, the speakers we use for luring the birds died and so Lars figured it wouldn’t make sense to stay. I didn’t mind getting back early because I still wanted to go ringing in Kabeltrommeln so we packed up the nets and left. Well, before we left we got an even better view of even more nightjars flying around. They are amazing birds, really! Like bats, just better.

Thrushes were already singing when we left so we wouldn’t have stayed much longer anyway and so everybody was happy to go, also to get away from the mosquitos. Little did we know that the mosquitos at Kabeltrommeln were even worse than at Sandmilen today. The mosquitos clearly said it would be raining soon but the weather forecast didn’t and I believed the latter – common mistake committed be tech generation, I guess. Well, so we opened the nets at Kabeltrommeln and we did two net checks with very few birds when suddenly it started raining out of the nowhere and quite hard too. After checking four different weather forecasts we decided to close the nets and not risk anything seeing that we had been catching flocks of young birds lately and there was at least one flock of siskins (grønsisken) moving about the sites where we have the nets – one individual was caught. You don’t want a net full of them when it is starting to rain…

Back at the lighthouse we tried to catch up on sleep lost and then welcomed the new guests in the apartment. Anders, Anna-Mette and their daughter will stay with us for this week and hope for more nightjars.

Finally, Taima and me went to Skarvsøen for the cormorant monitoring. It is good to see that quite a few cormorant chicks are now as big and mobile as the adults and are therefore out of danger of predation. On the other side, we also saw a nest with 4 quite young chicks and a new nest with a female incubating. Unfortunately we do not know if the nest really is new or it has just been missed on the last few visits. It is also very unlikely that juveniles born very late in the year will survive so it is questionable if it is worth the effort but the birds don’t seem to calculate chances like that.

After a nice dinner made once again by our amazing chef from England, Frank, we went to bed early to be a little bit fresher for ringing tomorrow. See what the next week will bring!

Ringmærkning (Sandmilen):

Natravn 3

Ringmærkning (Kabeltrommeln):

Grønsisken 1

Tornsanger 3

Munk 2

total: 9

Folk: Frank Osterberg, Martina Hillbrand, Taima Lorentzen, Lars Bo, Anders Rasmussen, Anna-Mette og Dagmar

Click here for today's bird observations around Skagen

The day started with high expectations as after a stormy few days and quite some rain today there was almost no wind and it was promising to be a real summer day – well, with the local humidity, 26 degrees is literally tropical weather.

The birds apparently also decided to take it easy on such a warm day and the only thing flying in the morning was hundreds of mosquitos. We went to Grenen early to open the nets but came back empty-handed from the first net check. Simon decided that the ringing was too boring and went to go sea-watching instead. We were in the middle of a not so bad net check when the phone was ringing and he called to say he could see orcas close to shore. Seeing that bird numbers were still low and you don’t get the chance to see orcas every day I told Taima to go to Simon and I did the birds on my own for that time. After ringing them, I tried to see the orcas from Kabeltrommeln and I did! Three of them suddenly came up out of the water and just after I saw another one. Simon also took a video through the scope that you can find on our Facebook page.

As for the ringing, very much like yesterday it did speed up later in the morning with lots of juvenile birds. While yesterday it was newly hatched lesser whitethroats (gærdesanger) we mainly caught, today we had several families of whitethroats (tornsanger). It is really good to see that all the effort the parents put into defending the territory pays off! In the meanwhile we are still waiting for the first juvenile reed warblers to stop by our nets. They have definitely been singing a lot too!

Jørgen and Igor hadn’t visited us for a while but they came today to see the orcas and to tell us that the dipper (vandstær) had actually been sleeping in their carport this night. I guess the habitat it chose might not be quite what it was looking for. We can only hope that it will find a spot where it feels more at home. It hasn’t been seen since so hopefully it already went to look for a more suitable habitat.

The warm weather was good for raptors, even though migration should be over by now, honey buzzards (hvpsevåge) are still moving about and we see them almost every day. Today some more than on other days and one had been sleeping just next to one of our nets. We flushed it on the first net check.

Lisbet and Bent already had to leave today since that had a family gathering to attend to. We hope to see you again next year! On Sunday our next guests will arrive.

Since this night looks clear we will go for nightjar catching tonight. Wish us luck – we will need it (maybe more so than the Danish football players)! We will write about our success or lack thereof tomorrow.

Ringmærkning (Kabeltrommeln):

Bogfinke 1

Gransanger 1

Kærsanger 1

Rørsanger 4

Gærdesanger 1

Tornsanger 13

Musvit 1

total: 22

Folk: Frank Osterberg, Martina Hillbrand, Taima Lorentzen, Simon S. Christiansen, Erik Christophersen, Jørgen Kabel and Igor.

Click here for today's bird observations around Skagen

Hello all!

With over 40 birds in the mornings ringing, it was a busy session! at around 07:30 we had 24 birds in the period of one round, mostly consisting of juvenile first years which, apart from the odd rare and migrant, is what we hope for this time of year. With families of whitethroats, common and lesser (Tornsanger/ Gærdesanger) and Great tit (Musvit) along with some lone first years it was nice to see them be so successful and all in good condition. After the mandatory power naps, me and Taima did some data updates for the freezer list with Simon and went up to the juvenile Dipper (Vandstær) that had been found feeding in the ditch along Bøjlevejen. Luckily, it was very inquisitive coming very close on some occasions watching it feed along the sides of the bank.

Bent and Lizbeth went up to the cormorant (Skarv) colony and saw the nesting birds including the nesting red-necked grebes (Gråstrubet lappedykker) then they went for stroll around Grenen and into town for a coffee for a relaxing last day here at Skagen, they also then joined us for their last meal and provided the ice cream. Martina cooked dinner, a Potato, leek and spinach Strudel which was very nice and we're thankful for the extra portions which will be used the following day!

Ringing totals; 40

Solsort 2

Munk 2

Gulbug 2

Musvit 10

Blåmejse 2

Rørsanger 4

Kærsanger 2

Grå Fluesnapper 1

Tornsanger 5

Havesanger 1

Gransanger 2

Løvsanger 1

Click here for today's bird observations around Skagen