Hej allesammen!

Aksel og Olivia gik idag fra fyret langs stranden til gl. Skagen hvor de blev samlet op af Simon, for at finde døde fugle, specielt Mallemukker men også andre fugle, og samle dem op hvis de er i stand til det. Normalt er der flest døde fugle på stranden efter vind fra vest og det har der ikke været meget af meget længe så det var nok en af grundene til at der ikke var mange fugle idag, kun en død Sortand uden mave blev det til.

Diana holdt øje med rovfugle fælden i dag, men det blev ikke til nogen rovfugle idag. Da jeg cyklede hjem fra Nordstrand så jeg 1 Musvåge der sad vest for Ellekrattet, så der vil vi nok prøve en af de næste dage.

Jeg tog til Nordstrand og observerede med Knud, på turen derud ved Batterivej var der godt med småfugle, en flok Halemejser fløj rundt og kaldte helt vildt i et stykke tid og også mange Fuglekonger, Knud kom desværre cyklene et halvt minut for sent til at se Halemejserne, dem ville han ellers gerne have set så vi brugte lige 5 minutters tid på at se om vi kunne finde dem igen, men uden held.

Der var meget som i meget stille over havet idag, især i forhold til de sidste par dage, så det hjalp på gejsten da Knud pludselig sagde at der vist lå en ung Lunde derude, dog meget langt væk til at starte med, men heldigvis kom den tættere og tættere på, hele tiden meget dykkende, og kun oppe kort tid ad gangen, til sidst var den meget tæt på, så vi gik ned på stranden for at komme tættere på den, men som vi lidt havde frygtet var den ikke at finde når vi kom derned, så vi gik tilbage til obs-klitten da man har et noget bedre overblik deroppe fra, men vi fandt den ikke igen:/

Lunde, 1-2K, Foto: Knud Pedersen

Om eftermiddagen så vi endnu engang Danmark tabe i fodbold:(

Men vi havde en flot eftermiddags sol:)

Observationer fra idag kan ses her

Louis Kristoffer Poulsen, Diana Sciandra, Aksel Y. Munkholm, Olivia Aalling-Frederiksen, Knud Pedersen, Simon S. Christiansen

Hej allesammen,

Diana, Aksel, Louis og jeg startede dagen med observation ved Nordstrand. Knud var der også, og for mig, som stadig har meget at lære om fugle, træk og observation, var det en fornøjelse af blive guidet af endnu en erfaren birder. Holdet registrerede blandt andet fem søkonger, rødstrubet lommer, lomvier og alke. Et highlight var også en meget fin 1K dværgmåge, som lå længe trækkende mod øst over revet, så der var god tid til at nyde dens elegante bevægelser i vinden. 

Dværgmåge, foto: Louis Kristoffer Poulsen

Vi havde også sat fælden op på stranden fra morgenstunden til fangst af snespurve. Endnu engang måtte vi dog se os slået af fuglene. En enkelt snespurv holdt længe til lige omkring fælden. 12 individer var til stede i området i løbet af formiddagen - ingen i fælden. 

Diana gør snespurvefælden klar

På vej tilbage til stationen mødte vi gråsisken i træerne på Batterivej og der blev observeret sortstrubet lom ved Det Grå Fyr.

Tilbage på stationen sad Simon i møder det meste af eftermiddagen med Niels og Lene. Også Rita, som har været en stor hjælp på stationen, kom forbi omkring frokosttid med fine gaver til alle os som lige nu arbejder på stationen. Det var meget fint, så tusind tak til Rita. Diana og Rita udvekslede også kunsthåndværk i form af akvarelmaleri og jule-fugle-flet.

Efter frokost tog Diana, Aksel og jeg til Skagen assistents kirkegård, hvor målet var at se silkehalerne. Vi så dem desværre ikke. Men fugleaktivt udeblev ikke på kirkengården og vi kunne nyde vindrossel, musvitter, blåmejse, solsorte, gærdesmutte og stilits. Alle i fuld aktivitet. Også en spurvehøg slog vejen forbi.

Vi tog videre til Skagen kunstmuseum og fik et fint indblik i skagensmalernes liv og kunst. Som Aksel sagde om P.S. Krøyers maleri af de malende siddende på række på stranden: det er præcis som os på observation, blot pensler og lærreder skiftet ud med teleskop og kliktællere. Tilbage på stationen havde Louis arbejdet på sortering af billederne på stationens computer.

Efter lækker aftensmad kokkeret af Louis tog Aksel, Louis og jeg med Simon på aftenfangst på boldbanerne i forsøget på at fange en skovsneppe. Vi mødte et par stykker og en dobbeltbekkasin men uden held med nettet.

Dagens observationer kan ses her

Folk på stationen: Simon Christiansen, Louis Kristoffer Poulsen, Diana Sciandra, Aksel Y. Munkholm, Olivia Aalling-Frederiksen, Knud Pedersen, Rita Pate, Niels Eriksen og Lene Kappelborg

Hello!

The beautiful sunrise today.

This morning all of us went observing next to the Bunker (picture below) closer to the parking, to find some shelter from the wind.

In any case the sand was everywhere (that’s why today we are the 4 Skagen Sandkonger), but it was fun to stay observing all together, also Simon joined for some time. We tried also to set up the trap for Rock Pipits (Skærpiber), but we haven’t catch one, probably the wind was too strong.

The highlights were of course the Ring Ouzel (Ringdrossel) and 5 Little Auks (Søkonge), two were very close. During the afternoon Olivia and Aksel went to the shop, while me and Louis were working at the computers (he was sorting pictures and I was working on my presentation). Olivia cooked for us a nice dinner and then me, her and Louis went night-catching, walking around the tip, but no birds were caught. It was still nice to be there because we saw some birds, the most interesting was an Oystercatcher (Strandskade), and we collected some plastic coming back home.

Dagens observationer kan ses her

Folk på stationen: Simon Christiansen, Louis Kristoffer Poulsen, Diana Sciandra, Aksel Y. Munkholm and Olivia Aalling-Frederiksen.

Hej allesammen 

I dag tog Louis, Diana, Olivia og jeg ud til Nordstrand for at lave morgenobs og fangstforsøg af snespurv nr. 100… eller noget i den stil. Sådan føles det ihvertflad, og gæt hvordan det gik…

Stadig ingen succes…

Som den gode Jakob Kjeldbjerg altid siger i Robinson, ”hvis man har prøvet det samme igen og igen og det stadig ikke virker, så kan det være at man skal prøve noget andet!”. Så det kan være vi snart skifter taktik for med kun 14 snespurve på Nordstrand i dag, så var vi aldrig rigtig tæt på at fange dem.  

TILGÆNGÆLD var obsen meget bedre, hvor jeg endelig fik set en søkonge og endda flere af slagsen! Vi havde hele 7 i løbet af morgenen, hvor Louis tilmed havde en ekstra ved fyret da vi kom hjem. 2 af søkongeren kom endda flyvende sammen med 2 alke, så det virkelig var tydeligt at se størrelsesforskellen imellem dem, det var dejlig pædagogisk. Derudover havde vi hele 74 rastende rødstrubet lommer samt en enkelt islom som kom trækkende forbi.

Her ses et billede af en meget tålmodig Diana som venter på snespurve.

Her til aften prøvede vi om der var held til at fange en skovsneppe eller 2. Vi så en enkelt uden dog at fange den, men det lykkedes os at fange en sjagger af hunkøn.

I formiddags fik vi også sagt farvel til sæsonens sidste gæster Karen og Søren. Vi takker for alt den hjælp vi har fået fra jer den seneste uge!

Dagens observationer kan ses her

Ringmærket i alt: 

Sjagger: 1 

Folk på stationen: Louis Kristoffer Poulsen, Olivia Aaalling-Frederiksen, Diana Sciandra, Aksel Y. Munkholm, Simon S. Christiansen.

Hej allesammen!

Aksel, Prescillia og Simon ringmærkede til morgen i fyrhaven, hvor der ihvertfald var flere fugle end sidste gang. Det blev til 10 fugle fanget i alt, 7 nye ringe og 3 genfangster. De bedste arter var nok tre genfangster og en ny Gulspurv. En Rødhals blev Prescillia’s sidste fugl i Skagen for denne gang, da hun skulle afsted om formiddagen, efter nettene blev lukket kørte Aksel, Prescillia og Simon forbi Nordstrand hvor der blev sagt farvel, før de kørte Prescillia til stationen.

Det var kun Søren der var med Diana og jeg idag dag da Karen ikke var helt god om morgenen, hun gik senere en tur på Grenen og så en Vandrikse i et træ!

Vandrikse, Foto, Karen Marie Leth-Nissen

Der gik lidt tid med at få sat Snespurve nettet op så obsen gik først rigtigt i gang lidt senere end normalt. Den første time var lidt stille, udover en Bjergpiber der fløj over, næste time kom der mere gang i alkefuglene, dog gik mange langt ude i dis, så de bare blev til Lomvie/Alk, og også 2 Søkonger blev set, hvor man kunne sammenligne størrelse og flugt med de andre Alke der fløj forbi:) Også en enkelt Dværgmåge kom forbi sammen med Rider, og sidst men ikke mindst 2 Islom, først en vinterdragts fugl, som kom flyvende og landede langt ude, og ikke blev set igen, og senere en flot gammel fugl med sommerdragt, som kom relativt tæt på kysten og sås rigtigt fint:) Snespurvene ville ikke blive fanget idag, men vi var meget tæt på 2 gange, så vi håber på det imorgen:)

Snespurve, Foto, Søren Leth-Nissen

Eftermiddagen gik med at se Danmark tabe til Frankrig i fodbold, og sige velkommen til Olivia som er frivillig på stationen den næste uge. Efter maden fandt vi en Husmår med natkikkerten, som sad i et træ nede i haven!

Ringmærkning Fyrhaven:

Rødhals 1

Blåmejse 1

Musvit 4

Gulspurv 1

Total: 7

Observationer fra idag kan ses her

Folk på stationen: Louis Kristoffer Poulsen, Olivia Aaalling-Frederiksen, Diana Sciandra, Aksel Y. Munkholm, Prescillia Lemesle, Simon S. Christiansen, og vores gæster Karen og Søren

Hello everyone,

Last night, Franck, Karen and I were in night captching. Within the first few minutes, a yellow hammer (Gulspurv) was recaptured. We also caught a Woodcock (Skovsneppe) and a blackbird (Solsort). A beautiful evening, it's always relaxing to walk in the night, in silence, enjoying the silence of the sleeping nature!

An unusual day today as we left Skagen to visit the East coast around Frederikshavn. We had taken the woosh nest and the ringing material with us in the hope of ringing some of the resting birds on the beach. At the end, no ringing but very nice observations! A promising morning from the start with a herring gull (Sølvmåge) ring found on the beach. The purples sandpipers (Sortgrå Ryle) staying on the rocks but also a velvet scotter (Fløjlsand) were magical moments.

Velvet Scotter, Fløjlsand (picture of Søren Leth-Nisse, our guest)

Purple sandpiper, Sortgrå Ryle (picture of Søren Leth-Nisse, our guest)

It's really great to see the birds so close up when you are watching them from so far away in Grenen! Other birds seen were Red-breasted Merganser (Toppet skallesluger), Black guillemot (Tejst), Oystercatcher (Strandskade), redshank (Rødben), rock pipit (Skærpiber), water rail (Vandrikse), little grebes (Lille Lappedykker)! For me, seeing my first Kingfisher (Isfugl) in Denmark, my favourite bird, was amazing!

Kingfisher, Isfugl (picture of Søren Leth-Nisse, our guest)

On the way, we said goodbye to Franck who will surely come back next spring! Then we continued our tour of the ugliest places, where the most interesting birds can be found in this type of habitat! Great white egret (Sølvehejre) and long tailed duck (Havlit) resting in the water was the last sighting but a first for our guests who accompanied us!

This afternoon we came back late, Aksel, Diana and Louis fixed the last nets for the next year. Tonight, our guests also prepared a wonderful Danish Christmas meal for us! A real treat and Aksel was happy to find the almond in the Risalamande, a first in 24 years! He won some nice decorations for Christmas!

Aksel, happy to get the present

On my side, this afternoon, I prepared my stuff for my departure, in fact, I am writing this message with a bit of nostalgia as I am leaving the station tomorrow. I say goodbye to this wonderful team with whom I spent unforgettable moments, always with seriousness as you can see on this picture, taken this afternoon!

Don't get me wrong Simon looks serious but he had as much fun as the volunteers! A goodbye but not a farewell because I will come back to Skagen and the Bird Observatory!

Autumn team: Louis, Franck, Simon, Aksel, Diana, our guest (Karen Marie Sø Leth-Nissen) and me (picture of Søren Leth-Nisse, our guest)

See you soon,

Ringing:

Solsort: 1

Skovsneppe 1

Gulspurv 1

Today's Observations

People at the station today: Diana Sciandra, Simon Christiansen, Louis Kristoffer Poulsen, Prescillia Lemesle, Frank Osterberg, Aksel Y. Munkholm, Søren Leth-Nissen and Karen Marie Sø Leth-Nissen.

At five minutes past midnight, I heard a knock on our door, it was Aksel bringing me good tidings of a lucky night catch. I ran to the lab, where Louis, Prescillia, Diana, Frank and Aksel were setting up for the ringing of four nice birds. Simon got here fast as well. He called the catch on Zello, and the ringing, measuring, weighing, gendering, aging and photographing began. We ended up with a group photo session of the four birds: Jacksnipe (Enkeltbekkasin), Water Rail (Vandrikse), Yellowhammer (Gulspurv) and Stonechat (Sortstrubet bynkefugl), before we released them. I was really happy to get this experience with the team at Skagen Fuglestation.

Louis, Diana, Prescillia, and Frank spent the morning mending the last nets at the attic. Nice to be prepared for next season.

In the afternoon, Diana, Frank, Louis, Søren and I went hunting for Snowbuntings (snespurve) on Nordstrand. As we were setting up the wooshnets, the Snowbuntings started gathering around us. They apparently know that people moving around like we did means food on the beach.

Foto, Søren Leth-Nissen

As we told you yesterday, Frank and Simon had been optimizing the nets with new strings and elastic ropes. As Diana, Louis and Frank tested it on the beach, it worked really perfect. So, Diana laid out the seeds and we all sat very excited behind the dunes. And the Snowbuntings (snespurve) came closer and closer and just two seconds before Frank was about to release the net, a Sparrow Hawk (Spurvehøg) attacked and took one of the Snowbuntings! Our hunt was over… half an hour later, the flock of Snowbuntings came back again, but they never got close to the wooshnet again. We guess it was the same Sparrow Hawk that disturbed our hunting on Monday.

Søren set up a post with his camera at the beach close to the water, and besides taking pictures of Kittiwakes (rider) and Northern Gannet (Sule), he had a Sanderling (Sandløber) coming up close.

Foto, Søren Leth-Nissen

Aksel went out running in the afternoon, after keeping the score for all of us on the World Cup in football. Some of us finished the Christmas log cake from yesterday. It was still very nice.

Foto, Søren Leth-Nissen

Tonight, we will go night catching again and hope for a great catch!

Foto, Søren Leth-Nissen

Dagens observationer kan ses her

Many greetings, Karen Marie (guest at the station this week together with Søren).

People at the station today: Diana Sciandra, Simon Christiansen, Louis Kristoffer Poulsen, Prescillia Lemesle, Frank Osterberg, Aksel Y. Munkholm, Søren Leth-Nissen and Karen Marie Sø Leth-Nissen.

Unfortunately, due to the weather, nothing too exciting happened during the day. With the end and closing of kabeltromlen for the year, along with bad weather, meant no mist netting in the garden and no one was too keen on attempting snow bunting on the beach in high wind and rain. Following drinks and fish with some of our friends from Skagen the previous evening, some of us appreciated the late morning!

As a result, it was mostly an indoor day today with most of the day spent doing some tidying and admin tasks. Precillia tidied the lab, ringing data was checked and me and Simon went shopping for some ingredients for tonights Yule Log but also some updated parts for our Whoosh net, that has, thus far, been unsuccessful in snow bunting catching, but we hope some new parts will increase our chances. For dinner, we had left over fish from the previous night but it was definitely just as enjoyable. Following the weekly themes for dinner and this week being Christmas week with Christmas fast approaching, Diana and Precillia had made a Christmas Log for dessert.

After the meal, Me, Precillia and Louis went out night catching and once again saw plenty of birds including: Jack snipe (Enkeltbekkasin); Snipe (Dobbeltbekkasin); Woodcock (Skovsneppe); Pheasant (Fasan); plenty of Fieldfare (Sjagger) and a few smaller passerines in the bushes. We ended with a successful night with a Water Rail (Vandrikse), a nice male Stonechat (Sortstrubet Bynkefugl), a Yellowhammer (Gulspurv) and my highlight, a Jack snipe (enkeltbekkasin). This particular Jack snipe was especially interesting as it was already bearing a ring. A recapture from last November which shows these birds expressing high site fidelity during the winter season in Skagen and caught previously less than 1km away!

Ringmærkning : 4

Enkeltbekkasin (Jack Snipe); 1 Recapture 

Sortstrubet Bynkefugl (Stonechat): 1

Gulspurv (Yellowhammer): 1

Vandrikse (Water Rail): 1

Dagens observationer kan ses her

People at the station today: Diana Sciandra, Simon Christiansen, Louis Kristoffer Poulsen, Prescillia Lemesle, Frank Osterberg, Aksel Y. Munkholm, Søren Leth-Nissen and Karen Marie Sø Leth-Nissen.

Hello!

This morning me and Prescillia opened the nets at Kabeltromlen. Later the other volunteers joined us and we were hoping to catch many birds but the weather was not up for that: we caught in total 12 birds (with recaptures). Considering that the weather in the next days will not be good we brought to the lighthouse all the nets and the materials (poles, ropes, pegs, signs etc) which were at Kabeltromlen and we said goodbye to Kabeltromlen for this year. The end of the 2022 season is a little bit sad, but we will continue ringing birds until the end of the opening of the ringing station (7th December): we have still some nets settled in the Lighthouse garden, than we have also the Night-catching sessions and the Snow Buntings (Snespurv) are waiting for us.

During the afternoon Prescillia went to the city, Frank tried to use the thermal to catch Jack Snipes during the day and the rest of us looked the football match of the day (Denmark-Tunisia 0-0).

In the evening we had a lot of guests that came to eat the fish and seafood which Simon ordered. It was wonderful, super tasty! We looked some pictures of the past year, many of them were with Hanelie, who stayed here for a very long time <3 

We also played some games :) 

Ringmærkning Kabeltromlen:

Solsort: 1

Gærdesmutte: 1

Musvit: 1

Munk: 1

Total = 4

Dagens observationer kan ses her

Folk på stationen: Simon Christiansen, Louis Kristoffer Poulsen, Diana Sciandra, Prescillia Lemesle, Frank Osterberg, Aksel Y. Munkholm, Lars Mortensen, Knud Pedersen, Olof Lou, Frede Jakobsen.

Hello everyone,

Today, first wake up under the snow, the landscapes of Skagen become all white and are beautiful!

 Louis was also at North beach for observations, but the morning was really slow… Franck and Diana accompanied by our guests went also to North Beach in the hope of capturing Snow Buntings (snespurv). Unfortunately, the efforts made, no snow bunting was captured! At least, they played seriously with the snow, created a snow snow bunting! Sparrow auk (Spurvehøg) got involved to show the volunteers how to catch a snow bunting in front of their eyes!

Serious work..

Funny work...

On my side with Simon and Aksel, we opened the nets in the garden of the Light House. In spite of the birds around interested and intrigued by the apples (generously given by Knud), the seeds as well as the songs played, only one robin (Rødhals) was ringed.

We also had a visit of Peter Jürgensen, taxidermist and William Aarestrup, Denmark's oldest active ringer.

We enjoyed Gløgg and æbleskiver listening fantastic stories about … Birds! After, they went outside to see and try to catch some raptors! They finally saw that a buzzard (Musvåge), but they didn’t try. Simon posted this afternoon a report about the European Storm-Petrel (Stormsvalerne) (you can read it here: Report Stormsvalerne i Skagen 2022).

All the volunteers want to thanks Lone and Lars for their help and the nice time together these two last weeks and we will hope to see you again.

Ringing in the Light House Garden:

 Rødhals 1

Today's Observations

People at the station: Louis Kristoffer Poulsen, Frank Osterberg, Diana Sciandra, Prescillia Lemesle, Simon S. Christiansen, Jesper Madsen, William Aarestrup, Peter Jürgensen and our guests Karen and Søren