Today was a very exciting day with bird ringing! Hanelie and I opened the nets this morning, which included the three new nets that we put up the last couple of days. We had some of our usual birds, such as Marsh warblers (Kaersanger), Reed warblers (Rørsanger), Blackcap warblers (Munk) and Lesser whitethroats (Gaerdesanger). However, it was on the last round that we caught a female Bluethroat (Blåhals) in one of the new nets! It was a nice treat to see this bird at the end of our morning ringing! 

Pictures of the Bluethroat (Blåhals) caught during our ringing session - Photo credit: Hanelie Sidhu

Afterwards, we rested for the exciting night of European nightjar (Natravn) ringing ahead and prepared dinner for a total of 10 people from both the volunteer group and those in association with the lighthouse! Hanelie made her famous The Blyth recipe, Leona made The Redwing dessert, and we had a salad as well. Please see below for the recipes if you’d like to make them for yourself!

 Meanwhile, Lisa and Simon sought to catch a magpie (husskade) in their garden! Low and behold they caught a beautiful individual in their net. Notice the long rectrices and iridescent feathers on this bird :) 

Pictures of the magpie (husskade) caught in Simon and Lisa’s garden - Photo credit: Lisa Vergin

Once we reached the 21:00 hour, we prepared to head towards Sandmilen for our nightjar (Natrvn) ringing. We set up four nets and also put out sound recordings to attract the birds. 

Picture of setting up the net for nightjar ringing - Photo credit: Simon S. Christiansen

 At the midnight hour, we were super fortunate to catch our first nightjar! This bird was a recapture (ring number: M8440) originally ringed on the 9th of July in 2021 as a 3+ female. Simon noticed that the bird last year was about to lay a clutch of eggs last year too. It was cool to have a recapture from the summer before! Around the 2am mark, we also captured a new nightjar male in the nets. It was really cool to see the different wing band sizes to be able to differentiate between males and females! 

Pictures from ringing the male nightjar -  Photo credit: Simon S. Christiansen 

 We took the nets down around 3am, when the sky was beginning to lighten again. It was a really cool treat to see some amazing birds throughout the day!

 Thank you for your support and for keeping up with our blog! Please be encouraged to visit us at the Skagen Fuglestation and check out our nearly updated birder’s club!

 Have a wonderful day and enjoy the longest day of the year!

With aloha,

Megan 

Birds ringed today at KAB:

Gransanger: 3

Blåhals: 1

Gulbug: 1

Gærdesanger: 3

Kærsanger: 7

Rørsanger: 10

Tornsanger: 1

Bogfinke: 3

Munk: 5

Solsort: 1

Total: 34 birds

 Additional birds: 

Husskade: 1

Natrvn: 1

Observations of the day in DOFbasn from observers in the area

Raptor summary of the raptors entered on DOFbasen today

People at the station: Simon S. Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Olaf   Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Leona Gottschalkson, Megan Nepshinsky, our guests Jesper and Hanne and Lars Pedersen and Olaf Lou

Click here for the following recipes:

The Blyth recipe

The Redwing dessert recipe

Today Alice went out in the morning to go on a walk to Grenen taking some pictures at the beach. She managed to take some really nice pictures of terns fishing in the sea.

 A Sandwich Tern with a fish in it's beak

Afterwards Alice and I went out in the lighthouse garden to put up some nets and cut the gras. There were sooo many mosquitos! There were even more than at Kabletromlen! So we had a fierce fight with them. Our jeans were hard to bite through and after equipping ourselves with mosquito hats and repellant they weren't able to conquer us, still they were quite persistent.

Simon came back to the station to check ringing sheets with us and discuss some plans for the coming days.

Megan worked in birders club, she is nearly done with the welcome package for volunteers and the scavanger hunt for the birders club. While she was doing that people came in and she had some nice chats with other bird enthusiasts.

Hanelie was preparing the nightjar bag for our excursion to Sandmilen tomorrow, we are already really excited for the nightjar catching! She then took care of the picture archive, updated the freezer list and then checked the ringing sheets together with Simon.

While she was doing that I did some groceries in the city to get the last ingredients for the Dinner we will have tomorrow with the people from the exhibition. After dinner I already created a nice dessert for tomorrow and Alice helped me with that.

The dessert for tomorrow

Also today our two new Guests arrived in the late afternoon. Before coming here they saw a Red kite in the area of Skagen.

Have a nice Evening,

Leona

Observations of the day in DOFbasn from observers in the area

Raptor summary of the raptors entered on DOFbasen today

People at the station: Simon S. Christiansen, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Leona Gottschalkson, Megan Nepshinsky, our guests Jesper and Hanne

Hello friends!

Today was a very special day, almost one that you would say one in which we were presented with a golden opportunity :) Leona, Hanelie, Alice and I woke up very early to catch the 5:20am train down to Skørping. From there, the wonderful Hans Christophersen picked us up from the station and we were on our way!

With hardly a cloud in the sky, we had an excellent day of spotting birds and wildlife. We were in the car for only about 10 minutes before we spotted a little owl (Kirkeuglen) sitting on the roof of a local farm. There was a second one in the window too. Hans said that this one of only a few pairs found in this part of Denmark. We felt very lucky to have seen them!

Picture of a little owl (Kirkeuglen)

After this, we continued our journey to Lille Vildmose area (link to their website here), we saw many birds and other wildlife throughout our time there. During one of our first stops, we saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker (Store flagspætte), as well as Red-backed shrikes (Rødrygget tornskade), tree pipits (Skovpiber), whinchats (Bynkefugl) and stonechats (Sortstrubet bynkefugl), just to name a few. We also heard grasshopper warblers (Græshoppesanger), although we did not have the fortune to see them. They like to hide in the reeds, making it difficult to spot them! 

Picture of a Red-backed shrike - Photo credit: Leona Gottschalkson

In addition to these birds, we saw plenty of wild boars (Vildsvinet) with their young, red deer (Kronhjorten) and reintroduced bison (Bisoner). It was so great driving along with Hans and seeing all the various wildlife as we made our way throughout the reserve!

Picture of red deer, bison and wild boars - Photo credit: Leona Gottschalkson 

At around 11am, we had a very special opportunity in the reserve! We met up with Anton Larsen and Jan Tøttrup Nielsen to see if we could ring a Golden Eagle (Kongeørnen) chick that had hatched roughly 5-6 weeks ago. We headed into the forest towards the nest and waited in anticipation as Jan expertly climbed the tree to check the nest. Luckily, there was the chick in the nest, with remains of a red deer that a parent had left for it! After gingerly lowering the chick to ground level, Jan was able to ring it using both silver and color rings. The color ring is green and red to indicate that the bird is a hatch year of 2022. 

 Pictures of the Golden Eagle chick - Photo credit: Leona Gottschalkson

Jan is also interested in studying diets of both white-tailed eagles (Havørnen) and golden eagles (Kongeørnen). After he returned the chick to its nest, he located remains of feathers and fur both in and around the nest. Jan has thus far notated at least 88 different prey species of golden eagles, whereas he has noted at least 52 different prey species of white tailed eagles! We were so amazed to see the Golden Eagle (Kongeørnen) up close in person and we are excited to touch base with Hans to find out when the bird eventually leaves the nest!

After seeing the Golden Eagle, we continued around the reserve, spotting more and more species! We checked out a white-tailed eagle's nest and saw that both parents were flying in the area. After this, we climbed an observation tower to continue birding while enjoying a great lunch that Hans's wife helped to prepare. Lastly, we traveled around Birkesø lake, where we saw a lot of wading birds, such as Eurasian Spoonbills (Skestorken), as well as the Black-headed gull (Hættemågen) colony! We spotted Lapwings (Vibe) as well flying about. 

Photo of a Lapwing (Vibe) - Photo credit: Leona Gottschalkson

All in all, it was a fantastic day and we were so very fortunate to have Hans guiding us throughout Lille Vildmose. We were also super lucky to see Jan and Anton ring the Golden Eagle! Tomorrow, we are excited to go ringing with Olaf and to see what birds we will have at KAB. :)

As we finish out today's blog, we wanted to say hank you for reading and for all your support for Skagen Fuglestation! We are all wishing you a great rest of the week and a fabulous weekend ahead! Stay tuned for more happenings tomorrow :) 

With aloha,

Megan 

 People: Simon S. Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Leona Grottschallesoh, Megan Nepshinsky, our guests Trine and Aija.

Hi everyone!

Let's start with a new report from a full day in Skagen (and surroundings)! 

Alice and Megan took the Morning Obs at World's End 1 today. There wasn't much going on but a few more species than the last few mornings. They saw a larger group of Velvet Scoters "Fløjlsand" and also Red-breasted Mergensers "Toppet Skallesluger" migrating. Could this mean that the first birds are already coming out of the breeding grounds and we will see more soon? We are looking forward to that of course, more training for our clicker muscles ;-)

Leona slept longer, me too, and then left for breakfast with my mother. Funnily enough, she has rented a holiday home from Poul Jenne and so I finally had the opportunity to ask if I could try out his cool self-built ropeway at his cottage at Jennes Sø. This was actually planned for later in the morning, but then we moved up our butterfly excursion a bit with Jørgen and Jennes Sø had to wait. So we left at 10 am with Jørgen to check out some good butterfly areas south of Skagen and it was a very successful excursion as we saw many and very nice species!

 Northern Brown Argus "Sortbrun blåfugl"

Purple-edged Copper "Violetrandet ildfugl"

Common Blue "Almindelig Blåfugl"

Black-veined White "Sortåret hvidvinge"

Many thanks to Jørgen for the great excursion, there is much more to see outside than cool birds!

While we were butterfly-watching Karin finally came to the station to bake us the promised super delicious rabarber cake. Thank you!

When we came back, not only the cake was waiting, but also our appointment with Poul Jenne, so Karin and I set off for Jennes Sø again while Leona and Megan did some shopping and Alice had a rest. At Paul's cottage we immediately tried out the cable car, Karin rode once and I climbed up the tree house four times, marveling at the building skills of Paul, his son and grandson and enjoying the ride down.

Then Poul invited us for drinks and we sat at Jennes Sø for a while and heard stories about a frozen Jennes Sø and looked at the pictures and marveled at how quickly the landscape changes here, you can already see that in pictures from not-so-long ago. Finally, we had to go back. We heard from Trine and Aija, that they visited the Teddybear Museum today.

Megan cooked a very good dinner and tomorrow we have to catch an early train for our trip with Hans Christophersen to Lille Vildmose. We are looking forward to it, see you then!

Hanelie

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

Klik her for at se opsummeret observationer af rovfugle i Skagen

People at the station: Jørgen Kabel, Poul Jenne, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Skalzo, Leona Gottschalkson, Megan Nephinsky, Karin, our gusts Trine and Aija

Today all of us had a day off. That means heading out of course and exploring other areas. Hanelie and Alice had planned another excursion to Hirsholm together with our former volunteer Marion and Hanelies Mother. This time more Common gulls had hatched, so they could see even more chicks.

Common gull chick, Photo by Alice Scalzo

Also they could watch the Tern and Black- headed gull colony again. Alice enjoyed using the stations camera because also this time they had more time on the island so she could really take her time to take some nice pictures. The way back from the island on the boat was very windy but they had fun with it and enjoyed it. Afterwards they made some groceries for todays dinner that Hanelies mum will be preparing.

Black Guillemots resting, Photo by Alice Scalzo

Alice and Marion in the wind, Photo by Hanelie Sidhu

Meanwhile Megan finally was able to check out the tip, trying to find some new Ringed plover chicks for us to ring. She then worked on a welcome package for volunteers and a birders club scavenger hunt to make it more appealing for tourists and children to go in there.

I took the train in the morning to have a city trip to Aalborg all by myself. I first went to Lindsholm Højen to a Vikings graveyard which was very cool because there were a lot of corvidae species around which really fitted the Vikings theme. There were Jackdaws, Rooks, Hooded Crows and Magpies. Due to that I could find a lot of black feathers all around the graveyard, I guess that they are breeding in the forest that is close by.

Vikinger Graveyard, Photo by me

After that I went to Aalborg to have a stroll through the city. I went to a street food place and after that I tried to get to the art museum. When I was already on the way I realized it’s Monday and that all museums are closed but I went anyway because in the streetfood place they also recommended me a graveyard which was close by. In the end I did neither because I found a bunker and then a slightly hidden path uphill were you had a beautiful panorama over the city. I could have spent even more time exploring this green city but it was time to head back to the station.

Abandoned Bunker, Photo by me

Our new Guests Trine and her daughter Aija checked out Skagen today. At the harbor in a cafe they were able to watch some gulls and later they went to the exhibition and up the lighthouse for a nice view.

Have a nice evening,

Leona

Observations of the day in DOFbasn from observers in the area

Raptor summary of the raptors entered on DOFbasen today

People at the station: Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Leona Gottschalkson, Megan Nepshinsky and our guests Trine and Aija

Good evening! We have a couple of fun things to share about our time at Skagen Fuglestation today :)! 

Just before sunrise, Alice and Hanelie went on the first shift for laser tagging and raptor migration monitoring at Grenen. The weather was not for ringing. Therefore, we are focusing on other tasks, both at the station and elsewhere.

While Alice and Hanelie were on the first shift this morning, we were able to cut the grass around the nets to prepare for when we do ring again. Around 7:30am, Leona and I headed up there for the second shift, where we all immediately spotted two Arctic Skuas (Almindelig kjove) flying around the point! It was awesome to see them weaving around each other through the sky!

Photo: Alice, Hanelie and Leona observing the Arctic Skuas at Grenen

While we did not have any notable migration observations today, we did have something exciting happen! While we were waiting for the next transect, we heard over Zello that the recently spotted Bearded Vulture (Lammegribben) was observed circling over Skagen city center. After hearing this, we all set our scopes and binoculars towards that direction in hopes of catching a glimpse of the majestic raptor. Shortly after this announcement, we saw the Bearded Vulture (Lammegribben) itself, breaking through the clouds and flying over us at Grenen! It continued to fly higher until it circled back around and headed back in the south direction. It was truly a magnificent site to behold!

After this, we all returned to the station and grabbed a few essential ringing items before heading off to find Lapwing (Vibe) chicks! Leona had spotted protective parents just a few days prior and we had suspicions that there may chicks within this area. Just as suspected, we were able to locate a brood and we ringed one of the chicks before leaving it back to its parents. It was very exciting to be able to hold a Lapwing (Vibe) chick in the hand!

Photo: Lapwing (Vibe) chick!

In other events, Hanelie’s mother is in Skagen and came to visit us a few times so far at the station! After scoping out and clearing additional lanes for nets at KAB, Hanelie took her mother to see the cormorants nesting around the nearby lake. In addition, we said farewell to our guests Kristine and Jan! It was an absolute treasure having them with us during this week and we look forward to their return in the future.

Tomorrow, Alice and Hanelie are planning to meet up with Marion and Hanalie’s mother before heading on to Hirsholm. Meanwhile, Leona and I will be brainstorming and drafting up activities for the Birder’s Club space. If you’re around the Skagen area, please come check out our Birder’s Club space for yourself here at the station!

All in all, it was a very fun Sunday. We were super excited to see the Bearded Vulture (Lammegribben) up close and to ring the Lapwing (Vibe) chick! Thank you for reading about our adventures and please stay tuned for our next daily blog post!

Have a great start to the week!

With aloha,
Megan

Hi everyone!

Leona and Megan left the bird station at three in the morning today to open the nets in Kabletromle. I went armed with the hedge cutter to Kabletromle, because after ringing the plan was to cut the remaining grass in Kabletomle. On the way, I met Simon, who was also on his way to the first round. And today we had many more vøgel in the nets than in the last few days. In the first round it was mainly Blackcaps “Munk” and today we also had two Spotted Flycatchers “Grå Fluesnapper”, three “Lille Gråsisken” and a Meadow Pipit “Engpiber” as well as a recaptured Rosefinch "Karmindompap". But all this was topped by the Barred Warbler "Høgesanger", which was in one of the nets on the south side. It is the eleventh spring record in Skagen.

Barred Warbler "Høgesanger", Foto: Erik Christophersen

I would have liked to look at the pretty guy a bit longer because this species was the first bird rarity I saw. That was last autumn in Blåvand and this time I appreciated the Barred Warbler “Høgesanger” even more. Even though we were very happy to have it in the net, I hope it will find its way back eventually, as it should be in the Breeding Grounds in the southeast of Sweden and not here in Skagen. Hopefully, it will work out next year with the breeding, maybe in Sweden.

But we couldn't look at it for long, because it was round time again. Alice, who wanted to sleep a bit longer and then do some læptop work, saw it too and ringed the Barred Warbler, we called her and she left the bird station immediately and was fast as lightning in Kabletromle. When the nets were closed after this eventful morning, the events continued, nothing with cutting grass, because the Bearded Vulture “Lammergrib” was announced on Zello. We left Kabletrommle but didn't leave immediately, Simon wanted to wait a little longer until we knew exactly which direction the Bearded Vulture “Lammergrib” was going. Back at the station, Simon showed Alice and me where to set up the nets for guided tours in the Lighthouse Garden in summer. And then the next Zello, it was finally time to go. We contacted Megan and Leona, who were in the house, and then we went. On the way, we saw Jan and Kristine on bikes with the scope. When we saw the bird, Simon threw us out of the car to get Jan and Kristine. They too had seen the bird satisfactorily and Simon drove us a little further to see it again. We were successful and saw it quite well but not close enough for us.

Bearded Vulture "Lammegrib", Foto: Erik Christophersen

But as Simon and Lisa are going to Aalborg today, he wanted to go back. But we hadn't had enough and - what luck - we saw Jørgen driving by. He took us a little further, but unfortunately, we didn't see the Bearded Vulture again. So after a while, we went back to the station, we ate lunch, entered Ringing Data sid the social media post, and now the blog. Today we have cleaning to do and Megan's burger and dessert for dinner to celebrate. My mother Karin will be coming too, she arrived in Skagen today, and will probably be more spoilt by the food than the pouring rain that greeted her when she arrived at the train station. Sounds like a nice evening, and then off to bed soon, so we'll be fit again tomorrow in the field!

See you then, Hanelie

Todays ringed birds at Kabletromle:

Gransanger: 1

Kærsanger: 4

Rørsanger: 4

Gulbug: 1

Grå Fluesnapper: 2

Lille Gråsisken: 3

Engpiber: 1

Gærdesanger: 1

Topmejse: 2

Munk: 20

Havesanger: 4

Bogfinke: 3

Høgesanger: 1

Total: 47

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

Klik her for at se opsummeret observationer af rovfugle i Skagen

People at the station: Simon S. Christiansen, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Leona Gottschalkson, Megan Nepshinsky, our guests Jan Hjort Christensen, Kristine Kleffel and Karin