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yank and shaaaaaag

mandag 2. september 2024
af Frederik Johansen

G'day ladies and gentlemen

I hope your day has been just as good as mine, or better!

So get ready for a nice day-telling from all of us to you :)

Last night we attempted to catch storm-petrels (stormsvaler). It was Augustin who took on the heavy duty to be the nightwatcher and keeping an eye on the nets the whole night. We didn't unfortunately catch any storm birds, but we caught three common ringed plover (stor præstekrave).

Meanwhile at around 23 our new volunteer, Mara, arrived all the way from Germany!

Today I started going to world's end three together with Ragnar. Later Augustin and Knud joined our observation. Today there weren't as many gulls on the beach as there were yesterday. We didn't have 12 (!) Mediterranean gulls (Sorthovedet måge) but we had around three of them today, which was quite nice anyways. The observation also gifted us a beautiful Black Scoter (Amerikansk sortand) which layed close in skagerak and gave some good veiws. Later ROC called out a roosting Shag (Topskarv) on zello. It was quite active fouraging, so it was limited how good the views ended up being. Our guest Ole came around 9 am to try and get the Black Scoter and Shag, but without any luck unfortunately. Hopefully he will get some more success tomorrow when he joins the obs with us.

Vandrefalk1k 02092024

We didn't spend that much extra time after the standerdised-observation-period ended. That meant Ragnar and I got to finish, and sending our rarity commity bird descriptions on both the Brown booby (Brun sule) and the Balearic shearwater (Balearskråpe) and some more.

 

kingfisher blog stationarchive

The ringing, let by Rosa, Mara and Simon gave a good surprise. It concerned not one, but two eisvogels (kingfisher, martin pescador, alcedo atthis, isfugl)! But otherwise the total couldn't keep up with the coolness from the kingfishers.

Later we all went on a driving trip to show Mara a bit of Skagen. Ragnar and I hadn't taken our scopes with us, so of course there were a shit ton of birds. But anyways, we then went to do some shopping, and now we have eaten a lovely lasagne made by Rosa, and we're all ready for tomorrow's surprises.

WhatsApp Image 2024 09 02 at 21.19.31

Ringing totals (night catching):

Stor Præstekrave – 3

Ringing totals (Kabeltromlen):

Tornsanger - 1

Gransanger - 3

Løvsanger - 1

Grå Fluesnapper - 1

Isfugl - 1

Munk - 4

Rødhals - 5

Rørsanger - 3

Total: 19

 

If you wanna learn more about the current volunteers, or previous volunteers, then you can learn more about them here!

Link to todays observations in Skagen

People at the station: Ragnar Smith, Rosa Hicks, Simon Sigaard Christiansen, Augustin Sticksel, Mara Glane, Ole and Birgitte and Frederik Johansen

First day of autumn brings about a record and new people!

søndag 1. september 2024
af ragnar smith

1/9 is the first autumn day in started with the usual routine of going to Worlds End 3. The day didn’t bring about another rarities BUT we completely blew apart the old Skagen-record for Mediterranean Gulls, with 12 individuals counted at the same time! All of them 1k birds, no nice adults, but still cool to see so many of this once quite rare bird in Denmark! Of other nice birds was a Common Kingfisher that flew by us before sunrise at the OP. My first ever seen in Skagen, same goes for Frederik. Of other rarities was the fact that the entire observatory was out doing the obs, so everyone got a share in fun that is counting migration as we had no one with a C-license at the Kabeltromlen today. With nice observations of arctic skuas and other seabirds it was still nice, though there was no migration. Everyone went back when the obs stopped, but me and Frederik stayed longer since a trawler was heading towards harbour with a bunch of fulmars following, so we tried to see if we could find another Balearic Shearwater or something better, but no dice, except 18 fulmars

WhatsApp Billede 2024 08 31 kl. 14.21.45 f158a814

SKAF's emotional support pet - Igor, has probably seen more bird species than most birdwatchers

Ezra had to leave though as he had to return to the UK, we wish him safe travels and good luck with all future endeavours, it was nice having you here! After the obs me and Frederik went through Ellekrattet where we found a quite late brood of Icterine Warblers with younglings getting fed. We hope they have a safe travel to Africa, if not, we hope that they will make some rarity finder very happy somewhere.

WhatsApp Billede 2024 08 31 kl. 14.21.46 d9b14573The finnstick - here implemented expertly by Frederik Johansen

At the station we all took long naps and Hans had to leave, it was a great joy to have him also, had we hope returns soon and bring some more rare birds with him to Skagen. We then got ready for storm petrel catching and greeted the new guests that were going to stay at the Apartment, Ole and Birgitte, who are going stay with us for the week and along with them Mara our new volunteer from Germany also joined us! Two people left, three more arrived, There is always people at the station, an international revolving door.

WhatsApp Billede 2024 09 02 kl. 22.11.11 319d1c54Prepping the nets for storm petrel catching

Now we wait for a Storm Petrel to be caught, otherwise fingers cross for a good morning obs!

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Total: 0

Link to today's observations from observers in the area

People at the station: Ragnar Smith, Rosa Hicks, Fredrik Johansen, Ezra Sherwell, Simon Sigaard Christiansen, Hans Christophersen, Augustin Sticksel, Ole Jørgensen, Birgitte Jørgensen, Mara Glan

The good birds keep on coming

lørdag 31. august 2024
af Augustin Sticksel

0831 ObsA lot of birders today came out to Verdens Ende 3.

Ragnar, Frederik and me went out observing this morning and were joined by a lot of Danish birders that came with the high hopes of seeing the Bown Booby (Brun Sule) which unfortunately didn’t show up today. But we still had a great time out on the dune and got a great view on a Long tailed Skua (Lille Kjove), one Red-necked Phalarope (Odinshane) and several Mediterranean Gulls (Sorthovedet Måge)! But the biggest highlight by far was Igor:)

0831 WhatsApp Image 2024 08 31 at 21.53.17

The most handsome dog in Skagen!

 

Ezra and Rose were ringing with Oluf, they unfortunately didn’t catch big numbers of birds but the ones they caught were very cool! They managed to ring one Kingfisher (Isfugl), Nortern Wheatear (Stenpikker), Common Redstart (Rødstjert), beautiful birds!

20240831 064824

Ezra ringing the Kingfisher.

In the afternoon we entered our data, gave the apartment a good cleaning and relaxed a bit. Right before dinner Ragnar and Frederick spotted a fishing boat coming in from the sea and found two Fulmars (Mallemuk) that were following it. We had dinner with Mikkel because hes sleeping at the station tonight.

3108 Hans

Hans Christophersen took a picture of Rose and me carrying the scopes back to the station before dinner.

 

Link to todays observations from observers in the area

People at the station: Ragnar Smith, Rosa Hicks, Fredrik Johansen, Ezra Sherwell, Oluf Lou, Hans Christophersen, Augustin Sticksel, Mikkel Høegh Post.

On the move - Wheatear, Whinchat and Redstart

fredag 30. august 2024
af Ezra Sherwell

Hi everyone,

With sunrise getting later Rosa and I had the luxury of an extra 15 minutes sleep in this morning as we only had to be out by 5am for ringing. We were kindly joined by Oluf to head up our ringing efforts which, while slow and steady, produced a nice selection of species,  the highlights being redstart (Rødstjert), whinchat (Bynkefugl) and wheatear (Stenpikker).

forblog3008

A first year Whinchat (Bynkefugl)

 

Meanwhile, Augustin, a new volunteer from Germany who arrived in late last night joined Ragnar, Fredrik and Hans out at Worlds end 3 for some seawatching which produced a return visit and some good views of the brown booby (Brun Sule) as well as a total of 15 arctic skua (Almindelig Kjove), 1 great skua (Storkjove), a little tern (Dværgterne), several little gulls (Dværgmåge) and mediterranean gulls (Sorthovedet Måge), and 37 wheatear (Stenpikker) being the highlights.

forblog300829

Sunrise with the observers at World end 3.

 

After lunch, several of us headed west, largely on our own separate walks with a goshawk (Duehøg), several redstart (Rødstjert) and good numbers of whinchat (Bynkefugl) and wheatear (Stenpikker) the highlights. On my way back I called into a small patch of largely coniferous woodland towards the southwest which produced crested tit (Topmejse), tree pipit (Skovpiber), spotted flycatcher (Grå Fluesnapper) and a juvenile great-spotted woodpecker (Stor Flagspætte) to add to the days totals.

 

Ringing (Kabeltromlen)

Gransanger:      1                                                                                                                                                                  

Stenpikker:       2                                                                                                                                                                  

Tornsanger:       3                                                                                                                                                                  

Munk:                   5                                                                                                                                                                  

Rødhals:              1                                                                                                                                                                  

Rødstjert:           1                                                                                                                                                                  

Rørsanger:         3                                                                                                                                                                  

Bynkefugl:          1                                                                                                                                                                  

Løvsanger:         4

Totals: 21

 

Link to todays observations from observers in the area

People at the station: Ragnar Smith, Rosa Hicks, Fredrik Johansen, Ezra Sherwell, Oluf Lou, Hans Christophersen, Augustin Sticksel.

B is for BROWN BOOBY (again)

torsdag 29. august 2024
af Rosa Hicks

Hi folks!

Since Ragnar last updated you, yesterday evening, Ezra and I went out to Grenen for some night catching. During the day the flooded pools were full of terns and wader species, so we were feeling optimistic, however we arrived at 22:00 to a nearly empty beach! After trying our luck with a few flighty dunlin (Almindelig Ryle) and sanderling (sandløber) we came across a common tern (Fjordterne), which we were able to catch and bring back to the station to ring and take biometrics of – a new species to catch and see up close for both Ezra and me.

commonternblog

A first year common tern (Fjordterne).

After a slightly later night and shorter nights sleep, we were up once again for ringing and observations. The ringing was a little slower than the past few days, with 15 new birds captured, and highlights being a sedge warbler (Sivsanger) and two spotted flycatchers (Grå Fluesnapper). A nice addition to the session was an excellent view of a red footed falcon (Aftenfalk), which Ragnar and Simon spotted coming off the sea, before flying right over our heads, giving us incredible views to see identification features like the dark “cap.”

Towards the end of the session, I got a very exciting phone call – the brown booby (Brun Sule) was back!!! Having missed it the other day I was very excited to say the least, and after failing to identify it confidently from the juvenile gannets from Kabeltromlen, I ended up cycling and running to Worlds End 3 to great the boys and the booby (yay!!!). Ragnar and Fredrik then stayed for an extra 3 hours to help birders view the bird, while we closed the nets at Kabeltromlen.

forblog2908

The observing team doing what they do best.

After a bite to eat, Ezra and I headed out on separate birding escapades to Sandmilen, both seeing decent numbers of tree pipits (Skovpiber), crossbills (Lille Korsnæb), stonechats (Vestlig Sortstrubet Bynkefugl), whinchats (Bynkefugl), yellowhammer (Gulspurv), and kestrels (Tårnfalk). Meanwhile, Ragnar and Fredrik cracked on with some admin, before heading back out to Grenen, for a bit of additional sea watching. This time they spotted a bat species and a wryneck (Vendehals), which is an uncommon autumn visitor to Skagen.

20240829 154900

One of the many beautiful views from the higher sand dunes South of Skagen.

We’ve had a brilliant few days, as the autumn season gets underway, so lets see what surprises tomorrow brings with it!

Ringing (Fyrhaven)

Fjordterne: 1

 

Ringing (Kabeltromlen)

Løvsanger: 2

Gærdesanger: 2

Rørsanger: 4

Munk: 2

Tornsanger: 2

Sivsanger: 1

Grå Fluesnapper: 2

 

Total: 16

Link to todays observations from observers in the area

People at the station: Ragnar Smith, Rosa Hicks, Fredrik Johansen, Ezra Sherwell, Simon Sigard Christiansen, Hans Christophersen, Birthe Christophersen.

Late august seabird bonanza!

onsdag 28. august 2024
af Ragnar Smith

We thought it was over but then it wasn’t.

Today started with me being rudely awakened by Frederik at 0545, reminded me that we were getting late for migration count, but we still managed to be there at 0618, just in time. It was a quiet morning, but in the far distance we see a fishing trawler heading towards Skagen harbour, surrounded by fulmars (Mallemuk) and gulls maybe something else could be following it? I said “let’s see who finds the rare shearwater first” he answers “let the best man win”. Well, he won, at 0906 while counting fulmars, he called out “Sooty Shearwater (Sodfarvet Skråpe)” and I get on the bird, it looks like Balearic Shearwater (Balearskråpe)! Apparently he also had said it for himself (We heard it on his Dictaphone), so we put it on Zello as a possible, and then it landed. When it flew up, we got good views again and got it filmed as it disappeared towards VNV. Another rarity! Two rare seabirds in three days is almost unheard of, especially considering it follows in the heels of the Brown Booby from 26/8. This bird, if accepted by SU (the rarity committee in Denmark) would be 98th record for Denmark and 38th record for Skagen, and the first in seven years for Skagen. What a day.

But now I got that out, the ringers went to Kabeltromlen and there plenty of birds in the bushes and they caught 25 birds, an adult Pied Flycatcher (Broget Fluesnapper) was exciting.

After the migration count we went back to the station to look at videos and I got ready for potentially my first guided tour this season! As a large cruise ship came into the harbour, we were advertising for a Bird Walk tour around in the nearby area, but sadly nobody wanted, even though the sign should have pulled in at least one aspiring birdwatcher, but c’est la vie.

WhatsApp Billede 2024 08 28 kl. 22.29.16 7ae6b03aWould join a bird walk, when reading the sign?

The rest of day was admin work, chores with Rosa having trouble with the hose and some light birding at Højen Fyr to see if a hattrick could be achieved, but not today. Hans had also been out and about, counted all the sanderlings between Grenen and Nordstrand, picking up his wife in Aalborg and managed to find a Black Kite (Sort Glente)! We are waiting for it to arrive up here.

WhatsApp Billede 2024 08 28 kl. 23.07.03 f6167f40Squeezing the last juice out of the day at Højen Fyr

We got some ice cream to celebrate for everyone and we got to say hello to Hans’s wife Birthe, who is going to stay here till Friday. Also good to see new faces around here, tomorrow we will be joined by Augustin, who has been here before, new old faces are also always good! Now its late in the afternoon, Rosa and Ezra have gone out night catching, hopefully they succeed, but you’ll find out tomorrow!

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Kærsanger (Marsh Warbler) - 1

Rørsanger (Reed Warbler) - 5

Gærdesanger (Lesser Whitethroat) - 4

Tornsanger (Common Whitethroat) - 6

Havesanger (Garden Warbler) - 1

Gransanger (Chiffchaff) - 2

Løvsanger (Willow Warbler) - 6

Broget Fluesnapper (Pied Flycatcher) - 1

Total: 26

Link to today's observations from observers in the area

People at the station: Ragnar Smith, Rosa Hicks, Fredrik Johansen, Ezra Sherwell, Simon Sigard Christiansen, Hans Christophersen, Birthe Christophersen.

Anti climax

tirsdag 27. august 2024
af Frederik Johansen

After the greatest observing succes yesterday with a magnificent BROWN BOOBY (brun sule) found by our very own Ragnar, then our hopes for today were HUGE!

The morning started with Ragnar and I going to world’s end 3 to observe and Ezra, Rosa and Simon going to Skarvsøen for CES ringing.

455990027 1194211398569629 7957201067626674798 n

The ringing period gave a good amount of birds. They never had a round with less than 10 birds and they caught a beautiful Kingfisher (Isfugl) as one of the first birds. They also had a flock of 14 common buzzards soaring above the site at 11 around the time they had to take down all of the nets for maintenance.

456227928 422810470814548 6272238983699983019 n

The observing where quite slow today. There was no migration over the sea today compared to yesterday, but the passerine migration disappointed today even though the weather forecast had said it should have been a good day for it. But we managed to get some good species anyways like a calling wood warbler (skovsanger), which was pretty cool! Later Hans joined us for the migration and sometime after Jørgen and Igor came by.

Hans hadn’t seen much but counted many roosting terns on the beach. And a cuckoo and some arctic skuas.

Over the seas as well as on the beach as mentioned before, there were a huge present of common tern with around 832 in total! 700 over the seas at one point in the early morning.

Tern

After ended migration count, Ragnar and I went to look after warblers. We started off at Kabeltromlen where we had a good amount of willow warbler (løvsanger), whitethroat (tornsanger) and more of the common species. When Kabeltrommel warbler mission was completed we went to Ellekrattet and had not one, but two wood warblers foraging in the tree crowns and just a fair amount of warbler individuals.

skovsanger

When lunch had been consumed we went out to the area around Buttervej and looked for passerines there. We had a skulky reed warbler, one of the last red-backed shrikes (rødrygget tornskade) this year, a garden warbler (havesanger) and some wheatears (stenpikker) and stonechats (sortstrubet bynkefugl).

Hans had been on a loooong walk (or several walks) around Skagen. First to count the nice terns and waders at Grenen and Nordstrand and then down to stokmilen to look after the beautiful swallowtails (svalehaler) which had been around the area for a long time until some time last week or the week before. No success unfortunately.

Ezra and Rosa have been on their own individual birding mission but didn’t add many new species to the day’s total.

This late afternoon and evening we have been completing chores that needed to be done and now we are ready for the new adventures of tomorrow!

Goodnight.

Today's CES ringing data from Skarvsøen:

Water rail / Vandrikse 1

Kingfisher / Isfugl 1

Blue tit / Blåmejse 5

Willow warbler / Løvsanger 6

Chiff Chaff / Gransanger 3

Reed warbler / Rørsanger 24

Marsh warbler / Kærsanger 1

Garden warbler / Havesanger 1

Lesser Whitethroat / Gærdesanger 1

Whitethroat / Tornsanger 4

Blackbird / Solsort 1

Robin / Rødhals 1

Reed bunting / Rørspurv 3

Total: species (13) and amount (52)

 

Dagens observationer i Skagen

People: Ragnar Smith, Rosa Hicks, Fredrik Johansen, Ezra Sherwell, Simon Sigard Christiansen, Hans Christophersen.

Winds of fortune

mandag 26. august 2024
af Ezra Sherwell

Hi everybody

The day started off rather stormy with strong winds leading to a decision not to open the nets. However, Ragner, Frederik, Hans and I decided to brave the weather out at World End 3 for a count. Some of the species highlights from the count included several Arctic Skuas (Almindelig Kjove) and Great Skua (Storkjove), a shearwater (Skåpe), a black tern (Sortterne), a few little gulls (Dværgmåge) and good numbers of gannet (Sule) and kittiwake (Ride) migration along with a few migrating waders. Just before we started packing up we had one final surprise for the survey. A flurry of excitement ensued as a brown booby (Brun Sule) was spotted by Ragnor flying southeast, quite close to shore. As a third record for Denmark, and the first from Skagen, this was very exciting. Having never seen this species before I was also very happy to get to see this bird.

Following the success of the morning I decided to try my luck with the zitting cisticola (Cistussanger), another species I had not encountered before, which, after a short period of searching, I managed to locate.

Meanwhile, Rosa and Hans, on separate trips both found increasing numbers of waders on the pools with species present including curlew sandpiper (Krumnæbbet Ryle), turnstone (Stenvender) and dunlin (Almindelig Ryle).

After a second report of the brown booby we once again ventured out to try and re-find the bird, this time in the pouring rain, to the north beach, although our efforts were not rewarded with any further sightings of this bird.

20240826 150827

Walking out to Højen Fyrvej to try for a resighting of the brown booby.

 

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Total: 0

We asked you yesterday to tune in for an update on the “meringue Nutella cake with a biscuit bottom”; and we can confirm that it was unanimously described as a success!

Link to todays observations in Dofbasen from the Skagen area

People at the station: Ragnar Smith, Rosa Hicks, Fredrik Johansen, Simon Sigard Christiansen, Ezra Sherwell, Hans Christophersen.

 

Sunday Fun-day

søndag 25. august 2024
af Rosa Hicks

Hi folks!

Today has been a quieter day after yesterdays’ bird surprises. The day started with Fredrik and me opening the nets at Kabeltromlen, only to get halfway around opening and having to pause our pursuits as a rain shower passed. Luckily the rain quickly stopped, and we could open the remaining nets… only to have to close some more an hour later with the increasing wind speeds! Although we weren’t able to ring many birds today, this was a valuable lesson in reading the weather and online forecast.

 

ringingrain

Ringing under the shelter of the tent. Luckily it was a quickly passing shower so we could continue ringing the birds safely.

While we were out at Kabeltromlen, we had some notable observations including a short-eared owl (Mosehornugle), young (1k) goshawk (Duehøg), and hearing the greenish warbler (Lundsanger) again. This was the first greenish warbler for Fredrik in 4 years, and the last one he’d seen was in the exact same place in Skagen! Before packing up, we were joined by Ezra, a new volunteer from the UK who will be with us for a week. We appreciated his enthusiasm to help close the nets, especially after a long morning of travel.

Meanwhile, Ragnar was out at World’s End 3 conducting the daily observations. His counting began with some wader migration, before he spotted a few arctic skuas (Almindelig Kjove), and a mediterranean gull (Sorthovedet Måge). The highlights for his morning were a shearwater species (Skråpe-art) and a rock pipit (Skærpiber).

littlestint

Photo: Hans Christophersen. A little stint (Dværgeryle) at Grenen today.

Inspired by yesterday’s successful afternoon sea watch, we all headed to Højen Fyrvej to watch over the North Sea. Species diversity was low and numbers even lower, with a single fulmar (Mallemuk), arctic skua (Almindelig Kjove), and two early pink footed geese (Kortnæbbet Gås).

Obs

The SKAF crew out at Højen Fyrvej, sea watching in the afternoon sun.

We’re now sat doing some admin and mulling over tomorrow’s weather forecast while Ragnar is cheffing up a “meringue Nutella cake with a biscuit bottom” – tune in tomorrow to see how it turns out!

Ringing (Kabeltromlen)

Løvsanger: 2

Gærdesanger: 1

Kærsanger: 1

Munk: 1

Tornsanger: 1

Havesanger: 1

Total: 7

Link to todays observations from observers in the area

People at the station: Ragnar Smith, Rosa Hicks, Fredrik Johansen, Ezra Sherwell, Simon Sigard Christiansen, Hans Christophersen.

Greenish Warbler, Green birds on Dofbasen and bittersweet tern

lørdag 24. august 2024
af Ragnar Smith

24th august was another exciting Skagen-autumn day!

The day started with the ringers going out opening the nets and me and Frederik going out to World End 3 to do the counting. The weather changed as the wind blows, but we ended up with some really good birds! Highlights from the counting were such as Manx Shearwater (Almindelig Skråpe), several Arctic Skuas (Almindelig Kjove), Great Skua (Storkjove) and the “usual” three Mediterranean Gulls (Sorthovedet Måge). With the Arctic Skuas there was a fun surprise hidden. We saw a 3cy. dark morph Arctic Skua that was colour-ringed and Knud went down to read the ring while Eric Christophersen got some really good photos of it. The ringing data was sent almost immediately to the relevant ringing authority and we got almost immediate answer. And what an answer we got! But a bit backstory first, 4th august 2022 an 1cy. Arctic Skua was found on the beach in front of Worlds End 3, the earliest recorded 1cy. Arctic Skua ever recorded in Skagen! And this one was also colour-ringed and we found out that it was ringed on the 23/6-2022 in southern Norway and 79 days later it was seen in Denmark, it was one of two ringed juveniles in the same clutch. Now 794 days later this one was seen at the same beach and apparently it was the sibling to the one we saw in 2022! What a crazy coincidence and is a great showcase of why colour ringing is such a great tool in monitoring and data collection within ornithology.

 

Billede2Ringing data for the skua from today

Billede3

Ringing data from the one seen 4th august

Billede1The colour-ringed Arctic Skua 3cy. dark morph from today

But while we were having fun at Worlds End 3, Kabeltromlen were their fair share of fun. First they caught a nice 1st year male Bluethroat (Blåhals) and had a singing and calling Greenish Warbler (Lundsanger)! 41st record in Skagen and 13th autumn record, quite the rarity and everything was called out on Zello for everyone to hear. But for some reason none of us at Worlds End 3 got the Zello messages, so imagine my surprise when Simon calls me and nonchalantly tells that the Greenish Warbler is stilling hanging out at Kabeltromlen. So I picked up my bike and went down to see it and hopefully photograph it, and while I was there they also told me they had a Bluethroat?! Thankfully I have seen both but imagine if it was something crazier and we missed it. I got the Greenish Warbler thankfully though the photos left a lot to desire. I went back to the obs and it didn’t take too long to find a Manx Shearwater, what a combo.

WhatsApp Billede 2024 08 24 kl. 08.25.47 395374821st cy. male Bluethroat

 8240003Greenish Warbler! notice the bigheaded impression, bright, strong supercilicum and dark loral stripe

 8240010 3If it wasnt for the leaf, the wingbar would probably be visible, but here the mossy green upperparts are also visible

 

Recording of the Greenish Warbler

After an exciting obs we went back to the observatory to regroup and then we went to Højen Fyr trying to do some seabird watching, while on our way Frederik told me he needed a Sooty Shearwater (Sodfarvet Skråpe) for his self-found list. And almost immediately when we arrived he found one! We saw it very well and not long after he found another one! We left from there quite happy and immediately went to Worlds End 1 as the wind turned southeast, which means that seabirds are being pushed out from the Kattegat. There we managed to see a very nice Sooty Shearwater that came quite close and two Great Skuas.

WhatsApp Billede 2024 08 24 kl. 15.16.43 e1a86f7dYou sit a bit low at Worlds End 1, so to peep over the tall grass you have to be creative

We were quite happy, but we were still hoping to find something like a Cory’s Shearwater (Atlantisk Skråpe) or something crazier, and we did almost. Like having a wish granted by a Monkey’s Paw, I found a strange tern while we were packing our bags around 1740, it was flying with a Common Tern (Fjordterne) and immediately I was struck by it flew with lackadaisical wingbeats going straight up and down, compared to common terns more focused and energetic wingbeats, shorter tail, heavier build and a short bill, I was completely blank and yelled out “check this tern” and he got on it and then we followed it fly away. Here we saw a grey back, grey wings with paler coverts, no obvious dark in the primaries, broader, more roundish primaries and when it reached the outermost dunes it turned around where it showed grey outertail feather and no obvious streamers and again a short, thick bill, like a heavy arctic tern bill. It looked like it went down, and we just stared at each other. What was that??? We discussed it and concluded that it could be a Whiskered Tern (Hvidskægget Terne) and after discussing what we each had seen, we walked towards the beach trying to refind it, while also putting it out on Zello as a possible Whiskered Tern with several birders also heading out to the beach looking for it. We spent 1 ½ hours looking for it, but no dice. It would have been the second or third autumn record ever for Denmark and the first record for Skagen since 1983! A great day with a bittersweet finish, but this is what we live for as birders.

Video of migrating Sooty Shearwater (Sodfarvet Skråpe) from today

 

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Rødhals (European Robin) - 1

Bynkefugl (Whinchat) - 1

Blåhals (Bluethroat) - 1

Kærsanger (Marsh Warbler) - 2

Rørsanger (Reed Warbler) - 3

Gærdesanger(Lesser Whitethroat) - 2

Tornsanger (Greater Whitethroat) - 3

Munk (Blackcap) - 3

Gransanger (Chiffchaff) - 2

Løvsanger (Willow Warbler) - 7

Total: 25

Link to today's observations from observers in the area

People at the station: Ragnar Smith, Rosa Hicks, Fredrik Johansen, Simon Sigard Christiansen, Torben Præst, Susanne Præst, Mette Møller Christensen.


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