This morning, Michaëla and Jonas went observing from Worlds End 1. Although the wind on top of the dunes was shaking in their scopes, Jonas found three Shags (Topskarv). Besides that, they had an Artic Skua (Almindelig Kjove) and even more migrating Common Scoters (Sortand) then yesterday as well as many different Geese species; Barnacle- (Bramgås), Greylag- (Grågås), Pink-footed- (Kortnæbbet Gås) and Brent Goose (Knortegås). Some of them also flew over us in the ringing. On their way back they found this little Salamander.

Salamander

Meanwhile, Laima and I spend the morning in the ringing-site at Kabeltromlen. Again the ringing was dominated by Blackbirds (Solsort) but also Blue Tits (Blåmejse). However, this time we were better prepared for many Blackbirds and had enough collection tubes for the tick samples. So, we stayed quite busy during the first rounds taking ticks of the Blackbirds to send them in for further analysis and research. Although, Blackbirds are common birds its always nice to handle them. It´s great to see the variations between individuals and always amazing to see these beautiful male adult birds. We also got visited by Søren, a local bird-watcher, and our guest Berit.

Male 3K+ Blackbird (Solsort)

In the evening we had a small tournament in Klask and Shuffleboard. Of course, I won all the games (@Simon: I think I earned an ice cream for that). To let the others feel better I let them win the card game rounds we had afterwards. All in all, a good observation and ringing day with a fun evening!

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

Klik her for at se opsummeret observationer af rovfugle i Skagen

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen)

Solsort  - 11

Sangdrossel - 1

Musvit - 3

Blåmejse - 12

Bogfinke - 1

Sum (28)

Folk:,  Simon S Christiansen, Berit Alfrida and her sister, Søren, Michaëla Berdougo, Laima Bagdonaite, Jonas Pedersen og Daniel Bloche. 

Ja, som der står, en sort dag. Ikke fordi det har været en særligt dårlig dag. Men fordi vi har haft nogle meget mørke arter. 

Dagen startede tidligt for Daniel og Laima som stod op og åbnede nettene. Planen for dem var klar. Op, ringmærkning hvor de fik fint selskab af Oluf Lou som deltog i ringmærkningen. Hjem i god tid for skole.

Michaela og jeg tog ud for at tælle træk, blæsten var ikke slem så vi satte os på verdens ende 1 og blev mødt af fire trækkende fiskehejrer, en art der bestemt ikke har været mange af her for tiden. Det var koldt og klamt vejr og det var meget diset ude i horisonten så bestemmelse var besværlig i det mørke vejr. En særlig art stak ud i dag. En meget mørk art, nemlig sortanden som der trak mange af mod sydøst, vi nåede op på 2000 individer og der skulle nok være flere der trak efter vi stoppede med at tælle.

I ringmærkningen havde de også gang i en mørk art, solsort var nemlig en talrig art med 27 indivder som fik ring på, udover det havde de også sangdrossel og rødhals, så en drossel-dag så at sige.

Jørgen og Igor var også forbi for at sige hej og det var jo som altid en kæmpe fornøjelse.

Efter vi kom hjem stod den på afslapning og nogle huspligter.
Michaela og jeg tog et smut til Jennes sø for at se om der skete noget, det gjorde der ikke. Men vi fik set nogle af Michael Anchers net og vi hørte nogle sjove lyde ude i rørskoven.

Så var det hjem igen hvor der blev spillet brætspil og hørt musik. 
Vi lavede noget lækker vegansk spaghetti med (kødsovs?) og nu er det vidst tid til en film eller måske noget mere musik.
Imorgen er det mere ringmærkning og observation og vi håber på nogle lækkerier.

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

Klik her for at se opsummeret observationer af rovfugle i Skagen

Ringmærkning (kabeltromlen)

Solsort  27

Sangdrossel 1

Sum (28)

Folk: Simon S Christiansen, Oluf Lou, Jørgen Kabel, Igor, Daniel Bloche, Michaela Berdougo, og Laima Bagdonaite

Hey hey!

In the morning Michaela and Daniel went to Verdens ende 1 to observe sea migration, while the rest of us went ringing at Kabeltromlen.

When we were opening the nets, a woodcock flew just across our path! Then, on the first round we found a cute mouse in the nets and quickly released it unharmed.

Later on, we had quite a few birds, the majority being blue tits (Blåmejse), which Jonas had the pleasure to practice his ringing on. Jørgen joined us with Igor, as well as Berit.

We could hear many bearded reedlings (Skægmejse) flying around, but unfortunately, none of them went into the nets. The jewel bird of the morning was a beautiful magpie (Husskade) we caught in the last net on the last round. It was the first magpie for the station, and the first one I've ever handled and ringed! We were all quite happy with this catch! 

When we came back in the afternoon, we relaxed. Then Michaela and Jonas went to the cormorant (Skarv) collony, however no nesting cormorants were present there. After that, they took the bikes to the city and also went to the store for some food. 

Back at the station, I made onion soup and Daniel baked bread for dinner! The rest of the evening we spent entering ringing data and raptor summary. 

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

Klik her for at se opsummeret observationer af rovfugle i Skagen

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Husskade - 1

Solsort - 2

Sangdrossel - 1

Musvit - 1

Gærdesmutte- 1

Dompap - 2

Blåmejse - 12

Bogfink - 1

Fuglekonge - 1 

Sum: 22

Folk: Jonas Pedersen,  Simon S Christiansen, Berit Alfrida and her sister, Jørgen Kabel, Igor Daniel Bloche, Michaela Berdougo, og Laima Bagdonaite. 

Hi folks!

I hope you all had a nice weekend and enjoyed the sun :)

Our day started well with very little wind, we were therefore able to open nets! For that, Daniel and I woke up at around 4:30 am. It wasn't as hard to wake up as I thought! We left the house at 5:05 am, on our way to Kabeltromlen. As a thin layer of ice was covering the water, we made our way through with waders over our many layers while listening to the electricity-like sounds of breaking ice.
It is such a privilege to see the sunrise every morning while out in such beautiful nature.

Jonas went observing at Verdens ende 1, and the others joined us for the first round. It was an exciting morning on both end as Jonas had a flock of 500 probable Pink-footed Geese (Kortnæbbet Gås), and we caught a Treecreeper (Træløber), a Wren (Gærdesmutte), and a Reed Bunting (Rørspurv), all new species for this season! :D

Træløber

Lille Dompap male

Stor Dompap, female

Bright lemon-coloured Gulspurv male

After morning observations, Jonas came to join us in the ringing and ringed his 3rd bird, a Blue Tit (Blåmejse), and we all got to observe a Rough-legged Buzzard (Fjeldvåge), foraging very close by. 

Jonas looking at a Munk's fat

We closed the nets at noon and went back home to have some leftover wraps from yesterday. We then sorted bikes out as to see which ones we could use and the ones needing fixing, while the rest of the afternoon consisted in analysing the night recordings from last week.

We have discovered that a Bewick’s Swan (Pibesvane) named 59X on its neck ring and tagged with a GPS-tracker in Belgium has passed Grenen one of the days between the 10th and 14th of March, on its way to the breeding grounds in the tundra of Russia. The latest signals shows it's roosting just south of Stockholm. On its way it had a stopover around Råbjerg before it migrated out from Grenen towards the Swedish west coast. Maybe it was among those birds migrating during the mornings of the 13th or 14th? See Dofbasen for observations of Bewick’s in that period. Has anyone noticed it near Råbjerg the days before? See the tracks of this and other Bewick’s Swans to the project “The Odyssey of The Bewick’s Swan” from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences

For dinner, Daniel cooked Bombay potatoes which were absolutely delicious. Now it's nearly time for bed as we are waking up earlier every day. Wishing you all a very happy evening, and a day full of birds tomorrow. :)

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Musvit - 5
Gulspurv - 1
Gærdesmutte - 1
Blåmejse - 2
Munk - 2
Stor Dompap (pyrrhula) - 1
Lille Dompap (europaea) - 1
Rørspurv - 1
Træløber - 1

Sum = 15

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

Klik her for at se opsummeret observationer af rovfugle i Skagen

Folk: Simon S Christiansen, Jonas Pedersen, Daniel Bloche, Laima Bagdonaite, og Michaela Berdougo. 

It was a cold and windy morning. Jonas, Michaela and Daniel went out to observe the sea, but they had to take shelter from the wind by the bunker. The first hour of observations was quite busy, Jonas spotted a puffin (Lunde) flying with a razorbill (Alk) not too far away from the shore. Mette and Jesper, who joined the guys in the dunes also got to see it! What a nice reward for enduring the cold! Overall a good number of razorbills (Alk) and guillemots (Lomvie) were migrating, a total of around seven hundreds!

Back at the station I was planning how to construct a portable field photo lab which we could have at the ringing site, and was looking up mirror traps! As I was waiting for the cold sea observers to return, I made some pancakes and hot cocoa to help them warm up!

Then we had a nice brunch together and headed out to Grenen with some traps for the snow buntings (Snespurv). There we set up a pyramid trap, and two different walk-in traps and waited for the snow buntings to come and start feeding on the seeds we put out for them. We had some luck with the pyramid trap and caught two beautiful snow buntings, a male and a female. We were joined by Mette and Jesper, and Erik Christophersen, who also enjoyed seeing the snow buntings from up close! These were the first snow buntings caught since 2017!

When we returned to the observatory, we did some data entry and had our evening meeting. Jonas made a delicious wok and cooked tofu for the first time in his life! :D Mette, Jesper and Michaela helped him to prepare the food. After the dinner we had a discussion meeting on moulting strategies and ended the day by watching some Brooklyn 99 with well-earned icecream! 

Ringing (Grenen)

Snespurv - 2

Ringing (Jennes Sø - Nordstjernevej)

Nordlig Gråsisken - 2

Lille Gråsisken - 3

Sum: two birds ringed at Grenen, five at Jennes Sø.

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

Klik her for at se opsummeret observationer af rovfugle i Skagen

Folk: Simon S Christiansen, Mette and Jesper,  Erik Christophersen, Michaëla Berdougo, Michael Ancher, Jonas Pedersen, Daniel Bloche, and Laima Bagdonaite,

Hi folks!

Our day today started very differently than previous ones, as we started ringing at Kabeltromlen! Laima and Daniel left the house at 5:20 am to open nets up, as Jonas, Simon and I woke up. Jonas went to meet up with Knud for morning observations in Grenen, while Simon, Mette, Jesper and I went to meet up with Daniel and Laima for the first net check. Finn and Peder soon joined us at the ringing table. Jonas and Knud had the great  opportunity of seeing a resting shag, and after two hours of observing, Jonas met with us and got to ring a robin as his first bird! 

We caught some blackbirds (solsort), robins (rødhals), bullfinches (dompap), blackcaps (munk), a dunnock (jernspurv), a chaffinch (bogfinke), a great tit (musvit), blue tits (blåmejse), and the highlight species, long-tailed tits (halemejse)! 

Michael Ancher was also ringing today at Jennes Sø as part of the observatory. We can hopefully meet him soon and maybe go ringing with them as well. :)

While Simon had meetings in the afternoon after taking us grocery shopping, we had a big cleaning party and reorganised cupboards and pantries. Delicious vegan burgers made by Laima, our most talented cook this season, and home made cookies are now waiting to get devoured... :D

Ringing (Jennes Sø - Nordstjernevej)

Blåmejse - 3

Musvit - 13

Bogfinke - 5

Gulspurv - 3

Nordlig Gråsisken - 2

Ringing (Kabeltromlen)

Solsort - 3

Musvit - 1

Rødhals - 7

Jernspurv - 1

Munk - 3

Dompap - 1

Stor Dompap - 2

Nordlig Halemejse - 2

Bogfinke - 1

Blåmejse- 1

Sum = 22 birds ringed at Kabeltromlen

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

Klik her for at se opsummeret observationer af rovfugle i Skagen

Until next time, be safe! :)

Folk: Simon S Christiansen, Knud Pedersen, Peder Dannow, Finn Laugo, Mette and Jesper, Laima Bagdonaite, Jonas Pedersen, Daniel Bloche, and Michaëla Berdougo

This morning we all four volunteers started again together with Knud the observation at Grenen. While yesterday was a nice, warm and sunny day, today the weather was cold and windy. However, we had a good number of Razorbills (Alk), Guillimots (Lomvie) and Gannets (Sule). Furthermore, we had relatively many Jackdaws (Allike) and other Corvidae migrating, so that the count of these species got quite overwhelming. A bit later Simon joined us at Grenen to try catching the Snow Buntings (Snespurv) again. They reacted very well on the corn we put out, though, we didn´t managed to catch them. The trap mechanism was slightly to slow for the fast reacting birds. But next time we gonna use another trap and then hopefully with more success. After Simon and our guests, Mette and Jesper, already left the morning observation, we stayed a bit longer in the unfriendly observation weather. And we got rewarded by a Puffin (Lunde) passing the tip a bit further distant. That was a great observation and a Lifer for Laima and me!

Simon trying to catch Snow Buntings

In the noon Mette and Jesper took Laima and me to the Cormorant (Skarv) colony. We were checking, if they already started breeding, but only a few birds were around and none of them showed signs of breeding. Later in the afternoon we put up the final nets and prepared everything needed for the ringing start tomorrow. We all are really looking forward. Also, we will be perfectly prepared now with the freshly made bird-bags from Oluf and Majbritt. Thank you so much for the bags! The first bird we transported in one of the bags, when we opened the nets at the Lighthouse this afternoon, was a House Sparrow (Gråspurv). A bird not that often caught by the Station and also the first bird for me,that I could ring this year. Later this evening we had a nice Pizza-Dinner together with Mette and Jesper.

Bird bags from Oluf and Majbritt

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

Klik her for at se opsummeret observationer af rovfugle i Skagen

Ringing (Fyrhavn)

Gulspruv – 1

Gråspruv – 1

Sum: 2

Folk: Simon S Christiansen, Knud Pedersen, Oluf and Majbritt Lou, Mette and Jesper, Michaela Berduogo, Laima Bagdonaite, Jonas Pedersen og Daniel Bloche

Tirsdag... En en god dag?
Ja, det er det helt bestemt, for idag skulle vi igen se topskarver, mange topskarver.

 
(Billede: Frede Jakobsen)