We had a surprise when we looked out of the window this morning – it was not raining! Only a little bit of drizzle and Chris decided immediately to open our two nets in the garden. We continued the ringing the whole morning and had some Greenfinches (Grønsisken) and as a highlight a Chiffchaff (Gransanger). It’s already very late for this species, but it had a high fatscore and seems to be ready for migrating further south.

Furthermore we caught an adult male Great Tit (Musvit), which was a recapture.

Over midday we had to close the nets because it was raining to much but we continued with some traps in the garden. Unfortunately they didn’t catch any bird. Chris wanted to enjoy his last day up here with doing as much ringing as possible. Therefore, we opened the nets in the afternoon once more. But only one Greenfinch was following Chris wish.

In the morning we had to say goodbye to Yotam. He was just here for a short time of 10 days but it was nice to have him around and we learnt a lot from his long ringing-experiences. We wish you a good journey home!

During the ringing breaks we used some time to do indoor stuff. That included sewing nets (juhuu more than half of them are done!), cleaning some draws and shelfs in the apartment and counting ring series. This activities shows us that the season is going to the end and the winter is coming. Also the volunteers around the station are getting less and less due to the end of the season. Chris is already leaving tomorrow, for that he had his final evaluation with Simon in the afternoon. Before this meeting Simon was in town to meet with Lene, Kurt and Rie. They are planning to open a family-nature-club in spring and it sounds like families around and tourist families can already look forward to it.

After analysing some night recordings, which was done by Yotam in the last days, Chris was today sitting down to extract some bat-sounds out of the recordings. They are going to be sent to the University in Lund.

Ringing (Fyrhaven):

Greenfinches – Grønsisken - 6
Chiffchaff – Gransanger - 1

Total: 7

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Laia Soler Iglesias, Esben Hansen, Yotam Lehnardt.

Yotam was opening the garden nets today and we ringed subsequently in the morning hours. Next to the usual greenfinches (grønirisk), we ringed a yellowhammer (gulspurv) and a chaffinch (bogfinke). When the rain got heavier during the later morning, we had to close the nets again.

Judith and me were doing observations from the Grey Lighthouse at the same time, but a constant drizzle prevented us from having a good seawatch. Nonetheless were two male long-tailed ducks (havlit) seen and some very close red-breasted mergansers (toppet skallesluger).

The rain progressed and the rest of the day we stayed inside. Yotam started packing as he will leave tomorrow, but found the time to listen to and analyse more of our night recordings. Esben and Judith were fixing the old nests for most of the day. Laia was studying Catalan and Spanish bird names. I was entering our colour-ring readings of different gulls into the database.

In other news, the Grey Lighthouse is changing its appearance into a christmas-outfit. See it here:

In the evening Knud, Inge, Jørgen and Simon came by for a collective dinner.

Ringing (Fyrhavene):

European greenfinch - grønirisk - 7
Common chaffinch - bogfinke - 1
Yellowhammer - gulspurv - 1

Total: 9

People: Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Laia Soler Iglesias, Esben Hansen, Yotam Lehnardt, Knud & Inge Pedersen, Jørgen Kabel and Simon S. Christiansen.

Despite the warm(ish) weather today and the relatively calm winds things are slowing down, we are still ringing around the Grey Lighthouse garden, Esben and Laia opened the nets in the hope to catch more of the Greenfinches (Grønirisken) hanging around the lighthouse garden and few familiar recaptures that already settled in their favourite spots.

Judith joined Knud for seawatching in Nordstrand, which yielded low numbers of birds but a few specialties in the form of 2 Black Guillemots (Tejst) and a Red-necked Grebe (gråstrubede lappedykker).

After ringing today, which included a pretty female Fieldfare (Sjagger) and 11 Greenfinches (Grønirisken) we decided to take down the last of the nets after a short look in the forecast and the fact most of the team leaves soon made us understand today was our last chance to do that while it’s not raining.

We had our heart warmed by a visit from our resident volunteer Rita Pate who kindly brought us all a personal Christmas present (I got a Hanukkah present).

Toda raba Rita!

The afternoon was calm indoor affair, with much net fixing: each net’s holes are sewed before being put in storage until spring.

I continued with more night recording analysis, hearing many Redwings and few Song Thrushes that migrated over Skagen during october.

.

Ringing (Fyrhaven):

Greenfinches – Grønirisken – 11

Fieldfare – Sjagger – 1

Total: 12

People: Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Laia Soler Iglesias, Esben Hansen, Yotam Lehnardt and Knud Pedersen.

The weather forecast said a whole day without raining. So we were very motivated for doing ringing and opened the nets in the garden. It went pretty well with 38 Greenfinches (Grønirisken) out of 39 new ringed birds. The other one was a Redwing (Vindrossel). We also had some recaptures of Great Tits (Musvit), a Blackbird (Solsort) and a Robin (Rødhals). The Greenfinches were really interesting because they have a variable moult, so we had some challenges to find the moult limits. Males are often moulting more than female, because this species doesn’t have a moult in winter. So they are already preparing their plumage for spring.

In the afternoon we went to town to do some shopping. After finding everything we needed we started to prepare the dinner, because we invited Christel and Flemming for dinner today. Yotam prepared an awesome Israeli dish, called Shakshuka and Mugaddara. For dessert I prepared a yogurt cream with berries. We had a really nice evening together with Flemming and Christel – thanks for coming!

In the evening also Esben came back from his weekend off and finished the rest of the dinner. And he was also very happy about the chocolate-balls that Laia made for him for his birthday. She made a lot of them so we can enjoy them the next days.

Ringing (Fyrhaven):

Greenfinches – Grønirisken – 38
Redwing – Vindrossel – 1

Total: 39

People: Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Laia Soler Iglesias, Esben Hansen, Yotam Lehnardt, Flemming & Christel, Jørgen Kabel & Igor, Erik Christophersen.

Today Judith and I went to open the nets at Kabeltrommelkrattet. Christian and Yotam joined for the first round. There were not a lot of birds in the nets so we closed early and started to shut down the ringing site. We also did some observations while ringing. The highlights were Waxwings (Silkehale), Great Grey Shrikes (Stor Tornskade) and over 100 Crossbills (Lille & Stor Korsnæb).

We managed to take them down and also, we carried all the poles, ropes, nets, chairs, and the stuff we usually have out at Kabeltrommelkrattet by bike to the Bird Observatory.

When we arrived at the Observatory we put everything in its place and we eat lunch. After that, Yotam and I opened the nets in the garden while Christian was talking with Pål from Lista and showing him around the Bird Observatory. When he finished, he joined us and we ringed some birds, mostly Greenfinches (Grønirisk) and also we had 2 Yellowhammers (Gullspurv). Judith joined the ringing a bit later. And Knud visited us with two friends. We closed the nets at 15:00h.

Yellowhammer (Gullspurv)

Greenfinch (Grønirisk)

So then, Judith started to sew the nets while Yotam was listening to some recordings of night migration calls and I was starting to write the blog of today.

After a while, I joined Judith and together we sewed some nets (3 in total).

Christian made a really nice dinner that tasted really good!

Ringmaærkning (Kabeltrommelkrattet, Fyrhaven):

Gærdesmutte - 1

Rødhals - 1

Blåmejse - 3

Grønirisk - 13

Skovspurv - 1

Musvit - 2

Total: 21

People: Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Laia Soler Iglesias, Yotam Lehnardt.

Today was another weather-limited day, Chris braved the wind and rain for a very wet 3-hour Seawatch session, highlights were two Little Gulls (Dværgmåge) and a fulmar (Mallemuk)!

We used our time indoors to update and organize the picture archive with many detailed photos of our recent catching’s, mostly woodcocks spotlighted during the last nights and to dive into a new project that was started this autumn at Skagen Bird Observatory: night sound recording!

Don’t be alarmed by the title, while for most of us birding is a primarily a visual experience darkness doesn’t mean the end for bird activity. Not only owls and nightjars begin their activity but also diurnal birds are very active as most songbirds migrate during night time and out aim is to also “observe” them migrating over-head in total darkness.

Look at all the birds! Det Grå Fyr at night. Photo: Laia Soler

How?

The recording process is pretty straight-forward, using a specialized microphone aimed at the sky and placed at our ringing site we recorded all sounds from dusk till dawn, and after collecting it in the morning we can download all the data gathered to the station’s computer and start with the analyses process.

Prepering the sound recorder and the Microphone at Kabeltromlekrattet.

Using a software designed for wildlife recordings made by Cornell Lab of Ornithology we analyse the whole night; the program also turns the sound into a visual form called spectrogram or sonographs making the calls birds make in the darkness “visible” for us.

The visual form of a Redshank (Rødben) calls during the night in September

Our processed observations are then catalogued on our database and the totals for the night are entered on Trektellen, you can follow them here: https://www.trektellen.org/count/view/2601/20191010 as we will continue with our analysis over the next weeks.

We are hoping this new and exciting project will help us better understand what birds are doing over Grenen together with the data we already collect through ringing and observations.

Folk: Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Laia Soler Iglesias, Yotam Lehnardt.

Vejret kunne vi ikke prale med i dag, så morgen observationen blev lige udenfor ved fyret, hvor man kunne stå lidt i læ for regnen. Først Laia og Judith i en time før Christian tog over. Jørgen var også ude sammen med Christian.

Simon holdte et kursus for en gruppe Naturvejledere hele dagen. Vi deltog også i en lille del, da kursuset handlede om fuglestations  indsats fra frivillige. Så vi blev interviewet og lavede en lille rundvisning og fortalte om hvad vi går og laver til hverdag.

Jeg har repareret boksene vi bruger til at transportere fuglene fra nettene til  labaratoriet/kabeltromlen. Samtidig med at vi på skift tjekkede en fælde vi havde sat op i fyrhaven, en enkelt rødhals genfangst blev det til.

Judith har i dag færdiggjort et lille herbarium af de lokale planter og blomster der er i området omkring fyret.

Til aften var vi inde og spise i Skagen hvor Judith og Yotam fik den danske version af gløgg.

Efterfølgende tog  Laia og Christian ud at fange Skovsnepper. En enkelt blev det til som fik en ring på.

Christian og jeg var også ude at fange Skovsnepper i går det lykkedes at fange to. Tre af naturvejlederne Maja, Søren og Jørgen var også med for at se hvordan vi gjorde.

Under morgen observationen blev der set sandløbere og en enkelt strandskade. I øvrigt blev der også set en ubåd!

Folk: Simon S. Christiansen, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Laia Soler Iglesias, Esben Hansen, Yotam Lehnardt, Stine, Maya Møholt, Jørgen Møholt, Søren Michelsen Krag, Camilla Jensen og Anders Bloksgaard Rathe.

What a beautiful morning...

Today most of the team enjoyed the waking up in a different place, at Simon`s Mom house, in Aalborg. The smell of fresh coffee and fresh pastry was helping a lot with getting out at the bed. After enjoying the breakfast we said goodbye to Karin. Then we went to Store Vildmose to read some colour-ringed Pink-footed Geese (Kortnæbbet Gås). Chris was already wishing for that since a long time hoping to find some of “his geese”, which he was also reading in Svalbard the last summers. When we arrived in the area we were discussing where to look first. Suddenly a geese flock was flying over us and we just followed them. And indeed, it was the right choice! They just landed next to a big roosting flock of geese and swans. And under them we managed to spot 11 with colour rings – really cool! Geese can be ringed with a colour ring around their neck. This brings the advantage that the rings can be far bigger than on the legs and are though easier to read even from far away. If you see one you can easily report it on this webpage: https://www.geese.org/Ganzen/index.jsp and help with collecting important data used to learn and protect these fantastic bird species. After adding your sightings, you can even see the whole history of the bird including the ringing date and place and all the former readings. Reed more about one goose we saw today and how often it was already seen on our facebook page.

Mixed flock of Barnacle Geese (Bramgås) and Pink-footed Geese (Kortnæbbet Gås)

After this flock we tried to spot a golden eagle (Kongeørn), which should be around somewhere. Simon even managed to spot it but exactly in the moment he told us the bird was flying down from the tree and disappeared behind high grass and forests. What a pity, would have been nice for us to see it as well. But we were still very happy with seeing around 2000 Pink-footed Geese (Kortnæbbet Gås), over 1000 Barnacle Geese (Bramgås) and 88 Whooper Swans (Sangsvane). We also saw two Marsh Tits (Sumpmejse) and heard two Corn Buntings (Bomlærke).

Searching for the golden eagles (Kongeørn)

Esben stayed in Skagen over night and went out with Knud in the morning. They did the migration counts from Northbeach. The number of Alkids with over 2500 individuals were again very good, like the last days. Further highlights were one Bartailed Godwit (Lille Kobbersneppe) and a very late Fulmar (Mallemuk).

All of us came back to the station at the same time and we had lunch together. Afterwards it was time to clean the apartment, Birders’ Club and the Lab.

Chris and Yotam also put some more food for the birds in the garden and added apples. Now we hope to catch a lot of Waxwings (Silkehale) in the next weeks.

In the late afternoon Maya, Jørgen and Søren arrived. They stay in the apartment over night and participate in the course tomorrow that Simon gives about volunteers. Unfortunately, they did not bring the good weather, that they had in the beginning of their trip, with them and arrived here in windy and cloudy weather.

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Laia Soler Iglesias, Esben Hansen, Yotam Lehnardt, Knud Pedersen, Karin Christiansen, Maya Møholt, Jørgen Møholt, Søren Michelsen Krag.

Strong winds prevented us from ringing today, so we split up for seabird observations. Esben and Knud went out to Northbeach (Nordstrand) and Laia and me stayed to cover the migration over Kattegat at the Grey Lighthouse (Det Grå Fyr). Yotam went to Grenen to do diverse observations and exploring the possibilities to catch water pipits (bjergpiber) at Grenensøen. Judith did plants. Simon was in a meeting with Flemming, Christel and Lene.

Observations from The Grey Lighthouse (Det Grå Fyr)...

...and from Northbeach (Nordstrand)

The highlights of the morning observations were 5 little auks (søkonge) from Northbeach and one at the Grey Lighthouse, 20 carrion crows (sortkrage) and 12 water pipits (bjergpiber) at Grenen and 5 long-tailed ducks (havlit) at the Grey Lighthouse.

The morning was rather short today, because we left for an excursion to Hirtshals and the North Sea Oceanarium (Nordsøen Oceanarium). Anders, who works there as a teacher, had invited us to come and look at something else than birds for a change. So the entire team plus Frede went to the aquarium today. We were introduced to Anders' work and a short look behind the scenes.

Then we joined the feeding of the fish in the biggest tank. Besides many schooling fishes (stimefisk), sharks (hajer) and rays (rokker), they have also 3 ocean sunfish (kloibfisk) as their main attraction. Those huge fish are hand-fed by a diver that enters the tank - a pretty cool job.

Feeding the ocean sunfish (kloibfisk)

After the feeding we had some time to check out the exhibition. The oceanarium is huge with many different aquaria, games, information and they also have an outside area with harbour seals (spættet sæl) and grey seals (gråsæl).

Isn't he scared?

Astonishing was also an entire skeleton of a dead fin whale (finhval) that had beached three years ago near Blokhus and was dissected and prepared thereafter.

Fin whale (finhval) skeleton (thankfully the smell is not noticable here)

In the later afternoon we split up. Esben and Frede searched for the last crested larks (toplærke) in Denmark, which are residing close to a netto supermarket in Hirtshals. After the successful twitch, they went back to Skagen, but not without a detour to observe geese (gæs) and swans (svaner).

Simon, Yotam, Judith, Laia and me went to Aalborg to visit Esther and fix her phone. We continued to Karin for the evening and the night. As I'm writing this, it already smells delicious from kitchen. We are all curious what awesome dish we will get served tonight.

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Laia Soler Iglesias, Yotam Lehnardt, Esben Hansen, Knud Pedersen, Frede Jakobsen, Anders Østerby, Esther Christiansen, Karin Christiansen, Flemming & Christel, Lene Kappelborg.

The day started with Simon's dream... He dreamt that we caught 2 owls during yesterday's night catching but then he realized that we didn't... He was really disappointed about that and started to do some indoor work. He also prepared some things for a course that will take place during this week.

Christian, Judith and I went to open the nets. We had to find shelter between the bushes due to the strong wind in our usual place. Today was a quiet morning before the rain started and we managed to ring 4 new birds and 2 recaptures (2 birds for each ringer).
After looking several times the radar and the clouds approaching us, we decided to close the nets early and take down the 3 nets we decided that have priority to be fixed (we need them to be dry when we take them down). We just managed all of it on time and the rain started just after we close the nets and put those 3 nets down. Despite the rain, it was a really nice morning.

Meanwhile, Yotam and Esben were doing observations at Northbeach with Knud. Their highlights were the Little Auks (Søkonge) and a Great Northern Diver (Islom) today really close to them. Yotam was really happy to see 45 Snow Buntings (Snespurv) on the beach.
All in all, the day was really nice before the rain started.

After having lunch we sewed the 3 nets and suddenly was time for dinner.

When we finished eating, Judith and Esben went night catching but unfortunately, they didn't catch any birds.
At the same time, Simon and Yotam started to watch a football match.

Ringmaerkning (Kabeltrommelkrattet):

Sjagger - 1

Blåmejse - 1

Rødhals - 2

Total: 4

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Laia Soler Iglesias, Esben Hansen, Yotam Lehnardt, Knud Pedersen and Nullermand.