Since we now officially have a full house here at the station – six volunteers – we are now able to split up into teams and work on several tasks at the same time. Today Joost, Anders and Christian formed the observation team while Christina, Yehonathan, Simon formed the ringing team.

The weather was hot from dawn therefore we both expected a very slow morning. Our prediction was painfully on point. The observations team witnessed hardly any migrating birds and even the usual sea birds were not in the usual numbers. The ringing team in the meanwhile was as slow as well with a total of 22 birds ringed and two recaptures. The most eventful moment was a tree sparrow (Skovspurv) which was a nice distraction.

Upon return from fieldwork both teams had a quick lunch and split up into two new teams. This time Christian, Yehonathan and Christina set off to continue the work on the net lanes at our new site.

While the others were working Joost and I opened the nets in the garden. After this deed was done we used we started advertising the tour we put together in response to the large number of visitors in the lighthouse the past few days. On our first round we managed to catch a whitethroat (Tornsanger). As we were ringing a family from Slovenia walked in the lab asking for a tour. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. They were three kids and their parents, and they were all so keen to learn about nature, it was a real pleasure for us as guides. During the tonur we unfortunately didn’t manage to catch any more birds but we were blessed with plentiful lovely insects (including the blood sucking ones unfortunately). On our way back to the station one of the young ladies caught a red admiral in most professional way. They all knew so much it was an amazing tour.

In the evening we celebrated the good weather with a lovely game of beach volleyball and a barbeque.

Ringing                        (Sardinkrattet)

Løvsanger                   11

Gærdesmutte               2

Rørsanger                    2      

Gulbug                         1                

Tornsanger                   1                

Munk                            4      

Skovspurv                    1

Ringing                        (Fyrhaven)

Tornsanger                  1

Total:                            23

People: Christina Ninou, Yehonatan Ben Aroia, Christian Stolz, Anders Odd Wulff Nielsen, Joost Van Duppen, Martin Yordanov Georgiev.

Last night, after celebrating Christina's birthday, Christina and Martin decided to pack their sleeping bags and go stargazing. They made beautiful pictures of the moon.
Later in the morning they woke up in the wonderfull dunes with a wet sleeping bag because of the dew and could immediately start their observation while they lay.

This morning I’ve started my hike to look for my observator partners Christian & Anders, but I couldn’t find them and ended up on the beach.  I’ve walked along the shore to Nordstrand and  watched how waders run through the waving sea water. 

Later we ‘ve checked the receiver, which is a project from the University of Copenhagen running at the Skagen Fuglestation, where birds are tracked by geolocation.

For dinner we went shopping and ate a tasty ice cream on a terrace in Skagen city.

Meanwhile the others were cooking, I’ve been out to install our first overnight recording, a new sound project that tracks nightcalls from migratory birds.

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Martin Yordanov Georgiev, Christina Ninou, Yehonatan Ben Aroia, Christian Stolz, Joost Van Duppen, Anders Odd Wulff Nielsen

So we are having some very sunny couple of days Skagen and the next few will also be like that.Which is very good for outdoor activities like stuff that we did, cutting lanes for new nets, counting sea birds, swimming and many more…But these days are also very slow for Birds migration.Today I went to the CES site that we usually ring to help Michael which is also ringing there.The early morning was very foggy and wet, and after that it quickly became very sunny and hot and very slow for birds. We actually didn’t catch not even a single bird! but a nice Great cormorant (Skarv) that used the place that we ring to rest and dry his wings, made us nice company for the morning.

After the no-birds ringing I joined Christian, Christina and Joost and they told me they a very slow morning without a lot of bird activity on the beach. But still we had a great time enjoying the local sea birds and having a good time.After our nice morning we went back to the station and a little birthday party for our volunteer Christina! Which turned 27 today! we had a great cake and had a great time all of the volunteers together. Good times!

Razorbill (Alk)

In the evening, after a long day, me and Martin drove to pick up Simon from Hirtshals, after he had a great time in Lista bird observatory in Norway, and on the way I had a couple of minutes for some nice birdwatching and saw some Oystercatchers (Strandskade) and Bar-tailed godwit (Lille Kobbersneppe) at last sunlight.Both if the birds are not so common in Israel and its very nice for me to see then here!

Our last CES was today! It was quite slow but we had a variety of species. It was really nice to see a goshawk flying really close to us, as well as some waders migrating such as golden plovers and greenshanks.

While Martin was coming to Jennes so, he found a dead Common European Viper on the cycle path, but he did not have a plastic bag to collect it so he decided to come to the CES to find one. He rushed as ever before to make sure the snake was laid where it was found. Once a plastic bag had been acquired he made heist to the scene of the crime. The perpetrator was yet to be unmasked. Then he took the fresh carcass to the laboratory in order to start the dissection. Surprisingly, when he opened it he found 8 eggs with fully developed baby snakes, each was about 16 inches long. It is really sad that these snakes did not get the opportunity to see the light since they were 1 or 2 days away from it. We will keep them in the freezer as specimens.

We also checked out the receiver that Kat installed some weeks ago, to make sure everything is fine. It is a very interesting installation and we are hoping that we will get some data from the birds that will be tagged in Norway!

At 14:00, Martin was presenting to a group of anthropologists from the University of Copenhagen, the Skagen Bird Observatory and the activities of the volunteers as well as how much fun we are having here. 

After coming back from the CES, we entered the data and then went with Christian and Joost up to the lighthouse. The weather was great and it wasn't that windy so we stayed there for some time chilling and chatting.

We had an early dinner prepared by Christian since we were planning on going to the sand dune to watch the sunset. After having the amazing salty and sweet pancakes he made we got ready for our mini road trip to the other side. Unfortunately, we didn't catch the sun going down but we arrived just when it was behind the horizon so the colors in the sky were truly beautiful. We stayed there until it was completely dark listening to the geese, cranes and the wood sandpiper calling loudly. It was a very relaxing moment. Martin was very excited to observe the stars and the satellites.

Ringing (Jennes so): 

Willow Warbler - Song of Songs - 2

Common Chiffchaff - Gransanger - 8

Reed bunting - Tubing - 1

Great tit - Musvit - 3

Garden warbler - Garden singer - 3

Blue tit - Blue Tit - 1

Lesser whitethroat - Yeast singer - 1

Blackbird - Sun type - 3

Common whitethroat - Tornsanger - 5

Total: 27

People: Christina Ninou, Yehonatan Ben Aroia, Christian Stolz, Anders Odd Wulff Nielsen, Joost Van Duppen, Martin Y. Georgiev.

Observations were again the first task for team Skagen. No rare sightings were reported, birds seen included a large number of great skuas, gannets and a few razorbills. After observations Christian focused on the photo archive once again. Our two main quests for the day were cutting net lanes in our new-to-be ringing site and getting Jennes So ready for tomorrow’s CES ringing session. Christina and Christian headed off to town to pick up the electric bush trimmer from Jørgen Kabel! Thank you Jørgen!

Around noon all of us met in the station in order to distribute the tasks between everyone. In the end Joost, Christina and Anders headed for Jennes So while Christian, Yehonathan and I went to cut lanes in the new site. We equipped ourselves with two saws, two grass cutters, two branch cutters and one electric trimmer and set off. The horseflies were incredibly happy to see us however the marvel of human engineering we had with us this time made an immense difference.

A bit of planning, some labour diversification, sweat combined with elbow grease and a couple of hours later the new lanes were ready and awaiting their nets. In the meanwhile, Yoost was doing his best to find some rechargeable batteries in town however sadly without success. Those were required for his night recording equipment.

In the afternoon we went shopping as I needed quite a few things to prepare Mexican fajitas, a favourite food of mine which I was yet to cook for myself. They actually turned out great and we all quite full by the end of it all! In the evening I focused on preparing my presentation for the Anthropology students visiting us tomorrow.

People: Christina Ninou, Yehonatan Ben Aroia, Christian Stolz, Knud Pedersen, Anders Odd Wulff Nielsen, Joost Van Duppen, Martin Y. Georgiev, Jørgen Kabel.

Today we had a very productive morning with many birds during our migration counts at World’s End I. The stars of migration were the Golden plovers (Hjelje) and the Tree sparrows (Skovspurv) which every now and then passed us flying in big flocks. We also saw Wheatears (Stenpikker) which were flying a lot around and sitting quite close to us on the bushes. About 70 Great skuas (Storkjove) migrating over the sea, some Arctic skuas (Almindelig Kjove) as well as Fulmars (Mallemuk) and Kittiwakes (Ride) gave us some nice views. After that we went to the beach to check on the waders and gulls.

When we came back to the observatory it had already started to rain so we did some indoor activities. Chris and I did a small moulting session, Joost working on his project and Martin was preparing his presentation for Saturday. He will be presenting to a group of anthropologists from the University of Copenhagen our main activities at the observatory and he will also talk about birds, of course!

In the afternoon Anders was out again in the rain this time at Grenen for some more observations and luckily it stopped after a while so he had a nice time on the hill.

People: Christina Ninou, Yehonatan Ben Aroia, Christian Stolz, Knud Pedersen, Anders Odd Wulff Nielsen, Joost Van Duppen, Martin Y. Georgiev

Music playing while writting the blog: Anderson Paak & The Free Nationals: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

The last couple of days, some rain showers created some larger ponds on the beach at Grenen. Christina and Yehonatan went out there for night-catching and were successful! Just after midnight a juvenile red knot (islandsk ryle) was running towards their torch and got captured.

Early before sunrise, I went to the beach to check for roosting sandwich terns (splitterne) but couldn’t find any. Instead the two juvenile shelducks (gravand) that we found on the beach the day before, were still present. Then I joined the team for ringing at Sardinkrattet. It was a slow morning with only 12 individuals caught in the nets. The clear highlight was a wood warbler (skovsanger), a species that is not ringed that often up here.

While we were ringing, Knud was out at Worlds End 3 and counted migrating seabirds. He observed a shearwater (skråpe), which is always a welcome sight. He narrowed the species down to Balearic or Manx shearwater (balear/almindelig skråpe).

Later the day, the stations team went on a birding trip to Hirtshals, where Simon took a ferry to Norway as he will join our friends at Lista bird observatory for the remainder of the week. We stopped at the beaches in Tversted and Uggerby, but strong winds and little water on the beach made birding difficult. In Hirtshals however, the eastern beach was very wet and yielded a surprising number of different waders (vadefugler). Four bar-tailed godwits (lille kobbersneppe) of which one was colour-banded, three curlew sandpipers (krumnæbbet ryle), one temminck’s stint (temmincksryle) and one Mediterranean gull (sorthoved måge) were the highlights.

In the afternoon, Anders arrived back from his trip to Fynen. The first thing he did was going birding at Grenen of course! His highlights from sea-watching were 25 great skuas (storkjove) and 2 arctic skuas (almindelig kjove) migrating in half an hour.

Today was also the first full day of our new volunteer Joost. He is very happy to have “so many people with so much knowledge about birds” around him and is eager for the next days here at Skagen Fuglestation.

Ringing (Grenen – Sardinkrattet):

Lesser Whitethroat – Gærdesanger – 1

Common Whitethroat – Tornsanger – 1

Garden Warbler – Havesanger – 2

Wood Warbler – Skovsanger – 1

Willow Warbler – Løvsanger – 6

Yellowhammer – Gulspurv – 1

Total: 12

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Ninou, Yehonatan Ben Aroia, Christian Stolz, Knud Pedersen, Anders Odd Wulff Nielsen, Joost Van Duppen

Soundtrack while writing this blog entry: Agnes Obel: Citizen of Glass

Before sunrise we were out to Worlds End III, for migration counts. It was a very busy morning, with many birds migrating or attempting to migrate while even more were resting and foraging in the sea or at the ponds on the beach. A passing harbour porpoise (Marsvin) appeared while scanning the horizon. Suddenly we realized a flock of even larger sea-mammals approaching from the vest. Clearly larger than a harbor porpoise, we saw large, dark dorsal fins of several individuals diving and at one point even jumping out of the water. Dolphins! But what species? A later ask for help for identification on our facebook-page lead to bottlenose dolphins (Øresvin) as the most fitting species. (watch the dolphin video here: https://www.facebook.com/Skagenfuglestation/videos/767326867019338/ )

When we finished the counts, we decided to go and look closer to the huge flocks of gulls to read some ring numbers. While picking up our stuff and scopes, hundreds of house and barn swallows started swarming around us. We were wondering what they were trying to tell us, but in a few minutes, we found out. An extremely unexpected heavy rain started. We had no option than to sit and wait for it to stop. Fortunately, it was quite short, and the sun came out a bit so we could even dry a little. We approached the flocks of gulls from behind the sand dunes, to not disturb them and have a good view of their legs. That led us to one of the best spots for observing birds on the shore, especially when there are puddles on the beach.

All the waders were there as well as terns and gulls. We also observed two beautiful juvenile Common shelducks (Gravand)!

After scanning the pond, we also observed a beautiful whimbrel (Småspove). We realized that it was constantly looking at the sky as if it was waiting for something. After a while we heard a flock of 12 whimbrels calling and immediately he called back and joined them.

In the meanwhile, Knud decided to check-out Skagen Klitplantage in the morning and found two two-barred crossbills (Hvidvinget Korsnæb). One adult in awesome red plumage was feeding a 1K bird and was quite approachable. Knud made some incredible pictures!

Late at night, Joost arrived. He is originally from Brussels but came from Finland. He will be staying with us for three weeks. : )

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Ninou, Yehonatan Ben Aroia, Christian Stolz, Gunnar Simonsen, Anders Odd Wulff Nielsen, Joost Van Duppen, Knud Pedersen

Music playing while writting the blog: Morphine - Like swimming (Full Album)

It’s our first day in Denmark after our flight from Munich landed in Aalborg yesterday. This morning began at 6 am, we were getting ready for our trip to Skagen to visit the Bird Observatory. The team of the Station was up even earlier than us (which is way too early to be honest), counting the birds at the sea while sitting on some dunes. Unfortunately, it was too windy to catch and band or ring birds. So, after we arrived in Skagen we immediately joined the Team at World’s End Number 3. No, we didn’t see Jack Sparr- Captain! Captain Jack Sparrow.

The coolest bird we saw at the Tip of Skagen was the Turnstone. He just kept turning those stones as if his life depended on it. Well, it really depends on turning stones, because he needs to find food.

Another fascinating thing were the Gannets diving headfirst into the stormy waves of the sea. After we finished counting birds for hours, we watched the gulls roosting on the beach, just living their life. We tried to read the numbers on the rings we discovered on some of their legs. We learned that great black-backed gull has ‘Leberkas’ colored legs. (‘Leberkas’ is a national dish in Bavaria. You must come to Bavaria and try it. Now.)

While World’s End Number 4 arrived in form of a gigantic thunderstorm (Thanks Thor) and made us think that we would die – or at least that’s what we thought would happen – we entered the data from the count of the early morning into the computer. After we ate a much-needed lunch, we tried to open the nets in high hopes of catching one or two birds, but life decided to disappoint us and let it rain…again. Instead, we opened a magical freezer and looked at birds. They were dead. That is a weird thing to write, but it was interesting to look at birds so close without them flying right away or attacking us.

After the rain shower, we decided to make a short bike tour to Jennes Sø. On the way there we kind of lost someone from the team. But it’s okay, he was happy in the bushes on his dangerous quest to take an epic picture of a Crested Tit. Very dangerous.

It was a fantastic start for our two weeks in Denmark. Thank you very much for reading this. I suggest you read more of this blog whilst you still can, before I find you. Okay, that was a joke. But if you’re still interested in the work of the Bird Observatory you can click on more entries for more interesting Information.

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Christina Ninou, Yehonatan Ben Aroia, Christian Stolz, Knud Pedersen, Selina Lagerbauer, Lea Krieger.

Soundtrack while writing this blog entry: Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton: Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)

Late yesterday night, Martin and I went out for night-catching. In the fuzzy light of the torch, we saw a lump laying on the beach at Grenen. A roosting gull? Careful to not make any sound, catching-net ready, we approached slowly. A little closer the presumed gull turned out to be a grey seal pup!

Not far away, another pup with its mother were resting on the moonlit beach as well. Birds were not captured that night, despite the ponds on the beach looking good for waders, there was little activity. Therefore we will continue to go out for night-catching in the upcoming nights.

The day started with catching and ringing birds at Sardinkrattet with the full team. After the storm yesterday, we were happy to see that the wind had settled down and were hoping for some good catching numbers. The first round brought us a diverse catch of wren (gærdesmutte), redstart (rødstjert) and the first fieldfare (sjagger) of the month – maybe a sign of the approaching autumn?

The next hours however brought mainly willow warblers (løvsanger), lesser (gærdesanger) and common whitethroats (tornsanger). The main highlight came in form of four 1K penduline tits (pungmejse), that were flying over our heads and landed shortly in a bush not far away, but unfortunately did not decide to end up in our nets. This is one of the largest flocks that has been recorded on Grenen in the last years.

Later Kurt, Martin and Yehonatan showed a group of tourists the nature restauration area close to the observatory on a LIFE-tour. Highlight of this tour was this wart-biter (vortebider):

In the meanwhile, a little conference of Danish bird-ringers was held in our facilities. This “league of extraordinary experienced ringers” were so kind to donate a nesting box to us! Simon and Knud had also presentations at the event. William left us after his participation at the conference – thanks for your stay!

Ringing (Grenen – Sardinkrattet):

Eurasian Wren – Gærdesmutte – 1
Common Redstart – Rødstjert – 1
Fieldfare – Sjagger – 1
Eurasian Reed Warbler – Rørsanger – 4
Icterine Warbler – Gulbug – 2
Lesser Whitethroat – Gærdesanger – 6
Common Whitethroat – Tornsanger – 6
Garden Warbler – Havesanger – 1
Common Chiffchaff – Gransanger – 1
Willow Warbler – Løvsanger – 9
Eurasian Blue Tit – Blåmejse – 1
Great Tit – Musvit – 3
Lesser Redpoll – Lille Gråsisken – 1

Total: 37

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Martin Y. Georgiev, Christina Ninou, Yehonatan Ben Aroia, Christian Stolz, William Aarrestrup, Kurt Rasmussen, Knud Pedersen.

Soundtrack while writing this blog entry: The Myrros: Arena Negra