Today, we went on a “road trip” around Northern Jutland to count Sandwich Terns (Splitterne) in different locations, for Lisa’s master thesis about post-breeding dispersal of this species. Victoria, Amelie and me went down south on the Eastern coast, while Lisa’s went counting on the Western coast. For the first time in a while, we went out of Skagen…. It felt like an adventure !

Goodbye Skagen !

We started our counts at Jerupstrand at 7am, and counted very few terns. This is the location where we are planning on catching terns on Sunday evening, and we hope there will be more terns ! Jerupstrand is a nice location to observe waders, and we saw some Curlews (Storspove), Oystercatchers (Strandskade), Dunlins (Almindelig ryle), Bar-tailed Godwits (Lille kobbersneppe), ….

Jerupstrand

We later on went down south to Sæby and counted around 30 individuals.

Saeby

Close to the parking lot, there was a reconstruction of a miniature Saeby, called “Minibyen Saeby ”.

Minibyen Saeby

The weather was very nice, sunny and warm and we were very happy to discover a bit more this region of Denmark ! The coastal cities are very charming, and we enjoyed driving through these landscapes.

After Sæby, we drove back north to Frederikshavn, and counted terns in the harbour…. Unfortunately, there was almost none of them… However, in Frederikshavn, we observed some nice species: a Spoonbill (Skestork), Golden plovers (Hjejle) transitioning to their winter plumage and a Curlew Sandpiper (Krumnæbbet ryle).

We then stopped at Strandby, where the bird activity was low but a lot of people were out on the beach !

Strandby

Next destination was the harbour of Aalbek, not far from Jerupstrand. Here again, we did not see any Sandwich terns…

However, we saw two Greater Black-backed Gulls (Svartbag) with color rings, that we’ve read, which made Viktoria very happy !

We ended up our little road trip in Skagen harbour, in which, once again, bird activity was very low… But this might be explained mostly by the time of the day: it was already late afternoon when we reached Skagen….

Skagen harbour

Even though we haven’t counted many terns, we have enjoyed very much this day travelling around Northern Jutland and do some bird-watching !

Lisa was more successful on her side and counted up to 118 Sandwich terns in one location !

People: Amandine Doré, Viktoria Mader, Lisa Vergin, Simon S. Christiansen, Amelie Zeller, Kirsten

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Amelie and Lisa got up early today to open the mist nets at Kabeltromlen at 5:00, so Amandine, Simon, Kirsten and me were happy to join later for the first control.

Amelie ringed her first bird today supervised by Simon - a Blackcap (Munk). Well done!

After some rainy days the last week, today was a warm and sunny summer day with low wind speed! During the morning, there was also time for teaching, explaining and calibrating the ringers.

It is not always easy to differentiate sibling species such as Reed and Marsh Warbler (Rørsanger og Kærsanger), and some species are difficult to age and we had a closer look at several moult limits. If you want to read more about ageing Pied Flycatchers (Broget Fluesnapper), you might visit our facebook page.

Furthermore, we caught the first Red-backed Shrike (Rødrygget Tornskade) for this autumn season!

Crested Tit (Topmejse)

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen + Fyrhaven):
Tornsanger – Common Whitethroat – 14

Munk – Blackcap – 7

Løvsanger – Willow warbler – 7

Gærdesanger – Lesser Whitethroat – 5

Gråsisken, Lille (cabaret) – Lesser Redpoll – 4

Gulbug – Icterine Warbler – 4

Rørsanger – Reed warbler – 4

Havesanger – Garden Warbler – 3

Broget Fluesnapper – Pied Flycatcher – 2

Kærsanger – Marsh Warbler – 2

Gærdesmutte – Wren – 1

Gransanger – Chiffchaff – 1

Rødrygget Tornskade – Red-backed Shrike – 1

Rørspurv – Reed Bunting – 1

Skovpiper – Tree Pipit – 1

Solsort – Blackbird – 1

Topmejse – Crested Tit – 1

Total: 59

Aflæsninger (recaptures) (Kabeltromlen + Fyrhaven):

Løvsanger – Willow warbler – 3

Rørsanger – Reed warbler – 2

Tornsanger – Common Whitethroat – 2

Dompap, Lille (europaea) – Bullfinch –   1

Gærdesanger – Lesser Whitethroat – 1

Total: 9

People: Amandine Doré, Viktoria Mader, Lisa Vergin, Simon S. Christiansen, Amelie Zeller, Kirsten

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This morning we opened the nets at 6:00, so a little later than usually because it rained in the early morning. But we still got rewarded with a lot of birds in the first round. A highlight for all of us were two Common Snipes (Dobbeltbekkasin) – one adult recapture and a new ringed juvenile. For Victoria it was the first Snipe to ring and for me the first one in hand, so we were both very glad. Also, in overall the ringing morning was quite successful with 51 birds. Jørgen and Igor visited us in during the ringing, which I am always happy about :-)

Amelie and Knud were out observing and spotted an awesome amount of Fulmars (Mullemuk) – 232 in total! After this successful counting, Amelie joined us in the ringing and extracted her first bird out of the net here, what she did very well. After the ringing at Kabeltromeln, Simon had a ringing tour at the Lighthouse and caught 3 birds he could show – 2 Willow Warblers (Løvsanger) and 1 Common Whitethroat (Tornsanger).

I left the ringing earlier and went to Tversted, Uggeby and Hirtshals to count Sandwich Terns (Splitterne) and tried to read rings. Surprisingly, there were not so many Sandwich Terns, but I managed at least to read 7 rings.

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Viktoria Mader, Amelie Zeller, Amandine Doré, Kirsten, Kristina Sønderkjær, Knud Pedersen Jørgen & Igor, Lisa Vergin

Birds ringed at Kabeltromeln:

Dobbeltbekkasin – Common Snipe: 1

Gærdesanger – Lesser Whitethroat: 5

Gråsisken – Redpoll: 1

Gulbug – Icterine Warbler :1

Havesanger – Garden Warbler: 2

Løvsanger – Willow Warbler: 7

Munk – Blackcap: 2

Rørsanger – Reed Warbler: 8

Rørspurv – Reed Bunting: 1

Tornsanger – Common Whitethroat: 23

Birds ringed at the Lighthouse Garden:

Løvsanger – Willow Warbler: 2

Tornsanger – Common Whitethroat: 1

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 Vejret har været kedeligt og blæsende, hvilket har betydet at, meget af dagen har foregået indenfor. Her blev vi undervist i artkendskab og hvordan man kan kende forskel mellem rørsangere, kærsangere og buskrørsangere, eller som de bliver kaldt på engelsk ”Little brown jobs”.  Undervisningen er et vigtigt led i at kunne artsbestemme de forskellige sangere fra hinanden i felten. Derudover fik vi undervisning i kendskab i ”rare to catch”, men som potentielt set godt kunne komme på besøg heroppe i Skagen i efteråret, og som kan minde meget om de mere almindelige

En anden sjældenhed vi lærte til, er Blyth’s Reed Warbler (Blyth’s rørsanger)  – et godt kendetegn til denne fugl er, at den har "bananpositur".

På grund af regnen var dagens ringmærkningstur aflyst, men Viktoria tog alligevel en gruppe af tyskere med rundt i fyrhaven for at fortælle om ringmærkning og fuglene. Det er altid godt med en guide der kan tale tysk! En regnfuld dag betød også at der ingen ringmærkning var på programmet, hvilket betød at der var tid til morgenforberedelser inden undervisningen, hvilket Amelie gjorde. Lisa tog afsted kort tid efter undervisningen, for at lave noget feltarbejde i forbindelse med hendes studie omkring splitternerne.

En stille dag, betød også en gåtur for mange af os – der er intet som at blive blæst godt igennem.

I morgen står dagen på ringmærkning, hvis vejret tillader os det!

People: Amandine Doré, Viktoria Mader, Lisa Vergin, Simon S. Christiansen, Amelie Zeller, Kirsten, Kristina Sønderkjær

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Yesterday it was Amandines 24^th birthday, so Viktoria prepared a delicious dinner and a birthday cake for her. Pernille and her Kids and Wafa and her nieces came as guests for the evening meeting and after that we celebrated with a fun Danish birthday song, some champagne and a nice “sundowner” on top of the Lighthouse.

Today Lisa, Amandine, Laila and I got up early to do migration counts at Grenen. We counted Sandwich Terns (Splitterne), Common Terns (Fjrdterne), Arctic Terns (Havterne), Common Ringed Plovers (Stor Præstekrave), Sanderlings (Sandløber), Gulls and some Great Skuas (Storkjove). We even saw some seals! After some time Jørgen joined us with his dog Igor.

In the meantime Viktoria and Simon checked and entered some ringing data to the database. In the afternoon Simon, Lisa and Amandine guided the ringing tour at the Bird Observatory. Viktoria and I went to Jerup Strand for counting Sandwich Terns for Lisa’s master’s thesis. Unfortunately, we didn’t observe many Sandwich Terns (Splitterne), but we saw many waders, like and Common Ringed Plovers (Stor Præstekrave), Northern Lapwings (Vibe), Dunlins (Almindelig Ryle), Whimbrels (Småspove) and a Curlew (Storspove). We also found a dead Gull at the beach.

People: Amandine Doré, Viktoria Mader, Lisa Vergin, Simon S. Christiansen, Amelie Zeller, Kirsten, Kristina Sønderkjær, Pernille Roed, Laila Neerman, Jørgen Kabel and Igor

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Today, Amelie, Lisa, Victoria and me went out at the «World of the End 3», close to Grenen tip, to do some migration counts with Knud. Since Amelie, Victoria and myself are still inexprienced doing migration countings, especially at sea, we enjoy going out with Knud, who is a really good teacher !

We saw some Great Skuas (Storkjove) of which one was resting on the beach. It was a very nice sighting, since we usually see them from very far away...

There were a lots of Gannets (Sule), Knud counted almost 400 of them ! The majority were young birds, since most of them were quite darks. Gannets take long time to adcquire a full adult plumage. They remain more or less grey until their 4th calendar year, after which they are usually completely white.

There were also some Kittiwakes (Ride ) roosting on the beach, alongside Common terns (Fjordterne) and some Artic Terns (Havterne ) and  acouple of Sandwich terns (Splitterne).  We counted also a lot of Red-throated diver (Rødstrubet lom ) and some Sanderling (Sandløber).

After 4 hours of counting, we all came back home and had some breakfast there, before going on with our day. Kristina, who had already visited us ealier in July, arrived today. She is doing an internship here at the observatory, in the context of her studies. She will work here until December.



Today was as well the «Open Freezer Day» at the lighthouse. At 2pm, Simon presented some of the frozen birds to the public, which attracted a lot of curious people. Kids are especially interested by the dead birds !

Amelie and me later went to survey the Cormorant colony (Skarv). All the chicks are fledged now, and the cormorants have started leaving the area.

It was probably the last time we will survey the cormorant colony this year !

People : Amandine Doré, Viktoria Mader, Lisa Vergin, Simon S. Christiansen, Amelie Zeller, Kirsten, Kristina Sønderkjær

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Colour-ringed Sandwich tern

In the early morning, we opened mist nets at Kabeltromlen – weather forecast promised cloudy and less windy conditions. But the activity was relatively low, and we had to close the nets earlier due to rain. It was worth it to bring the waders! We ringed in the tent and Eric came by and had a closer look at the two Icterine warblers (Gulbug) and the two flycatcher species (Fluesnapper).

Amandine was really happy to ring a Yellowhammer (Gulspurv).

 Lisa was reading rings of Sandwich Terns. Later on Simon came in with a Sandwich Tern that was caught accidently by Lars Bo and his friend while fishing. This is the first color-ringed tern in Skagen. So pay attention when you see a white ring with black “LNA”!

Sandwich tern ready for take-off!

In the afternoon we feed the computer with the latest ringing data, managing the picture archive and took a closer look at several moult limits with Simon. Amelie prepared a delicious lasagna.  

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen):
Tornsanger – Common Whitethroat – 4

Munk – Blackcap – 3

Gærdesanger – Lesser Whitethroat – 2

Gulbug – Icterine Warbler – 2

Gulspurv – Yellowhammer – 1

Løvsanger – Willow warbler – 2

Rørsanger – Reed warbler – 2

Broget Fluesnapper –  Pied Flycatcher – 1

Dompap, Lille (europaea) – Bullfinch –   1

Grå Fluesnapper – Spotted Flycatcher – 1

Gråsisken, Lille (cabaret) – Lesser Redpoll – 1

Total: 20

Aflæsninger (recaptures) (Kabeltromlen):

Gærdesanger – Lesser Whitethroat – 1

Gransanger – Chiffchaff – 2

Rørsanger – Reed warbler – 2

Munk – Blackcap – 1

Rørspurv – Reed Bunting – 1

Tornsanger – Common Whitethroat – 1

Total: 8

Folk: Amandine Doré, Viktoria Mader, Lisa Vergin, Simon S. Christiansen, Amelie Zeller, Kirsten

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This morning, Amelie, Viktoria and me woke up early to open the nets at Kabeltromlen.

The first round was almost empty; however, we caught a very nice wader: a juvenile Green Sandpiper (Svaleklire).

We started to get busy around 5am. We mainly caught juvenile birds from the year including a lot of Common whitethroats (Tornsanger), Lesser Whitethroats (Gærdesanger) and Chiffchaffs (Gransanger). Recently we also started to catch more and more juveniles Reed warblers (Rørsanger) and Willow warblers (Løvsanger).

The weather was warm and sunny, and we were in T-shirt, which hadn’t happened since a long time ! It finally felt like a real summer day !

On one of the last rounds, we caught two Bearded tits (Skægmejse). It was the first time Viktoria ringed one and it  was the highlight of the day for her. We do not catch them very often and it remains a special for us. Next time hopefully, we will get an adult male ! One of the Bearded tit was already ringed and after checking in the database, we saw that this bird had been caught on the 10^th of April this year in Kabeltromlen.

We came back home around 12am and went down together to the Birder’s club. We entered the ringing data of the day : we ringed 60 birds and got 16 recaptures !

Lisa and Simon came back late in the afternoon, after a very busy night in Agger Tange. They went there to catch Sandwich Terns (Splitterne) for Lisa’s master thesis. They were very successful and caught around 50 terns ! We will probably also try to catch some terns at Jerupstrand, and hopefully we will be as successful as they have been !

Ringmærkning (Kabeltromlen):

Blåmejse – Blue tit – 2

Dompap, Lille (europaea) – Bullfinch –   1

Gærdesanger – Lesser Whitethroat – 5

Gransanger – Chiffchaff – 11

Gråsisken, Lille (cabaret) – Lesser Redpoll – 3

Havesanger – Garden Warbler – 1

Løvsanger – Willow warbler – 4

Munk – Blackcap – 4

Rørsanger – Reed warbler – 7

Rørspurv – Reed bunting – 3

Skægmejse – Bearded tit – 1

Svaleklire – Green sandpiper – 1

Tornsanger – Common Whitethroat – 17

Total: 60

Aflæsninger (recaptures) (Kabeltromlen):

Gransanger – Chiffchaff – 2

Gråsisken, Lille (cabaret) – Lesser Redpoll – 1

Munk – Blackcap – 4

Musvit – Great tit – 1

Rørsanger – Reed warbler – 1

Skægmejse – Bearded tit – 1

Solsort – Blackbird – 1

Tornsanger – Common Whitethroat – 5

Total: 16

Folk: Amandine Doré, Viktoria Mader, Lisa Vergin, Simon S. Christiansen, Pernille Roed and Amelie.

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Dagen i dag stod på CES-ringmærkning ved Jennes Sø. Amandine og Viktoria åbnede nettene en halv time før solopgang, og jeg stødte til lidt senere. Det var en smuk morgen, og allerede efter et par timer blev der varmt. Der var ikke så mange fugle i nettene i dag, så det var dejligt at nyde det dejlige solskinsvejr mellem runderne i de smukke omgivelser.  

Eftersom der ikke var så mange fugle, havde vi god tid, og jeg fik derfor fornøjelsen af at ringmærke en del af dem. Der var også god tid til at studere hver enkelt fugl grundigt. 

Da vi havde lukket nettene, inviterede Jenne os på en lille forfriskning. Det blev til et rigtigt hyggeligt besøg, hvor Jenne viste os kort og billeder samt fortalte om stedets fantastiske historie.

Det blev også til en tur på svævebanen for både Amandine og Viktoria. 

Da vi kom tilbage til fuglestationen, kiggede Jørgen forbi for at fortælle, at der var set spækhuggere ved revet. Vi skyndte os ud med teleskoper og kikkerter, men vi så dem desværre ikke. Vi så dog delfiner lidt senere på dagen, imens vi nød det gode vejr på stranden. 

Om eftermiddagen ankom Lisa, som skal være hos os et par dage. Hun er igang med at lave et spændende projekt om terner, og hun og Simon kørte sidst på dagen mod Agger Tange, hvor de skal fange terner i nat. Vi glæder os rigtigt meget til at høre om det i morgen!

Ringmærkning (Jennes Sø):

Gransanger - 2

Fuglekonge - 2

Løvsanger - 5

Gærdesmutte - 3

Gærdesanger - 1

Lille gråsisken - 1

Tornsanger - 6

Skovpiber - 1

Musvit - 1

Solsort - 1

Total: 23

Folk: Amandine Doré, Viktoria Mader, Lisa Vergin, Simon S. Christiansen og Pernille Roed 

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Imens Viktoria og jeg sov længe (kl. 7.00!), var Amandine med Knud ude at tælle trækfugle. Selvom det var en særdeles blæsende morgen, fik de både set sandløber, krumnæbbet ryle, kaspisk måge samt storkjove helt tæt på. Det er altid en fornøjelse at tælle fugle med Knud, for han er så sød og tålmodig og god til at lære fra sig. Vi får virkelig meget ud af morgenerne sammen med ham. 

Tilbage på fuglestationen tastede Viktoria og jeg vores observationer fra gårsdagens besøg hos Skarvkolonien ind. Herefter gik vi en tur i området for at se, om det ville kunne lade sig gøre at åbne nettene til den annoncerede ringmærkningstur kl. 14.00.

Vi måtte desværre erkende, at det ikke var muligt at åbne nettene, men Viktoria afholdt en super spændende og informativ ringmærkningstur alligevel. Faktisk hendes første! I dag foregik den på tysk, eftersom gæsterne var fra Tyskland. Jeg må erkende, at jeg virkelig skulle koncentrere mig for at forstå, hvad hun sagde. Jeg fik i hvert fald tilføjet nogle nye gloser.

Sidst på eftermiddagen tjekkede vi vejrudsigten for at planlægge aktiviterne til i morgen. Det ser heldigvis ud til, at vinden vil lægge sig, så vi tog til Jennes Sø for at gøre klar til CES-ringmærkning i morgen tidlig, når solen står op

Da vi ikke havde flere fugle-ting, vi kunne lave, var vi nødt til at finde på noget andet. Viktoria gav sig derfor til at rense vores afløb i køkkenet, som var stoppet. Hun havde fundet en fin måde at gøre det på uden kemikalier på en ”Hvad ville din farmor gøre?”-agtig hjemmeside.  

Til aften var vi ude at spise sammen med Lajla, Rie og Tina. Vi tog ud til Café Hvide Klit, hvor vi havde et meget glædeligt gensyn med Flemming og Christel, som tidligere havde cafeen på Det Grå Fyr. Maden smagte himmelsk, og det kan virkelig anbefales at tage en tur derud :-)

På vej hjem til fuglestationen havde vi en lektion i dansk. Det kom der mange sjove navne og udtalelser ud af :-) 

Folk: Amandine Doré, Viktoria Mader, Knud Pedersen, Simon S. Christiansen og Pernille Roed 

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