The garden was pretty empty today so I put the redpoll tape out and turned the trap over. The wind was too strong to have a net open. Whilst I was waiting for the first round I wrote the diary post for the previous day. I managed to catch a redpoll in the trap, which was processed and then later, just before Lene’s Fastelavn event I got a great tit. At about 11am a few people gathered in the courtyard for a ‘feeding the birds’ event, where I showed them what food we use to attract the birds, and how we spread it out (it’s not just willy nilly despite how it seems). The kids also got a chance to spread some food too. I then showed them the ringing process with the great tit that I’d caught, and this really caught the kids attention. They went so far as to name the bird ‘Maximilian’ the musvit!

Dante went back down to the harbour and also did some shopping. Whilst he was at the harbour he managed to record the ring numbers of 3 great black backed gulls. During this time I was working on the photo archive and looking through some other admin tasks before biking over to Jennes Sø and back. We both entered some DOF records in the evening and Dante reported the ring numbers of the gulls he’d seen in the harbour.

Simon returned this evening picked up Charlotte Mathiassen who will be doing some work for DOF whilst she’s here. I worked on some emails and we planned out the coming week to a degree now there’s more than one person at the Observatory!

Birds ringed

Musvit - 1

Stor Gråsisken - 1 

The musvit, ’Maximillian‘ was a big hit with the kids today. 

Bizarrely, even though its only March, Lene found this large moth caterpillar on the heath. 

We had a new bird in the garden today, nothing exciting but a blackbird gives me hope for some other birds than redpoll in the lab soon. Today’s the day of the presentation, and I still had a few last minute tweaks to make to it.

Dante arrived at lunchtime, and we had a nice session with Knud Pederson about upcoming activities and some of the stuff I’ve been doing since I’ve been here, including an impromptu demonstration of how to repair nets.

The presentation started at 3, with 16 nature interpreters from a variety of countries, including Albania, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Scotland and England present, along with several Danes. It went very well, there was a lot of interaction between us all, many questions asked, and an impromptu tour of the ringing lab afterward for those who are interested. It’s a shame I didn’t get a chance to spend more time with them as there were many conversations started that couldn’t be finished due to time constraints. As they left they presented the observatory with a very nice bottle of wine for the talk, which was gleefully received! Whilst I was giving the talk, Dante was refamiliarising himself with the local area, and even finding a glaucous gull (gråmåge) down in the harbour for his efforts.

After there was a lot of food left from dinner last night, Anders invited Dante and I to join him and Morten for dinner this evening. The wine from the Nature guides was well timed as it was a good accompaniment to a delicious lasagne. This was followed by a few drinks and chatting long into the night as the weather doesn’t look good for ringing or observing tomorrow morning.

The presentation went very well thanks, in part, to the extensive photo archive from which I took the pictures.

Today started particularly slowly, as there was some computer work I needed to to work on, some emails about birding in Skagen that needed a reply, and the presentation for Saturday needed to be worked on and timed. Also there was various admin tasks that I needed to perform too, which aren’t worth noting here. . Earlier in the morning Lene and I did see a family of five whooper swans (sangsvane) fly past the observatory. I put the updated version of the introductory video in the birders club also.

With Dante arriving tomorrow and Charlotte the day after, I decided I needed to do some shopping for basic foods so we have enough to get by, and to that end I headed to the supermarket midday.

It was a less birdy day than I’ve had for a while, though there were still plenty of redpoll in the garden, with great tit and yellowhammer joining them. The wind was too strong to put nets up though. I had a brief break in the café with Flemming during some down time, but he got quickly called away by some visitors.

I’d been invited out to dinner by Anders Bojesen and Morten Christensen so I set off on the bike about 6.30pm. A great time was had, delicious food, great company and lots of talk about the birding we had been doing, or that was coming up. It was really good to see them both again and a great way to end the week. It was a cold and dark bike ride home though!

The redpolls (gråsisken) are still present in numbers today. 

I put the tapes out to attract redwing (vindrossel) and opened the nets early morning. I didn’t catch any redwing, though as usual I had a surplus of redpolls. In amongst the many flammea redpolls I did catch one cabaret, so that was a nice change. I’ve now ringed around 70/80 redpolls this year and it’s getting easier to age and sex them, and the species differences are becoming more apparent the more I familiarise myself with a group that I haven’t ringed in numbers since April last year.

Throughout the time I was ringing there were plenty of jackdaw (allike) moving past the observatory, along with a few skylark (sanglærke). Having not had a great couple of nights sleep for various reasons, I had a brief nap after I closed nets, before starting on some net repair. I managed to get three nets done, bringing my total for nets fixed to 10 so far, with the same amount to go. It’s a good skill to have, though I am by no means adept at the process, with my large fingers.

The wind dropped by late afternoon so I took my daily bike ride up to Grenen. Not as productive as previous days, but a lovely evening to be out on the ridge there. Still looking forward to the time the bitterns move back in and I get to watch them travel from site to site, and days when you can’t move for birds of prey there! When I returned to the observatory I finished off the updated version of the birders club video. It’s still not as perfect as I want, but it’s hands down better than before.

Birds ringed

Stor gråsisken -31

Lille gråsisken - 1

Some variety among the flammea redpolls (stor gråsisken) this cabaret (lille gråsisken)

The carrion crow (sortkråge) is hanging out a lot at the observatory currently. 

It was a windy and slightly sleepless night, the lighthouse building makes the wind seem far more violent than it is. Despite that I was up and at Grenen by 7 and shortly joined by Knud. We had a very pleasant mornings birding, with a lot of movement, with whooper swans migrating, jackdaws attempting to, plenty of seaduck moving through, a group of 18 snow buntings feeding in front of us on the beach. A lone pink footed goose was heard only. Saw my first ravens and rook of the season also. We were joined later on by Jørgen Kable, who spotted a group of four buzzards attempting to migrate but chickening out before they reached the tip.

It was a pain to wrench myself back after three hours but it was cleaning day and we have new volunteers coming in at the weekend. The cleaning takes a while when it’s just one of you! The birds were still very active in the garden, but the wind had picked up so I couldn’t really open the nets. After seeing the activity on the beach today however I decide to head out tonight for some flashlighting. Before I went out I spent some time fixing a net, however it’s one of the trickier ones and I don’t finish it before dinner. The board came to the Observatory for a meeting in the birders club, but I missed them as I went out for a fruitless hour flashlighting in the wind. However it’s given me a good feel for what birds are present and what conditions may not be the best for going out in! Hey ho, I’ll be opening the nets tomorrow if the wind is as low as the forecast suggests.

One flock of several hundred jackdaws that attempted crossing at Grenen today. 

Flemming and I set off about 10.00 this morning to the harbour to find the diver. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, we couldn’t find it again and had to return. Flemming contacted the wildlife rescue people, so at least the appropriate authorities know. We’ll have another try if it turns up again.

On the way back the garden was full of redpolls, and amongst them was my first Danish tree sparrow for the year. I had other things to do today, including preparing another slideshow so I couldn’t take the time to wade through redpoll recaptures to process a tree sparrow. Perhaps another day. I continue doing computer work, as the presentation and the previous days diary took me a while.

I managed to head out to Grenen for the late afternoon, and despite seeming quiet, it was very active, with four stock dove, four shelduck, a crane, reed bunting and various other species I hadn’t caught up with yet this season. The fieldfare were putting on a nice display, I counted at least 250 this time, slightly down from the other day, but they were well spread out. I biked home via Ellekrattet and heard a water rail in the reeds which was nice and a crane was calling between Jennes Sø and North Strand.

When I got home, I got a message from Knud inviting me out seawatching the next morning at Grenen, so I got an early night so I could be at the tip at 7.

Diver rescue equipment! . . . . that we didn’t need. . 

Our recent garden visitor, the tree sparrow (Skovspurv)

The weather was quite good this morning, and so I had the nets open for an hour or so. The majority of birds caught were redpoll but I did get another fresh great tit, which was nice. I’ve been hearing a lot about red kites being seen in Skagen that I haven’t seen yet, so I did a brief bit of raptor watching from the side of the ringing lab. Didn’t see any red kites, but an odd buzzard and a good movement of jackdaws. The fog then moved in rapidly putting an end to my raptor searching.

I then sat in the birders club continuing to fine tune the video, whilst also making myself available to questions from the few visitors coming in. A couple from Norway came in and told me that there was a small seal up at Grenen. My interest piqued, I had an enjoyable hour and a half birding up to Grenen and back, seeing a razorbill, and a few other species, but no live seal. There was a dead grey seal almost covered by sand, and that was interesting as I’d never been so close to one before. I also found an interesting feather on the beach, which may be from a woodcock, which would be a fantastic find!

After dinner I created a new photo archive folder for 2019 (not so easy as I had to spell Danish, which required copying it all down on paper before transferring to the computer). Whilst I was doing this I got a message from Flemming saying he’d found a red throated diver with some fishing line caught round it in the harbour. We resolved to try and catch it and cut the line off tomorrow.

Interesting feather, probable woodcock (skovsneppe)

A grey seal on the beach, fast becoming a part of the beach . .

I didn’t have time for ringing today as I was getting the birders club ready for the Eagles Day slideshow. It was attended by a few locals as well as a few new faces, Jørgen Kabel for one. It went quite well, considering the aptitude of the attendees, but for me the most interesting part was after I’d finished the talk and Jørgen and I looked at the differences between greater and lesser spotted eagles.

It was a pretty low key day after this, a bike ride into town, followed by some computer work. The mist came down so birding was non existent. I did however photograph two roe deer in the fog on the way back from town, clearly very confident due to the lack of people. I made some social media posts, and Simon did the same from Oman, which added a different flavour. I made a nice chilli in the evening, which should see me through the next couple of days, and free me up to do other things. I have another presentation coming up at the end of the week which I need to start working on.

Me admitting to everyone I don’t know what an eagle is!

Ghostly roe deer . . 

The weather was good and the wind low, so I got up early and put some fieldfare tape out in the garden. Gave it an hour and after getting one bird, swapped it over to the redpoll tape. Which was much more successful, with 28 birds being caught after that, and there would have been more if the speaker hadn’t run out of battery. It was a busy but fun morning, with my first non redpoll bird ringed since I got back, which was a 2nd year male great tit. There was also some movement of birds, with a greylag goose flock over the Obs and a kestrel feeding in the garden. Jurgen Cable came over for a chat, first time I’d seen him since I got back, which was nice.

After I finished, Flemming invited me in for a bit of cake, which was the perfect way to finish off a good morning. After a good cuppa and ‘cinnamon snail’ I was energised to go up and double check my eagle presentation for tomorrow, and inevitably to add to it. Once I was done with this, I had a bike ride over to Jennes Sø and back along the road (keeping active as best I can) and then a quick met fixing session got me another two nets done.

Last of the leftover stew for dinner before entering DofBasen and checking out another PowerPoint presentation I’ll have to make next week, before getting the diary our early! Looking forward to Eagle Day tomorrow, lets hope we see some rovfugle at least!

Great tit (musvit)

Some of the redpoll (gråsisken) today were borderline between mealy and lesser.

The wind was too strong to open the nets so I put the trap down for an hour, but as I expected I didn’t get much interest from the one bird I saw in the garden. I occupied myself with writing the previous days diaries and entering DofBasen records that I’d forgotten to enter the night before. Michael Ancher came round for a chat and we discussed the bird activity over the past few days as the temperature had dropped significantly. I took a walk around ElleKrattet and the beach, there wasn’t much around, the highlight being a male velvet scoter.

I made a trip into town for some needed shopping, (in the sleet) and then proceeded to wash some sheets, so that there’s enough bedding when the next volunteer arrives. Got to use the new tumble drier which was a luxury I wasn’t used to a bird observatory! After the centre closed, I took advantage of the quiet to hoover the stairs, so much sand gets tracked in during the week. 

I continued doing some computer work into the evening, before dinner. I’m going to try for some thrushes tomorrow morning, so I need to be up early.

Male velvet scoter (fløjlsand) just off the shore from the observatory