I woke up this morning at the usual time to go ringing at Kabeltromlen. It was a bit weird to be on my own, but I did not expect there to be many birds (again due to rain over the sea and in the south of Sweden and Norway during the night, as well as southerly winds), so I told Bjørn he might be better off going to the migration count instead. So, I left an hour before sunrise to open the nets and was greeted by lots of mosquitos and incoming fog on the way. After opening the nets and instead of waiting for half an hour alone with hundreds of mosquitos, I walked to the beach to see what was happening there. And there was happening quite a bit (which proved me right, probably to tell Bjørn to go there instead): I saw 2 green sandpipers (svaleklire), which I have not seen in Skagen at all, I think, and at least 5 golden plovers (Hjejle) roosting on the beach, next to the usual dunlins (almindelig ryle), and lots of ringed plovers (stor præstekrave).

Either way, I could not stay to enjoy the view, since somebody had to check the nets, and seeing that I was on my own, that somebody was me. I went out and had a couple birds in the first few nets which had never caught anything in the last few weeks, so I was getting my hopes up too high, for sure. I had a nice first hour with some birds – although only local breeding birds, but then there was a long stretch of almost nothing. I finally closed the nets early after two empty net checks.

In the first net check, however, there was a rather interesting bird: a blackcap (munk). Now, you might say, they are quite common here, so not that interesting really (mind you, I think they are very underrated, seeing that they are probably the most audible of beautiful spring sounds in most of Europe), but this one was special: it had a tiger-striped head. Since most birds are now in moult (they need to change their feathers regularly, because they wear off and then are not good for insulation, and neither for flying, and just after the breeding season and before migration seems a good time for most birds – especially the ones that are not in a hurry to leave, because they are not going to the other end of the globe), seeing two plumages on one bird is not so surprising. We see it every day on the shorebirds (ryle) out on the beach, as well as in the eider ducks (ederfugl) in the sea. However, after closer inspection I found that this bird was not actually moulting. It was in completely juvenile plumage. Maybe he was friends with the baby red-necked grebes (gråstrubet lappedykker) from Skarvsøen, because they too have a striped head in their juvenile plumage.

Anyway, I did some research in the books and apparently the brown cap of juvenile blackcaps can have different degrees of light and brown dark, as well as black, in their crowns. It is just not something we see very often, and it looks really funny:

Meanwhile, the team at the observation, joined by Hendrik on his last morning, observed lots of gannets (sule) fishing on the shores, also the still present Atlantic skua (almindelig kjove), and several dozens of golden plovers (hjejle) passing. Highlight of the morning was probably an adult female red-footed flacon (aftenfalk), a species that is normally mainly seen here in the spring. Later, a merlin (lærkefalk) passed by as well.

In the afternoon, two new volunteers arrived: Hayley from England, who will stay for three months and has some years of ringing experience in England. She is hoping to see many new species in Skagen and would be delighted if she got to ring a bluethroat. And Gustav, he is Danish and has volunteered here before but only for a few days. Obviously, he liked it, so he chose to come here for his internship for his studies and will stay for more than 3 months! The autumn team is finally getting shape.

Henrik and Karen left us around noon, and two other guests will move into the apartment tonight. They were delayed on their way here, so we did not get to meet them before we went to bed, however.

Ringing  (Kabeltromlekrattet)

Munk (Blackcap) - 2

Tornsanger (Common Whitethroat) - 3

Gærdesanger (Lesser Whitethroat) - 2

Rørsanger (Reed Warbler) - 1

Gransanger (Chiffchaff) - 1

Total: 9

People: Hayley Land, Gustav Nyberg , Martina Hillbrand, Simon Kiesé, Bjørn Laursen, Simon S. Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Morten Christiensen, Kristine og Jan Hjort Christensen

A link to today's observations from volunteers and local observers.

This morning, I went out with Bjørn to open the nets at Kabeltromlen. We were soon joined by Simon the first, who stayed for less than 3 hours, but enough time to get some really good birds:

In the first net check – yet again! – we had a juvenile water rail (vandrikse). It was the third we ringed in the last 10 days, all caught in the same row of nets, all of them juveniles, so we assume they are brothers and sisters from one family of Water rail, that lives north of the trail. There must be another family south of the trail, because we always hear them. It is amazing, that there are so many of them, and what a great treat to get to ring them all, so we also know, it is not always the same bird that comes to us. Rails are normally very hard to see, and therefore almost impossible to count otherwise, which is also why we only have very rough estimates of how many water – and other – rails there are – in Denmark, or in Europe, or worldwide, really. This is where catching and marking birds is a very big advantage, because suddenly we see, that the birds we keep hearing actually seemed to have a good breeding success. Mind you, of course, we don’t catch all the birds around, so not having caught many in other years does not necessarily mean they had low breeding success. It might be just that this year they like to hang out around our nets for whichever reason.

In brackets: after Simon left, we caught yet another juvenile water rail, making it four total in the last 10 days!

Picture of one of the water rails (vandrikse).

Before he left, however, we also caught quite a treat: a barred warbler (høgesanger). This is yet another bird that is very rarely seen, however, it is also not often heard in Denmark, simply because there aren’t many. In fact, it has not been known to breed in Denmark for the last few decades, only this year they reported one single breeding pair again. Whether or not there are more and they are just not known, we cannot really guess. Fact is, barred warblers are not common in Denmark, however, another fact is, they are not easy to observe.

Therefore, it was not so surprising that several birders who were in the close surroundings when Simon made the Zello call, came to watch the ringing and get a picture of this rather special bird.

Picture of the barred warbler (høgesanger).

Not much later, the zitting cisticola (cistussanger) that has been hanging around for a while now, was heard again. This lead to an even higher influx of people with big scopes and big cameras.

Simon the first then left to do some errands, while Bjørn and I just continued our normal work. As was to be expected: In the net check after Simon left we had a rather large number of birds, so we called Simon the second to help, because he was sitting at World’s End 1 with Rolf, doing the migration count, which, again, did not produce all too many birds, so he was probably quite happy to be allowed to leave early, and get to see our 4^th water rail instead.

Finally at around noon we closed down the nets after a medium successful ringing day. We had quite a few birds – more than the last few times, however, they were still mostly not what you would call “migration”. Interestingly, the last few times we almost caught no whitethroats (tornsanger), whereas today they showed up again. I do not have an explanation for that, other than the fact that some of them were caught on the south side, which we did not always have open, because I was the only licensed ringer for some days. However, even on the north side we suddenly had tornsangers again. Maybe they were hiding somewhere else during the storm and are now back. Hopefully to eat the loads of berries that are out there and prepare for a good migration, so that many of them can return and have babies next year!

Migration was there, however, in a marsh warbler (kærsanger), a willow warbler (løvsanger) and a garden warbler (havesanger). And also the barred warbler, of course. The problem with the migration thing seems to be the weather. The storm is now over, but the winds are still from the south. Also, even though we haven’t had rain here in the last few days, it has been raining a lot over the sea and in the south of Sweden and Norway, and especially during the early hours of the night when birds would start their migration. At the end of next week it looks like the winds will change and migration will probably pick up speed. However, if migration conditions are very good, birds might just pass us by completely and not stop here but go through further south if they can. We will patiently (or not so much) wait and see.

In the afternoon, we had a cleaning day and a last dinner with the guest from the apartment, who are leaving tomorrow. We hope they will come back next year!

Ringing  (Kabeltromlekrattet)

Vandrikse (Water Rail) - 2

Munk (Blackcap) - 2

Tornsanger (Common Whitethroat) - 5

Gærdesanger (Lesser Whitethroat) – 1

Havesanger (Garden Warbler) - 1

Høgesanger (Barred Warbler) - 1

Rørsanger (Reed Warbler) - 3

Kæersanger (Marsh Warbler) - 1

Løvsanger (Willow Warbler) - 1

Gransanger (Chiffchaff) - 4

Rørspruv (Reed Bunting) - 4

Gulspurv (Yellowhammer) - 1

Total: 26

People: Martina Hillbrand, Simon Kiesé, Bjørn Laursen, Simon S. Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Karen and Henrik Toft

A link to today's observations from volunteers and local observers.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

This is the motto of today's blog post. Except for the Water Rail, the pictures today are all mine.

Last night we opened the nets again, as usual for Nightjar (Natravn) and Storm Petrel (Lille Stormsvale). Things didn't go quite according to plan during the night, but that's another story. The night got off to a great start. At the first real net check Bjørn and I walked together to the first net and to our surprise there were two Nightjars (Natravn) hanging right there. Totally cool. Martina put a ring on the young bird (1st cy) and I on the previous year's female (female 2nd cy), then the birds were measured and weighed as usual. The age determination was easy to see, especially in direct comparison with the feathers moulted on the K2 bird. Without the comparison the camouflaged feathers look confusing, but in comparison you can see the differences. See for yourself.

Nightjar (Natravn) - 1st cy

Nightjar (Natravn) - female 2nd cy

Later that night we also caught and ringed the first Tern of the year, this year's Common Tern (Fjordterne). What a successful night.

Since I was already awake, I spent the night with Johanna doing the checks. It was really nice to hear storys about previous volunteer life here. Some shooting stars could be seen in the sky.

As it was already late, I went directly to World's End 3 to start the count, which was later continued by Knud in view of my lack of sleep. We again saw two roosting Parasitic Skuas (Almindelig Kjove), a few Fulmars (Mallemug) (fewer than yesterday) and an Manx Shearwater (Almindelig Skråpe).

Then I went back and paused briefly to photograph the House Martins in front of the lighthouse.

After that I had my sleep from 9 to 3pm. Meanwhile Bjørn and Martina were ringing at Kabeltromlen. There were not many birds on site, but a really cool species composition. The first bird of the day was this Water Rail (Vandrikse).

The afternoon was spent sleeping, evening meeting, shopping, cooking and reporting data. So the day (and night) was very successful with nice catches and slowly the songbird migration starts. I am already looking forward to the next nightcatching session.

Ringing (Grå Fyr)

Nightjar (Natravn) - 2

Common Tern (Fjordterne) - 1

Total: 3

Ringing (Kabeltromlekrattet)

Water Rail (Vandrikse) - 1

Wren (Gærdesmutte) - 1

Lesser Whitethroat (Gærdesanger) - 1

Common Redstart (Rødstjert) - 1

Chiffchaff (Gransanger) - 2

Icterine Warbler (Gulbug) – 1

Garden Warbler (Havesanger) - 1

Willow Warbler (Løvsanger) - 2

Blue Tit (Blåmejse) - 1

Marsh Warbler (Kærsanger) - 1

Total: 12

People: Martina Hillbrand, Simon Kiesé, Bjørn Laursen, Simon S. Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Karen and Henrik Toft, Johanna Veentjer

A link to today's observations from volunteers and local observers.

After all those days with very adverse weather, we almost forgot, what it is like to work at Skagen Fuglestation: normally you are always busy and even when you are not you still have to decide whether you want to go out birding or catch up on sleep. Now, finally we’re getting into the daily rhythm again (of working night and day)!

Simon junior and Bjørn got up early this morning, along with Johanna, who has been a volunteer earlier this year and is now back on holidays with her family. In dire need of the “real Skagen experience” she asked if she could join us this morning, which we highly appreciated. I “slept in” until 5.30 and joined them, Knud, and Henrik a little later at World’s End 3, by which time I had already missed several hundreds of fulmars (mallemuk), a manx shearwater (almindelig skråpe) and three arctic skuas (almindelig kjove). So it seems that the day has been better than the last few days. Actually, the skuas had arrived on the beach last night. I got a nice picture of one of them through the scope, taken with the phone (so not as good as Simon’s pictures).

And here is how the morning looked, sunny and less windy, so actually a really nice morning out.

Unfortunately, the wind was still too strong for opening nets, but there were also some nice shorebirds to look at, on the beach, so I could have some fun too.

In the afternoon, Peter Kristensen came out again, to set up the new radio telemetry equipment with which we are hoping to record passing birds with telemetry tags on them. All of us helped together to build a setup for the solar panel and a fence to keep the cows away from our equipment.

Also, yesterday, as there were so many kittiwakes (ride) roosting on the beach, Knud and Simon managed to read quite a few rings. We reported them today, and, amazingly, already received an immediate answer from Kjeld Pedersen: some of them were ringed in 2015 and have not been reported since! The oldest was ringed in 2014, so is now 9 years old!

After the evening meeting, Bjørn finally showed off his amazing cooking skills (Sean, we found a replacement for you! Downside is, he’s only staying for 2 weeks). Now we try to get some sleep before we get up again at sunset (little vampire-like feeling) to set up the nets for the night catching Simon junior has been wishing for for days now. Johanna will come back to help us with that, so we can get some sleep before our next tasks in the morning.

It will also be Bjørn’s first “ringing” session, before he get’s to join me at the ringing at Kabeltromlen tomorrow morning. Due to the southerly winds, however, there will probably not be many birds, but that gives Bjørn the chance to slowly learn extracting the birds and recording all the measurements we take at the ringing.

There may be night catching again tomorrow night, if you are interested in coming, we will keep you updated on Facebook and Zello.

People: Peter Kristensen, Martina Hillbrand, Simon Kiesé, Bjørn Laursen, Simon S. Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Karen and Henrik Toft

A link to today's observations from volunteers and local observers.

As my first full day on the station, Martina, Simon junior and I went out to do the migration count with high hopes after the storm, although there was still a lot of wind. We were met on the beach with over 100 roosting Kittiwakes (Ride). Knud was out there when we got to World’s End 3 and the guests joined us later. Martina went to Nordstrand to see if there were more kittiwakes (ride) there, but found instead various shorebirds.  During the migration count we saw species such as arctic skua (almindelig skråpe), fulmars (mallemuk), razorbills (alk), etc. Martina rejoined with us after a while, but later her and I then went back to Nordstrand.  Just before Knud and Simon were about to leave, they saw a manx shearwater (almindelig skråpe) migrating and Simon had talked about he was hoping for it the day before.

When we had gotten back and rested after lunch, I went out with the guests to Jerup Strand. We saw 12 spoonbills (skestork), which we enjoyed looking at in quite close range. As well as a mixture of shorebirds such as red knot (islandsk ryle) and bar-tailed godwit (lille kobbersneppe).

Spoonbills (skestork) foraging. Foto: Henrik Toft

Just as I arrived home, I found Martina in the proces of ringing a common house martin (bysvale) as it had flown into the lighthouse store and she had to rescue it. I spent the evening helping her with trimming the trees and bushes around the nets used when ringing and we made it home in time for when the guests had cooked us dinner.

I am looking forward to the next two weeks I will spend here and hope to learn from a lot from the more experienced birders. I also hope the weather will soon allow for some ringing.

Ringing (Det Grå Fyr):

Bysvale (House martin) - 1

total: 1

People: Martina Hillbrand, Simon Kiesé, Bjørn Laursen, Simon S. Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Karen and Henrik Toft

Get to know the people at the station.

A link to today's observations from volunteers and local observers.

As luck would have it, I have the honour of writing this blog on this rather boring day. But it wasn't completely boring, as was already evident in the morning.

We didn't mind wind force 8, so Martina and I set off for Grenen at 5 am. Visibility was too bad for the migration count, but due to the storm the beach is now flooded and some Waders (Ryle) and even more Kittiwakes (Ride) than yesterday are sitting there. Birds already spotted in previous days, such as Red Knot (Islandsk Ryle), Little Sandpipers (Dværgryle) and Temminck's Stint (Temmincksryle) showed up again and it was fun to watch them running around. My hope that the visibility would clear up again for some seawatching was dashed when it started to rain. At least I was delighted to see two resting Black Terns (Sortterne) moulting from breeding plumage into summer plumage. It rained and didn't stop. Luckily I had taken the overall with me, which withstood even this weather.

roosting Kittiwakes (Ride) at the beach

Back home we entered the data and took a break. We checked the weather forecast every minute to see when the rain would finally stop. The rain break was also nice to watch an episode of the new series 'Good Omes 2' with a hot chocolate. Just normal human stuff.

When the rain stopped in the early afternoon, I went straight to World's End 3. Hoping for shearwaters, I was happy about the now quite good visibility. But hours passed and nothing came. Well, that's life as a birder. The time was nevertheless entertaining, as some Common Scoters (Sortand) and a few Velvet Scoters (Fløjlsand) passed through. I also saw three Fulmars (Mallemuk) and another Black Tern (Sortterne). Among the waders we had already looked through this morning, there were now also two pretty Curlew Sandpipers (Krumnæbbet Ryle) and a Bar-tailed Godwit (Lille Kobbersneppe). The guests in the apartment used the bad weather to go to town into the art museum.

Meanwhile, Martina went shopping in town and Simon (the first) picked up the new volunteer Bjørn from the station. He is Danish and has only been birdwatching this year. So he is looking forward to the impressions and experiences he will gain during his stay here for the next two weeks.

People: Martina Hillbrand, Simon Kiesé, Bjørn Laursen, Simon S. Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Karen and Henrik Toft

 A link to today's observations from volunteers and local observers.

What can I say? It is a bit too windy to open the nets and with the rain, seawatch is not so easy. We still went out this morning and afternoon and did see some birds. Actually, Grenen beach is quite nice, because it is flooded again, and the number of shorebird species is increasing. Only, we don’t have pictures because with the rain you try to not take out electronic equipment, if not necessary.

This morning on the beach there were several dunlins and sanderlings (almindelig ryle og sandløber), as there used to be, but in addition to that: 2 red knots (islandsk ryle), 1 ruff (brushane), 3 curlew sandpipers (krumnæbbet ryle) and a couple oystercatchers (strandskade), next to the ever present ringed plovers (stor præstekrave). In the afternoon, Simon junior went there again and saw that one of the red knots has a ring. We ringed a couple last year, so maybe it is ours. Maybe tomorrow we can get a picture and try to read the ring…

Also, in the afternoon, Simon saw a temminck’s stint (temmincksryle), a little stint (dværgryle), and a redshank (rødben), which I did not see in the morning. I think I saw a flock of about 60 redshanks migrating in the morning, but I could not get a good enough look to identify them for sure. But there is definitely quite a lot of shorebird movement, despite the wind.

Also, despite, or because of, the wind, the gannets (sule) are having a feast and I saw them for the first time just in front of the lighthouse. We can literally watch them fishing from the kitchen window!

(Archive Picture, because of the weather of today…)

And Simon was also happy to see some shearwaters (skråpe), two of which were manx (almindelig) and one unfortunately had to stay unidentified.

In the evening, we had dinner together with our guests from the apartment and started a betting round when would be the best time to go bird watching tomorrow. I think, since the weather forecast can’t be relied on, your best bet is to just wake up at 4 and see what it says then, and then maybe sleep for another hour or not, depending. Anyway, I believe that tomorrow morning Grenen beach can be very good for shorebirds, so I will definitely want to be there before the tourists come. As for other birds, we will have to see, if anything still moves – which will also depend on when the storm really picks up.

So enjoy the birding in the – way too early – autumn storm and stay safe!

People: Martina Hillbrand, Simon Kiesé, Simon S. Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Karen and Henrik Toft

 A link to today's observations from volunteers and local observers.

As the wind was good again, we didn't want to miss the next chance to try ringing Storm Petrels (Lille Stormsvale). So we set up the nets again in the evening, as we had done the last few times. On our early notice, several observers from Denmark, partly from Copenhagen, had arrived. So we really hoped to have success this night. But unfortunately we did not catch the target species, at least in the Storm Petrel net.

On the other hand, the Nightjar (Natraven) net was once again a complete success! Already in the first round we were able to catch and ring a young bird. How cool!

Look at the fresh feathers of this juvenile Nightjar. (pictures: Simon Kiesé)

Later that night we caught a second one, an adult male, which to our joy was already wearing a ring. This bird was ringed by us last summer about 10 kilometres away in the breeding area, as Simon (the first) was able to tell us directly. Exciting to see one of the birds again. Unfortunately, I didn't wake up for this bird, which is better, as we had to get up shortly after 3am the next morning to go to Skarvsøen for CES ringing.

So while Martina and I had our hands full with ringing Reed Warblers (Rørsanger), Reed Warblers (Rørsanger) and Reed Warblers (Rørsanger), Seán went to World's End to do a quick migration count. He then went back to rest up from the night he had spent doing the net checks for us.

Both he and we finally saw the young Goshawk (Duehøg) that has been flying around here for a few days. At home in Germany I see the species quite often, but now I am of course motivated to see as many species as possible here in Skagen.
At 1pm Seán was picked up by Knud to be taken to the station. Seán's time here is unfortunately over again. It was nice to meet you and I look forward to seeing you here again next May. Have a safe journey to Ireland via Aalborg and Amsterdam!

Also Tine and her family left this morning. They got the chance to see the nightjar last night as their good-bye present. Thank you for all the interest you showed in our work and for being such lovely guests!

After a necessary and well-deserved break, the two remaining volunteers got back to work. Martina cooked and I started writing this blog and vacuuming the floor. Then our two new guests also arrived at the flat. As the next days are full of wind and storm, we unfortunately can neither ring nor do the standard migration count. Yay, finally a good night's sleep. I had almost lost faith in being able to sleep in here ;-) But as soon as it's dry, I'll use every minute to go seawatching. Hopefully the wind will bring some great birds. When the wind dies down again, conditions will be good for catching Storm Petrels. It has to happen again sometime, doesn't it?

I hope you have better weather or use the weather to hope for some shearwaters!

Ringing (Skarvsøen )

Tornsanger (Common Whitethroat) - 2

Rørsanger (Reed Warbler) - 27

Gransanger (Chiffchaff) - 5

Blåmejse (Blue tit) - 1

Munk (Blackcap) - 3

Gærdesanger (Lesser Whiterhroat) - 4

Lille Gråsisken (cabaret) (Lesser Redpoll) - 1

Løvsanger (Willow Warbler) - 1

Total: 44

People: Seán Walsh, Martina Hillbrand, Simon Kiesé, Simon S. Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Karen and Henrik Toft, Lise, Tine and Elinor

 A link to today's observations from volunteers and local observers.

For the first time in a while, I did the morning migration count with Simon. I had spent the last week or so ringing with Martina where the weather allowed us as I entered my last week working at Skagen Fuglestation trying to learn as much as possible. In contrast to the last few days of migration, it was slightly better as the winds were a bit stronger. The morning started nicely, with some Mallemuk (Fulmar) and Lomvie (Guillemot) movement. Then, we began to see some skua movement at sea, even though there was none on the beach anymore. We saw four Storkjove (Great Skua) migrating north-west in total, and two Almindelig Kjove (Arctic Skua) also going north-west. As we neared the third hour of our count, the winds picked up even more and we saw many of the birds we had just counted coming back in the opposite direction. It was a sign to stop the migration count as not to risk double counting. The weather is a good omen, though, for our Stormsvale (Storm-petrel) catching tonight. If a bird as large and heavy as a Storkjove is driven back by the wind, then we are more likely to catch the small Stormsvale. 

Simon was also incredibly happy today as he saw his first large whale while doing the morning migration count! Rolf and he belived it to be a Minke whale. We observed it jumping many times out of the water from World's End. There have been some sightings of Minke whale lately in Danish waters and particuarly on the Danish north coast so it being a Minke seems likely.

Martina was supposed to join us on the migration count, but she believed she had once again been fooled by the weather forecast. As Simon and I got ready to leave, she was getting ready to also, but instead to go ringing. She opened the nets at half 5 this morning thinking there might be something. She only ended up catching a Gransanger (Common Chiffchaff) and, rather nicely, a Havesanger (Garden Warbler).

Today was my last full day here. I am a little sad I didn't get to spend it ringing at Kabeltromlen but I am confident that we will catch something nice tonight, even if its not a Stormsvale. I cooked a farewell dinner of sorts, chana dal, Martina's favourite meal. I attempted to make enough for leftovers, but it seems like it'll all be gone by tomorrow's dinnertime. I'm leaving tomorrow around lunchtime. The six weeks I have spent here have been amazing in many different ways. I have learned a new skill I have wanted to for years, I have seen many new and different birds compared to my home in Ireland. And I have met some really nice people from the beginning of my time here to the end. I look forward to seeing Simon Kiesé and Simon Christiansen again next May, when I return for the spring season, hopefully with more experience.

Tally ho.

Ringing (Kabeltromlekrattet)

Havesanger (Garden Warbler) - 1

Total: 1

Skagen People: Seán Walsh, Martina Hillbrand, Simon Kiesé, Simon S. Christiansen, Lisa Vergin,  Lise, Tine and Elinor

A link to today's observations from volunteers and local observers.

A link to the results of the latest NocMig-Recordings on Trektellen.

Migration has officially started now, seeing that at the ringing, for the first time, we had more migrating brids than local birds. Although that is a really good sign, it still was a very slow day for ringing at Kabeltromlem. The night should have been reasonably good for migration and strong winds and more rain are on their way. Birds can somehow detect when bad weather is coming, so they can get away from it in time. This means that there probably was quite a lot of migration going on tonight, only, apparently, birds did not have a reason to stop at our place, they just went straight south. Whatever happened to all the whitethroats (tornsanger) that were in the area just a few days ago, we can only guess. They may either have learned where the nets are, so they can avoid them now, moved somewhere else around the area (although there is still plenty of food for them here!), or they have already started migration as well, in face of the bad weather to come.

It was Sean’s last day at the ringing, since tomorrow it will be too windy. At least, he got to see some species that he hasn’t seen so often this year, like willow warbler (løvsanger) and marsh warbler (kærsanger). Also, in the closing round, we still caught a very young icterine warbler (gulbug), showing that they had been breeding locally. The parents were both around the net and calling loudly, while we extracted the bird. We made sure to ring it quickly and take it back to them. Despite the not fully grown wings, the bird was already very skilled in flying!

Picture of the first willow warbler (løvsanger) this morning - first sign of migration!

Simon junior, meanwhile, was out doing the seabird count at World’s End 3. Again, he had very good views of some fulmars (mallemuk), but not much else to speak of (quote: ”I was there for three hours and had absolutely no birds”, quote two seconds later: ”I counted about 300 gulls, a few fulmars, a black-throated and two red-throated divers, two razorbills…” [look for the complete list in Danish in the DOFbasen link below]). So, despite it being slow, there were some nice species to observe, just not lots of them.

In the email, on the other hand, we had some interesting news from a foreign ringed chaffinch we caught earlier this year: it was a female that was ringed in March, probably on her wintering grounds, in Southampton, England. A little more than a year later it was recovered at Kabeltromlen, on the 31^st of May this year.

After the morning we all went home, and since yesterday was spent doing all the things, we didn’t have time to do before, there was not so much left to do today. We had a nap and then Sean cooked dinner for all of us and the guests from the apartment. Tine has gotten into birding very much, while her mother is enjoying the beach and the beautiful scenery, and her daughter is mainly just enjoying her last days of holidays before school starts again. She did come out with her mum to Kabeltromlen one last time to see the ringing today and quite enjoyed herself.

So this was it for “before the storm”. What happens after the storm, we don’t know, also it seems, a lot more storm is on the way. But for now, we hope that the wind will die down tomorrow evening, so we can catch storm petrels (stormsvale) again, hoping (or fearing) some have been blown our way.

Tomorrow morning should be interesting for sea watching so you will find us all out at World’s End. It will be too windy to set up nets for ringing in the morning.

Ringing  (Kabeltromlekrattet)

Munk (Blackcap) - 1

Tornsanger (Common Whitethroat) - 2

Gærdesanger (Lesser Whitethroat) - 1

Kæersanger (Marsh Warbler) - 2

Gulbug (Icterine Warbler) - 1

Løvsanger (Willow Warbler) - 3

Gulspurv (Yellowhammer) - 1

Total: 11

People: Seán Walsh, Martina Hillbrand, Simon Kiesé, Simon S. Christiansen, Lisa Vergin,  Lise, Tine and Elinor

A link to today's observations from volunteers and local observers.

A link to the results of the latest NocMig-Recordings on Trektellen.