Hi eyeryone!

Today was the last day of the Bird Festival. Finally it was not so windy and we hoped to have a good ringing day. But the nets in disappointed us. Although there was a cool surprise in the first round: a big bird wriggled in the net right after the ditch on the south side. I expected a Blackbird "Solsort", saw some brown too, but no, not a Blackbird "Solsort" at all - a Water Rail "Vendrikse" had gone into the bottom pocket of the net. Every day we hear water rails squawking around Kabletromle, at dusk Alice and I spottet one some time ago. But in the hand it is really a cool species. Leona and I were delighted and a lot of visitors came to see it, because today was finally a Bird Festival day with good weather. Otherwise the nets didn't deliver anything special, but three Reed Warblers "Rørsanger"  were nice. We also had visit from Jeppe, a former volunteer, who helped us at the ringing.

Water Rail "Vandrikse"

And in the morning Simon told me, that I had won the DOF Osprey Binocular in yesterday's raffle from Naturbutikken! That and the Water Rail "Vendrikse" made the morning really good, although unfortunately we still don't have a rarity in the nets. It's about time folks! When we returned to the bird station I was very happy to get my new binoculars from Naturbutikken.

In the late morning Alice also came back from her hike with overnight camping. She enjoyed the last days all to herself and in nature a lot.

There was still some data to enter from yeterdays Fulmar "Mallemuk" Survey.

Robbe and Manuel did the Laser Shooting of Worlds End 1 this morning and were able to track Honey Buzzards "Hvepsevåge" and Red-Throated Divers  "Rødstrubet Lom" with the Laser Binocular. In the distance they saw a Great Northern Diver "Islom". Marianne and Curt joindes us at the ringing today, then they left us again and in the late afternoon we welcomed our new guests. Today was also cleening day and also in the garden a lot was cleared because the Bird Festival is now over and all tents were taken down again. Our new guests Lisbeth and Bent were lucky, at the right time in the right place, because in the evening a Surf Scoter "Brilleand" was found south of Skagen in a large group of Common Scoters "Sortand". We got a lift from Erik and other birders and we all saw it very well.

For Alice, Leona, Robbe and me this was a new species, Manuel had already seen a Surf Scoter "Brilleand" 15 years ago in Canada but that is quite a long time ago and a new European species for him, so a reason for all of us to return to the bird station highly satisfied. Then we had a good meal prepared by Maunel and now it is already late again and tomorrow early day awakening. So off to bed, see you tomorrow in the field!

Ringed Birds at Kabletromle:

Vandrikse: 1

Solsort: 1

Tornsanger: 2

Munk: 4

Bogfinke: 4

Gærdesanger: 2

Rørsanger: 3

Gærdesmutte: 3

Total: 20

Observations of the day in DOFbasn from observers in the area

Raptor summary of the raptors entered on DOFbasen todayHanelie

People at the station: Simon S. Christiansen, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Manuel Tacke, Leona Gottschalkson, Robbe Cool, Jeppe Overgaard, Erik Christophersen, our guests Marianne, Curt, Bent and Lisbeth

Today Manuel started to observe alone but soon was joined by others. First a Sooty Shearwater was announced but sadly he wasn't able to see it very well. But later there was a Manx Shearwater and he was able to see it. Shortly after this Robbe arrived and together they saw a Great Northern Diver really close in perfect light!

Erik Christophersen captured the moment when the Great Northern Diver came really close

Manuel continued observing and Robbe came back in the hope to get a look at the Rosefinch. I just finished my breakfast and decided to join him. Together we went close to Poul Eeg Camping with our bikes. In the Area we were able to hear and see an Icterine Warbler, later we were able to hear the Rosefinch very shortly, so we decided to take a look around. Sadly without success but the walk was really nice between blooming lilac bushes.

Hanelie took the opportunity today to go on a big morning walk and could hear and see a lot of different species.

Around Lunch all of us were back at the station so we could do the Fulmar survey walk. The Tour started at Solnedgangspladsen, Gammel Skagen so we celebrated that Manuel saw the Manx Shearwater and got a nice icecream. The hiking along the shore was really nice because the sea was really wild. Beside the purpose of getting to know the coast we were supposed to document dead birds and if they were in good condition collect them. We were able to find 3 Gannets which were in really good condition but also really heavy so around Northbeach Simon came with his car so we didn't have to carry them all the way back to the station.

 One of the Gannets we found, Photo by Robbe Cool

As we continued we were able to collect 1 more Gannet so in total we collected 4 Gannets! We also found a lot of Black Guillemots, Great Black-backed Gulls and Herring Gulls, which were not in a good condition to collect but to collect data.

Identifying dead birds, Photo by Robbe Cool

Robbe making the beach a better place,  Photo by Leona Gottschalkson

Tropical Feeling created by Robbe, Photo by Leona Gottschalkson

At the End of our walk around Grenen we could see 2 Sandpipers in Breeding plumage and a jellyfish species rolling down the sand which made us laugh.

Have a nice day!

Leona

Today’s observations in DOFbasen from observers in the area

 Raptor summary of the raptors entered on DOFbasen today

People at the station: Simon S. Christiansen, Hanelie Sidhu, Manuel Tacke, Leona Gottschalkson, Robbe Cool, our guests Marianne and Kurt

The second day of the festival started for me way before the tents opened. From the moment the rain moved away, I went to Worlds end 3 to start the morning observations. Later in the morning, Manuel joined me as well. A lot of birds that got blown into Kattegat yesterday, tried to escape today. Although this was still difficult with the strong winds, we could observe almost hundred kittiwakes “ride”.

And even though it was too windy for ringing, we still opened the nets and catch 6 birds. But the birds we caught were worth it. We got the help from Merit Link who came here with Dof Ung. We had a lot of visitors and some young bird enthusiast really enjoyed the ringing.

After taking a rest, entering data and enjoying the lovely tea Hanelies mum sent us, it was time for the highlight of today. Together with Dof Ung, we competed 1,5 hours to see as many species as possible. Divided in 4 teams, we ran out into the fields to practise the most hardcore birdwatching possible.

Run, STOP, check bird, shout species name, make sure everyone sees the bird, repeat… We couldn’t think about anything else.

A crazy amount of bird was seen by all of us but at the end of the contest, only one team could win, and that was our team. A big thank you to everyone that joined the game and special thanks to my team to find no less than 43 species in this short amount of time. Some nice species were seen by the teams such as marsh warbler “Kærsanger”, golden oriole “pirol” and a grey plover “strandhjejle”.

Hereafter, we treated ourselves with a nice ice cream. Hanelie and Leona took care of the groceries while Manuel and I saw a resting golden plover “hjejle” from our living room. A nice species for our precious garden list!

Simon, Lisa and guests were at Kabeltromle too. Simon and Lisa joined the ringing. Simon went back to the station to have a meeting with Sigrid and Niels about the bird station. After the bird race, Simon, his mum and Lisa enjoyed their afternoon at Blink. The guests continued their day in the church. Not to pray but for a nice accordion concert.

Alice left for three days to explore the region. Packed with all my camping equipment, she will walk to the south towards new adventures.

Tomorrow will be cold weather for the time of the year again. We decided to do the Fulmar survey and make the 10km walk on the beach. Let’s hope we don’t only find dead birds but also living birds. With the northerly winds, some of us will probably dream about a Ross gull coming from Norway.

Today’s observations in DOFbasen from observers in the area

 Raptor summary of the raptors entered on DOFbasen today

Ringing(Kabletromle):

grønsisken: 1

Gærdesmutte: 1

Grå fluesnapper: 1

Munk: 1

Kvækerfinke: 1

sivsanger: 1

Total: 6

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Manuel Tacke, Leona Gottschalkson, Robbe Cool, Lisa Vergin, Gustav Nyberg, Merit Link, Sigrid Andersen, Niels Eriksen, our guests Marianne and Kurt

Whenever the wind really swirls around the lighthouse, it whistles in the kitchen. Today was exactly one of these days when we had to raise our voices in the kitchen to understand each other ;-)

Nevertheless, Hanelie and Manuel were at World's End 1 in Grenen at half past four. The three hours in the stormy wind from the west brought quite few birds. A Common Rosefinch Karmindompap passing through and later singing briefly was a nice observation, as was the male oriole, which also seemed unlikely to cross the sea and therefore turned away again. The same was done by the very rare Turtle Dove Turteldue, which also turned around in front of the sea and flew quickly and flat back to the west. So it could only be seen by a few birders.

In the morning, the Skagen Bird Festival started with a tour to Hirtsholme and tents from Naturbuttiken and Swarowski. At an open garden, Robbe, Alice, Leona and Simon looked at how to garden close to nature. It was exciting to see what can be done with simple means. Also part of the festival programme was the bird tour, which Gustav led and gave the 25 participants an insight into the local bird life. Meanwhile, the next bee-eater Biæder was reported, it is a good year for this species here. Lisa and Simon were able reconnect with the bird at Gyvelstein and observe it hunting insects.

While Leona, Alice and Robbe were still eating ice cream or trying to find butterflies in Batteriskoven, some questions came up in the station about how to differentiate between dead and living birds and how much birds actually have to drink. Sometimes you just don't really know...

Meanwhile, Marianne and Kurt spent a stormy but very impressive day on Hirtsholme. The fact that you can see the seabirds so close up here is simply a very special experience. It was a great start to the Bird Festival. You can see what will happen tomorrow here and join at short notice. Tomorrow also Zeiss and Leica will show up at the Bird Festival.

Today’s observations in DOFbasen from observers in the area

 Raptor summary of the raptors entered on DOFbasen today

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Manuel Tacke, Leona Gottschalkson, Robbe Cool, Lisa Vergin, Gustav Nyberg, our guests Marianne and Kurt

Good evening everyone!

The day started very winding today and soon it also started to rain and so we stayed indoors this morning without ringing and observing. However, we did get a few cello calls, for example, Orcas "Spækhugger" were sighted this morning, as well as a Purple Sandpiper "Sortgrå Ryle"  and a Rosefinch "Karmindompap". Sigrid Andersen, the director of DOF, came to visit this morning, she had been outside in the wind before, unlike us. Simon also had a tour with school classes from the Frejlev Skole later this morning. Unfortunately all inside because of the rain.

Meanwhile, we did Data Entry and Alice did some drawings, Leona said goodbye to her parents who will continue exploring Denmark and afterwards, she went for a long walk. She saw a female Red-backed Shrike "Rødrygget Tornskade" on her walk, which was very cool. After Simon had finished his tour we soon checked all the ringing sheets. A Blyth's Warbler "Buskrørsanger" was heard singing at Kabletromle and Simon, Lisa and Manuel went to see it. Manuel heard it singing and saw it for about half a second, Lisa and Simon did not have success this time, but anyway, we'll have it in a net tomorrow! I hope my fortune-telling abilities come true, that would be really great and it's time for a rarity in the nets, don't you think so? Manuel also went to the cormorant lake where he met Simon again. Robbe and I meanwhile set off in the other direction, heading to Gyvelstien, actually to look for eatable plants. But in the end we ended up in the forest and dunes nearby, looking at plants and birds and it was a nice walk, at a different location for a change, because we had never really been around here before. We also listened to the many birds in the forest: there were Wood Warblers "Skovsanger", Robins "Rødhals", Willow Warblers "Løvsanger", Chaffinches "Bogfinke", Chiffchaffs "Gransanger", Blackcaps "Munk" and more in the open field we saw nice Stonechats "Sortstubet Bynkefugl" and Tree Pipits "Skovpiber".

By the time we got home, Alice had already started cooking. The wind changed today and will change again until tomorrow morning. So maybe that means new birds in the nets for us?

Let`s hope so, have a good night, 

Hanelie

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

summary of the raptors in Skagen of today

PS: Manuel finished checking the night recording from 30.04. to 01.05.2022! You can see it here: NocMig 30.04.-01.05.2022

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Manuel Tacke, Leona Gottschalkson, Robbe Cool, Lisa Vergin, Sigrid Andersen, our guests Marianne and Kurt

In the veeeery early morning, by now the sun rises at quarter to 4, Hanelie and Alice set out to open the nets at Kabeltromlen. Together with Manuel, a sunny, beautiful day awaited them with some nice birds, but overall no great numbers. A male Grey Wagtail Bjergvipstjert was the last bird today and was really nice to watch. Otherwise a few Garden Warbler Havesanger flew into the net again and also a Great Tit Musvit, very defensible as usual. A Pirol sang its song close to the ringing site which is always nice to hear and gives a proper feeling of summer.

After 7 hours the three of them returned to the station, while Leona and Robbe had already left for the laser shoot at World's End 2. Jesper, meanwhile, was on duty in front of the radar screen and together they tried to track birds. However, many birds of prey did not make it to the top, but turned away before they did.

A bit unfortunate, because as expected these days promise a lot and today there were again some great eagles on the way: the probably same Bonelli's Eagle Høgeørn as last year made a great appearance over Saftevandsbakken and then turned off so that Hanelie, Alice and Manuel could still see the bird over Hulsig Hede. Stunner! Two Lesser Spotted Eagles Lille Skrigeørn were an excellent addition. Without the great support of Jørgen and Eric it would not have been possible for us to see these amazing birds, tusen takk :-)

Høgeørn by Eric Christophersen

Visitors from Lista Wetland Center and Fasund Municipality from Norway visited the station and exchanged views with Simon on various aspects of working in a Bird Observatory.

In the evening we had a great dinner with the whole Lighthouse crew, cooked by the Nature Agency team. At the Birders Club we had fantastic risotto and delicious dessert. Takk for mad! It's really a good idea to get together regularly in this big group and get to know the faces and stories. Rain and strong winds from the south are forecast for tomorrow, so we'll see if that brings us birds. In any case, there won't be much fieldwork. It remains exciting!

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Manuel Tacke, Leona Gottschalkson, Robbe Cool, Eric Christophersen, Jørgen Kabel, our guests Marianne and Kurt

Today startet off with another beautiful sunrise. The number of birds was really low with only 12 birds in the nets but we had a nice pair of Bullfinches and a Reed Warbler. Because it was so slow we decided to close the nets around 9.

Sunrise over Kabletromle

On the seawatch Manuel and Hanelie were able to see a Nightjar coming from the sea, 2 Great Northern Divers, a Black-throated Diver and a Fulmar coming quite close.

After we quit the ringing at Kabletromle  Simon, Alice and Hanelie decided to put up a net to try to catch Stonechats. They managed to catch a Common Whitethroat with it. Meanwhile I was in Skagen to look at an impressionist art exhibition with my parents which arrived yesterday. They will stay some days to visit me and have a look around the area.

Around 2 in the afternoon we had planned a butterfly excursion with Jørgen, which was interrupted by a Zello call, "Lille skrigeørn". A Lesser Spotted Eagle! So we ran to the cars and chased it down of course to get a good look at it. And we did!

 Beginning of the excursion, Photo taken by Leona Gottschalkson

After we saw it nicely we continued our excursion and went south of Skagen to a Marsh Area. We were especially looking for the Marsh Fritillary (Hedepletvinge) which can only be seen in the period from end of May until the end of June. We spent a few minutes searching it and sure enough we found it, so we went on looking for more species and were rewarded!

The Marsh Fritillary - Hedepletvinge, Photo taken by Leona Gottschalkson

We found more than 5 additional species. One of them being the Narrow-bordered bee hawk-moth (Smalrandet Humlebisværmer), it looks like a Bumblebee but is a moth.

The Narrow-bordered bee hawk-moth - Smalrandet Humlebisværmer, Photo taken by Alice Scalzo

Manuel looking at the Details of a plant , Photo taken by Leona

Happy Dance, Photo Taken by Simon S. Christiansen

The Day ended peacefully with our new guests arriving and us having a nice meal talking about all the new species of butterflies we've seen.

Have a nice Day,

Leona

Ringing(Kabletromle):

Gransanger: 3

Lille Dompap: 2

Rørsanger: 1

Gærdesmutte: 1

Gærdesanger: 1

Løvsanger: 4

Total: 12

People:  Simon S. Christiansen, Jørgen Kabel, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Manuel Tacke, Leona Gottschalkson, Robbe Cool, Søren Leth-Nissen and Karen Marie Leth-Nissen.

It was raining a bit this morning when Leona and I woke up, prepared to go out to open the nets. But the unstable weather made it a bit risky for ringing so with Oluf we decided that we wouldn't open the nets today. At least we could all enjoy a few more hours of sleep. Manuel still went out in the morning. Unfortunately he didn't see never the Red-breasted Flycatcher (Lille Fluesnapper) or the Bluethroat (Blåhals). He took care of some paperwork and then came the big cleaning session in which we all participated to make the station perfectly clean. He also put the recorder out and cooked dinner, delicious as always !

Robbe worked most of the day on his university project but took small walks and saw a Great northern diver (Islom) over the garden, he went to the secret lake with Hanelie and there they found lots of nice flowers. Leona made scrambled eggs for us in the morning, she was on raptor summary duty, but also got the time to go to the beach. Her parents will be staying in skagen for a few days.

Dof Birdlife tent to the Nature meeting

Sum of the raptors in the area based on observations typed into DOFbasen the same day

People:  Simon S. Christiansen, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Manuel Tacke, Leona Grottschallesoh, Robbe Cool, Søren Leth-Nissen and Karen Marie Leth-Nissen.

Today started according to the daily routine. Ringing was covered by Julie, Alice and Hanelie while Manuel did the observations. Both were slow but at least, when I arrived, we caught an interesting Acrocephalus in the nets. It was the first marsh warbler ‘Kærsanger’ for this year! We just had the lecture about this genus yesterday, so it felt like Simon could predict the future about the birds we were going to see. Yesterday he made another prediction about the steppe eagle ‘Steppeørn’. He told a birdwatcher of Copenhagen that the bird would show up around 10 o’clock. When the ringing ended, nobody but the guests had enough patience to wait longer. But the oracle of Skagen had spoken and exactly at 10 o’clock, the mastodont flew over. The guests were so amazed, they announced the bird with trembling voice and shaking hands on Zello. Manuel was also happy with the Serin ‘gulirisk’ he had this morning.

Meanwhile, some of us went to Ellekrattet to search the red-breasted flycatcher ‘lille fluesnapper’ that was announced without success. Leona continued her walk from Ellekrattet to the city center to eat a nice pancake.

Around noon we had to say goodbye to Joachim and Elie. It was really nice to have my friends here for some days. They really enjoyed the amazing the birding hotspot and were a great help during the observations. Unfortunately, Julie left as well for personal reasons but will come back later this year.

In the afternoon, Hanelie wanted to take a nap but the zello app boycotted this. She didn’t know the he Danish name of the bird that was announced so it had to be something good. A booted eagle ‘Dværgørn’ was seen by Erik, the rest of the afternoon is history…

Booted eagle (Erik Christophersen)

After some transport issues to the location, we all arrived and most of us could see this beautiful eagle! We saw not less than 5 eagle species. When following the booted eagle, I found 6 bee-eaters ‘Biæder’ and while following the steppe eagle, a black stork ‘sort stork’ . Everyone had his own highlight of the afternoon but everyone was happy! Back at the station we celebrated this with a nice meal and an improvised dessert.

Unfortunately, Simon just took a nap when all the good species were announced. During the day, he went to Michael Ancher to talk about making a new CES-site.

In the evening, we had a little surprise: the first succes with the raptor project. Although it wasn't a raptor we caught but hooded crow 'Gråkrage'.

Hooded Crow

Bird observations of today entered on dofbasen

Sum of the raptors in the area based on observations typed into DOFbasen the same day

Ringing (Kabeltromlen);

Bogfinke: 1

Havesanger: 5

Tornsanger: 2

Munk: 3

Kærsanger: 1

Gulbug: 1

Grå fluesnapper: 1

Løvsanger: 8

Gærdesanger: 5

Rørsanger: 1

Total: 28

People at the station: Simon S. Christiansen, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Manuel Tacke, Leona Gottschalkson, Robbe Cool, Julie Kokholm, Søren Leth-Nissen and Karen Marie Leth-Nissen, Joachim Pintens, Elie Coremans, Michael Ancher.