Today the sun woke up earlier than I did. And after enjoying the golden morning at breakfast, I went to Jesper Pedersen with Alice. We tried to figure out how to calibrate the laser binocular but we were unsuccessful. Thomas came too but only to find his glasses that he lost last day.

The others were ringing in the morning together with Lars. Unfortunately, the nets were almost empty. Hanelie was happy with the meadow pipit ‘engpiber’ they caught but she had to hurry to be at time at the station. Because today we finally made a trip.

Together with Alice, Lisa and Hanelie, we drove to Hirtshals to see the aquarium and get a guided tour from Anders. Marion joined us too in Hirtshals which made it a really nice reunion. In the aquarium, we discovered the fauna of the North Sea. Anders took us behind the screens and showed us a rare fish they caught: the wreckfish. We were all really amazed by the skeletons of the whales they had and the horn of the narwal. We finally had the feeling of being on holidays and profited from this day to eat nice fish and chips in the harbour. Tired but satisfied, we came back to the station. The girls took their time to set up the owl net, which will now be a stationary net as well.

Today, Manuel took the time to enjoy the birding without having to many tasks. He first made a stop at Batteriskoven to find the flycatchers ‘broget fluesnapper’, but only the wood warblers ‘skovsanger’ were present. He continued his trip to the gallery of Axel to have a nice talk with him and in the late afternoon he had a look at the nocmig, together with the chairman of DOF.

Earlier this day, Simon also went to Batteriskoven to search the wryneck ‘vendehalse’ that was seen but without any result. He also announced that he has a new boss.

The third person that went to Batteriskoven was Anders and he had more luck with the pied flycatchers. He wanted to spend the whole afternoon on watching raptors but he had the ‘luck’ to enter the ringing data.

Hans started this day quite early and went to Nordstrand. It was too cold and foggy to see birds but he had nice company. His birding highlights of the day were 8 fulmars ‘mallemuk’ during the migration counts, a group of 12 ring ouzels ‘ringdrossel’ and a golden eagle ‘Kongeørn’. During the day he brought Birte to the station and later he also visited the harbour to find a nice gull. In the evening, Hans and Anders eased our work by doing the raptor summary.

Surprisingly, while I am writing this blog, Axel found a female citrine wagtail ‘citrin vipstjert’ at the cormorant lake!

Good night,

Robbe

Engpiber: 1

Gærdesmutte: 1

rødhals: 4

Munk: 3

Gransanger: 1

Løvsanger: 4

Bogfinke: 1

Rørspurv: 4

Total: 19

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

People/Folk: Knud Pedersen,Simon S. Christiansen, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Manuel Tacke, Robbe Cool, Anders Brinkmann,  Jesper Pedersen, Birthe Drustrup & Hans Christophersen, Lisa Vergin, Anders Østerby, Egon Østergaard, Lars Bo Jacobsen

There is a German saying that says: "Eine Schwalbe macht noch keinen Sommer", one swallow does not make a summer. That is certainly true. But maybe 20 or so? ...At least they are really arriving now. Today Manuel and Robbe were able to observe several migrating Barn Swallows Landsvale and House Martins Bysvale during the morning observation. For the most part, however, it remained fairly quiet in Grenen. Three migrating Whooper Swans Singsvale and a few Wheatears Stenpikker in the dunes were nice observations. Otherwise, there was not much migration to observe today. At least the beautiful Kentish Plover Hvidbrystet præstekrave was sitting on the beach in Grenen today, but only Hans was able to see it at close range - and managed to get an arty shot.

The weather forecast for the next few days remains sunny and clear. This is of course very nice for being outside, even if the wind is still quite cold. But for birdwatching, it would actually be good if there were a rainy day. When the weather is clear, the birds just move up and through and you don't get to see much of them. When the weather changes, fog or rain, they avoid long distances and come down to rest. That's better for the birdwatchers, of course. But this spring has been very dry so far and there has been exceptionally little rain so far. The sunny weather continues to attract beautiful butterflies to the sun, with Camberwell Beauties continuing to show themselves.

The fact that the birds are not in the bushes to rest can also be seen from the ringing figures: In five hours, only 25 birds were in the net, including another day without any excitement. But even with the Willow warbler Løvsanger, Chiffchaff Gransanger or Blackcap Munk, you always have to look very closely to see where the moult limits can be found in order to accurately determine their age.

In Batteriskoven there are still some Pied Flycatchers Broget fluesnapper around and in the afternoon Anders managed to get some decent shots.

In the evening Birte and Hans cooked for us, there was delicious lasagne with a great salad for the big group. Over the weekend Anders (also a board member) is also a guest, so we have a full house at the lighthouse. At the table we talk about Pink Floyd's early work, Anders' band, our language skills and what it's like to live in Aalborg.

(Pictures by Hans Christophersen & Anders Brinkmann)

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

People/Folk: Knud Pedersen,Simon S. Christiansen, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Manuel Tacke, Robbe Cool, Anders Brinkmann, Rasmus Due Nielsen, Thomas Kjær Christensen, Jesper Pedersen, Birthe Drustrup & Hans Christophersen.

Surprised by the brightness of the sun, I woke up to late this morning because the battery of my phone died. I hurried to Nordstrand and there I met Manuel and Jørgen Hulbæk Christiansen among others. The migration was better than yesterday but there were no real highlights except for a possible Lapland longspur “Lapværling”. The numbers of red-throated divers “rødstrubede lom” were quite surprising and we finished the morning with more than thousand birds. While Manuel stayed at Nordstrand to enjoy the birds, I went to the cormorant lake and saw the glaucous gull “Gråmåge” landing and resting there.

Just when we wanted to leave to the lighthouse, we had a surprising zello about three golden eagles “Kongeørn” coming our way. We decided to go to a good viewpoint near the lemonade hill and started to scan the sky. We had a lot of different raptors but the eagles were nowhere to be seen. Until I found one just above us. We were both really excited with this observation and really enjoyed the next hour where we saw eagle four times.

Only our stomachs were not so happy and we agreed with Hanelie and Alice that they would bring us a picknick. They finished earlier already because, once again, the ringing was slow with less than 20 birds. Fortunately, we finally caught the first redpolls “Lille gråsisken”. Meanwhile Alex arrived too and showed them his lovely paintings that can now be seen in Galleri Molevit until the 8^th of May.

We all met in the city in the early afternoon, for Manuel and me to have our lunch, for all of us to enjoy a nice ice-cream.  We were accompanied by many raptors migrating on top of the city so we found ourselves a nice observation spot and watched the rough-legged buzzard “Fjeldvåge”, harriers “høg” and black kite “sort glente”.

Alice and I stayed a bit longer to look for clothes in outdoorshops and on our way back, we saw the golden eagle again. Immediately when we arrived, we joined the lecture about Skagen’s butterflies given by Jørgen Kabel. It was a really interesting presentation with adorable pictures taken by him. We are fully prepared to go on butterfly-hunt now. We were so captivated by the beauty of the species that Simon was afraid we would stop watching birds. Not only the guests joined us for this presentation but also Simon and Jørgen Hulbæk Christiansen.

Simon joined us for most of the day, but in the afternoon, he had a meeting with the director of birdlife Denmark. The guests joined the ringing in the morning and made a walk to Grenen afterwards. In the afternoon they enjoyed the golden eagle as well.

When we had the evening meeting, Rasmus and Thomas came to get the right equipment to make the radar operable the next days.

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i DOFbasen af observatører i området (Today’s observations in DOFbasen from observers in the area)

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Manuel Tacke, Robbe Cool, Lisa Vergin, Rasmus Due Nielsen, Jørgen Hulbæk Christiansen, Thomas Kjær Christensen, Jørgen Kabel, Birthe & Hans Christophersen, Axel Thorenfeldt

Ringing Kabletromle

Gransanger: 4

Solsort: 1

Rødhals: 1

Lille gråsisken: 2

Løvsanger: 2

Gærdesmutte: 3

Total: 13

A fresh breeze from the north-east prevented us from putting up the nests for ringing this morning. When the wind is (too) strong, firstly there is less bird activity in the bushes and secondly the birds see nets inflated much more.

So it was a quiet morning for Alice and Robbe, who devoted themselves to cleaning the flat and got some paper work done. Hanelie and Manuel, on the other hand, were at Nordstrand shortly after sunrise, practically crouched into the dune to escape the sharp wind a bit. Together with a few local birders, we were soon surprised by two harriers, one of which quickly turned out to be a female Pallid Harrier Steppehøg.

The second individual was subsequently identified as this species from photographs. A good start. Otherwise, the bird migration (probably due to the weather) decreased significantly after the first hour and was also much less (visible?) than the past few days. At sea, a few Long-tailed Ducks Havlit mingled with the Common Scoters Sortand. These beautiful ducks are now in their breeding plumages. Also always a little highlight are Black Guillemots Tejst, today two birds flew just above the water surface heading east. The migration of the Arctic Skuas Almindelig Kjove continues, very beautiful to watch this elegant and powerful birds, as they often move very close to the beach and try to steal the prey from gulls or terns. In between the several Sandwich Terns Splitterne we could again manage to find some of our summery guests with red bills.

Hanelie then joined a German-Danish guided tour thankfully provided some German explanations. Highlights during the tour around the "tip" were some birds of prey, like quite a few Rough-Legged Buzzards Fjeldvåge and Kites Rød Glente & Sort Glente. There was a lot of interest in our work and an interesting exchange.

As we had postponed our regular clean-up-Saturday to today, we used the day also for sprucing up the flat. In the evening, new guests also arrived: Birte and Hans (Skagen Bird Observatory board member) are staying for a week and we are looking forward to going out together. The first thing they did was a long walk around the area, noticing many Kestrels Tårnfalk, it seems it was a good migration day for this species. Also, they passed by the Cormorant Lake Skarvsøen, realising that the birds really started off with the breeding activities, they counted almost double as many active nests than we did a week before. Some beautiful Vipers enjoying the evening sun allowed nice observations, too.

This morning Hanelie was first to get up, she went to Nordstrand for morning observations, and was son followed by Joakim Matthiesen, Jørgen Hulbæk Christiansen, Lars Paaby, that helped her count. There were quite a few Sparrowhawks (Spurvehøg) already, but also Ring Ouzels (Ringdrossel) and kestrels (Tårnfalk). Manuel and Robbe also joined. There weren't many birds, but they saw a Great northern diver (Islom). 

Because we could take a morning off today, we took advantage of this yesterday. Hanelie had another try for nightcatching but didn't catch anything unfortunately. Alice and I had a nice beach walk and saw the sea lighting up because of the “Morild”.

In the morning, Manuel and Hanelie wake up early because they are so used to the early rhythm. They went to the Poul Eeg camping, the industrial area, the beach and Flagbakken. They made a detour along the way to see a possible Iberian chiffchaff but in the end, it was just the common chiffchaff. They had a good time with nice observations of pallid harrier “Steppehøg”, hobby “Lærkefalkand” ring ouzels “ringdrossel”.

Meanwhile, I made a walk too and saw a nice rough-legged buzzard “Fjeldvåge”. Alice joined me and we finally went to the second hand shop. When cycling around in the harbour we climbed in a pier from which we could see three black guillemots “tejst” from very close.

Eventually I had a nice breakfast at 3 o clock when went back to the city. It was nice to try some traditional Danish dishes.

We all arrived at the station around the same time. It was a chill afternoon and we didn't have to cook because we had dinner with the people from blink and the exhibition again. Søren made a really nice curry for us and we all had a lovely evening with good talks.

Simon and Lisa have been busy too. Lisa started her day with working in the garden, while Simon was working on the radar together with Thomas and Jan Janssen. Later in the day, they went to Saftevandsbakken with Søren Knorr Søndergaard and saw the Camberwell beauty “Sørgekåbe”. Both Lisa and Manuel made a delicious cake for us in the afternoon.

Unfortunately the wind is still too strong to go ringing tomorrow, but we are looking forward a sunny day with some nice migration.

Klik her for at se dagens observationer indtastet i Dofbasen af observatører i området (Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area)

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

Robbe

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Manuel Tacke, Robbe Cool, Lisa Vergin, Søren Knorr Søndergaard, Thomas Kjær

Early in the morning, as in the last few days, we are greeted by a brilliant sunrise over the Kattegat. There is a light fog over the areas and warm clothes are still a must, even though it already feels like spring during the day. Hanelie and Robbe open the nets for ringing at 5:15am, Alice and Manuel joined the little crowd at Nordstrand for migration counting from 6am and look up at the (somewhat too) clear blue sky.

The bird migration is steady these days, but not spectacular. This allows us to make many beautiful observations, as we can also take our time for individual birds. About 20 Arctic Skuas Almindelig kjove gave great views, as some of them migrate eastwards quite close to the beach. It is also a good occasion to take the time to get more familiar with the different calls of the still numerous Chaffinches Bogfinke and Brambling Kvækerfinke, as well as Linnet Tornirisk and Siskin Grønsisken.

A few Long-tailed Ducks Havlit (and other duck species) can be found amongst the hundreds of migrating Common Scoter Sortand, also keep a sharp eye on flying Red-throated Divers Rødstrubet lom as single Black-throated Divers Sortstrubet lom can be seen daily. The first Tree Pipits Skovpiber (a handful of birds migrating) mingle with the troops of Meadow Pipits Engpiber. Swallows can now be seen every day, today Barn Swallow Landsvale, but still very few. However, it is exciting to see the changes in the birdlife already within a few days. This will continue to gather pace over the coming days.

By the way, the Black-winged Kite Blå Glente is still in the area and thus nice to watch from close range for the third day in a row. This fantastic bird still attracts many observers not only from the region.

Ringing was also done today at Kabeltromlen, of course. In addition to the usual Robins Rødhals, Wren Gærdesmutte, etc., again some Willow Warbler Løvsanger were in the nets. What is particularly interesting now is that you can make a direct comparison between the Willow Warbler and the Common Chiffchaff Gransanger in hand. This is of course a totally different thing than reading about it in books or seeing it in pictures! A few Ring Ouzels Ringdrossel flew over the ringing station and gave nice viewss. Apart from that, the sun has also lured some European Vipers Hugorm out of hiding, exciting!

Data entry and checking the ringing data always takes a lot of time, but that is the only disadvantage of of high numbers in ringings and observations ;-)

We spent most of the afternoon relaxing, birdwatching and doing other things. So, Robbe went to Grenen Camping for some botanical observations. There he managed to discover what is supposed a first record for this region: the tiny and beautiful Crassula tillaea.

By the time writing, the delicious smell of roasted vegetables wafts through the flat and the sun shines through the windows from the other side of the lighthouse now.