This morning, Robbe, Hanelie, and Julie went to Grenen to observe the migration with Knud. They saw many Jackdaws (Allike) and Chaffinches (Bogfinke), and a second calendar Rough-legged Buzzard (Fjeldvåge). But, for the last two hours, the land migration was quite slow. Julie had the opportunity to learn many things about the sea migration from Knud. Esben joined them after a while, and they also met Jørgen, Igor, and Erik. They also installed one more time the trap to attempt to capture the Snow buntings (Snespurv).

Hello everyone,

This morning Hanelie, Alice and Julie woke up early to go to Grenen for migration count. It had been a while since we counted there, but today’s wind conditions were more appropriate for Verdens Ende 3 than for Nordstrand. However, they were quickly reminded that this location makes passerine migration count harder as individuals fly higher up there and use many different paths. They still managed to see many Eurasian Jackdaw (Allike), Hooded Crows (Gråkrage) and Wood Pigeon (Ringdue). Robbe also joined them later to help out with the land migration as he is the most experienced with it and he recognises most of the common species calls. On the sea, the first two hours were rather busy although no new or surprising species flew by. Numerous Common Buzzards (Musvåge) finally migrated today after many migration attempts in the past week and their number increasing around Skagen. A Red Kite (Rød Glente) also passed by really close to the counting volunteers, but this individual ended up turning back so you might also get a chance to see it in Grenen or in the surroundings tomorrow. During the observations, they also had set up a trap for Snow Buntings (Snespurv), but this was yet again unsuccessful.

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

In the meantime, Susanne and Bjarne, unfortunately, had to leave Skagen Bird Observatory and will be travelling home today, stopping in nice places along the way. It is sad to see lovely guests leave again, but they left a very sweet message in the station’s guestbook that we can look back onto to remember their stay here. This week, the guest apartment will be empty which will leave a bit of a void, but thankfully this weekend Julie and Esben are with us so the flat will still be full of life.

Simon was, as always, busy this morning with different meetings and workshops. One of the meetings was concerning a project with the hunter society to mitigate the number of raptors killed by spreading awareness.  I also worked for part of the morning to make some progress on my data analysis for the internship. Once everyone got back, we had some quiet time. Some people enjoyed a warm shower or some rest and Robbe and I were writing the blogs with calming music in the background. Then after lunch, Alice, Julie and I decided to go to town for the groceries and to look for Bohemian Waxwings (Silkehale). But this time we did not ride our bikes but drove there thanks to our driver Alice and Simon’s car!

While our Waxwings (Silkehale) excursion was a fail this time, we got the chance to see a Hawfinch (Kernebider) spotted by Alice! This was particularly exciting for me as I have been out multiple times in the past year specifically to look for them but never managed to find them. This individual was resting by a bush, so we even had the chance to observe it for a little while and see its impressive bill and colours. It was also a good walk to clear our minds and enjoy the warmth now that the sun is back. Back at the station, Robbe was finally building the compost which was a long-awaited project.

The groceries done, we came back to the station, and all took some time to go through how we enter the morning observations into DOFbasen with Simon to figure out if we could make the process faster. We figured some little details that might make it faster, but we might just have to accept it will still remain a lengthy daily process. Simon then also went through the night recordings with Robbe and Alice to help them identify calls they could not recognise. Their findings will soon be uploaded on Trektellen and we will put the link on the blog so you can check it out if interested. Meanwhile, Hanelie was entering some more of the observations and, Julie and I went to the lab. Our task there was to take photos of the puffins’ heads with rulers placed so the bill measurements were visible. These photos will be sent to a researcher in the United-Kingdom for a related project of his.

Once this was all completed, Alice got started on the dinner. On the menu tonight is a great vegetarian take on Mexican fajitas. If we find the time, we might also play Wingspan tonight which is a boardgame showcasing dozens of American and European bird species. I have not yet played it but from Hanelie and Robbe’s praises, it sounds very promising.

Tomorrow, we will go to Grenen again for morning observations and in the afternoon we will put up the nets for the ringing season.

Marion

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Robbe Cool, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Marion L'Huillier-Hunsinger, Julie Kokholm, and  Esben E. Hansen.

Good morning!

Although this blog post had some delay, it’s worth reading it. Today we could finally go out for the morning observations after some foggy days. The weather was quite harsh with the wind speed going from 14m/s to 21m/s. The land migration was very slow but we saw some really exciting species over the sea. The first surprise was the great northern "islom" diver flying together with a red-throated diver "rødstrubet lom" which made it easy to compare their general structure and size (jizz). He landed in front of us, but with the wind, he wasn’t easy to observe. Meanwhile, Marion made a walk to the cormorant lake to search for roosting whooper swans "sangsvane" because there were a lot flying around in the morning. She wasn’t lucky and went back to the station to continue working on her master thesis. In the last hour, the sea migration slowed down too, the calm before the storm. Suddenly, I had a dark bird in my scope with a big white mirror on the wings. Hanelie announced it as a weird velvet scoter but once he was close, we had a great observation of a black guillemot "tejst" in summer plumage. The first one for me! With the adrenaline I had since this morning, I cycled back at my pace and made spicy hot chocolate for those who were a bit later.

(Searching shelter in a bunker while watching birds)

The afternoon started really chill with resting and entering data. Meanwhile, Julie had arrived but was sleeping to recover from a busy night. She is a Danish birdwatcher staying here until Sunday, but she will come back in May if she likes it here.

When I finished the data, I had to go out to get some fresh air. Hanelie thought the same and together, we made a walk to the harbor. Along our way, we found some really cool bunkers, dead common scoter "sortand" and unfortunately a black guillemot too…

(black guillemot summer plumage)

Once arrived in the harbor, the weather was really annoying and it began to rain. We tried the station's camera Simon brought us, but we struggled too much with the different settings to take good pictures. We really enjoyed our walk and therefore almost missed the evening meeting. When we arrived after a successful hitchhiking attempt, Alice was working further on the Nocmig and Julie explained to the others how to work with the camera. We continued the evening with the meeting where we said goodbye to our guests Bjarne and Susanne. They had a lovely stay here and saw three species that were new to them. During the day they had a free coffee in Brøndums Hotel and met a birdwatcher from Skagen, who had a citrine wagtail "citronvipstjert" in his garden some years ago.

Simon had a busy day as usual with a meeting with the people from Aarhus University, writing on the report of yesterday's meeting and he did some groceries.

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

From tomorrow on it’s gonna be nice weather for both us and the birds.

Carpe diem and enjoy the nature

Robbe

People: People: Simon S. Christiansen, Robbe Cool, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Marion L'Huillier-Hunsinger, Julie Kokholm, Susanne Olsen and Bjarne Johansson

Good evening to all our fellow birders and bird enthusiasts,

To start this blog, we need to catch you up on the northern lights excursion last night. Well to sum it up in three words: it was short. Simon drove us to Nordstrand but as soon as we stepped on the dunes we realised they weren’t any to be seen at that time. Simon just being back from his trip and meetings with other Danish ringers and our evening meeting still yet to be done, we decided to just go back to the lighthouse.

Then, today bright and early we went back to Nordstrand and the same dunes to start morning observations. All of us were present as well as Knud which hadn’t happened since our first day here altogether! We divided the task with Knud and I taking care of sea migration and Hanelie, Alice and Robbe in charge of land migration. However, we quickly realised that three people were not so necessary for the land birds, and as numerous as some species might be, one person was left with not much to do. Therefore, Alice used this opportunity to go check out the cormorant lake just behind our counting location. As some of you probably remember she is already well-acquainted with it as she had to cross it a couple of times in waders to retrieve the live streaming camera. But this time, one of her main goals was to see Bearded Tits (Skægmejse). Unfortunately, this mission was not a success this morning, but it is only postponed. Luckily, however, Alice was also still with us when we had the chance to see an adult male Rough-legged Buzzard (Fjeldvåge). Later on, we saw another individual but this time an adult female. Robbe felt quite tired today and decided to go back early to get some rest so Alice took over for the rest of the morning session. Towards the end, Jørgen and Igor as well as Susanne and Bjarne, our two guests, also came to the dunes to observe some of the daily migration. Red Kites (Rød Glente) and multiple Common Buzzards (Musvåge) were also seen today. On the sea, Whooper Swans (Sangsvane), Great Crested Grebes (Toppet Lappedykker), and Red-throated Divers (Rødstrubet Lom) were resting. A couple of Red-breasted Mergansers (Toppet Skallesluger) and Goosanders (Stor Skallesluger) were also observed flying past. One other noticeable observation made this morning was a Bohemian Waxwing (Silkehale) spotted by a local birder which unfortunately did not come by our telescopes.

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

Now that we knew some Waxwings (Silkehale) are around, Alice and I rode back slowly and stopped along the way to check out reeds in the hope to see them and Bearded Tits (Skægmejse) which we both have not seen yet. Jørgen also joined us to scan the reeds and he confirmed this could be a nice place for the tits in particular. So, this is now added to the places we want to check out regularly.

Once we were all back, Hanelie made us a nice mixed salad while Alice and I combined all the data in one place. After our bellies were full, Hanelie and I started entering the daily observations and Robbe and Alice went on a short walk to try and see some raptors migrating. Meanwhile, Susanne and Bjarne went to town and also walked along the beach where they saw many Eurasian Siskins (Grønsisken) and Ravens (Ravn) as well as some Kittiwakes (Ride) and Barnacle Geese (Bramgås). Simon talked with representatives from Aarhus about different aspects of the radar and raptor projects which are both coming along and he also officially set up a new picture archive using a server rather than a single hard drive like it currently was.

Later in the afternoon, we also opened the mist nets in the garden and put out the rock pipit trap again. But today was another empty day with no individuals captured. Hopefully, we will start morning ringing sessions soon so you should keep an eye out for what we might capture then.

Alice will be making dinner tonight and, in the meantime, Robbe will be placing a recorder out for the first time. This way, we will be able to have audio records for the entire night and review them to identify which species have been migrating during the night. We will of course keep you updated on what we find out, but this might be in a few days as going through the whole night’s record will take us some time. But for you to have an idea of what we will be looking at, here is an image of a sonogram representing a Common Linnet (Tornirisk), with Yellowhammers (Gulspurv) and Eurasian Siskins (Grønsisken) in the background, taken from the recorder we set out today during the observations.

Simon also placed a recorder on the night between the 2 and 3 of March and now uploaded the results on Trektellen as you can find on the link below.

Night flight calls registered on Trektellen.

Tomorrow we will go to Grenen and maybe see some exciting and new species.

Have a nice evening everyone,

Marion

 People: Knud Pedersen, Jørgen Kabel & Igor, Simon S. Christiansen, Robbe Cool, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Marion L'Huillier-Hunsinger, Susanne Olsen and Bjarne Johansson.

Dear blog readers,

The more productive the day, the shorter the blog. And that is exactly what happened today. This morning we finally started to see big amounts of passerines migrating along Nordstrand. The first hours, I was clicking all the individual birds which started to hurt my fingers. Luckily, Eric had the wise idea to click for every ten birds. This saved my fingers from hurting more because we ended up with more than 10.000 birds, mainly siskens "grønsisken", chaffinches "bogfinke", wood pigeons "ringdue", hooded crows "råkrage", and jackdaws "allike". I got good help from Alice too who assisted me with the bigger land birds. Hanelie took care of the seabirds but except for the swans, it was not worth it.

Already early in the morning, the first woodlarks "Hedelærke" entertained us with their lyric flight call. Eric told us that the Nordstrand record was around 25 and this motivated us to set a new record. In no time, we reached more than 20 woodlarks but they didn’t stop flying. I counted one hour extra to set the ultimate record and we ticked the clock off with no less than 109 individuals!

When I got back to the station, the girls were already cleaning the whole station for which I was very thankful. ;) We had a nice lunch with leftovers of some good meals of the last week and the afternoon started with two challenges: uploading the observations and analyzing flight calls of this successful morning. After the last meeting we had with Simon and after I read the book “The sound approach to birding”, we were quite ready to see what the different flight calls look like. It was really interesting and informative. I focused on the calls of the crossbills. Although we only found red crossbills "Lille korsnæb" on the recorder, we found two different call types of this species. After this intensive birding morning and noon, I started to clean too, while Marion and Hanelie were sleeping. Alice gave the woodlarks a special place in her sketchbook and when she was ready, we tried to see the golden eagle again. Unfortunately, luck was not on our side. A curious coal tit "sortmejse" came to see what we were doing and sang his song at the top of his lungs. We returned in the evening sun to the station to welcome our two new guests. Now Marion is in a hurry to prepare a delicious meal because later this evening, Simon arrives. He’ll bring us to Nordstrand because we might see the Northern light this evening. Tomorrow, you will find out if we saw it. It’s going to be a good migration day again so maybe; we can break our new record again!

People: Erik Christophersen,  Robbe Cool, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Marion L'Huillier-Hunsinger

Sum of the Raptors in the area based on observations typed into Dofbasen the same day

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

Hello everyone!

This morning we were divided into different tasks. Marion and Alice have taken over the morning Obs on the north beach. From the second hour, they were supported by Erik, for whose help they were very grateful. Also, Jørgen and Igor joined them. They saw one male and one female Hen Harrier "Blå Kærhøg" and two Red Kites "Rød Glente". Also a mixed flock of six Whooper Swans "Sangsvane" and five Cranes "Trane". A funny combination that even Erik, with the most birding experience of the three, found remarkable and had never seen before.

Photo: Erik Christophersen

After the observation Marion and Alice went to the Cormorant "Skarv" Lake. Today was the day of NOVANA, the National monitoring program of birds. But they were not surprised by anything special at the lake, some geese "Gås", some Cormorants "Skarv", some Coots "Blishøne" and also a Sparrowhawk "Spurvehøg" they could observe there. Because of NOVANA I did not support them today at the Morning Obs, but joined Knud and Frede. We first went to Jerup Strand.

There were especially many Greylag Geese "Grågås" and many Shelducks "Gravand" but also quite a few Common Ringed Plovers "Stor Præstekrave" and, I was especially happy about the Lapwings "Vibe". Then, we went to Troldkær Enge. In the field, we found a Peregrine Falcon "Vandrefalk". There were also many Skylarks "Sanglærke" singing and we saw some Cranes "Trane". We also saw Mistle Trushes "Misteldrossel". Knud and Frede had delicious cakes and buns with them which we shared. Thanks! In the early afternoon, we came back to the station. Alice and Marion had also just arrived, Robbe was already waiting for us all because he had stayed at home today to rest a bit. He also had to unlock some rooms for a film crew who are making a short movie here this weekend. After a snack it was time for me, Marion and Alice to sew nets, while Robbe entered data. He also brought us warm tea in the cold attic. In the afternoon, Preben came and picked up sorted-out books for the DOF-Nordjyland library. In the late afternoon, Robbe, Alice and I went for a walk on the beach.

We wanted to find Horned Larks "Bjerglærke". Unfortunately, we were not successful but Robbe saw a Marsh Harrier "Rørhøg", which Alice and I missed because we were studying tracks in the sand. Back at the station, we continued with the Evening Meeting. It was the last meeting with our wonderful guests Elin and Jens, hopefully, we will see each other again. Elin and Jens went for a walk today and saw many Buzzards "Musvåge", Red Kites "Rød Glente", three Cranes "Trane" and probably the Golden Eagle "Kongeørn" that Marion and I had seen yesterday. They also went to Vensyssel Teater in Hjørring today and saw "Uncle Vanja" by Chekhov. They enjoyed the play very much.

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

Todays NOVANA counts at Jerup Strand

Todays observations at Troldkær Enge

Sum of the Raptors in the area based on observations typed into Dofbasen the same day

We had delicious pizza today, now we are full but looking forward to eating the delicious leftovers tomorrow.

We are also looking forward to great birds again tomorrow.

See you then,

Hanelie

People: Erik Christophersen, Frede Jakobsen, Knud Pedersen, Robbe Cool, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Marion L'Huillier-Hunsinger, Elin and Jens Vrang

This morning, the wind was blowing South East, which is why Robbe and I took our bikes to go to Nordstrand. There, we stayed all morning with Knud. We had a decent amount of birds, many Whooper swans (Sangsvane) and Wood pigeons (Ringdue) decided to cross, and we also got the chance to see a White-tailed eagle (Havørn) and a Greater fronted goose (Blisgås) very close to us.

Good evening everyone,

After a couple of foggy mornings, we finally got the chance to see the light again as the sun was rising this morning. The wind is mainly to thank for that. As it was Southerly wind, we agreed with Knud to meet at Nordstrand this time as this is where most birds would end up passing by. Hanelie, Robbe and I biked there and took the path crossing the reeds. However, with the cold temperatures throughout the night, the ground was a bit frost and what had to happen happened: one of us slid and fell. The unlucky chosen one was Robbe whose bike tires did not appreciate the slippery wood planks and unfortunately ripped his trousers but quickly recovered with no injury. We still managed to make it to Nordstrand and we settled on the dunes, a bit lower down to have some protection from the wind.

There were more birds than we had seen in the past few observation counts which we really enjoyed. Also some species we had not seen yet since arriving, including a Pintail (Spidsand), a Eurasian Curlew (Storspove), two Woodcocks (Skovsneppe) and one Bar-tailed Godwit (Lille Kobbersneppe). Eurasian Teals (Krikand) were very numerous today and we also saw more raptors. A White-tailed Eagle (Havørn), which was probably the same one as yesterday passed by. We also saw a female Hen Harrier (Blå Kærhøg) from close up and some Red Kites (Rød glente) and Common Buzzards (Musvåge). Knud also took the time to teach us how to identify more easily some species or differentiate males and females. We also learnt from him that a sub-species of the Bar-tailed Godwit (Lille Kobbersneppe) migrates from Alaska to New Zealand without any stopovers. This is therefore the longest known non-stop avian flight.

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

After a quick lunch, Hanelie, Alice and Robbe met up with Jørgen who had proposed to drive us around to show the best birding spots around Skagen. I wish I could have gone but the tiredness took over me and instead I stayed at the station, started to enter the observations, and took a nap. In the meantime, Hanelie, Alice and Robbe discovered that it was Igor’s 7^th birthday! He seemed to treat one of Hanelie’s gloves as one of his birthday presents, carrying it proudly.

And thanks to Jørgen, they now know all the best spots to go to depending on the wind direction to observe birds and in particular raptors. He also explained that raptor migration here is a bit different than in most places as many raptors travel to the tip and end up turning around once they reach the sea. This can be quite nice as this way, if you missed it the first time, you might have the chance to spot it later.

Sum of the Raptors in the area based on observations typed into Dofbasen the same day

Once everyone got back, Hanelie joined me for a nap session while Alice and Robbe drew with hot chocolates to warm them up. Afterwards, we met up with Elin and Jens who we could not see the past evening as our activities took longer than expected. They told us that yesterday they took the bike and went to Råbjerg Mile again. They saw the two resident Common Cranes (Trane) near Skagen on their way there. When they got back in the evening, they were tired from the long ride on the muddy path and decided to have an early night. And today, they spent the whole day in Skagen’s much appreciated Art Museum. They visited it years ago but couldn’t last year due to Corona and have been reading books about some of the authors exhibited there. They had lunch at Brøndums but had to eat outside in the cold.

After our evening meeting, we again had the chance to enjoy an amazing meal prepared by Elin and Jens. It included starters, charcuterie and cheese boards, risotto with tomato and zucchini, homemade bread, and some local pastries for dessert. The table was again nicely dressed up with flowers and candles and the atmosphere was very relaxed. It is safe to say all of our bellies were happy and full after that. As a result, Robbe showed us a “Digestion music” playlist that can do wonders apparently while we are finishing entering the data in DOFbasen. Tomorrow it will be our time to cook for our lovely guests and the standards are high so we hope to provide nice dishes everyone can enjoy.

I hope all of you also enjoyed your day and we recommend you take a walk to Nordstrand if you have the occasion tomorrow as you could hopefully see some cool birds.

Marion

People: Robbe Cool, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Marion L'Huillier-Hunsinger, Jørgen Kabel & Igor, Elin and Jens Vrang.