Crème de la crème

What started as a quiet day turned out into the craziest day, we had so far with the observations we could only dream of some months ago. When I look around and see the other volunteers while writing the blog, I see happy satisfied faces.

It started this morning with the announcement of a bluethroat that gained Hanelie’s interest. While I was still waking up, she made her first excursion of the day and succeeded. When she came back, Kjell, Simon, Hanelie and I started to prepare the raptor catching for today. The goal was to place two nets on two locations in Skagen, one with a stuffed eagle owl, and the other with a goshawk. While preparing the first net near Nordstrand, we got a zello about 6 ‘something’. I tried to find a group of 6 birds migrating over the dunes, but when Hanelie got the translation of Simon during a phone call, she told us they saw Orcas “Spækhugger”! We didn’t hesitate and started to run to the car as fast as possible. We were perfectly on time and found them in the scope. Everyone got really excited when they started to jump around. First one, later several at the same time. No less than 11 orcas (at least 2 males) gave us today la crème de la crème. Kjell was so nice to pick up Marion and she got to see them too! As an extra bonus, we found her first great grey shrike “Stor tornskade” a bit later.

Alice and Manuel as well as our guests Dorte and Anders stayed at Nordstrand to finish the morning observations and the laser shootings. They enjoyed the sight of 3 bitterns “Rørdrum”, a great egret “Sølvhejre” and 12 red kites “Rød glente”.

When we recovered from this exciting moment, we went back to the station to pick up some extra food and books to read while we would wait for the raptors. I took post on a hill near the eagle owl while Hanelie took the goshawk for her account.

Because I didn’t have to do anything but wait, I decided to count the raptor migration. I got a visit from Marion and Alice because Marion came to say goodbye. We gave her a wooden goldcrest and a card with a firecrest to thank her for her wonderful company. She has now gone to Aalborg to complete her master thesis. We hope she will find more time to work and that she will come back soon. Alice stayed with me and helped me with the countings. In total, we saw more than 360 birds including 5 ospreys “Fiskeørn”, 3 peregrine falcons “vandrefalk” and 2 black kites “Sort glente”.

Hanelie was not so lucky with seeing the raptor migration but she almost caught hooded crows “Gråkrage” that were attacking the goshawk. Manuel was exploring the harbor in the meantime to find some cool gulls but didn’t get further than herring gulls “Sølvmåge”. Simon, Lisa and Lars did the daily check for the raptor project today. In the afternoon, the guests had a bike trap and found some ring ouzels “ringdrossel” and stonechats “Sortstrubet bynkefugl”.

In the evening we all came together in the lab to learn how to GPS-tag raptors. Kjell showed us on a dead scoter how to attach the tags without hurting the birds.

After a long evening meeting, Manuel could finish the delicious dinner we enjoyed together.

Gærdesmutte (Wren) - 1
Rødhals (Robin) - 29
Bogfinke (Chaffinch) - 1
Jernspurv (Dunnock) - 2
Sangdrossel (Song thrush) - 5
Gransanger (Chiffchaff) - 5
Fuglekonge (Goldcrest) - 4
Grønsisken (Siskin) - 1

Total : 48

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Michael Ancher, Hanelie Sidhu, Alice Scalzo, Marion L'Huillier-Hunsinger, Lisa Vergin, Robbe Cool, Kjell Janssens, Dorte and Anders Østerby, Manuel Tacke