The Nets Deliver

Last night was our first night of three continuous nights of attempting to try and catch Storm-Petrels (Stormsvale) and Nightjars (Natravn). It wasn’t until last year that the observatory first started trialing Storm-Petrel catching sessions and it has thus far seen reasonable success, though during my time here last Autumn I witnessed four unsuccessful sessions and thus was pessimistic about our chances last night. My pessimism soon proved to be misplaced as the first time checking the nets on the beach just outside the station proved fruitful. Manuel and I ran towards the net when seeing a bird suspended and we were soon joined by Simon, Andreas, and Sakari who were watching from the dune behind. The other volunteers were woken up and messages were sent out on Zello and we were soon joined by others eager to see the European Storm-petrel (Lille Stormsvale); the lab was full with around a dozen people as the bird was ringed. For several present it was the first time either seeing the bird up close or at all. We soon released the fifth Skagen Fuglestation ringed European Storm-petrel (Lille Stormsvale) which flew back out over Kattegat to join an unknown number of its kin. The crowd dispersed and only the station volunteers, Simon, Andreas and Sakari remained. We returned from the next few rounds empty-handed until we found Nightjar in the lighthouse garden nets. Simon had heard of successful catching of migrating Nightjars in Southern Sweden, but this was the first attempt to catch one at the lighthouse. The bird had been attracted by the call we were playing over a megaphone just as with the Storm-petrels. This time no people made the journey to see the bird being ringed but it was still an exciting and fulfilling moment for the team.

This morning Max and Frank went ringing, with Frank celebrating his newly acquired Danish ringing C license. Manuel and I tried to get some sleep after just having closed the nets after a thrilling night catching session. I didn’t get to sleep for long before being awoken to the news a Bluethroat (Nordlig Blåhals) had been caught out at Kabletrommen. I quickly rushed out toward Grenen passing Simon leading a tour for two members of the public and our guest Jette. We were soon joined by Anders and Dorthe Østerby who were visiting the ringing and bringing some petrel celebration cake to the team, they were understandably excited to see the striking bird being processed at the time. I had not long returned when another announcement was made, this time a Grasshopper warbler (Græshoppesanger) had been found in the nets: the long day and night meant I sat this bird out. Whilst breeding not far from Skagen this was just the third bird ringed in five years, with the last two being Spring birds on 23-07-2017 and 08-05-2021. The nets were soon closed and the team took a sigh of relief as we could all now try and rest in preparation for - hopefully – an exciting weekend of night catching ahead.

Erik Christophersens found a Golden Eagle (Kongeørn) near Nordstrand today, an awe-inspiring bird that shouldn’t be overlooked in the buzz of the great ringing records.

Today’s observations in Dofbasen from observers in the area

Ringing totals: 23

Kabletrommen:

Rørsanger: 5

Gærdesanger: 4

Løvsanger: 4

Kærsanger: 1

Nordlig Blåhals: 1

Græshoppesanger: 1

Munk: 2

Tornsanger: 2

Bogfinke: 2

Gransanger: 1

Lille Stormsvale: 1

Natrvn: 1

People: Max Laubstein, Robbie Lawler, Manuel Tacke, , Simon Christiansen, Frank Osterberg,  Knud Pedersen, Erik Christophersen, Andreas Egeland, Dakari Kauppinen, Anders and Dorthe Østerby