The living and the dead

With little activity around the raptor traps, and Simon busy with administrative work, I have shifted my focus the past couple of days to seabirds.

On Tuesday, 14 February, I surveyed for dead seabirds on the beach between Solnedgangskiosken, Højen and Det Grå Fyr, an approximately 10 km route. The primary target of these surveys is Fulmar (Mallemuk) and the birds that are found will be sent to Aarhus University as part of a research project to examine the contents of the stomachs of these birds to determine how much plastic they have ingested.

I began my survey at Solnedgangskiosken and the initial section of beach is primarily composed of large piles of loose gravel with some sand and this made for somewhat slow going for me. The uneven terrain also made searching a little difficult, and while I was seeing a lot of debris, I had not found any dead birds yet and wondered if I needed to modify my search image. Eventually I found a dead Gannet (Sule) and some gulls (måger), but no fulmars yet.

The beach at Højen

As the beach flattened out and became mostly sand, I found the first dead Mallemuk near Skagen Vest Fyr on Nordstrand and immediately noticed the distinctive, sharp smell of seabird. While my focus was on the beach and the ground, I was also taking time to survey the birds flying over the sea. The species I noted included Red-throated Diver/Loon (Rødstrubet Lom), Common Eider (Ederfugl), Common Scoter (Sortand), Red-breasted Merganser (Toppet Skallesluger), Great Cormorant (Skarv), and gulls (måger). I also saw Eurasian Oystercatcher (Strandskade), Sanderling (Sandløber), Rock Pipit (Skærpiber), and Snow Bunting (Snespurv).

In total, I found four dead Mallemuk during the survey, three of which were intact enough to collect. I also collected one Guillemot (Lomvie).

A dead  Fulmar (Mallemuk). A sad sight, yes, but look at that beautiful bill.

Yesterday I returned to Nordstrand to complete a survey of seabirds, this time focused on living birds! I saw many of the same species as yesterday as well as Razorbill (Alk) and Great Crested Grebe (Toppet Lappedykker). I also saw several Harbor Porpoise (Marsvin) swimming and foraging not far from the shore. After two hours of surveying and standing in one place in the chilly wind, I was cold enough to decide to return to Det Grå Fyr. On my return walk I noted a few species I hadn’t seen yet since arriving here, including Northern Lapwing (Vibe), Crested Tit (Topmejse), and Long-tailed Tit (Halemejse).

Do I look cold??

I am enjoying the muted winter landscapes right now and am looking forward to exploring new spots in the area, learning new things, and seeing more new species.

Reservatet landscape

Link to our observations for the first part of this week

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Eric Scheuering