Greater Spotted Eagle!!!

Strong winds and persistent drizzle meant ringing was impossible and morning observations would have been challenging, however, the whole team was extremely grateful to not have to set our alarms at 4:30am for once! After we all spent the morning catching up on data entry (and sleep!), our newest volunteer Jeppe headed out to bird Elle Krattet and refamiliarize himself with the area. Michael and Yehonatan headed to Skagen Harbour and had excellent views of a pair of displaying, summer plumage Black Guillemots (Tejst).

A brief relapse in the rain had Dante and I cycling out to Flagbakken to see if the switch to southwesterly winds would produce many migrating raptors. We arrived at 11:55am, shortly after the rain had stopped, and had 5 Marsh Harriers (Rørhøg), 4 Hen Harrier (Blå Kærhøg) and 28 Common Buzzards (Musvåge) within the first 30 minutes. At 12:25pm, we noticed a distant Aquila eagle which Dante identified as a Greater Spotted Eagle (Stor Skrigeørn). The bird circled over Flagbakken and slowly drifted Northeast, giving excellent views, before we lost it high at 13:07pm. The bird was seen by many local and visiting birders futher north and then further south at Lodskovvad by Alex Sand Frich. The bird was aged by Alex as an adult and is the same individual which was seen briefly 3 days prior on the 8^th April, also at Flagbakken.

Greater Spotted Eagle (Stor Skrigeørn) over Lodskovvad. Photos: Alex Sand Frich.

This evening, the King Eider (Kongeederfugl) gave excellent views off the Grey Lighthouse (Det Grå Fyr), alongside a Pochard (Taffeland), and the Black Redstart (Husrødstjert) remains in the lighthouse garden. The juvenile Glaucous Gull (Gråmåge), which was reported earlier in Skagen Harbour, was seen at the tip.

A full list of today's observations can be found here.

Today's raptor summary can be found here.

People: Yehonatan Ben Aroia, Jeppe Madsen, Michael Colley, Dante Shepherd, Lauren Evans, Lisa Vergin, Simon Christiansen.