Marsh Warblers, Honey Buzzards & a Short-toed Eagle

Today was mine and Dante’s first day back in Skagen after a brief trip back to London. Ying and I started the morning at 02:45am (which was a bit of a shock to the system after a week off!) by heading to Kabeltromlen to have the nets open for sunrise. We were later joined by Simon, Jakob and our guests Jane and Jens, and had an excellent morning of 69 birds including another male Kernebider (Hawfinch) and 18 Kærsanger (Marsh Warbler) which is our highest catch of this species in one day this year so far. Throughout the morning, Simon was also taking blood samples from trans-Sahara migrants to test for West Nile Virus which was interesting to watch.

Male Kernebider (Hawfinch) at Kabeltromlen.

Skovpiber (Tree Pipit) caught at Kabeltromlen.

Zach headed up to World’s End for morning observations where the highlights included 1 Pirol (Golden Oriole), 1 Serin (Gulirisk), 1 Karmindompap (Rosefinch) and 15 migrating Hvepsevåge (Honey Buzzards). Michael and Dante headed out to the Aarhus University radar station at the tip to join Troels for the day. They managed to measure the flight height of numerous Canadagås (Canada Geese), Hvepsevåge (Honey Buzzards) and a Lærkefalk (Hobby).

Further south, Knud found a Slangørn (Short-toed Eagle) although unfortunately, none of the station team managed to see the bird.

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

Skagen Fuglestation: Jakob Bjarkholt, Michael Colley, Simon S Christiansen, Toh Ying Ying, Troels Eske Ortvad, Zach Pannifer, Lauren Evans, Dante Shepherd, Jane & Jens Peter Brenøe

Kabeltromlen Ringing Totals:

Kernebider (Hawfinch)- 1

Solsort (Blackbird)- 1

Skovpiber (Tree Pipit)- 1

Munk (Blackcap)- 18

Tornsanger (Common Whitethroat)- 3

Gransanger (Chiffchaff)- 1

Løvsanger (Willow Warbler)- 9

Gulbug (Icterine Warbler)- 3

Kærsanger (Marsh Warbler)- 18

Rørsanger (Reed Warbler)- 5

Lille Gråsisken (Lesser Redpoll)- 3

Rødstjert (Redstart)- 1

Gærdesmutte (Wren)- 1

Havesanger (Garden Warbler)- 3

Total: 69