Breeding birds & ring-reading

Today represented the last day of our daily Spring migration ringing at Kabeltromlen however, Michael and I woke up to strong winds and heavy rain (which were not in the forecast) which unfortunately meant open the nets was impossible. This Spring, we have ringed 2580 birds here in Skagen and we now switch our focus to monitoring Skagen’s breeding birds.

At the station we instead used the morning to get on with other jobs including washing bird bags, writing rarity reports, entering and checking the last of the ringing data and, submitting, and quality checking Spring observation data and counts. Our guests Jesper and Anna headed out to Skarvsøen and had a lovely morning, despite the mosquitoes!

In the afternoon, Dante and I headed out birding round Elle Krattet, World’s End and Skarvsøen. Birding highlights included 4 resting Hvepsevåge (Honey Buzzards), 2 Grå Fluesnapper (Spotted Flycatchers), 1 Rødrygget Tornskade (Red-backed Shrike) and 2 juvenile Sortstrubet Bynkefugl (Stonechats). Whilst on the beach, we also managed to find another Stor Præstekrave (Ringed Plover) nest which we will continue monitoring. At Skarvsøen, we took the opportunity to count the breeding Skarv (Cormorants) and were pleased to see over 100 chicks in more than 50 active nests as well as some fledglings out on the lake. Michael went to the harbour to try and read some colour rings and managed to get the codes of a Norwegian-ringed Sildemåge (Lesser Black-backed Gull) and Svartbag (Great Black-backed Gull) and he’s looking forward to getting the recovery information.

Stor Præstekrave (Ringed Plover) nest.

Storm clouds over Nordstrand.

https://dofbasen.dk/search/result.php?design=table&soeg=soeg&periode=dato&dato=20-06-2023&omraade=stor&stor=588&obstype=observationer&species=alle&sortering=dato

Skagen Fuglestation: Michael Colley, Zach Pannifer, Dante Shepherd, Lauren Evans, Anna & Jesper.