A good day for waders

Last night, looking at the weather forecast, I thought that I might have gotten lucky, because there would be rain most of the early morning. That I would get a little sleep in before starting the morning migration counts. Thunder roared most of the night, but as it started to brighten up outside, it becalm unseemingly calm, so I went out to Grenen for sunrise anyways. It couldn't have started out quieter. The Ederfugle (Eider) were way down in numbers, and there was barely any Sortand (Common Scoter) movement. While migration was mostly slow, the first interesting bird of the morning caught my eye. An adult Sortterne (Black Tern) flying with the wind at sea. The interesting birds at sea stopped there, though. I sorted through the small waders on the pools of the flooded beach, and found 10 Krumnæbbet Ryle (Curlew Sandpiper), 3 Dværgryle (Little Stint), 1 Sandløber (Sanderling) and 3 Islandsk Ryle (Red Knot). After having counted all the roosting birds, I eagerly watched the sea to see if anything popped up, but nothing. After a couple hours of not much, Knud and Kalina arrived and I left to return to the station to nap.

I woke up only a couple hours later to some zello messages, telling me about a Kærløber (Broad-billed Sandpiper) that was seen at World's End 3 not long after I left! By that point, the weather had become spotty, and I managed to take advantage of one of the hours around lunchtime to try to find the Kærløber again, as tourists and tractors had likely scared away it and the flock it stuck to. Knowing this, I decided to take the tractor trail to the east of Grenen, where it was usually quieter on the foot traffick. There were several pools therefrom the recent flooding with many waders seen earlier, and to my luck, the Kærløber as well.

A link to today's observations from volunteers and local observers.

Skagen People: Seán Walsh, Kalina Siwek, Knud Pedersen, Simon S. Christiansen, Mark & his children.