Farewell Birds

This morning, I was woken up by the phone ringing at 2.45 am, Bjørn was calling to tell me to come to take a wader out of the net. I heard the code word “wader” and was wide awake within the second. I jogged to the net, partly because that would wake me up more, then took out the ruddy turnstone (stenvender) that was waiting for me. It was the second bird, we had caught during the night, but the nightjar was before I slept, so it counts for yesterday. The turnstone was really nice because we have been very happy to see several around on the beach in Grenen lately and I have not often handled one before. That also meant I was a bit unsure about the aging and sexing, but we just made sure to take good pictures, so Simon could help us with that afterwards. They are very cool birds, with a very cool bill and cool legs.

I was also getting more and more aware that my time here was coming to an end and it felt like a farewell bird that we finally caught a wader, something I have secretly wished to catch since I arrived.

There was no time to go back to sleep, so we just had breakfast, then went all together to take down the nets and then me, Simon junior and Hayley made our way to Skarvsøen, while Bjørn and Gustav could sleep after the night watch. We arrived to set up the CES nets half an hour before sunrise and hope for as good a morning as we’d had the last two times I was there. Therefore, we were a little bit disappointed, even though the day was actually really good – especially compared to the last days at Kabeltromlen. We started off with some reed warblers (rørsanger) and then just had the “normal” birds. IT was interesting to see, however, that a lot of reed warblers must have dispersed already, since we started catching adult birds that did not have a ring on, something that very rarely happened the last couple of weeks.

Hayley got to ring her first birds and learn the measurements we are taking here. Since she has done quite some ringing before, she learned very fast. Simon the first also came to visit us later and then we had a bird that was also rather special to me: a pied flycatcher (broget fluesnapper). Flycatchers are not caught very often here, but they are very pretty and very useful birds, seeing that their main source of food are mosquitoes. I was very happy to get to see that as well, before I leave.

We closed the nets after the six hours and went home and slept a little, since we were not able to sleep much last night due to the night catching. Afterwards we did all the office work and then we had an evening meeting, where we finally got to really meet the new guests in the apartment (they have been here last year as well). Also, Karina from DOF arrived and joined our meeting. She will join us the next couple of days to learn about our work for an article she is writing for the Fugle magazine. Now we just hope that she also gets to see some cool birds!

While the boys are getting ready for another night of night catching, I am packing my bags to go home tomorrow, as on Monday I will start school again and I hope to still sleep a little before that. I did not have the best weather, neither the best birds this time that I was here, but it is also a very nice feeling, that, every time I come here, it feels like coming home. I know so many people here by now (probably more than I know in Hamburg after two years of living there). Even if there are not so many birds, the landscape and the very special light you get here, especially around sunrise and sunset make it always a very nice experience to stay. Also, there are always cool people you get to meet – I mean, how cool do you have to be, to decide to stay a few months at the End of the World, knowing sleep will be rare, you will go out in all weathers and you won’t have time to do “normal people stuff”, just so you can be here, watch and ring birds and learn more about birds and the environment in general? It was the fourth year I was here now, and I don’t think I will come back next summer, because I want to go to another observatory, but I do hope I will be back some time soon. It is just always an experience both to enjoy but also to learn from. It is also quite nice for many of us, that here, we are just “normal” people; back home most of us are known as very weird. It’s always nice to be among like-minded people, in short. And Skagen is just a very good place to be that, because you do get a lot of rather special birds! Thank you all, once again, for welcoming me, sharing your experiences and life stories and being part of my life for the last 4 weeks. I will, of course, try to use everything I learn here, also for my teaching in school.

Lille Dompap (Bullfinch) in the beautiful morning light of today.

Tomorrow, I will do one more morning of ringing at Kabeltromlen with Hayley. Then I will be off. Migration will start properly on the weekend, I think, so be prepared!

Ringing (Fyrhaven)

Natravn (Nightjar) – 1

Stenvender (Ruddy Turnstone) - 1

Ringing  (Skarvsøen)

Broget Fluesnapper (Pied Flycatcher) - 1

Tornsanger (Common Whitethroat) – 3

Havesanger (Garden Warbler) - 1

Gærdesanger (Lesser Whitethroat) - 2

Rørsanger (Reed Warbler) - 14

Løvsanger (Willow Warbler) - 2

Gransanger (Chiffchaff) - 4

Rørspruv (Reed Bunting) - 1

Dompap (Bullfinch) - 1

Total: 31

People: Hayley Land, Gustav Nyberg , Martina Hillbrand, Simon Kiesé, Bjørn Laursen, Simon S. Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Kristine og Jan Hjort Christensen, Karina Demuth

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