Snow in Skagen

I woke up an hour later this morning and realised as me and Simon were heading out that it was snowing. Thomas tried to warn us but his phone died before he could send the message so to migration count we went. Strong northernly winds, snow and negative temperatures did not make this the most comfortable count. We were happy to see that Thomas was still alive and not frozen to death when we made it to world end’s 3. When it came to bird activity, there was not much to observe. A nice flock of 7 Goldeneye (Hvinand) flew over as me and Simon set up and 2 Goosanders (Stor Skallesluger) flew over just before we started packing up. The main highlights of the counts was the snow blizzard though. Because of the cold and barely no bird activity, we communally decided on stopping after two hours and headed back to the station.

Once back at the station, Simon and Thomas opened a net in the old lighthouse garden and we took turns checking on them every 15 to 20 minutes. On opening it looked good with a Fieldfare (Sjagger) feeding on the apples, some resting Great tits (Musvit) and Redpolls (Gråsisken). Sadly, none of them ended up in the nets, we only caught a recapture Robin (Rødhals).

Otherwise, we each did some personal admin and smaller tasks for stations, including updating the picture archive and entering data. After lunch and closing the nets, we headed to the attic to sort through some nets and check whether they were still usable. Thomas went on a short walk to enjoy the lightly covered snow landscape. Me and Simon went out night-catching but only saw one Woodcock (Skovsneppe) which quickly flew off before we got anywhere near it.

Today’s observations on Dofbasen from observers in the area.

People: Thomas Weston, Mathilde Ducroz, Simon Kiesé.