A productive day and some harbour birding

We woke up just before 8am to open up the nets and see if we could catch anything. Compared to the previous days, the nets were not popular with the local birds with only two Blackbirds (Solsort) recaptures during the whole morning. This meant is was time to be productive on the tasks concerning the imminent winter close. Simon Jr. was in charge of checking through the ring stock in particular gaps in series and that all rings are accounted for. Thomas went through his pictures and updated our picture archives with pictures of birds, landscapes and the station people. I started on the big clean and went through the kitchen drawers to clean them and reorganise them. Simon Jr. cleaned the oven and microwave at the same time. During the morning, Simon Sr. had a final talk with each of us.

As ringing was particularly slow, Simon Sr. suggested going to bird around the Skagen harbour. We headed out after lunch and had a successful day out. We started on the north side where Simon spotted a young Caspian gull (Kaspik måge) flying that later landed on the beach and started preening. While I was taking pictures of the bird, Simon Sr. also spotted a Water pipit (Bjergpiber) flying around the rocks of the sea breaker. After a successful first part of birding, it went a few more quiet. Simon and Thomas each spotted a Little auk (Søkonge) at different location of the harbour. Compared to my last views, these birds dived a lot more.

After birding, we went to do a shop and finally gave back the cans and bottle for pant which was a nice bonus. Once back at the station, Simon finished cleaning the oven while me and Thomas went out night catching. Sadly not the same luck as yesterday but did see a flock of Sanderling (Sandløber) and one of Purple sandpipers (Sortgrå ryle). I got a nice view through the thermal camera of 8 seals resting on the bunker rock. After getting back unsuccessfully, we held my session on North East American warblers as well as a small kahoot quiz.

Now bed time because tomorrow is big cleaning day!

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

People: Thomas Weston, Mathilde Ducroz, Simon Kiesé, Lisa Vergin and Simon S. Christiansen.