ready for next year

Our alarms woke us up at 7 and we started taking everything out of the Lab to clean even in the deepest corners. When we’ve finished cleaning the Lab, we cleanded and oiled the bikes and put them into shelter for the winter. We saw one House Mouse, which liked the warmth inside but was disturbed by our work. It’s latin name "Mus Musculus" sounds pretty funny.

Now nearly everything is ready for the winter and the volunteers in spring will enjoy the apartment and working gear.

After the hard work the fun part comes and Simon took us to the harbour, where we fed seagulls. Unfortunately, just Herring Gulls (Sølvmåge) came, but we enjoyed the close views and we were able to read one colour ring.

Then we took down the raptor trap for the winter.

We also found time to build a lazy laying Birder-Snowman.

Everything is covered in snow - thanks to MD for this nice picture!

After that we quickly went shopping and went back.Thomas and I went to Ellekrattet one last time. We cold see six Woodcocks (Skovsneppe), but we were not able to catch any. This reminded me on the first night when Thomas arrived, because we also went out to catch, but we did not get anything. So the first and the lasr night were the same. After that Simon Sr. came with the Pizzas we had ordered. They were really good and we had a nice wine and talked about entertaining topics. Then we played table tennis and shuffle ball and we showed Simon Sr., that we had practiced in the meanwhile. It was a super nice last evening at the Bird Observatory for me!

Around 136 days ago a new volunteer joined the Skagen Bird Observatory. First of all he was called "the 2nd", later "small" and in the meanwhile "Jr.", which is probably the best name- It was his first time talking englisch for longer than thirty seconds and he was curious to learn more stuff about bird migration and meet new people. Directly in his first week he was able to see two European Stormpetrels (Lille Stormsvale) in his hand, which was so nice, that he will never forget that night. He met new people and made friends all over Eruope. A stunning Cory’s Shearwater should be beaten by an selffound Eastern Yellow Wagtail (Alaskavipstjert), which should be the first for Denmark. Since the end of July he was able to see 218 bird species during his stay. His biggest love were the Pipits, so when he was able to ring a Blyth’s Pipit (Mongolsk Piber) his hear was filled with even more joy.

Hi. It’s me. And today is my last full day here.

Thanks to all the awesome people: Simon Sr. (and Lisa) for teaching so much and creating a nice atmosphere here, the volunteers for making the station life t´so awesome, the guests for their help and motivation and the locals for their experience and the good exchange! But that is not the end of the story, because I will be back in spring. I’m looking very forward to meet some of my friends again, make new ones and see a lot of nice birds! Cheers, Simon

Today’s observations on Dofbasen from observers in the area

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