Barred Warbler, European Shag and Pizza//You can't have you crake and eat it too

Finally! Today was a proper Skagen-autumn day birdwise. After a night ringing session that resulted in a Common Redshank (Rødben) 1k and a European Nightjar (Natravn) and Aurora Borealis! Lucas paid for it with a facial roadrash when he crashed his bike on his way out to Grenen with Rosa.

Redshank (Rødben) 1k

European Nightjar (Natravn)

Morning observation was somewhat quite numberwise, but the diversity was good for once! I was joined by visiting birder Nicolaj, which is always very welcome, it can be a bit lonely in the dunes, especially when the birds are lacking. The birds of the day were three mediterranean gull (Sorthovedet Måge) 1k, one Caspian Gull (Kaspisk Måge) 3k and Rolf found a European Shag (Topskarv) that landed out by the tip and kept us company. But the bombshell fell when Nicolaj said he thought he had received a Zello call, so I checked my phone and saw I had five missed calls, two Zello calls and a SMS message with word “BARRED WARBLER” across my screen. I told Nicolaj and we moved to Kabeltromlen and were presented a very nice Barred Warbler (Høgesanger) 1k. 55^th record for Skagen a new bird for all the volunteers, excluding me, this was my third autumn record, but I have never seen one in hand, what a stunner!

Barred Warbler (Høgesanger) 1k

Otherwise, it was somewhat quiet, though a visit at the stationary Zitting Cisticola (Cistussanger) that has been there for four days and has proven quite popular lifted my tired but content spirit. The rest of the day was doing light work and greeting our new guest Susanne and Torben, they are going to stay here for a week. Simon came by for the evening meeting and then him and the rest of the volunteers went to Gyvelmarkerne trying to look for Great Snipe (Tredækker), which ended with a Eurasian Bittern (Rørdrum) and the potential hit of the day a probable Spotted Crake (Plettet Rørvagtel) 1k they flushed a few times.When they came back we out for some dinner and ended up at a very nice pizzeria.

Pizza-party

After that me and Simon went back to Gyvelmarkerne with flashlight, thermal monoculars and a handnet to see if we could catch the crake. Though we didn’t succeed, we were very, very close to catching it as it ran around in the very tall grass 1-2 meters in front of us, but we didn’t “take the shot” so to speak. It would have been the perfect cherry on top of a very good ice cream!

Ringing (Kabeltromlen)

Rødstjert (Common Redstart) - 1

Kærsanger (Marsh Warbler) - 3

Rørsanger (Reed Warbler) - 1

Tornsanger (Common Whitethroat) - 2

Munk (Blackcap) - 2

Løvsanger (Willow Warbler) - 1

Grå Fluesnapper (Spotted Flycatcher) - 1

Total: 11

Link to todays observations from observers in the area

People at the station: Ragnar Smith, Joseph Zeno, Lucas Corneliussen, Rosa Hicks, Simon Siggaard Christiansen, Nicolaj Jeppesen, Torben Præst, Susanne Præst, Peter Sørensen, Rosalina Leth-Nissen et. al.