The longest roadtrip to Lille Vildmose ever!

The day started as usual with the ringers going to kabeltromlen and the observers going to Worlds End 3. The counting never really started as there were quite few birds migrating and roosting out, but we still managed to pick up nice species such as Mediterranean Gull (Sorthovedet Måge), Pale-bellied Brent (Lysbuget Knortegås), Common Merganser (Stor Skallesluger) and Caspian Gull (Kaspisk Måge) and our neighbour Ole came out and visited us, this time I remembered to bring a scope for him, so he could join us.

Identifying gulls is a sadomasochistic exercise, yet we persist, here we are trying to document a strange lesser black-backed gull (Sildemåge)

But during the counting we got a message that a Stilt Sandpiper (Klireryle) was found in Vestamager! Second record for Denmark since 1998 and it is one of my dream waders!!! We started planning if we should twitch the bird and we decided to do it. We returned to the station and while the others were getting ready, I went out on a guided tour with two American birdwatchers from Michigan. We went out to Grenen and we managed to see a very nice Black Guillemot (Tejst), Merlin (Dværgfalk) and a very nice Gannet (Sule). They were just as pleased with the outcome as I was, I was a bit afraid that there would be any birds to show due to the way too nice weather. We came and I said my goodbyes and then it was roadtrip time with the whole SKAF gang. But the worst case scenario happened as we received a message that the bird hadn’t been seen for a long time and people were looking for it. So before we got too far we decided to turn around and instead go to Lille Vildmose near Aalborg.

Augustin and me - BWA (Birders With Attitude)

hough there were no Stilt Sandpiper, we still managed to see some really nice birds! Golden Eagles (Kongeørn), Common Crane (Trane), Black-necked Grebe (Sorthalset Lappedykker), Whooper Swan (Sangsvane) and some really cool views of stag Red Deers (Kronhjort).

Looking at the many birds of Lille Vildmose

After Lille Vildmose I took over the wheel from Frederik who had been driving for last 4 hours and then we went to a spot where I knew a pair of Eurasian Eagle Owls were roosting, and got some really nice views of sitting on the ground while three kestrels (Tårnfalk) were mobbing it.

Looking at Eurasian Eagle Owl, everyone are happy

The star of the show!

When everyone were satisfied with the views we went straight back Skagen, got some nice pasta with tomato sauce cooked by Augustine and then straight to bed (Though im still up writing this blog-post, c’est la vie).

Goodnight!

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Rødhals - European Robin: 1

Rørsanger - Eurasian Reed Warbler: 3

Tornsanger - Common Whitethroat: 1

Havesanger - Garden Warbler: 1

Gransanger - Chiffchaff: 3

Total: 9

Link to today's observations from observers in the area

People at the station: Ragnar Smith, Rosa Hicks, Simon Sigaard Christiansen, Augustin Sticksel, Frederik Johansen, Mara Glane, Ole and Birgitte