Farewell Rosa, but first a seawatch to remember

Strong SE winds braced Skagen today gusting up to 15 – 20 metres per second which I think translates to about 30 -40mph winds so it was pretty strong and not the warmest overall. A day of being wrapped up and embracing the weather to complete the tasks of the observatory.

Full team out at migration counts. Thanks to Simon SSC for the team photo, we now have a pic of Ragnar trying to immitate a seabird or something? I am not particularly sure, but either way we did see birds!

No ringing was undertaken due to the wind so the whole team went to migration counts (apart from Mara to begin with who had a leisurely lie-in, fried breakfast, and a casual walk out to the observations joining the other team members after the first hout)!! Woop Woop, the team was united!! Cycling was not going to be fun today as getting to World End 3 would have been very very quick but getting back would have been a proper slog, so an observatory team walk was required this morning. In some of the warm clothes, there was no way we were going to be cold to begin!

Migration counts from World’s End 3 started well with a couple of Skuas seen almost instantly. One looked very much like a Long tailed Skua (Lille kjove) but was seen for only a few seconds, and the other looked good for an Arctic Skua (Almindelig kjove) but passed all too briefly after harassing the distant gulls to get a good enough view of either of them. However, the third skua, found by Emma as it came close offshore as it came out of Kattegat, was a stunning first year Pomarine skua (Mellemkjove) and showed well. If we were stood at the tip, it would have been breathtaking, not only with the strong wind, but the views of this beast of a skua as it flew only a few metres away. Other birds seen throughout the morning included a nice little passage of waterfowl including Goldeneye (Hvinand), Red-breasted Merganser (Toppet skallesluger) who mostly associated themselves with the Common Merganser/Goosander (Stor skallesluger), Eider (Ederfugl), Velvet Scoter (Fløjlsand) and the ever-present Common Scoter (Sortand)! The latter have been moving quite a bit so it will be interesting to see how the numbers change over the coming weeks.

A Great Grey Shrike (Stor tornskade) from Worlds End 3 by Ragnar.

A few other bits and pieces included a Puffin (Lunde), over 450 Gannets (Sule) in an hour, healthy number of corvids coming in off the sea, large numbers of thrushes moving over the land, a Merlin (Dværgfalk) and Sparrowhawk (Spurvehøg) in off and a Great white egret (Sølvhejre) headed NE out towards Sweden – I wonder if it ever made it in a strong headwind. A highlight for the team was a very showy Great Grey Shrike (Stor tornskade) hopping between post and branch behind the main observation spot. Great photos Ragnar!

The team came back for some much-needed lunch and said farewell to Rosa who headed off back to the UK today. Rosa has been here for 3 months and in her own words has enjoyed her time and adventures at the observatory. Rosa starts a job in the coming months so we wish her luck with her next adventures and all the experiences she will get over the coming years. //Added in subsequently// Randomly, Rosa inadvertently took one of the observatories Bananas back to the UK, so that is currently getting a tour of the local reserves away from Skagen

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Bike cleaning team in front of the observatory.

Back at the observatory, I got a lift into Skagen with Simon and completed some shopping before cooking food for the team later. I walked back and there were not many birds in the wind but good to be out. Whilst I was walking back, the rest of the team were having naps and taking it steady, as well as inputting the sightings from the morning.  On arrival, we cleaned the bikes and we all got a bit of a soaking from the hose, oops – sorry about that! We had showers, evening meeting was complete and the evening was chill and relaxed for sure. A much needed early night too for the team.

Highlights from the observatory:

• Pomarine Skua (Mellemkjove) plus two other skuas (kjove sp.)
• A Puffin (Lunde) flew SE, then NW later this morning
• Great Grey Shrike (Stor tornskade) showing very well at Worlds End 3.

Ringing totals

No ringing due to the weather today

Overall total: 0

Today’s observations on Dofbasen from observers in the area

People: Thomas Weston, Ragnar Smith, Rosa Hicks, Mara Glane, Emma Fabré, Jeppes and Linda, Simon Sigaard Christiansen.