Some Crazy Cranes!

The day started with a draught through the observatory that woke us a little earlier than planned this morning. It was windy day to say the least with the wind consistently above 30mph and sometimes gusting 60mph which was a bit of a crazy one even just walking around outside. This led to no ringing today and the whole team going out migration counting.

Long tailed ducks (Havlit) drawn by Emma during migration count showing differences between male and female.

Migration counts were not much lower than expected. West winds mean a lot of the bird’s head to Norway and Sweden ending up in Kattagat until the wind eases or turns southernly. Three days of west winds turning NW today means there should be a lot of birds waiting to exit Kattagat, some potentially originating from a lot further North in the Atlantic/North Sea. This is what tomorrow looks great for so keep posted. In the meantime, today’s sightings. West winds do not mean that birds would not be passing, and the migration was very good for NW moving Common Scoter (Sortand), Gannet (Sule), Kittiwake (Ride) and Long tailed duck (Havlit) with hundreds of the first, tens of the second and a little less for the third and fourth. Once the haze lifted off the sea and visibility improved around the third hour of wind and sand being pummelled into the face (and ending up everywhere), singles of Fulmar (Mallemuk) turned into small flocks resulting in a moderate passage of 20-30 birds.

The two Common Cranes (Trane) flying through the waves this morning.

The biggest personal surprise was two pairs of Common Cranes (Trane) who independatly came from the North and tried to fly NW into the very strong winds. Observations of the first pair were phenomenal and this pair tried for 5 minutes to continue their migration varying from just above the waves, to high in the sky. Alas heading SE and being lost to view. The second pair took a slightly different route and quickly ended up heading past SE about half an hour later.

Ragnar's 'Viking' Gull (Sølvmåge x Gråmåge hybrid)

Two Caspian Gulls (Kaspisk Måge) by Ragnar. The left hand bird is a 2nd calander year individual and the bird on the right is a 1st calander year bird.

Migration done we walked back to the observatory for food and then Simon needed to drop off Alexander after his five days here. He tied this into some gull feeding at the harbour where we fed the gulls a loaf of bread. This may sound a little odd but with the strong winds the number of Herring Gulls (Sølvmåge) were in their several hundreds, Great Black Backed Gulls (Svartbag) totalled low hundreds, a nice 7 Caspian Gulls (Kaspisk Måge) including 3x 1st cy/3 x 2nd cy/1 x Adult, a few Black-headed Gulls (Haettemåge), Common Gulls (stormmåge), and a ‘Viking Gull’ that is a hybrid between Herring Gull (Sølvmåge) and Glaucous Gull (Gråmåge), all joined the feeding flock.

Ragnar's Brunnuch’s Guillemot (Polarlomvie) drawing from Nordstand this afternoon showing the main features of the bird seen.

We then said goodbye to Alexander, dropped Ragnar off at Nordstand where he found over 511 Fulmar (Mallemuk), 2 Sooty Shearwaters (Sodfarvet Skråpe) and a Brunnuch’s Guillemot (Polarlomvie) which is a crazy rarity if accepted. The weather and the views point to this being a very good candidate plus a good description by Ragnar too.

We all came back, and a new guest arrived who will be present until Sunday, her name is Stella and is another DOF ung birder who would like to get to know Skagen a little better and the birds here. Welcome.

Highlights from the observatory:

• A movement of Fulmar (Mallemuk)
• At least 7 Caspian Gulls (Kaspisk Måge)
• Two Sooty Shearwaters (Sodfarvet Skråpe)
• Brünnich's guillemot (Polarlomvie)

Ringing totals

No ringing was undertaken today due to the wind.

Overall total: 0

Today’s observations on Dofbasen from observers in the area

People: Thomas Weston, Emma Fabre, Alexander Nyholm, Morten Jenrich, Ragnar Smith, Stella Bråmer Simon Sigaard Christiansen.