Dolphins, shags and gull-galore!

The last few days have been eventful with plenty of good birds and the weather hasn’t been too bad. The two King Eiders (Kongeederfugl) are still hanging around and the Caspian gulls (Kaspisk Måge) are keeping me company out at Grenen along with Knud. But yesterday and today were quite good days!

Yesterday (25/01-2025) started out at Worlds End 3, were me and Knud sat in somewhat strong winds and watched Little Gulls (Dværgmåge) passing by, in Skagen they usually only show up during strong winds, you could call the harbingers of storm. With all the wind, remnants of the hurricane hitting the UK, we are crossing fingers for something rare and exotic from the arctic. Yesterday we had a very nice Glaucous Gull (Gråmåge) 1k roosting shortly at the sandworm track and among all the gulls we counted atleast 9 caspian gulls, one with a yellow colourring, probably from Poland and a hybrid between Herring Gull and Caspian Gull.

 Going to be exciting to find where its from!

After the obs at WE3 I went back to lighthouse to eat and relax, before I jumped on the bike and went to the eastern pier. On my way I saw a large flock of gulls and while scanning, I noticed a smaller, pale gull – Jackpot! I put up the scope and it was indeed an Iceland Gull /Hvidvinget Måge) 2k, much paler than the one that has been in Skagen since December. Along with the Iceland gull I found five Caspian gulls and a “Viking Gull”, hybrid between herring gull and glaucous gull. It has also been here since November. The Iceland gull was twitched by Karsten Klausen, who coincidently was also at the eastern pier

Iceland Gull 2k, paler than the one that has been hanging around in Skagen!

After documenting the gull and making sure I wasn’t missing anything else in the flock, I went to the tip of the pier and started checking rocks. And after some time I found another Iceland Gull! This time an adult that has been in Skagen for some time now. To see two Iceland Gulls and a Glaucous Gull in one day is crazy anywhere in Denmark! With birds like this I had high hopes for today, and today delivered.

I arrived at WE3 around 9, with Knud already been from 0825 and having seen an Great Northern Diver (Islom), it felt like I was lagging behind. Shortly after we were joined by a young birder called Axel and when asked which species he wanted to see, he said Iceland Gull and King Eider with no hesitation, perfect! Though no King Eider at WE3 he got four European Shags (Topskarv) migrating NW, which is a true Skagen Spring-speciality. Sometime after I saw a familiar sight; a smaller, pale gull flying in from the sea, bingo Iceland Gull! It landed at the sandworm track, Knud and Axel went down to get a closer look, where they could reveal that it was a 3k! A new bird for the area and we have had five Iceland Gulls in Skagen since October which is a nice number for a rare gull like this. After some time and with plenty birds on the Knud left and shortly after Axel, which of course means that im going to find something rare, which I of course did. 3 European Shags going SE, probably 3 of the 4 from earlier and a Great Northern Diver resting on the water far out in Kattegat!

After that I went to the observatory where I was going to meet up with Simon for some harbour birding. We went for a short detour to check a bushy area that has held a late lesser whitethroat and Siberian chiffchaff in the autumn, but sadly nothing was to be found. At the harbour we feed some gulls which resulted in a nice Caspian gull 2k, one that has been lingering in the harbour for some time now.

 Such a cool looking Herring Gull, with a primary pattern reminiscent of a Thayer's Gull 

After that we went to eastern pier and immediately out the window I spot a Common Bottlenose Dolphin (Øresvin) heading towards the harbour mouth, we run out to see it even better and unsuccessfully get some photos. While standing we manage to see the long-staying young male king eider and I manage to find a European Shag, a new self-found tick!

 European Shag, what a cool bird!

It went behind the rocks and we didn’t see if it landed or where it landed. With nothing new happening we decided to do a last check at the cruise ship pier. What a great idea that was! There we found the dolphin playing a blue bottle at some fishing poles out in the water! Some of the most insane views I have gotten of a dolphin in Denmark (I swam with wild dolphins in Israel, kinda hard to beat that), I’ll link the video. Two exciting days with exciting birds and animals.

But out of all the rare gulls, divers and ducks, and exotics from everywhere in the world, the rarest bird seen in the last few days was two bewick’s swans (Pibesvane) migrating E with some Whooper Swans (Sangsvane). It is barely annual with almost all records march when they migrate back to the breeding grounds. To put it in perspective, I have seen just as many Bewick’s Swans in Skagen as I have seen puffins (Lunde) and until today I had seen more Pine Grosbeaks (Krognæb) in Skagen than Bewick’s Swans! Its all about perspective, because if you travel 30 minutes south you can easily 20-30 of them.

Highlights from the last few days:

Iceland Gull – Hvidvinget Måge: 3, 1 2k, 1 3k, 1 adult. Five records is a good number!

Glaucous Gull – Gråmåge 1 2k, fourth record since November

King Eider – Kongeederfugl 2, both long-staying birds

Great Northern Diver - Islom 2, expected but still rare

European Shag – Topskarv 4, first of hopefully many this coming season

Bewick’s Swan – Pibesvane 2, rarest bird in the last few days, rare spring migrant and very rare autumn migrant.

Link to the last seven days observations from observers in the area

People at the station: Ragnar Smith, Simon Sigaard Christiansen, Knud Pedersen