The first count of the season.

Today was our first official migration counting day. The day started with a lot of fog but after a good hour it cleared up completely and the sun even peeped through the clouds. We met Knud for the first time who helped us with the counting protocols and some determiation of some distant seabirds.

It was nice that sombody with so much experience could teach us on our first day. Knud found our first rarity of the counting season, a European Shag or Topskarv in Danish. We counted the large groups of resting sea ducks consisting of, Velvet Scoter (Fløjlsand), Common black scoter (Sortand9 and Eider's (Edderfugl). Far above Skagerrak and Kattegat a whole bunch of by; Guillemots (Lomvie), Red-throated Diver's (Rødsrubet Lom), Goldeneye (Hvinand) and Gannet's (Sule) passed by. Inland, large flocks of Jackdaws (Allike) formed and migrated north. And the first Hen harier (Blå kærhøg)  and Common buzzard's (Muavåge) passed through.

New team out on Worlds End 3. Photo: Knud Pedersen

You can read a presentation of us new volunteers elsewhere on this webisite on this link.

Around 10:30 AM the migration slowed down but we used our time well and Knud taught us the difference between Adult and Juvenile Buzzard's (Musvåge) and the ageing of hen Harrier's (Blå kærhøg). Back at the Lighthouse, we enjoyed last night's surplus pasta carbonara for lunch. We made a short attempt for a seawatch in the afternoon but it did not yield too much news. We heard that the Crane's (Trane) were on their way north in large numbers so we are looking forward to that tomorrow!

Scanning through the mist

Highlights from the observations:

European Shag (Topskarv)

Link to todays observations in Dofbasen from the Skagen area

Sum of the Raptors in the area based on observations typed into Dofbasen.

People: Roman Spildooren, Janna Ouedraogo, Cora Koeberle, Lucas Corneliussen and Knud Pedersen