Finding Joy in Slow, Foggy Days

Another day, another morning of fog. We woke up this morning, prepped and ready to go out to Grenen for a morning of counting at Worlds End 3, only to find the thick fog present once again. Unfortunately, this morning it was even thicker than the previous days, to the extent where we could hardly see the lighthouse tower 10 meters outside out window. That said, we were determined to make the most out of the day. We all decided to go back to sleep and check hourly if the fog would lift during our counting hours, however, it never did in that period of the day.

Waking up around 8:30 AM, we ate a nice breakfast in the kitchen and began to plan our day. Ragnar left to return back to Copenhagen this morning, but not to fret! He will return again later in the spring. By 9 AM we realized the fog likely would not lift until late in the day, so we rather opted to catch up on chores around the station. We first took a walk out to the radio telemetry station and cut the grass underneath the tower to prevent excess vegetation from building up. On the walk home, I decided to trek through the bog in Storsig and flushed two Common Snipe (Dobbeltbekkasin). We arrived back at the station around 1 PM and got the bikes out for a much needed deep clean. By 3 PM the fog finally lifted and Roman went for a short walk up towards the seal bunker.

The The bikes are finally clean!

In the evening, we decided to do something a bit reckless and go for a swim! It was very cold as the water was approximately 3,5 C, but it was very refreshing. Later in the evening we checked the stations email and found that a Norwegian Bird Station has been documenting the same leucistic Rock Pipit (Skærpiber) that Ragnar and I documented a few days before. According to the email, it was first found in 2019 and has been recorded every year for the past 6 years! 

The Skærpiber in 2024 photographed by Store Færder Ornitologiske Stasjon

You can find a pictue from when it was here in Skagen in the blog post from the 8th March.

In the evening we welcomed Mara to the station once again! She will join us here for the next three weeks before she returns to university in Germany. Now, we are finally preparing for a morning without fog. For the first time in 4 days, fog is not forecasted to be preset in Skagen due to some north wind! We hope the big migration day we have been waiting for arrives! And so, another day passes at Skagen Fuglestation. What will tomorrow bring? We will have to wait and see! 

Highlights:

• Common Snipe (Dobbletbekkasin)
• Razorbill (Alk) flocks 
• Cleaning the bikes!

Link to today’s observations in Dofbasen in the Skagen area

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

People: Lucas Corneliussen, Simon Sigaard Christiansen, Cora Köberle, Janna Ouedraogo, Roman Spilldooren, Ragnar Smith, Mara Glane