Top(skarv) of the Morning - A St. Patrick's Day Special

Top of the morning! Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all! It’s another day in paradise here at Skagen Fuglestation! Waking up at 5:35 AM, we were expecting a cold, windy day at Worlds End 3; however, to our surprise, as we looked out over Kattegat from the apartment windows, it was calm, clear, and beautiful. We rapidly got ready for the day as we needed to be at the count site at 06:15 as sunrise was fast approaching. Rasmus and I ran out the door at 6 AM, and we immediately discussed the possibility of Shag’s (Topskarv) moving out of Kattegat on their way back to the breeding grounds in Norway.

A gorgeous morning overlooking Kattegat. Not pictured: Sean Walsh's presence :(

Arriving 20 minutes before sunrise, we set up and waited. Unlike the previous day, alcid (Alkefugle) numbers were significantly lower, given the lack of wind. Within an hour, we watched as an adult Shag (Topskarv) in breeding plumage cruised by the tip of Grenen headed northwest. This was one of the four lifers Christopher saw today. Over the next several hours we watched as the ocean became less and less dense with birds as the morning activity died down. But with that, we recorded 11 more shag (Topskarv) over a 4 hour period. A high count for this year. The adult male King Eider (Kongeederfugl) was also present today a few hundred meter passed the tip of Grenen. We were also joined for several hours by one of our guests Anne-Mette.

Rasmus infront of Ragnar Smiths favorite shop!

In the afternoon, Rasmus and I took a quick break to relax and get some rest and recovery in before we cycled to town to do some highly needed shopping and to bring our mountain bikes in for repair! While there, Simon blessed us by purchasing a new mountain bike for the station! A much-needed addition after one of our bikes was stolen last autumn. While we were making sure we would have food to eat tonight for dinner, the rest of the team was out at Kabeltromelen setting up the remaining seven nets for the season! We are finally ready to begin ringing. Thursday is going to be a nice day, so hopefully, our hard work will pay off! We are now starting to guess what the first bird of the season will be in the nets. My guess is Great Tit (Musvit). 

And so, another day has passed at Skagen Fuglestation. What will tomorrow bring? We will have to wait and see!

Vi ses i morgen

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, Mara Glane and Rasmus Matthiesen-Juhl, Christopher Moser-Purdy, guests: Anne-Mette & Katrine