Almost two new Shag-cords and some ringing too

Hej!

The days with enough sleep have finally come to an end, because ringing at Kabeltromlen started again. Excited for today we set our alarms on 04:45 this morning so we could open the nets before sunrise. After opening all 22 nets we were rewarded with a nice sunrise over Kabeltromlen. The observers out of course had the same sunrise, promising a very good migration day.

Promising sunrise

The first bird in our nets at Kabeltromlen was a beautiful female Blackbird (Solsort) and it was followed by some Wrens (Gærdesmutte) and Robins (Rødhals). So this means, that Lucas won our little bet on whats the first bird of the season would be - my guess on Wren was pretty close though, we had them alsmost at the same time. While controlling the nets in the reed we stumbled across a pair of Bearded Reedlings that we could get pretty close to and observe very well. It's always nice to observe those cute little birds - hopes are high to catch some in the future.

Female Blackbird (Solsort) - first bird of KAB spring ringing season 2025

While ringing we were not aware of how busy the observers were out at World's End 3 until we heard an excited Rasmus calling out a flock of Shags (Topskarv) on Zello. Quickly we looked out to the sea and saw a huge flock of them migrating. 31 individuals in one flock - it's the biggest flock that was seen in Skagen and Denmark until now! In total 34 shags where found today by the observers, almost beating the record of 35 individuals in one day! In general migration was really good today, with 1060 Wigeons (Pibeand) and 178 Reed Buntings (Rørspurv) migrating in huge numbers among many others. In numbers 12725 individuals from 82 species were noted down by the observers today.

After lunch we went on a trip to the harbour to see an adult Iceland Gull (Hvidvinget Måge) that Simon found on his lunch break. It was a nice adult bird, sleeping amongst other gulls. After that Janna, Cora and Christopher were dropped of at Gammel Skagen to start the 10 km Fulmar (Mallemuk) survey, while Lucas, Rasmus and I went to the shop to buy some groceries. The fulmar survey did not result in any fulmars (or more shags) but they did find a dead Greater Black-backed Gull (Svartbag) and a gull with a norwegian colour ring. It was ringed last summer and sadly did not survive the winter.

Iceland Gull (Hvidvinget Måge)

Observing the Icelandic gull in the harbour

The evening was spent with the data entry of the very busy migration day, a "Kartoffelsalat" (Potatosalad) for dinner and fitting german music about said dinner. Now we are all looking forward for an even better migration day - especially for raptors - tomorrow.

Highlights from the observations:

Topskarv: 34 - A flock of 31 individuals was a new danish "flock record" 

Hvidvinget Måge 1 ad. (at the harbour)

Gråmåge 1 3cy. - still hanging aroung the tip

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Gærdesmutte - 3

Jernspurv - 1

Rødhals - 2

Solsort - 4

Gransanger - 2

Fuglekonge - 2

Total: 14

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, Rasmus Matthiesen-Juhl, Christopher Moser-Purdy, Guests: Anne-Mette & Katrine