"It is not only about the weather, it is also about the birds"

Today Mara said many philosophical things. For example, “a zero count is also a count”. Luckily, we did not have a zero count today. But the ringing team was pretty close, they had only a very low numbers of birds in the nets. Therefore, they had much time to eat cookies. When we joined them from the obs there were sadly almost no cookies left. The time between the rounds was used by the ringing team to cut a birch “with great personal effort” and watch all the migrating birds.

During the morning observation we were able to see the adult King Eider (Kongeedderfugl) and the Glaucous Gull (Gråmåge). In contrast to yesterday it was possible to see the sea during the whole count. We therefore saw some more birds on the water. The songbird migration started slow. Especially the Finch-numbers stayed low over the whole day, maybe the wind was too strong for them. After hours with several thousand Chaffinches (Bogfinke) in the last days, todays count with zero to 35 Chaffinches per hour felt very strange. In one hour, we even had a similar amount of Chaffinches and Twites (Bjergirisk). After some time, the Jackdaw and Wood Pigeon migration started. Thousands of them were migrating throughout the day. Anders, who had chosen to count exactly these species, was therefore busy. We others had a calmer count.

Morning observation in wind and sun

After counting and ringing, we went out to watch the raptor migration. Their numbers were already high during our count. There we were able to see many migrating Harriers (Kærhøg), Sparrowhawks (Spurvehøg), Red Kites (Rød Glente) and a young White-Tailed-Eagle (Havørn). Some of them came very close, so we were able to study them well. That continued later in the day. We saw approximately 250 Common Buzzards (Musvåge), a young Rough-Legged-Buzzard (Fjeldvåge) and a Peregrine Falcon (Vandrefalk). Another highlight were two Goshawks (Duehøg) flying close by, followed by a group of Crows.

After that, part of the team proceeded to count at Skarvsøen. The Cormorants breeding preparations are ongoing there. In total 97 Coromorants (Skarv) were at the lake, 88 adults and 9 young ones. The area was also crowded with Adders (Hugorm), at least 14 of them were bathing in the sun. The team could also find two Caspian Gulls (Kaspisk Måge) at the lake and later on a flying one at the lighthouse.

The afternoon was defined by relaxing, napping and reading. Chris and I went on the lighthouse. It was the first time for Chris to be on there and he found it very “nice and cute”. He enjoyed it to see all the places we have been at from above there.

Rasmus and Anders were doing a trip into town. After a stop at the Harbour with Black Guillemots (Tejst) they went into a Sushi all you can eat (“we did that”). While eating dinner we others were talking about our top birds. The favourite, best, funniest, strangest looking… Or the funniest bird sounds (Dusky Thrush, Cornkrake). We also checked tomorrows weather a lot. It looks very good for migration and we have some goals. After many wrong predicitions about the Steppe Eagle (Steppeørn), he will probably appear tomorrow. Maybe together with the Golden Eagle (Kongeørn).

We are looking forward to a great migration day tomorrow!

Link to todays observations in Dofbasen from the Skagen area

Highlights from the observation

• 1 male King Eider (Kongeedderfugl)
• 1 White-Tailed-Eagle (Havørn)
• 1 Glaucous Gull (Gråmåge)
• 9 Twites (Havørn)
• 1 Little Ringed Plover (Lille Præstekrave)

Ringing (Kabeltromlen)

• Rødhals- 1
• Solsort- 1

Ringing (Jennes Sø, Michael Ancher)

• Solsort- 1
• Gransanger- 1
• Blåmejse- 1
• Lille Gråsisken (ssp. cabaret)- 1

Ringing (Nordstjernevej, Michael Ancher)

• Rødhals- 1

People: Cora Köberle, Janna Ouedraogo, Mara Glane, Rasmus Matthiesen-Juhl, Christopher Moser-Purdy, Olli Lilja and Anders Rasmussen