Beautiful spring migration days in Skagen

Hei!

My name is Olli, and I come from Helsinki, Finland. I’m a biology master’s student and I’m currently on my exchange at the Aarhus University. I arrived at the Skagen bird observatory on Thursday and today was my second observing day here. The weather was good – sunshine most of the day and the sea was calm through the morning, which made it easier to look out for seabirds. It was exciting when I managed to spot the king eider (kongeedderfugl) from the sea, a lifer for me.

A beautiful glaucous gull on the beach. Photo by Olli.

Other cool species from the morning migration counts were 2 glaucous gulls (gråmåge), several shags (topskarv), merlin (dværgfalk), red kites (rød glente), jack snipe (enkeltbekkasin) and twite (bergirisk). We also spotted 4 hares running between the dunes and several seals resting on the beautiful beaches of Grenen.

We also met an interesting man from India, who came to us while we were doing the morning observation. He was interested on what we were doing and he told us that he came to Skagen because he’s a ship engine engineer and that he is waiting for his ship to arrive to Skagen and will leave later tonight and sail the ocean for 4 months. Making new friends, even in the unexpected situations, is always a good and valuable thing!

The ringing out at Kabeltromlen finally resulted in some nice birds - 14 in total. They caught some Reed Buntings (Rørspurv) and the first Blue Tit (Blåmejse) for this season.

Blue Tit (Blåmejse)

In the afternoon we biked together to the Damstederne and climbed on top of the beautiful dunes hoping to see migrating raptors from there. We spotted several buzzards (musvåge) and red kites (rød glente), sparrow hawks (spurvehøg), goshawks (duehøg), kestrels (tårnfalk) and merlin (dværgfalk). Although it was very windy, the sun was shining, and we enjoyed the afternoon there.

Enjoying the beautiful landscape of the Damstederne and observing raptors. Photo by Olli

After that we went to feed Simons chickens and had ice creams in town. When we came back to the station Janna and I went for an evening swim in the sea, which was a very refreshing after a long day.

What a day! I must say, I’m very fond of the Skagen bird observatory and the beautiful nature surrounding it. The last few days have been definitely one of the most amazing experiences of my exchange in Denmark so far.

Highlights of the observations:

Glaucous Gull (Gråmåge) - 2

King eider (Kongeedderfugl)

Merlin (Dværgfalk)

 

Ringing (Kabeltromlen):

Gærdesmutte - 1

Jernspurv - 2

Rødhals - 4

Solsort - 1

Gransanger - 1

Blåmejse - 1

Lille Dompap - 1

Rørspurv - 3

Total = 14

Ringing (Jennes Sø - Michael Ancher):

Gransanger - 1

Lille Gråsisken -1

Ringing (Nordstjernvej - Michael Ancher):

Gransanger - 1

Link to todays observations in Dofbasen from the Skagen area

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