Fog & Rarities

Today started off a bit foggy to say the least. Starting out at 5 AM, Cora and Mio blitzed out to Kabeltromelen to open the nets for the morning while I had a miuch needed lie in until 5:45. Andrew and Rasmus decided that the heavy fog was much to dense to even attempt a migration count in the morning but opted to head out to Worlds End 3 to look for any rarities lingering around. Much to their dismay they found nothing in Elle Krattet and out at Grenen.

 On the ringing front, I arrived at Kabeltromelen to find many people, mostly from DOF Ung heading out to try and observe but not much was happening so they came over to us. The ringing was quite nice this morning with the first day with lots of Willow Warblers (Løvsanger), and good numbers of Robins (Rødhals) and Chiffchaffs (Gransanger). On the third round, as I was checking the new outermosrt nets, I stu,bled across a small bird hanging in the nets with two Løvsangers. Much to my surprise, it was a FIRECREST (Rødtoppet Fuglekonge)! These birds, although fairly common elsewhere in the country are locally quite uncommon. Immediately, calling Rasmus to make sure it made it on the Zello so other observers  could see it. When I arrvied back at the Kabeltromelen, more than 40 people were waiting to catch a glimpse of us ringing the bird. Truly a fun experience to show a local rarity to so many people. The remainder of the day was quite slow and eventually slowed down to just one or two birds a round during the finals hours. Fortunately, we were able to catch a single Grasanger to show the private tour which Tue was leading around Grenen. They were very excited to learn about ringing and see it in action — so to have a bird in the hand was a very nice for explaination.

 

 In the afternoon, Simon came to the station to go over ringing sheets and help us get caught up when we got a zello alert which SHOOK the station. DOF Ung had located a light morph Booted Eagle (Dværgørn) heading north towards Grenen. Immediately, Rasmus, Andrew, Simon and I hopped in his car and blasted down to Saftevandsbakken (I dont think I’ve ever seen Simon move so quickly).  We watched the eagle soar high over us in a flock of over 70 Common Buzzards (Musvåge) before heading south again before we were able to refind it over Strandklit later in the afteroon with the first Eurasian Hobby (Lærkefalk) of the year. Fortunately, Cora and Mio were nearby and barely made it to see the bird as well. This record represents the 14th Skagen record and the 23rd record for Denmark! A fanatastic bird. 

 

In the evening we were invited by the guests, Jacob and Nina for a lovely dinner which was absolutely fantastic. We were treated to a big pot of chicken curry and Nina even made us a nice Chocolate tart for dessert! What a treat. We also were handed a piece of paper filled with questions from Skagen, asking things usch as how tall Det Grå Fyr is and how many birds we can list with ‘blå’ in them. Of course, yours truly won the test and I won a bag of easter chocolate! It was really a great way to end the day!

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

 

 

Highlights:

Booted Eagle (Dværgørn)  

Firecrest (Rødtoppet Fuglekonge)

 Eurasian Hobby (Lærkefalk)

 

 

 

Ringing

Kabeltromelen

Gransanger 8

Rødhals 8

Løvsanger 6

Munk 1

Rørspurv 1

Solsort 1

Gærdesmutte 2

Fuglekonge 1

Rødtoppet Fuglekonge 1

Total: 29

 

Fyrhavn

Munk 1

 Total: 1

 

 

People: Lucas Corneliussen, Rasmus Mattiesen-Juhl, Tue Baaner, Cora Koberle, Mio Brix, Andrew Jacobs, Simon Sigaard Christiensen, Lisa Vergin, Jeppe Rørbæk, Benjamin Bech, Anders Rasmusssen, Nina and Jacob, DOF Ung.