Another day at Skagen Bird Observatory

Although the day started rainy and windy, we went outside into the dunes to observe resting and migrating birds with Knud. We started the observation at 06:35 and ended it at 10:05. It was really successful. We saw many waders, gulls and ducks. I was fascinated particularly of the high number of passing Gannets (Sule). Nearly 500 had been migrating through the coast of Grenen in the few hours. You can find the entire list of observed species on DOFbasen.

Later we opened some nets at the Lighthouse Garden for two hours without success. Furthermore we searched for a Nutcracker (Nøddeknækkeren) unsuccessfully, which was reported by local birders.  But our luck changes in the evening. At 10pm we went out to catch some waders again. We got a Dunlin (Almindelig Ryle), Red Knot (Islandsk Ryle) and an Arctic Tern (Havterne). Due to it was the first catch of a Tern at this season, we all were very excited.

In the afternoon Sasha arrived at Skagen. She is from the US and a new volunteer for this month. Together with Simon we had a meeting about different moult strategies. It was very interesting and we learned how to identify moult limits of different species. It was a good day with observations, successful and unlucky catches.

Birds we ringed together with Simon were the Dunlin (Almindelig Ryle), Red Knot (Islandsk Ryle) and an Arctic Tern (Havterne) we caught at night.

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Knud Pedersen, Lisa Vergin, Molly Brown, Sasha Munters, Daniel Bloche