New beginnings

Today was my first full day at Skagen Bird Observatory. Although i was with yesterday evening with exciting wader night-catching, this morning was pretty quiet. Wind and rain prevented us from ringing at Grenen, so my crew showed me the garden nets close to the lighthouse and we opened them for a few hours in the morning. We re-captured a Blackcap and because she was actively molting her flight feathers we knew she was an adult. One of the nice things about being a North American ringer in Europe for the first time is that even common birds are still quite exciting to me!

Simon had a meeting with Kurt Rasmussen and Niels Eriksen about how to increase visitors to the observatory and the exhibition here at Skagen. They brought us delicious cake, which we enjoyed while taking cover from the rainy weather and entering data.

When the weather cleared in the afternoon, I ventured with a spotting scope up to the point at Grenen to see the “Kattegat,” where the North and Baltic seas meet. It was thrilling to see numerous Gannets diving just offshore. I have never seen them quite so close and I am loving viewing familiar birds in novel circumstances and also getting to know European species. There were hundreds of Common Scoters offshore, with some Velvet Scoters mixed in. On the sand at the point I also saw a number of Red Knots, Sanderling, Dunlin, and one passing Bar-tailed Godwit.

In the evening we were joined by Lars and Morten for a delicious vegetarian dinner, courtesy of Simon. We followed up dinner with a rousing game of "I'm a migrant," to continue our education of moult and migration strategies of various Western Palearctic birds. After evening festivities, Daniel, Morten and I headed back out to Grenen to try and catch more Red Knots in the night, but alas, we were not successful. There is always tomorrow!

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Lisa Vergin, Molly Brown, Sasha Munters, Daniel Bloche, Lars Mortensen, Morten Christiansen