Life Birds

Today was one of the most exciting days I have experienced at the bird observatory so far! We decided as a group to have a bit of a “day off,” but I went out early anyway to join Knud Pedersen for some seawatching. Strong winds from the South made the day warmer than it has been recently and visibility was a bit hazy over the sea. Even so, we still enjoyed some nice birds. There were waders, gulls, and terns roosting or foraging on the beach, including a Little Stint (Dværgyle) and a first-year Caspian Gull, (Kaspisk Måge). Knud is an incredible birder and is quite gracious in sharing his bird identification knowledge!

I was delighted to get another “life bird,” yesterday morning. Although they are common here, I had never seen a Great Skua (Storkjove) before. It was thrilling to see not one, but two of these powerful seabirds out over the ocean. Seawatching requires observers to look at bird field marks from very far away, and the bright white flash on the wings of a Great Skua is an ID giveaway for this species!

I left the seawatching post at Grenen a bit early to join the rest of the crew on an excursion to Råbjerg Mile, a migrating sand dune. The wind moves the dune up to 20 meters every year! We went just to see this amazing natural phenomenon and to enjoy some birding and ended up with quite a surprise. While walking across the heath just next to the dune and admiring the Skylarks (Sanglærke) flying around us, we flushed another bird that none of us were expecting: a Stone Curlew (Triel)!

Stone Curlew (Burhinus oedicnemus) by Daniel Bloche

One of these strange members of the Charidriiformes had actually been seen in Skagen in early July and I was a little disappointed to have missed it. In the end however, I really could not have asked for a better first time seeing this species. We all watched through our binoculars in silence as it took off from the ground and flew with its strongly marked black and white wings and long yellow legs across the heathland. I’ve never seen a species like this in the wild and in North America we don’t even have anything like a Stone Curlew! It was very special for our whole crew to have such a nice look at a very interesting bird. Simon sent out the rare bird alarm right away and soon after Knud and Jørgen Kabel joined us to try and resight the Stone Curlew.

We were able to spot the Stone Curlew a few more times, but not nearly as well as the first time we flushed it. Still, our exploration of the heath was wonderful and we saw some more lovely birds. The warm weather had some raptors soaring overhead and we got nice looks at Common Buzzards (Muvåge), Red Kites (Rød Glente), Kestrels (Tårnfalk), Sparrowhawks (Spurvehøg), and a Peregrine Falcon (Vandrefalk).

The crew watching raptors at Råbjerg mile

We rounded out our exciting excursion day with an early (and delicious!) dinner at Skagen Brewery and a walk around the harbor in Skagen. It was a relaxing, yet eventful day with an incredible surprise!

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