Is autumn here?

July ended with strong winds and huge waves somehow announcing the beginning of autumn. Under these conditions, night catching of waders, has been one of the few possible activities and very little we could do during he day. Luckily in a way, because it is Wednesday a.k.a. cleaning day. So, as soon as we got up, and with no rush, we all picked a room and started the sterilization of our crib.

While checking some ringing data with Simon, we realized something amazing. On the 17th of July 2013, a young (1k) Reed bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus) was caught and ringed in the station. It was impossible to sex it back then, because it was still a juvenile. Six years later the same bird is caught again in Skagen. The beautiful male adult is possibly the record in terms of age for Denmark as he is +6 years old.

Later in the day, when the weather calmed a bit, Anders and I, decided to go out for observations. Fortunatly, this time we remembered to take with us some rings and tools for ringing waders. We took the usual path to the sea. When we got there, it was very windy, so we could see some ringed plovers (Charadrius hiaticula) hiding from the strong wind behind low dunes. We put up our scopes a started the search for a juvenile. It did not take very long to spot one. Anders ran after it as fast as he could to catch it. It wasn’t easy at all… Finally, he caught the little, extremely adorable juvenile ringed plover. It took no more than a couple of minutes to ring it, take some measurements and released it. It ran back to the dunes safely. It was very exciting! We continued our walk on the beach and saw some Kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla) , Oystercatchers (Haematopus ostralegus) , an Arctic skua (Stercorarius parasiticus), some gulls and terns. On our way back we had to stop at Grenen sø, which had some water after the rain. There we saw some Wood sandpipers (Tringa glareola), Common snipes (Gallinago gallinago) and a Ruff (Calidris pugnax) . It was a nice ending of the day, especially now that it is clear that migration is getting more and more intense.

On the other hand, Martin, has challenged himself to swim every single day. So, despite the crazy weather, crazy Martin went for is daily swim! The waves were big, and the jellyfish were having a party. Luckily, he didn’t get stung, in contrary he had a blast! :)

People: Simon S Christiansen, Martin Y. Georgiev, Christina Ninou and Anders Odd Wulff Nielsen.