Trip to Saltum Strand

Today our team was split up. Koen and Michael went out for observations at worlds end 3 for doing some seawatching. The highlights were a flock of pink-footed geese (kortnæbbet gås) and one lapland bunting (lapværling) flying over. Koen was also impressed by all the common scoter (sortand) and velvet scoters (fløjsand) were nice, as he is not used to see so many of them and Michael saw a juvenile common tern (fjordterne) roosting on the beach. After two hours Koen went to Ellekrattet to continue the observations there, as the wind and the sand was very annoying today. On the way he heard a yellow-browed warbler (hvidbrynet løvsanger) calling! At Ellekrattet the counting included two tree pipits. After the observations they went back to the station and had some lunch and a powernap.

The other part of our team (Simon, Chris, Yehonatan, Laia, Judith) had a break from the usual daily routine and spent one night at Simon’s family summer house in Saltumstrand. The possibility to sleep as long as we want and waking up in another place felt like a short vacation. Laia woke up first and went for a walk and some observations to the nearby beach. A little bit later Christian joined her and did his daily swim in the north sea. When I woke up they just came back and told me about their nice walk. As I was still a little bit tired I decided to copy the idea and went to the beach. After running on the beach and a fast swim I felt fresh and joint the others having breakfast next to a warm fire in the living room.

Around 11 it was time to say goodbye to the beautiful and comfortable house. Following a “road” on the beach we headed for friends of Simon, William and Agnes. We used the allowance to go by car on the beach, of course, for some observations. Among others we saw one little stint (dværgryle) and two darkbellied brant geese (mørkbuget knortegås) roosting on the beach. Arrived at Williams house he showed us around. He is with 88 years the oldest active ringer in Denmark and uses several different traps to catch the birds. His garden is always filled with many birds, as the garden is very natural and domestic finches, which he keeps in his garden, attract them. So, he can ring many birds just in his garden next to his house. Then we enjoyed coffee, tea and lunch at their place.

On the roadtrip back home we had a stop because Simon thought that he has seen a pallid harrier (steppehøg). Unfortunately it flew away and we could not find it again. However, we saw some red kites (rød glente), peregrine falcon (vandrefalk), golden plovers (hjejle) and lapwings (vibe) instead. In the late afternoon we came back to the station.

While Michael is preparing food for dinner Yehonatan and Laia went out to put a trap for ducks in the reed. Let`s see if it works that well than the traps in Williams garden.

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Yehonatan Ben Aroia, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Michael Fink, Koen Stork, Laia Soler Iglesias, William & Agnes Aarestrup