Stormy easterlies

Rainy and stormy eastern winds prevented us from ringing this morning. While most of us used the chance to stay long in bed, I couldn’t sleep longer than normal. I decided to check for wind protected places around the Grey Lighthouse with a view towards Kattegat. Many seabirds should be pushed towards land by the storm, I figured... Eventually, I set up the telescope in the office window on the upper floor, from which I was able to see the sea and beach south of the lighthouse. It was a flashy place, warm, wind protected and I even could get fresh coffee when desired. Granted, observations here are not as good as they would be from Worlds End at Grenen, but a couple of red-breasted mergansers (toppet skallesluger) and razorbills (alk) were spotted. Judith joined me for some time as well and studied the closely passing kittiwakes (ride) in their different plumages.

Ulla and Anders had in the meanwhile a slow beginning of the day as well:

Vi stod op til blæst og regn, så formiddagen blev brugt til at se på billeder fra de foregående dage. Efter frokost var vi inde og se udstillingen på fuglestationen, en lærerig oplevelse om fugletræk.

Herefter var det blevet nogenlunde tørvejr, så vi kørte en tur ud til Nordstrand. Her var ikke meget at se, nogle sortænder og et par suler. Så derfor kørte vi til Flagbakken et sted vi ikke havde været før. En fantastisk udsigt men ingen fugle. Derfor kørte vi tilbage til det Grå fyr, og gik en tur ud af traktorsporet og ind til kabeltromlekrattet. Her var vi heldig at se en stor tornskade og fortsatte ud til spidsen af Grenen. Godt vi havde taget varmt tøj på for her var der småfugle på stranden. Vi satte os på stranden og i løbet af den næste halve time fik vi set snespurv hun, bjerglærke og lapværling mellem rørspurvene. En dejlig oplevelse at vende tilbage til Fuglestationen med.

When the weather is so uninviting like today, mostly indoor work is being done at the observatory. So today we were sorting pictures for our archive and checked ringing data. To get some excitement on a day like today, we of course went swimming in the big waves. Too big for Judith, who wasn't able to swim out to the sandbank today.
Yehonatan went on his now usual beach walk trying to find some northerly species and was finally happy to study some roosting snow buntings (snespurv).

Picture by Yehonatan Ben Aroia

On the late afternoon, when the rain had ceased, we also went shopping in town. The wind direction allowed us to “sail” towards Skagen, but fully packed with all the goodies on the way back, we were struggling hard against the wind. Koen's mobile unfortunately dropped out of his pocket while riding the bike and it seems to be now broken beyond repair…

The evening was rather uneventful, Laia prepared an amazing tortilla dinner and we planned the EuroBirdwatch tomorrow!

People: Simon S. Christiansen, Yehonatan Ben Aroia, Christian Stolz, Judith Kloibhofer, Laia Soler Iglesias, Koen Stork, Ulla Popp and Anders Jørgen Jensen.