Three Lighthouses - Three Observatory's - One Scandinavian Triple.

Once more you have the opportunity to join both Lista, Skagen and Ottenby Bird Observatory’s in one single season! We invite you to come and work at all three sites - an uniqe experience!

Note that the applications deadline for next autumn already is the 1st of April!

Read more about the conditions here.

Below you can read about the experiences from a former volunteer that was doing The Scandinavian Triple last autumn.

My Scandinavian Triple

By Koen Stork

I am Koen, a 17-year old from The Netherlands with a great interest in birds, particularly in bird identification and rare birds. I took a gap year between my high school and studies. I wanted to go abroad and do cool bird-related stuff so I ended up looking into some bird observatories. I came across The Triple and it immediately struck me as something fun. So I applied! In June, I got an e-mail stating with that they chose me as volunteer for the triple in 2019. And then the fun started!

On August 10^th, I flew from The Netherlands to Sweden. The travelling was pretty smooth and I met a bird ringing friend of mine on the plane! He was going to Ottenby as well. Funny coincidence! Anyways, I arrived to Ottenby the same evening, twitching White-rumped Sandpiper on the way. There was a barbecue going on with some Swedish birders and everyone from the Bird Obs. I stayed at this place for three weeks. I was really surprised to see how many birds were around in such a small garden. During my stay we caught some really cool species with the absolute highlight being a Buff-breasted Sandpiper that was around. Some other goodies came in the form of Corncrake, Barred Warbler, Red-breasted Flycatcher, Common Rosefinch, Curlew Sandpiper and multiple Sparrowhawks. More common species such as Wood Warbler and Red-backed Shrike were personal highlights for me as they are rare to catch in The Netherlands.

Birding in the area was very good as well. For me it was cool to see species such as Red-breasted Merganser, Common Goldeneye and Whooper Swan in summer. Eurasian Treecreeper and the astonishing number of White-tailed Eagles were also something that I don’t get to see at home. The same goes for Red Kites, Cranes, Serin and Montagu’s Harrier. The migration was great to admire. I saw Honey Buzzards and Montagu’s Harriers heading straight out to open sea. There were warblers in the weirdest places and there were almost always Wheatears and Whinchats out on the meadows. The ringing was really nice. It’s astonishing how many birds one can catch in just one garden. This is the standardised ringing. We also set out wader traps and checked them every hour. In the traps we caught Curlew Sandpiper, Red Knot and Common Sandpiper (and the Buff-breasted) among other, more common species. In short, this place is probably one of the best in Europe to witness autumn migration and catch a lot of good birds. You will meet many people and you will do fun stuff.

In the first days of September, I planned my trip to Lista. I went by train via Göteborg to Oslo. In Oslo I stayed one day to see the city, I can recommend this! After that, I travelled to Lista by bus. I arrived at Lista where it was windier and also much colder! I spent three weeks here. It is smaller than the Bird Observatory at Ottenby. You are there with 2-3 other people. The ringing site is quite small, as is the case at Ottenby. You do migration counts every morning as well as counting the birds in the surrounding areas. Visible migration here is really good, especially the migration of seabirds. Also, birding in the area is good fun. It is wonderful to walk on your own and just enjoy the nature and the birds. In the ringing we managed to catch a Barred Warbler and a Wryneck during my stay! Birding in the area was really nice and I managed to see Red-footed Falcon, Rosy Starling and Pallid Harrier among others. Also fun to see were a late Turtle Dove and a late Temminck’s Stint that scared the shit out of me, but no Least this time. The most fun part was at the end of my stay.

When it was a good night we played the sound of Tengmalm’s Owl and after some nights that proved fruitless I was afraid that I was leaving too early to get one. However, two nights before I left, the head ringer woke me up at midnight saying he got one! I think this was my personal highlight for the entire Scandinavian Triple! What a bird! Then my mother came to visit and I showed her around for a bit. On my last morning, we did a visible migration count and it was one of the nicest counts of my stay! Also, the weather was very nice, all of a sudden with temperatures easily reaching above 20 degrees Celsius. After this good migration count, I left with my mom and we drove up to Stavanger, making some stops on the way and witnessing the beauty of Norway. The coast between Lista and Stavanger is just amazing! Also, I managed to see two Yellow-browed Warblers on the way! We slept at a B&B in Stavanger and the next day we visited the Preikestolen cliff (can recommend). This is just crazy, you can stare down at the fjord 600 meters below.

Anyways, I caught the ferry to Hirtshals, Denmark that evening. I caught a train the next morning after a rough night on the ferry and arrived to Skagen soon after. Skagen is again different because the ringing and counting activities take place somewhere else than directly next to the Bird Observatory. But there are bikes so it’s totally fine. Also, here it is much about the community and learning as well, and not only about counting and ringing birds. I really liked going out on my own here because it’s quite similar to the places where I go birding a lot at home. The ringing was very fun because you get much responsibility and it’s very educative. The highlights were too numerous to sum up and the people were amazing as well. Highlights in the field were species as Richard’s Pipit, Yellow-browed Warblers, Siberian Chiffchaffs, Waxwings, Parrot Crossbills, just my second ever adult male Long-tailed Duck and two ticking buntings. The absolute highlight was the long-staying male Black Scoter. It was there during my whole stay! In the ringing, we caught Siberian Chiffchaff, Firecrest, Yellow-browed Warbler, Ring Ouzel, Water Rail, Barred Warbler, Twite, Snipe and other cool species. The absolute highlight in the ringing was the catch of two eastern type Lesser Whitethroats. DNA confirmed them to be ssp. blythi. I wrote an article about both birds which was very fun to do. But actually, there were two absolute highlights.

We caught a Great Grey Shrike as well. This was just a dream coming through. They are such beautiful birds. Along with the Tengmalm’s Owl and the Buff-breasted Sandpiper, this was my favourite bird of the entire Triple!! We did ringing at another place as well, outside the standardised ringing. He played redpoll sound and we caught many. I wrote a big paper in my last year of secondary school about redpolls so I was quite excited to study so many Redpolls up close! Another highlight here was a Crested Tit! I don’t get to see these birds at the island where I live so this was also great. Sometimes, we did night catching as well. It was maybe not always the most productive activity but a fun experience! One time we encountered a family group of Otters at the sea side, just next to the Bird Observatory. Also, there was this Red Fox we sometimes encountered during ringing which was very tame and comfortable with us. Anyways, I had a great month there with lots of good birds (and mammals), and the people were just the best. In terms of learning, Skagen is really good. We had sessions about bird ID, moult and ageing which we could later apply in the field. Also, there were other lectures with different topics about birds and nature. In the end, my dad came to pick me up and we did some birding in the neighbourhood, with the highlight being once again the Black Scoter! 

All in all, these few months were probably the most adventurous of my life! I’ve met nice people, I’ve seen tons of good birds and the most important, I learned so much! This experience was not just cool, it was really good for my knowledge and for my personal development as well! I am grateful to have had this experience and I hope I return to these places some time in the future.