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Birding
April 2023
At the northern tip of Denmark, a small group of volunteers living in a lighthouse are responsible for collecting data on a common yet essential animal: birds.
"Birds are one of the most sensitive tools to understanding the environment, said volunteer Yehonatan Ben Aroia. "If something is wrong with the environment, one of the first things to disappear would be birds". Ecological benefits aside, birds have recently become a reliable indicator of climate change, which can be recognized by changes to where the birds choose to live, migration patterns, egg laying and size and shape.
The volunteers, who usually stay at the station in Skagen for a handful of months, are often awake long before sunrise and work until sundown, adapting to a limited sleep schedule in order to maximize data collection. Ringing sessions, which are essential for tracking bird migration, require them to be awake and working by 5 a.m. during the first weeks of April, and even earlier during the summer months. As the spring migration season heats up, the days get longer and the data they collect becomes more valuable, the volunteers find themselves in the midst of one of the most demanding times of the year.
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