Birds

When opening the nets the Thrush Nightingale (Nattergal) was not making any sound, but when we went around for the first time it was loudly singing near the nets, but decided not to fly in. Most of the morning we could hear it. Maybe it will fly in tomorrow.

Later in the morning we caught the first Icterin Warbler (Gulbug) of the year. It is always nice to see these Yellow Bellies. 

 We caught 8 species of bird (in total 12, 8 new and 4 recaptures).

Migration

No data available about the migration at the point, nobody was able to sit there and count the birds.

People present at the Station; Hanelie Sidhu, Ella Croyle, Merith Mol and Robert Luttik.

Moths

Only 9 species this night (see table). No new ones.

Ringing: Today was the day of the open house and after we had some more birds yesterday, we were cautiously optimistic, that we could show some birds to our guests. But it turned out to be the worst day we had so far. Robert said he had never had such a bad day in May, unless, of course, it was a day with bad weather and the nets could not be open for long. But the weather was good. One Common Whitethroat “Tornsanger” could be showed, the other of our in total 4 birds (including a recapture) were caught earlier in the morning.

Another first for the season: today´s Sedge Warbler "Sivsanger".

And for those who are still wondering about yesterday´s Acrocephalus riddle: On top was the Marsh Warbler "Kærsanger", on the bottom the Reed Warbler "Rørsanger".

At the station: Robert Luttik, Ella Croyle, Marith Mol, Oliver Bøgh Jensen and the open house volunteers

Moths:

Also less moth today but still 15 species, two new ones: Sallow Button (Foranderlig Vikler) and the Case-bearing Clothes Moth (Pelsmøl). The last one we found in the house and we were not really happy that it was in the house as you probably can imagine.

 Ringing: 

After yesterday, which was the day with the lowest number of birds for our period here, we were happy to have something to do again today, we caught 26 new birds and did not have any recaps. So there was some migration happening. It was mostly Willow Warblers “Løvsanger” that arrived at Gedser Odde, 19 of our 26 birds. Else a Red-backed Shrike “Rødrygget Tornskade” as well as the first Reed Warbler “Rørsanger” and the first Marsh Warbler “Kærsanger” for the season at Gedser Fuglestation were nice surprises.

Red backed Shrike male/ Rødrygget Tornskade han

Do you recognise which is the Reed Warbler "Rørsanger" and which the Marsh Warbler "Kærsanger"? While we were checking the Wing formula and looking at several characters as rump, claws, bill and form of the head, we found out later, that the apps we are using for the moths can solve it in about a second. That is quite amazing. We will solve the riddle in tomorrows blog.

Trækket på Odden: Det bliver kun lige til et par billeder i dag fra mogenens trækobs.

Her en af de mange Stenpikkere (Oenanthe oenanthe) der raster i området omkring Odden. Foto: Oliver Bøgh Jensen 

En Mursejler (Apus apus) lå og fouragerede et stykke tid over obspladsen inden den trak videre. De er meget svære at fotografere grundet deres hurtige og strømlinede flugt; lyset var dertil også noget vanskeligt. Foto: Oliver Bøgh Jensen

 At the station: Robert Luttik, Ella Croyle, Marith Mol, Oliver Bøgh Jensen, Hanelie Sidhu and Tina Elley, Mads Elley, Anne-Marie Raith, Jan C. van Dijk and Gert Jeppesen doing preparing for the open house tomorrow.

Moths

Today a lot of moth species were in and around the traps. In total 24 species (see Table).

I have chosen to show you the Viper's Bugloss Moth (Slangehovedmøl) because it has a different shape as most of the other moths.

Ringmærkning: Empty garden, hardly birds. Lot of walking to catch 8 birds (5 new and 3 recaptures). In total 5 species (see Table). Below the table one picture of the Redstart (Rødstjert).

Female Redstart (Rødstjert)

Trækket på Odden: Vinden kom fra sydvest og gik mere over i vest senere på dagen. Lå på mellem 2 m/sekundet fra start og 5 m/sekundet ved slut. Temperatur mellem 11-13 grader. Klart vejr med god sigt.

Der var omkring 20 lommer i alt der trak forbi Odden i dag, nogle sikkert bestemt til rød -og sortstrubet lom (Gavia stellata, arctica), men de fleste forblev ubestemte, da de var i et vanskeligt lys og på lang afstand - Et par af dem sås også for sent; lommerne har en tendens til komme trækkende på mange forskellige måder, både højt og ind over land samtidigt med, at de også kan gå højt og lavt langt ude over havet. Ud over lommerne - kom der af andre arter blandt andet, to dværgmåger (Hydrocoloeus minutus) og 20 ederfugle (Somateria mollissima) mod øst, hvoraf 15 var hanner og 5 var hunner. 

Se alle dagens observationer fra Gedser Odde i DOFbasen

En af de mange gule vipstjerter (Motacilla flava) der holder til ude ved Odden for tiden. Foto: Oliver Bøgh Jensen

Folk på stationen: Robert Luttik, Ella Croyle, Marith Mol, Hanelie Sidhu, Oliver Bøgh Jensen

Moths: Also not many moths this day, ten species. No additional new species this night.

Ringmærkning:

Today we caugth 23 birds (3 recaptures and 20 new birds) and had nine different species. There were some new arrivals in the garden and we have chosen to show two pictures of todays work, one of a greenfinch and one of two Linnets.

Grønirisk (Greenfinch)

Tornirisk (Linnet)

Trækket på Odden: Efter en dag under dynen med sygdom kunne jeg ikke vente længere med at komme ud – solen skinnede fra morgenstunden, og da jeg ankom ude på Odden, var der næsten ingen vind. I løbet af dagen tog vinden en smule til fra nordvest, men det blev aldrig den helt store ændring. Trækket afspejlede vejret: stille og afslappet. Det var hverken store tal eller mange arter, men der var alligevel et par fine højdepunkter. Årets første Grå fluesnapper (Muscicapa striata) blev set, og den første Gøg (Cuculus canorus) her på Odden blev hørt.

Se alle dagens observationer fra Gedser Odde i DOFbasen

En lille familie, af arten Stor skallesluger (Mergus merganser), kom svømmende forbi Odden tidligt på morgenen og de dunede unger måtte yde en indsats for at følge med "Skallemor".

Alle er igen samlet på mor – det er nemmere at tage plads på ryggen, selvom der knap nok er plads til alle! Foto: Oliver Bøgh Jensen.

Folk på stationen: Robert Luttik, Ella Croyle, Marith Mol, Hanelie Sidhu, Oliver Bøgh Jensen

 Moths:

We had this night and during the day 12 species of moth. I have chosen to show you two common but very nice species: The Marmoreret Kløverugle and the Husmoderugle. The first one was a new species for us. 

Kløverugle (Mother Shipton)

Husmoderugle (Herald Moth)

Ringing:

Today was a bit better than yesterday. In the morning we had 3 chaffinches (see the pictures of a female and female bird) and in the afternoon we decided to open a few nets at the pond. Which resulted in a Barnswallow and a Meadow Pipit. We can not show you a picture of the Barnswallow because it escaped before we could make a picture, but the bird was caugth last year by Robert at the same place. Of the Meadow pipit we have a picture (see below).

We caught 11 species of which 14 new birds and 10 recaptures.

Bogfinke (Chaffinches) by Hanelie

Engpiber (Anthus pratensis). Foto: Oliver Bøgh Jensen

No information about the migration because Oliver was in the sickbay, but is recovering.

Folk på stationen: Robert Luttik, Ella Croyle, Marith Mol, Hanelie Sidhu, Oliver Bøgh Jensen

Moths

We caught 14 species of moth of which (in bold) the same rare species we had a few days ago: the Three-humped Prominent (Poppel-Dromedarspinder)

Ringing: Today we had a group of about 15 people that visited the bird station, but Hans had a difficult job to entertain the visitors with hardly a bird to show. But he did his job in a good way. Showing them around and telling what would happen if a bird was flying into the net. They came at 9 o'clock and on a day with hardly birds that is not such a good time to start an excursion, we could only show them one bird.

Trækket på Odden: Vejret mindede i høj grad om gårsdagens, bortset fra at vinden i dag kom fra vest, og at der faldt lidt støvregn i løbet af obsperioden. Lidt over 1100 bramgæs (Branta leucopsis) blev set trækkende mod øst, og 10 almindelige ryler (Calidris alpina) trak mod vest.

Omtrent 25 minutter før obsens afslutning passerede en sort glente (Milvus migrans) hen over havet mod sydøst - så det var fedt! Kort efter trak også to røde glenter (Milvus milvus) ud, men fortrød og vendte tilbage igen. I fagsprog kaldes det trækforsøgende fugle.

En enkelt hun af husrødstjert (Phoenicurus ochruros) rastede også ude på Odden her til morgen og har faktisk opholdt sig der i et par uger nu.

Se alle dagens observationer fra Gedser Odde i DOFbasen

Nogle af de lokale landsvaler (Hirundo rustica) satte sig også i læ for regnen. Foto: Oliver Bøgh Jensen

Folk på stationen: Robert Luttik, Ella Croyle, Marith Mol, Hanelie Sidhu, Oliver Bøgh Jensen

Moths

Additional to the bird data some information on the moths we have caught during the night. As with the bird not many species (see table) and not many individuals.

I was told that sometimes there is too much information about moths in the blog and that Gedser Fuglestation is a bird station which is the most important thing. I agree, but for me (Robert) Gedser Fuglestation is not only birds, but also all the other biological interactions. I have now put the moth information at the end of the blog which allows people to stop reading after the bird information without to have to scroll through the moths.

Birds

Hardly any birds in the garden (see Table, 8 species 15 birds).

Moths

The night was reasonable good for moths, we had 15 species. I have chosen to show you the  Nut-tree Tussock (Penselugle).

Nut-tree Tussock (Penselugle)

Trækket på Odden: Der var noget køligt her til morgen og det blæste også en del. Vinden kom fra øst fra start og skiftede lidt mellem sydøst og nordøst længere hen på dagen. Den lå på mellem 2-8 m/sekundet og temperaturen på mellem 5-10 grader.

Trækket kan der ikke skrives den helt store rapport om, men der kom et par sortstrubet lommer (Gavia arctica) forbi, og 2 dværgterner (Sternula albifrons), samt 21 Hav/Fjordterne (Sterna paradisaea/hirundo) på lang afstand. Ederfuglene (Somateria mollissima) kom der 15 individer af, derudover sås også en enkelt mudderklire (Actitis hypoleucos) mod øst.

Se alle dagens observationer fra Gedser Odde i DOFbasen

Ella's update:

I have been in Gedser for one week now! I am learning a lot about the bird ringing here, and we have had some exciting birds over the last few days, including a Red-backed Shrike and Wood Warbler. Although for me, every bird we ring is special. 

Also, we would like to show off some of Marith's recent artwork with coloured pencils. Marith is a very talented artist and just finished two beautiful sketches of the Common Firecrest (Regulus ignicapilla) and Eurasian Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus).

 Folk på stationen: Robert Luttik, Ella Croyle, Marith Mol, Hanelie Sidhu, Oliver Bøgh Jensen 

Birds

Not many birds today, 7 species 13 birds (see table) and one picture of the Shrike.

Red-backed Shrike (Rødrygget Tornskade)

Moths

Also less moths this night (13 species see Table), probably to much wind. One picture of the Zigzagspinder (Pebble Prominent)

Ziczacspinder (Pebble Prominent)

Migration of birds (no observations done).

Folk på stationen: Robert Luttik, Ella Croyle, Marith Mol, Hanelie Sidhu 

Birds

Today 9 species and in total 31 birds. Highlight of the day was the Wood Warbler (Skovsanger) see picture below.

Moths

The species printed bold are relatively rare in Denmark and in addition a picture of the rare species of yesterday: Three-humped Prominent (Poppel-Dromedarspinder).

Trækket på Odden: Vinden kom fra vest i dag og den var lidt kraftigere end de andre dage, så jeg måtte gå i læ bag noget krat. Der blev set mursejler igen i dag, og rovfuglene var der også lidt røre i. Det blev til 7 arter af rovfugle i alt, heriblandt havørn (Haliaeetus albicilla), blå kærhøg (Circus cyaneus) og rød glente (Milvus milvus) som nogle af dem. 

En flok på 58 havterner (Sterna paradisaea) trak forbi mod øst, samt to dværgterner (Sternula albifrons). Dertil kom tre rødstrubede lommer (Gavia stellata) og en enkelt atlingand (Spatula querquedula), der alle trak mod sydvest.

Se alle dagens observationer fra Gedser Odde i DOFbasen

Dagens overraskelse var en fin han af rødrygget tornskade (Lanius collurio), som pludselig satte sig lige foran obsposten. Foto: Oliver Bøgh Jensen

Folk på stationen: Robert Luttik, Ella Croyle, Marith Mol, Hanelie Sidhu, Oliver Bøgh Jensen