Ringmærkningen: Min (Storm) næstsidste dag i Gedser var endnu en klassisk efterårsdag med høj vind og let regn hvilket kunne mærkes på fuglene. Kun 13 nye ringmærkninger blev det til. Vi var dog heldige at få en lille fluesnapper (Ficedula parva) i første netrunde - altså sæsonens anden. Samtidig fik vi også en grå fluesnapper (Muscicapa striata), så vi rigtig kunne sammenligne størrelsen på de to. 

Lille fluesnapper med en regnbue over Østersøen

Mug shot! To snappere sammenlignet her i størrelse. Til venstre: Grå fluesnapper. Til højre: Lille fluesnapper.

Derudover var det de sædvanlige arter: rødhals (Erithacus rubecula), munk (Sylvia atricapilla) og gransanger (Phylloscopus collybita). En enkelt spurvehøg (Accipiter nisus blev også ringmærket.

Mit personlige højdepunkt blev min første ringmærkede blåmejse (Cyanistes caeruleus)! Denne var en ungfugl, set på sin stadig lidt gullige kind og en fældningsgrænse mellem dækfjerene: ungfuglefjerene er grå, mens dem, der er blevet fældet og erstattet af de voksne fjer er blå. 

En meget velkendt og udbredt fugl, men stadig utrolig smuk når man har mulighed for at se den tæt på. Karakteristisk for mejserne er deres tendens til at bide meget hårdt, når de bliver holdt og denne var ingen undtagelse!

Trækket på Odden: In this blog, we often write how different each day is, just based on the weather and bird activity. Today too, I will have to repeat that. Our morning at the tip was marked by swiftly shifting weather and similarly changing bird migration. There was almost nothing happening over the water. Still, somehow, without us noticing, we counted an impressive number of Eurasian Wigeons (Mareca penelope) passing by - 776! This is even more surprising in comparison to all other ducks. They all came in two digit numbers at best. 

Wigeons made up approximately 75% of all ducks today. They often migrate in mixed flocks with other duck species. Can you find the intruders?

As far as I can tell, today was also the first day with more Common Eiders (Somateria molissima) than Common Scoters (Melanitta nigra). To be fair, both numbers are underwhelmingly small. Still, this gets me excited as it marks another step towards days with thousands of our station's heraldic animal. Speaking of winter birds, we also got our first Red-throated Loon (Gavia stellata) of the season. These birds come to their wintering grounds in the Baltic Sea and other European coasts, so we should see more in the coming weeks. 

The passerine department was dominated by Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) again. It makes me both curious and horrified to think that these are just the last waves of the most summer-y of all birds. Together with the Swallows that I love so much came many flocks of a species that I associate with winter like almost no other - Eurasian Siskins (Spinus spinus). To hear their characteristic calls together with the chattering of Swallows is a very surreal experience that can only be made at the border between seasons.

Joining the other late migrants were a handfull of Eurasian Honey-Buzzards (Pernis apivorus). Imagining that these birds may be 6.000 km away in Central Africa in as little as a few weeks is just a crazy thought. But to get there still in time they will need to speed up a bit. The same goes for the Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) that migrated past us observers. It understood the value of speed and made neither breaks nor hesitated it before heading out. 

A European Honey-Buzzard on its way from probably Sweden to the wintering grounds in West and Central Africa. This individual hatched about two and a half months ago and is already making its journey to flee from the cold. No one in Europe will see it for a while - they spend their second year fully in Africa!

Fugle registreret i standardtiden: 2.472 . Arter: 46. Tællingen startet 06:17, sluttet klokken 11:17.

Se alle dagens observationer på Gedser Odde i DOFbasen. 

På stationen: Hannah Schmidt, Storm Hauris Borum, Lua Koplin, Ole Friis Larsen, Marek Ebert

Ringmærkningen: We often like to discribe good days as quality or quantidy days. Yesterday we had some very special species so it absolutly was a quality day and today with 88 birds it was a quantidy day! With more then half being our adorable Chiffchaffs! Its always fun when one of us gets to do line work with only one species while everyone else gets the fun mix, today I was the chiffchaff handler on duty! 

We had two other exiting species, both being the second of their kind to this season. A songthrush and a young greenfinch! Always nice in hand even though the songthrush honours its english name by making its voice very known and leaving us all a little bit deaf after letting it go! 

Trækket på Odden: Det var Mareks grundige arbejde med småfuglene, der gav mest gevinst i onsdagens tælling. Med næsten 700 Hvide Vipstjerter (Motacilla alba) og lidt over 700 Landsvaler (Hirundo rustica) udgjorde trækket af små fugle fra land to tredjedele af dagens trafik. På ruten ud af Østersøen så en rustik front af regn og torden ud til at være en effektiv barriere for trækket af andefugle. Det var nattens regn, der drev nord nordøst, men trak en lang hale af mere væde efter sig og lukkede farvandet mellem Tyskland og Sverige helt frem til efter klokken 10. På Odden kunne vi se de mørke skyer nede over Rostock, længe efter at vi selv havde fået glæde af det solskin, der fulgte efter regnen.

 En af dagens 19 Rørspurve (Emberiza schoeniclus). De kraftige striber på undersiden viser, at det er en ung fugl på sit første træk. Foto: Ole Friis Larsen/GFU

Mange af de cirka tusind fugle over havet var formentlig ænder, som havde ligget på vandet tæt på Odden i nattens regn. Vi fik registreret næsten 370 Pibeænder (Mareca penelope) og 270 Sortænder (Melanitta nigra), men de kom spredt og med lange mellemrum. Desuden blev havtrækket præget af over 130 Skarver (Phalacrocorax carbo). Det er formentlig især svenske fugle, der afløser den danske bestand om vinteren, når mange af vores Skarver flyver til Frankrig og Spanien.

 To Skarver i en af dagens flokke. Mange af de unge Skarver har meget lyse eller helt hvide undersider. Foto: Ole Friis Larsen/GFU

Med opklaringen fulgte også nogle rovfugle, selv om det ikke blev til store tal. En Sort Glente (Milvus migrans) var den mest spektakulære, mens en Rød Glente (Milvus milvus) stadig ikke havde besluttet sig, da tællingen sluttede, men vi har også stadig en del trækkende Rørhøge (Circus aeroginosus), mest unge fugle, når det er muligt at se dem godt nok til at kunne sætte alder på dem. Interessant var det med tre, som kom trækkende ind fra havet i det tidlige overskyede morgenmørke. Det er almindeligt, at Rørhøge indleder dagens træk meget tidligt, men fuglene fortrød måske ved udsigten til regnen mod syd over Rostock og søgte ind over land igen.

 Rørhøgene står tidligt op om morgenen for at trække, men holder så en eller flere pauser for at jage. Denne unge fugl i dagens træk havde fuld kro (den opsvulmede hals) og havde dermed ædt kort forinden. Foto: Ole Friis Larsen/GFU

Fugle registreret i standardtiden: 3.148 . Arter: 52. Tællingen startet 06:15, sluttet klokken 11:15.

Se alle dagens observationer på Gedser Odde i DOFbasen. 

På stationen: Hannah Schmidt, Storm Hauris Borum, Lua Koplin, Ole Friis Larsen, Marek Ebert

Ringmærkning: 

Allerede fra morgenstunden fik vi dagens fugl i ringmærkningen, da Hans mødte op med en lille fluesnapper (Ficedula parva) han havde set i nettet på vej til labbet. Dette er vores mindste fluesnapper med længde på kun ca. 11,5cm. Den er en yderst sjælden ynglefugl i Danmark, da vi er på ydergrænsen for dens udbredelse. Hovedudbredelsen er i Østeuropa og Rusland, mens overvintringen er i Sydasien og den ses derfor oftest i Danmark, når den bliver blæst hertil over Østersøen. Her på fuglestationen får vi kun et par stykker i nettene om året.

Lille fluesnapper. Ikke mange genkendelige tegn udover de sort-hvide halefjer og så selvfølgelig størrelsen. 

Lille fluesnapper er en rimelig ugenkendelig brun fugl, da hannernes røde strube og blågrå hoved kun ses på hanner og først er fuldt udviklede efter to somre. Den kan dog identificeres på størrelsen, som er ca. den samme som en løvsanger (Phylloscopus trochilus) og de hvide talespidser, som ses tydeligt i flugten.

Hannens røde strube lægger bag det engelske navn 'Red-breasted flycatcher', men det er først hannens anden sommer at den begynder at få en lille strubeplet, og tredje sommer at den får fuld voksendragt, med gråblåt hoved og orangerød strube og bryst. Hunnen og ungfugle ligner hinanden meget og forbliver gulbrune. 

Ellers gik ringmærkningen udmærket i betragtning af lidt vindlige forhold, og vi endte med 23 nye ringmærkninger, hvoraf størstedelen stadig er rødhalse (Erithacus rubecula). Desuden havde vi to spurvehøge (Accipiter nisus), en han og en hun, der begge blev ringmærket og swabbet for fugleinfluenza. Disse prøver bliver sendt til Statens Serums Institut, der holder øje med udbrud af fugleinfluenza, som ofte rammer rovfugle såvel som hav- og andefugle.

Lua med en rimelig gnaven ung spurvehøg-han, kort efter den er blevet swabbet for fugleinfluenza. 

Trækket på Odden: Due to quite strong southerly wind, we chose an observation spot behind the house. This makes it the fourth spot I tried, always depending on wind conditions and main migrating species. Today, the majority of migrants came from the order Anatiformes, the "duck shapes". We had a lot of ducks migrating along the coast and above our heads on their way south. As there were almost no other birds, quickly a competition started which species would get the highest count: The five hour race of Gedser. After just a short time, we were already pretty sure, which species would be the winner - the Common Scoters (Melanitta nigra). They came in a constant stream of flocks, at times over a hundred strong. In the end, they held a solid first place at 2452 birds.

More interesting was the race for the second and third place. Both Green-winged Teals (Anas crecca) and Eurasian Wigeons (Mareca penelope) made their best effort and arrived in big flocks. Interestingly, ou could often tell the main species simply from the location of the flock. Teals migrated close to the water's surface, Wigeons flew further above and also often over land. But back to the race: The Teals were the first to reach the magic milestone of 1000 and were in the lead most of the time. As if they knew about our competition tough, the wigeons gave everything and managed to get several quite big flocks in the last few minutes. Thus, it was a very close-fought competition from which the Wigeons came out victorious by a slim margin (1541 to 1523). 

Wigeons flying high in big flocks. They are easily identified by the big white area on the wings of the males, but in this group there was also a Shoveler. You can find it over the rear end of the ship by its different shape with a long bill. 

Teals are normally just dark, but very small ducks. When they fly low, we can also see the narrow white stripe on their wings. Photo: Ole Friis Larsen/GFU

Other notable participants in this race, though completely without a winning chance, included some Velvet Scoters (Melanitta fusca), trying to join the Common Scoters and win like this, several Black-throated Divers (Gavia arctica), a trio of Great Egrets (Ardea alba) and an Arctic Skua (Stercorarius parasiticus). Matching today's catch at the station, we also had the highest number of Red-breasted Mergansers (Mergus serrator) yet. One species was just holding back. In a few weeks time, the whole competition would have easily been won by the Common Eiders (Somateria molissima). The 67 bird that came by today were just warming up.

Velvet Scoters normally fly far away from the tip, but this group came pretty near to the colour of the bill and the white around the eyes. Photo: Ole Friis Larsen/GFU

Final results: 
1. place: Common Scoters (Melanitta nigra)
2. place: Eurasian Wigeon (Mareca penelope)
3. place: Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca)
4. place: Sandwich Tern (Thalasseus sandwichensis)
5. place: Northern Shoveler (Spatula clypeata)

Fugle registreret i standardtiden: 6515 individer, 46 arter. Tællingen startet 06:13, sluttet klokken 11:13.

Se alle dagens observationer på Gedser Odde i DOFbasen.

Nyt fra stationen: Tirsdag eftermiddag forsvarede Cyann Ménard sin kandidatopgave om vejrets indflydelse på Ederfuglenes træk. Hun har lavet opgaven under et halvt års ophold på fuglestationen, og vi var (selvfølgelig) inviteret til at overvære hendes præsentation på storskærmen i mødelokalet. Selve præsentationen foregik på hendes universitet i Frankrig. Vi tillod os også at skåle på hendes resultat, selv om vi ikke fik det med. Hun skrev, at hun følte sig super godt tilpas efter præsentationen og var optimistisk for sin bedømmelse. Hendes kandidatopgave vil senere blive lagt på fuglestationens hjemmeside.

Til lykke til Cyann fra alle os på fuglestationen. Foto: Ole Friis Larsen/GFU

På stationen: Hannah Schmidt, Storm Hauris Borum, Lua Koplin, Ole Friis Larsen, Tina & Mads Elley, Marek Ebert

Ringmærkningen: Robin overflow! The morning started with a full round of Robins! They are definetly here to stay! And a ringers favorite nevertheless!

Image 1: One of many Robins!

The first highlight of the day was our first Songthrush of the season, which was a wounderful surprise for Storm to ring his first one, as its one of his absolute favorite birds (and spirit animal)!

Image 2: Storm in love with the first song thrush of the season!

After 20 robins, we had some other interesting and loveble birds! I had a tree pipit in the net, which is always fun and then the highligh of the day that even made Marek run over from the obs: A mistery bunting! Hannah and I both looked at it and agreed on it being a bunting, with Hannah adding the quote of the day " its NOT a snow Finch that I know!" It ended up being a beautifull and full of life young male Common Reed Bunting, a first time ringed species for me, which is always an incredible day! 

Image 3: An absolutly amazing Common Reed Bunting

Since the day was quite nice and we wanted to stay outside a bit longer, we kept our sparrowhawk nets open and got a total of 4 sparrowhawks today! Storm and I stayed close to the nets, by our favorite observation bushes and wittnessed the cutest little mouse jumping between the flowers!

Trækket på Odden: Meteorologerne havde lovet os masser af solskin fra solopgangen, men sådan gik det ikke. De første tre af dagens fem standardtimer måtte vi finde os i et mere efterårsagtigt overskyet vejr, før det klarede op, og vi blev varmet op af noget solskin. Til gengæld blev det en fin dag med tre fra fuglestationen, to af de faste lokale, nemlig Orla Jakobsen og Flemming Pagh Jensen. Desuden fik vi spontant selskab af to fuglefolk fra autocamperne på parkeringspladsen. Først kom nederlandske Henny Woons og spurgte, om hun måtte gøre os selskab, lidt senere kom Hank Verstralen fra Belgien med sit teleskop og sluttede sig til os.

Det er altid godt med flere øjne, men det var ikke kun derfor, at vi fik sat en ny rekord for træk af Hvepsevåger (Pernis apivorus) ved Gedser Odde med 113 i standardtiden. Fuglene var der selvfølgelig, og det var noget af et arbejde at finde og bestemme prikkerne, for rovfugletrækket foregik meget højt. Det næstbedste dagstal er nu 108, som blev talt 2. september 2019. Trækket af Hvepsevåger har i det hele taget været usædvanligt fint i dette efterår med 401 indtil nu. Det er allerede det suverænt bedste i de år, vi har arbejdet med standardtællinger, langt over det nu næstbedste samlede efterårstal i standardtiden på 230 i 2021. Vi kunne både bestemme nogle til adulte/voksne fugle og til unger fra i år, men langt fra alle på grund af højde og afstand.

Det hører med til billedet, af trækket af Hvepsevåger aldrig har været stort om efteråret ved Gedser Odde. De fleste trækker ud mod syd ved Saksfjed/Hyllekrog på Lolland.

 Rød Glente (Milvus milvus) i dagens træk. De hvide stænk på undersiden viser, at det er en ung fugl fra i år. Foto: Ole Friis Larsen/GFU

 Musvåge (Buteo buteo) i dagens træk. De unge fra i år er begyndt at dukke op, som det fremgår af denne fugl, der mangler de adulte/voksnes kraftige mørke bånd yderst på halen. Foto: Ole Friis Larsen/GFU

Mens vi koncentrerede os om trækket på havruterne og rovfuglene, tog Marek sig af småfuglene, som var domineret af næsten tusind Landsvaler (Hirundo rustica), og nogle af de rovfugle, der dukkede op højt over svalerne. Det er en luksus at have en mand med speciale i småfugle med ude fra fuglestationen, så vi får en fin dækning af hele trækket lige for tiden. 

På ruterne ud af Østersøen var trækket mere beskedent, men bød dog på flere flokke af Sortænder (Melanitta nigra), svømmeænder, Splitterner (Thalasseus sandvicensis), Skarver (Phalacrocorax carbo) og lidt Dværgmåger (Hydrocoloeus minutus).

 Dagens 130 Spurvehøge hjalp godt på efterårets tal, som blev bragt på 1.149 stadig. Det er stadig langt under sidste års 1.764, som er det hidtil laveste antal, og gennemsnittet på 2.900, men trækket af Spurvehøge plejer at fortsætte langt ind i oktober, og de seneste tre uger tegner stadig lovende. Grafikken viser, at de seneste tre ugers timegennemsnit (gråblå søjler) har ligget langt over sidste år (røde søjler) og gennemsnittet for årene 2017, som var det første år med standardtælling, til 2024. Kilde: Trektellen

Fugle registreret i standardtiden: 2.837 . Arter: 45. Tællingen startet 06:12, sluttet klokken 11:12.

Se alle dagens observationer på Gedser Odde i DOFbasen.

På stationen: Hannah Schmidt, Storm Hauris Borum, Lua Koplin, Mads Elley, Ole Friis Larsen, Marek Ebert

Ringmærkningen: Grundet en ordenlig omgang øv-vejr blev kun få net åbnet i morges. Vind og trusler om regn holdt fuglene i buskende og vi endte med en fangst på blot 5 fugle i standardnettene. Tre rødhals (Erithacus rubecula), en gransanger (Phylloscopus collybita) og en genfanget løvsanger (Phylloscopus trochilus). 

Mens Hannah og Søren tog sig af de få net vi havde åbne, brugte Lua og jeg tiden på at reparere spurvehøg-nettene, der efter flere sæsoner er blevet møre og havde flere huller. Mens nettene var oppe og under reparation lykkedes det faktisk Lua at fange en spurvehøg - en god overraskelse på en ellers meget kedelig dag! 

Dagens ene højdepunkt: en spurvehøg-hun. Læg mærke til de trekantede/hjerteformede tegninger på bryst og undervinge, der afslører at det er en ungfugl. Med tiden vil disse aftegninger bliver til vandrette bånd. 

Vores anden overraskelse var en flagermus, der havde hængt sig til at sove i redskabsskuret, og blev vækket da vi åbnede døren. Den satte sig lige i døråbningen, så vi kunne kigge godt på den. Vi lod døren stå åben, og lidt senere havde den flyttet sig, muligvis ind under opslagstavlen hvor vi har set flere flagermus gemme sig i købet af dagen. Vi er mener at det nok er en Pippistrellus-art, men er ikke helt sikre på om det er en trold-, dværg- eller pipistrelflagermus. Vi modtager gerne bud på hvad det kan være for én!

Dagens andet højdepunkt: en flagermus på døren til skuret. Vi er usikre på arten, men det var nok en Pipistrellus-art. Den var ca. 6 cm lang, ensfarvet støvet brun, relativt små afrundede ører og et ræve-agtigt trekantet hovede med en flad snude. 

Nærbillede af flagermusens hovede. Hvilken art kunne det være?

Trækket på Odden: This morning, the sky was completely grey and it was just not getting light. Combined with quite some wind, it was not too pleasant to sit out at the tip. It must also have been unpleasant to fly as a bird, because during our first hour we only got around 50 birds. But as the wind died down and no rain fell, the birds decided to move again. As if they had to make up for the lost time, big flocks of Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) and House Martin (Delichon urbicum) migrated over and all around us, an amazing sight. Among the swallows was also a Common Swift (Apus apus). We always try to enjoy their sight as much as possible because you never know if there will be another one until May next year…

On the sea, the ducks woke up too. Today, mainly Common Scoters (Melanitta nigra) and Eurasian Wigeons (Mareca penelope) were seen, with a few of the others mixed in. It also was interesting to see the Common Eiders (Somateria mollissima) start moving. In a few weeks, we should get loads of them on migration. I’m looking forward to that. Joining the ducks were a few Black-throated Divers (Gavia arctica). They too should be joined soon by their smaller red-throated cousin (Gavia stellata).

Look closely! This diver seems to be black-throated, even though there is no black throat which can only be seen in the breeding plumage. Instead, we look for the amount of white on the belly, the size and the shape of the head to separate it from the Red-throated Diver.

Later in the day, after the air heated up a bit, the migration of raptors increased. We had several Harriers (Circus sp.) and a few Sparrowhawks (Accipiter nisus). When on migration, these birds seem to forget everything around them and don’t care about us observers. They often come very close. One even perched on Ole’s chair for a few seconds until it flew off towards Germany. Speaking of raptorial birds, one group known for their notorious stealing behaviour made an appearance too: the Skuas. Four Arctic Skuas (Stercorarius parasiticus) flew by, one of them an 2k+ bird of the light morph. This was a pleasant change from the usually completely brown birds of this species. It was accompagnied by one of those completely brown birds which thus got very little attention. It should have, because it was a Long-tailed Skua (Stercorarius longicaudus), which we could tell afterwards based on (very bad) pictures. The „Little Skua“ (Lille Kjove) as it is called in Danish, is considerably smaller than its Arctic counterpart which can be visible in direct comparison.

This beautiful Arctic Skua (Stercorarius parasiticus) stole all the attention from its rarer little cousin. The Long-tailed Skua was clearly smaller and more compact over the sea. It is not so easy to document, but look at the two pictures below. In one of the pictures both are visible, the smaller one in top left over the bigger Arctic Skua

Fugle registreret i standardtiden: 4.643 . Arter: 45. Tællingen startet 06:10, sluttet klokken 11:10.

Se alle dagens observationer på Gedser Odde i DOFbasen.

På stationen: Hannah Schmidt, Storm Hauris Borum, Lua Koplin, Ole Friis Larsen, Marek Ebert, Søren Mygind

Ringmærkningen: Today was a very nice and calm day, with a few showers inbetween good weather. With Søren leading the first part of ringing and then me (Lua) taking over after 8am, we all had a good chance to relax and look calmly at each bird. With the day growing longer and the rounds getting shorter due to less birds, you often feel quite inspired to fill the time waiting inbetween with silly little jokes. So today, when it was just Hannah, two birds in the last hour, and myself, we both started to hear the birds talk to us a bit to much! Hannah ringed her first blue tit, also known as "blue monster" or just simply "demon spawn straight out from hell", which is an important ride of passage for every ringer!

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Image 1: Devilish blue tit

I then ringed the cutes and most angelic bird of the day. A very delicate chiffchaff. The direct contrast to the blue tit, therefore we nicknamed them our devil and angel on our shoulders!

Image 2: Angelic looking Chiffchaff

With a total of 47 birds, it has been a pretty good day !

Trækket på Odden: På grund af et møde i fuglestationens styregruppe, fik vi ikke talt trækket denne lørdag, men der har været andre på Odde, så det er stadig muligt at få et indtryk af dagens træk ved at kigge i DOFbasen.

Se alle dagens observationer på Gedser Odde i DOFbasen.

Nyt fra fuglestationen: Styregruppen holdt et af sine faste møder, hvor vi især ser på fuglestationens økonomi og planlægger arrangementer, blandt andet Åbent Hus lørdag 3. oktober som vores bidrag til EuroBirdWatch-dagen med fokus på trækfugle. Desuden evaluerede vi vores fuglestationsuddannelse og så på bemandingen til ringmærkning og træktælling i 2027. Økonomien tegner i år til et underskud på omkring 50.000 kroner, mens de fleste andre punkter så positive ud. Vi diskuterede også vores indsats for at få engen ved fuglestationen udpint og omdannet til bedre natur for insekter og fugle. Græsset bliver slået og kørt væk om nogle dage. Derefter vil vi tilså en stykke af engen med en blanding af frø, som vi har fået anbefalet fra Aage V. Jensen Naturfond efter et besøg på fondens område ved Søholt Storskov/Maribosøerne.

Referater fra vores styregruppemøder er frit tilgængelige på fuglestationens hjemmeside, når de er godkendt af alle deltagere i det pågældende møde.

På stationen: Hannah Schmidt, Storm Hauris Borum, Lua Koplin, Mads Elley, Tina Elley, Hans Lind, Bo Kayser, Henrik Jørgensen, Anne Marie Reith, Søren Mygind, Gert Juul Jeppesen, Ole Friis Larsen, Marek Ebert

Ringmærkningen: Whilst the weather seemed perfect (low wind, no rain), there was little movement around our garden. Most likely, the southerly wind made for a bad day for migration. 

Mainly, we caught a mixture of Dunnocks (Prunella modularis), European robins (Erithacus rubecula), Common redstarts (Phoenicurus phoenicurus), Eurasian blackcaps (Sylvia atricapilla), Common chiffchaffs (Phylloscopus collybita), and Willow warblers (Phylloscopus throchilus). One Willow warbler stood out to us! It had a coloration that reminding us more of a chiffchaff's.

A Willow warbler (Phylloscopus throchilus) with the characteristics of a Common chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita).

Og nu kommer Grønirisk! We’ve seen them around the garden, but today was finally the day we caught a juvenile European greenfinch (Chloris chloris) in our nets. Whilst not yet as green as it will once be, we admired its feathers and yellow patterns on the wings and tail. Its stout bill revealed the reason for paying our garden a visit: the greenfinch had blackberry stains all over!

Finally, a European greenfinch (Chloris chloris) in our nets – a nice change among all the blackcaps and whitethroats!

Today, we caught a total of 39 birds belonging to 9 different species.

Trækket på Odden: En af de mere stille efterårsdage i standardtiden, og beretningen bliver kort på grund af andre opgaver. Vejret var mildt og tørt. Trækket af rovfugle udeblev næsten, men indeholdt dog to Dværgfalke (Falco columbarius). Vinden flyttede nok en del af trækket væk fra Odden. Dagens Hvepsevåger (Pernis apivorus) og Rørhøge (Circus aeroginosus) så ud til at trække ud ved havnen et stykke nord for fuglestationen.

 Pibeænder tidligt på færde i lyset før solopgang. Foto: Ole Friis Larsen/GFU

En blandet flok svømmeænder i det flotte vejrs modlys. De langstrakte med tynde halse er Spidsænder (Anas acuta), resten er Pibeænder med en mere kompakt form. Foto: Ole Friis Larsen/GFU

På havruten var der op mod 1.500 andefugle, mest Sortænder (Melanitta nigra), Pibeænder (Mareca penelope) og Krikænder (Anas crecca), men også et par af de arter, der egentlig først kommer senere, nemlig Bjergand (Aythya marila) og Hvinand (Bucephala clangula). Værd at nævne er også trækket af terne og Dværgmåger (Hydrocoloeus minutus).

Fugle registreret i standardtiden: 2.934 . Arter: 50. Tællingen startet 06:06, sluttet klokken 11:06.

Se alle dagens observationer på Gedser Odde i DOFbasen.

På stationen: Hannah Schmidt, Storm Hauris Borum, Lua Koplin, Mads Elley, Hans Lind, Ole Friis Larsen, Marek Ebert

Ringmærkning: 

Det blev endnu en vindblæst dag i ringmærkningen hvilket betød at vi ikke kunne åbne næsten halvdelen af nettene. Dagen bragte dog stadig sæsonens første bogfinke (Fringilla coelebs)! Efter at have set de første flokke af trækkende finker over haven de sidste mange dage, var det skønt at se den første i nettet. Bogfinkehunnen er ikke så farverig som hannen, men har stadig flotte mønstre på vinger og halefjer. Blandt andet ses de karakteristiske hvide vingebånd og kontrastrige sort-hvide halefjer tydeligt i hånden. 

Sæsonens første bogfinke, en ung hun. I hånden ses mønstret, der danner de to hvide vingebånd i mellem- og store dækfjer. 

Vi havde en god dag for spurvehøge i dag. I standardmærkningen røg én i nettet og Hannah prøvede at ringmærke denne art for første gang. Senere på eftermiddagen åbnede vi spurvehøgenettene igen og efter lidt tids venten ved nettene fik vi endnu en spurvehøg. Vi ringmærkede den og viste den frem til besøgende turister. Vi havde kun lige sat den fri, før den næste spurvehøg sad i nettet. Denne nåede vi knap at tage op til ringmærkningslaboratoriet, før vi fik besked på at der altså var endnu én i nettet. Endnu to turister havde set den i nettet fra vejen, og fik derfor mulighed for at se begge spurvehøge på én gang. Dette gav god mulighed for at sammenligne en han og en hun.

Ligesom andre rovfugle, er hunnen en del større end hannen. Faktisk er spurvehøge-hunnerne ofte dobbelt så store som hannerne! Størrelsesforskellen mellem kønnene er ikke helt menes at være grundet arbejdsfordelingen hos rovfuglene i yngletiden. Hunnen bruger mere tid på reden med at ruge og beskytte den mod andre rovdyr og derfor er det en fordel et være stor og intimiderende. Hannen bruger derimod mere tid med at jage og har lettere ved at manøvrere rundt i tæt skov med sin mere kompakte størrelse. 

Spurvehøg han og hun. Her ses størrelsesforskellen tydeligt. Hunnen til højre er mindst en halv gang større end hannen! De er begge ungfugle, hvilket ses på 'hjerterne' på brystet - de brune aftegninger, der danner trekanter eller hjerteformer - mest tydeligt på hannen, hvilket betyder at det er en yngre fugl end hunnen. 

Trækket på Odden: It is very interesting to see how different days at the migration count can be. After yesterday’s cold and wet weather, we had a lot of sunshine but still chilling wind today. Also the birds were very different. As usual, we focused on the seabirds, however, there was almost nothing to focus upon. A few Sandwich Terns (Thalasseus sandwichensis) migrated by and we had a grand total of 16 ducks for the whole of the count. Still, three Arctic Skuas (Stercorarius parasiticus) made a quick stop on their way south to congratulate me on my birthday (probably rather to harass some terns…). They were the first special guests, but certainly not the last. After looking at an almost empty Baltic Sea for the first hour, we turned by 180° for the rest of the count and focused our attention on the skies. In the warming air, an amazing migration of raptors was picking up. The first sign of that came in the form of two Sparrowhawks (Accipiter nisus), still in the dark. They were followed by 127 more Sparrowhawks alone – and these birds were not the only raptor species on the move today. There also were European Honey-Buzzards (Pernis apivorus), 76 in total. Most of them migrated alone, though some decided to get some company and created a group of 27!

European Honey-Buzzard. If the birds show themselves nicely, we can age and even sex the Honey-Buzzards based on several criteria. This one is a juvenile identified by the dark eye (adults have yellow eyes) and the black beak.

The raptor party was joined by a few Common Buzzards (Buteo buteo), some Eurasian Kestrels (Falco tinnunculus) and several Eurasian Marsh-Harriers (Circus aeruginosus). Apart from the Marsh-Harriers, these birds are not really known for being migratory. They just move around to where they can find enough food. The Marsh-Harriers though winter in central Africa. The raptor-bird-day-party didn’t really start though, until the big bullies arrived: Three White-tailed Eagles (Haliaetus albicilla) made an impressive appearance. Only one of them was brave enough to attempt the crossing to Germany, the other two decided to stay in Denmark for a bit. However, the real special guest joined the party quite early, hid for most of the time and made a quick appearance again towards the end of the count. Escorted by two crows and with its typical swaying flight style, a Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus) suddenly appeared it made a few rounds over the field, before disappearing as quickly as it came. The deep gaze of its bright yellow eyes stayad with us for a long time after the owl itself had already left.

Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus). In owls, an interesting correlation between the eye colour and the time of activity can be observed. As a rule of thumb, the eye colour is the same as the colour of the sky when the owl is most active. Different from most owls, Short-eared owls can often be seen during the day hunting over meadows, fields and marshy areas.

As promised, we had a real party today. Logically, seven species are not yet enough, so more came to greet us. A Red Kite (Milvus milvus) was showing off itself, however everyone only had eyes for its cousin, the Black Kite (Milvus migrans). It is likely that the individual we saw yesterday mustered finally enough courage to cross the scary blue. It was joined by another Black Kite later that tried to be brave but returned quickly. But the real star (arguably even better than the owl) came just calmly soaring over the grass, when it discovered us observers speechless a few metres in front of it. It then made a quick turn, so we could all see the reddish underside, the four-fingered hand, the light necklace and even the colour of its eyes! Have you figured out who made this spectacular show? Of course, it was a Pallid Harrier (Circus macrourus), giving some of the best views anyone has ever had on this species. Just to make sure everyone got their perfect pictures, views and incredible lifer experiences (me!), it circled over our heads several times before heading out over the sea. These birds have become more common over the last few years, probably at least partially due to climate change. Still they are an amazing species, especially at this range!

Pallid Harrier (Circus macrourus). As in all the other Harriers, young Pallid Harriers look nothing alike the adults. They are more colourful and grow their patterns only with age. The pale eye also tells us that this is a young female.

In the afternoon, Tina came by with some delicious cake and we celebrated my birthday and the amazing observations a little. Thank you to everyone for all your congratulations, best wishes, songs and presents. It was an amazing birthday and I am so grateful for being able to celebrate it here, surrounded by all the great other ringers, observators and, most importantly, friends!

The Danish birthday cake

Fugle registreret i standardtiden: 1584. Arter: 37. Tællingen startet 06:04, sluttet klokken 11:04.

Se alle dagens observationer på Gedser Odde i DOFbasen.

På stationen: Hannah Schmidt, Storm Hauris Borum, Frederikke Dufke, Lua Koplin, Tina Elley, Ole Friis Larsen, Marek Ebert

Ringing: As we have lost our trust in weather forecast apps, every morning starts the same, I go out, look at the clouds, smell the rain, judge the wind and decide from my surrounding if we go out and today we did! 

As it was still a bit wet from the nights rain, we did more frequent rounds with a healthy amount of panic, but soon the weather turned out to be very pleasent and he had a pretty good day afterwards! 

With all of our favourite common birds, we notice one funny pattern of today, its trio day! Several nets one after the other had three of the same species, with nothing else for each round! 

We jokingly called these our bird bands and joked about what type of music each of these would make, first we had this lovely chiffchaff assortment, then these gentle dunnocks and at last the boyband of male blackcaps.

Image 1: Blackcap boyband

For the blackcaps we have decided that they most likely would make sad rock, or alternative rock music!

Image 2: Indie Folk trio of Dunnocks

And lastly for the Chiffchaffs we were actually not sure about what genre they would be, some people leaned towards classical, others towards Rap, what do you think??

Image 3: Young Chiffchaff trio that still has to find their distinct style

The rest of the day countined fairly quiet, but good! With 37 birds, not bad regarding we were in doubt of even beeing able to open nets in the first place!

Trækket på Odden: En mærkelig morgen med først tre timers efterår med overskyet himmel og en lind strøm af byger for de to sidste timer at byde på noget blå himmel og solskin, men også tiltagende vind fra sydvest. Vi var to fra fuglestationen ude at opleve et par nyheder i dette efterårs træk ved Gedser Odde. Tre flokke af Grågæs (Anser anser) var et signal om, at trækket af gæs er begyndt, og i dagens træk af bare 12 Ederfugle (Somateria mollissima) var halvdelen voksne/adulte hanner. Indtil nu har vi kun set brune fugle, altså hunner og deres unger fra i år.

 Efterårets første rigtige træk af Grågæs ved Gedser Odde foregik i gråvejr, og gæssene klumpede sig, så de var lidt af en udfordring at få tal på. Foto: Ole Friis Larsen/GFU

22 Hvepsevåger (Pernis apivorus) bragte det samlede antal i dette efterår op på 204. Det er det højeste antal i de seneste fem år, og deres trækperiode er slet ikke over stået endnu. Marek talte stadig svaler i tusindvis, men ellers var dagens træk noget dæmpet, hvilket måske skyldtes de mange regnbyger. Vi kunne i hvert fald konstatere, at såvel svaler som Spurvehøge (Accipiter nisus) holdt op med at trække ud i tiltagende vind fra sydvest og med udsigt til regnbyger over havet.

Beretningen om trækket bliver ikke længere i dag, for hele holdet holdt fri om eftermiddagen for at tage på ekskursion til Maribosøerne, hvor vi især gerne ville se Rovterner (Hydroprogne caspia) både for oplevelsen af verdens største terne og for at blive bedre til at bestemme den art i forhold til andre arter af terner, som vi ser på trækket. Det lykkedes med to over Hejrede Sø. Vi så endda deres enorme røde næb i fint lys. Glade var vi også for to Fiskeørne (Pandion haliaetus) over Maribo Søndersø og flere andre fugle i området.

 Fuglestationens personale på studietur ved Hejrede Sø. Foto: Ole Friis Larsen/GFU

Fugle registreret i standardtiden: 3.733 . Arter: 38. Tællingen startet 06:03, sluttet klokken 11:03.

Se alle dagens observationer på Gedser Odde i DOFbasen.

På stationen: Hannah Schmidt, Storm Hauris Borum, Frederikke Dufke, Lua Koplin, Tina Elley, Mads Elley, Gert Juul Jeppesen, Ole Friis Larsen, Marek Ebert

Ringmærkningen: 

Our prediction of the day was far off from what we expected. Increasingly better days after the past week of bad weather, along with low winds and cloud coverage but no rain, made for perfect conditions.

Of course, at 05:30 a.m. our hopes were high. We were able to open all nets and crossed our fingers. Whilst the first two went quite alright, several rounds brought only one, two or even zero birds at times. Overall, the day brought a mixture of European robins (Erithacus rubecula), Lesser whitethroats (Curruca curruca), Eurasian blackcaps (Sylvia atricapilla) and more. Here is a round-up of the most memorable ones! Whilst yesterday was the day for Willow warblers (Phylloscopus trochilus), today was the day for Common chiffchaffs (Phylloscopus collybita). These two species look extremely similar, but a small detail makes the differentiation easy. Willow warblers have an emargination to the 6^th primary, whilst chiffchaffs have it to the 5^th.

Whilst numbers are decreasing here in the garden, several Dunnocks (Prunella modularis) and Common redstarts (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) made their way into our nets.A Dunnck (Prunella modularis).

A Common redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus).

Although disliked by many, a personal favorite of mine are the Great tits (Parus major). Today, we recaptured two individuals. Why are they so disliked by many, you may ask. Although unexpected of such cute birds, Great and Blue tits are rather “aggressive” and like to nip at your fingers when they get the chance. So far, I’ve not had the pleasure of extracting whole flocks of these species, and my experience remains rather pleasant – if not exciting!

A Great tit (Parus major).

In total, we caught 48 birds of 14 species.

Trækket på Odden: This morning at the tip promised to be good, after yesterday’s incredible numbers. However, we did not expect it to become that good. The migration of Common Scoters (Melanitta nigra) continued to be good, though we did „only“ count 872 birds. A nice addition were the obligatory mixed duck flocks. It is common for ducks to travel in groups for company and protection from predators. However, they don’t seem to care whether their flocks consists of the same species as themselves. One notable group of ducks was not really big, only 19 birds. However there were several Green-winged Teals (Anas crecca), Eurasian Wigeons (Mareca penelope), Pintails (Anas acuta), Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) and Northern Shovelers (Spatula clypeata) in this flock, which makes it five species in one small flock!

A similar problem occured in a completely different group of birds, the migrating passerines. Among the huge flocks of Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica), the other swallow species hid in smaller numbers. It is very difficult to tell them apart only from a small glimpse and maybe a silhouette. Other migrants in the swallow flocks included some finches, Tree Pipits (Anthus trivialis), and Wagtails (Motacilla flava/alba). These occur in even smaller numbers, but are somewhat more easy to separate, because of their distictive flight styles. And, importantly, they are often heard before they are seen. Learning flight calls can be worth so much! But I have to return to the swallows quickly. We counted 5391 swallows of the three species, 5099 of them were Barn Swallows. This number is incredible and so was their migration too. It felt like a constant stream of swallows and indeed, the number equals to almost 18 swallows every minute!

One of today’s many Barn Swallows, on its way across the Baltic Sea. Swallows migrate to southern Africa, so its journey has just started.

Not only the migration over land was good, the maritime migration was more than decent too. We recorded migration of Common Gulls (Larus canus) and Black-headed Gulls (Chroicocephalus ridibundus). These birds were interrupted by a total of four Skuas, all of which were first considered to be Arctic Skuas (Stercorarius parasiticus). However, after taking a look at the photos, two of them turned out to be Long-Tailed Skuas (Stercorarius longicaudus) instead. These birds breed in the high arctic (as do all Skuas) and we don’t see a lot of them in Gedser. It also turned out to be a lifer for me and completed the Skua trio!

This picture allowed us to confirm the identity of one of today’s Skuas – it’s a Long-tailed Skua! The features we look out for are the amount of white in the primary feathers (very little in this bird), the shape of the tail, a very small and round head and the short bill that has a clear distinction between a paler base and a dark tip. The brown plumage of this bird also reveals its age: 1k.

Skuas can catch their own food, but they prefer to steal it from other birds, a behaviour known a „cleptoparasitism“. Among their favorised victims are terns, that also appeared in reasonavly high numbers today. Most of them were Sandwich terns (Sterna sandwichensis), with some Common Terns (Sterna hirundo) mixed in.

Sandwich Terns. Different from other terns, this species winters along the shores of Europe and northern Africa. It does not fly to the Antarctic, as Arctic Terns do it.

Finally, we had a surprisingly good migration of waders too. There were not many birds, however the diversity was with six species quite high. There were Golden Plovers and Grey Plovers (Pluvialis apricaria /squaterola). Though these species are always nice to see, my personal highlight was a small group of waders that first looked like another group of Dunlins (Calidris alpina). After seeing their white upper tail however, we concluded them as being Curlew Sandpipers (Calidris ferruginea), another lifer for me. This wraps up a very succesful morning at the migration count. I am looking forward to the specialties tomorrow will bring!

Fugle registreret i standardtiden: 7.658 . Arter: 44. Tællingen startet 06:01, sluttet klokken 11:01.

Se alle dagens observationer på Gedser Odde i DOFbasen. 

På stationen: Hannah Schmidt, Storm Hauris Borum, Lua Koplin, Hans Lind, Ole Friis Larsen, Marek Ebert