After three days with over 120 birds, today it slowed down a bit, but it was still a nice day with 72 birds ringed. In July, 72 birds felt very busy, but I guess, being ringing everyday for the last 64 days in a row makes a difference.

No surprises today in the nets, well, if we do not count a sparrowhawk meal in the net, that my sweet collegues had put in a bag for me to "ring" saying: "oh!! we have a big surprise for you, you should ring it!". I put my hand inside the bag only to touch something very different, very quiet and a weird texture... I took it out to find that it was a dead mouse (!) that sadly, a sparrowhawk lost in the net before escaping (we did not ring any sparrowhawks today - at least 5 flew away before we got them).

The weather was beautiful, much warmer than the last few days, so we could enjoy some time outside: birdwatching at the tip, reading, collecting apples from the garden and walking to Gedser to get some food supplies.

Also, Vibeke brought us two bottles of local apple juice, corn, apples and pears! Delicious! Thanks a lot again!

Gedser Fuglestation is a great place! Not only for the birds but also because of the people.

Best!

Ramón.

Dagen startede igen med 2 runder med en hel del fugle, men i dag kunne vi næsten ringmærke alle inden næste runde.

På anden runde kom Ramon ind og spurgte om natravn var almindelig her for han havde fanget en.

Det måtte jeg så fortælle at den ikke var og at den ikke bliver fanget her hver år.

Selv om det ser ud som at fuglen bliver holdt i benene så ligger den kun på hånden.

Så han fik ringmærket den som ny art og senere fik han en spætmejse som også var ny for ham så han var vildt glad.

Dagen blev domineret af gransangere og næsten ingen rødhalse.

Der kom et par røde glenter ind over haven men ellers var det mest spurvehøge.

Dagens mærkning:

Natravn /Nightjar 1

Gærdesmutte/Wren 7

Jernspurv/Dunnock 6

Rødhals/Robin 18

Rødstjert/Redstart 2

Gærdesanger/Lesser whitethroat 3

Munk/Blackcap 12

Gransanger/Chiffchaff 66

Løvsanger/Willowwarbler 3

Grå fluesnapper/Spotted flycatcher 1

Spætmejse/Nuthatcher 1

Bogfinke/Chaffinch 1

Total 121

Today saw the arrival of some really nice birds. The wind had dropped which meant an influx of birds into the garden and we caught so many during the first few rounds of the day that Hans and Benny had to come to the rescue and help with the extractions while Ramón and Henrik ringed as fast as they could so that the birds could get back to fattening themselves up in the garden for their migration. Along with the usual robins, blackcaps, and chiff-chaffs we caught a handful of chaffinches, a smattering of gold- and fire-crests, a few more reed buntings, a couple of song thrushes and some sparrow hawks (including a particularly big female). The icing on the cake though was during the last round of the day - a short-toed treecreeper! Very cute, very cool.

We also saw some cranes flying overhead on their migration to the south, as well as barnacle geese and some honey buzzards. Hans brought us a wasp spider from his garden - it has really incredible markings and builds a spiral orb web. Apparently it only arrived in Denmark a couple of decades ago, slowly spreading north from the south of Europe.

We opened the nets again later in the afternoon in the hope of enticing in another yellow-browed warbler by playing its song loud across the garden, but to no avail. Maybe tomorrow!

Jón sadly had to depart for reality this afternoon so tomorrow we are down to three for while. Good thing I am getting faster at extracting birds from the nets!

Hope you all managed to get out and see some wildlife today. The birds from the morning are listed below for your enjoyment.

All the best!

Gail

Vi havde fra morgenstunden høje forventninger da vinden havde lagt sig en smule og mens det var halvmørkt kunne småfugle også ses i luften.
De første 2 runder var også rigtigt gode, men da solen kom frem kunne flere net ses så mængden i nettene faldt, men der var dog fugle på hver runde.
Efter standardtiden lavede vi 2 hold så det ene kunne hvile og det andet fortsætte ringmærkningen.
Sidst på dagen fangede de andre en hvidbrynet løvsanger, men der var jeg inde og handle i byen og havde lige bestilt mad så jeg fik ikke set den(men har dog set og fanget flere tidligere).

Hvidbrynet løvsanger (Foto: Jón Aldará)

Rødtoppet fuglekonge (Foto: Jón Aldará)

I morgen skulle vinden lægge sig næsten helt så vi forventer endnu flere fugle i morgen.
Dagens fangst:
Spurvehøg/Sparrowhawk 2
Skovpiber/Treepipit 1
Gærdesmute/Wren 3
Jernspurv/Dunnock 19
Rødhals/Robin 82
Rørsanger/Reedwarbler 1
Gærdesanger/Lesser whitethroat 2
Havesanger/Gardenwarbler 3
Munk/Blackcap 17
Hvidbrynet løvsanger/Yellowbrowed warbler 1
Gransanger/Chiffchaff 31
Løvsanger/willowwarbler 3
Rødtoppet fuglekonge/Firecrest 1
Skovspurv/Treesparrow 1
Bogfinke/Chaffinch 1
Rørspurv/Reedbunting 2
Total 170

Venligst
Henrik Jørgensen

Regnen truede hele dagen, men selvom vi blev nødt til at skynde os at lukke ned omkring kl. 7-8, så gik de tidlige byger hurtigt over. Vi fik lukket nettene op igen, og på trods af det vildt svingende vejr så fik vi en solid ringmærkningsperiode med 52 nye fugle, 5 genfangster og 12 arter, deriblandt en spændstig ung rødrygget tornskade og 3 smukke spurvehøge.

Rødrygget tornskade (1k), 17/09-2019 (Foto: Ramón Cabo de Palos)

To spurvehøgehanner besøgte hver sit af vores to spurvehøgenet omkring 8-tiden, og Henrik var på pletten! Den tredje var en hun, som ved det rene tilfælde kom i et net, hvor jeg var i gang at hente en jernspurv. Hun blev ikke fast men alligevel ret forvirret, og heldigvis nåede jeg at klappe nettet sammen om hende, før hun smuttede. For mig som ung ringmærker var det et fantastiskt og adrenalinfyldt øjeblik. Min dag var reddet!

Spurvehøgehun, 17/09-2017 (Foto: Jón Aldará)

Alt i alt en god første dag sammen med Henrik, og for mig, Ramón og Gail var det én af de bedre dage indtil videre. Om eftermiddagen blev vejret endnu mere utilregneligt, så vi lukkede efter kl. 12 og fik lavet lidt mere husholdning og havearbejde. Aldrig ligeså spændende, men det må jo også gøres!

Her er fuglelisten for i dag:

Spurvehøg 3
Skovpiber 1
Gærdesmutte 1
Jernspurv 5 (+1 genfangst)
Rødhals 14 (+2 genfangster)
Solsort 1
Gærdesanger 1 (+1 genfangst)
Munk 8
Gransanger 15 (+1 genfangst)
Grå fluesnapper 1
Rødrygget tornskade 1
Bogfinke 1

Venligst
Jón (Færingen)

Gedser continues to be beset by persistent north westerly(ish) winds of between 30 and 40 km/hr, which is distinctly sub-optimal for both the migrating birds and for us. Luckily the garden has some nice sheltered corners so we could still get about half of the nets up and ready for 6.15am. It was a pretty slow day but better than expected, and we ringed 40 birds and re-captured another 9 by the time we closed at 1pm. Amongst those were 12 species – nothing unusual but a very nice selection (details below).

After ringing we did a bit of gardening – some trees got a relatively severe haircut for threatening to encroach on our nets. Ramón in particular really enjoyed using the hedge trimmer (maybe a bit too much).

Sadly Adam and Nora left this afternoon but they briefly overlapped with Henrik who will be here for the next few weeks. I’m looking forward to learning from his vast experience!

2k+ male great tit

Birds ringed and (recaptured):
Gærdesmutte 1 (1)
Jernspurv 5
Rødhals 2 (1)
Rødstjert 2
Tornsanger 1
Havesanger 1 (1)
Munk 1 (1)
Gransanger 15 (3)
Løvsanger 2
Skovspurv 5
Solsort (1)
Musvit (1)
Total: 40 (9)

All in all it was a very enjoyable day, and I hope yours was too.

All the best!
Gail

Selvom en rimelig portion af nettene blev åbnet rettidigt kl. 06:15, så blev det til en søvnig søndag i dag. Fire nye fugle – en rødhals, en gærdesanger og to gransangere – blev ringmærket imens vi gradvist lukkede nettene igen i løbet af morgenen. Lidt af en kontrast til de over 200 fugle, som vi fik i går. Udsigten til i morgen er ikke særlig god men lidt bedre, så vi håber på det bedste. Her er et billede fra en bedre dag af en gærdesmutte, på færøsk "músabróðir" (musebror):

Resten af dagen blev rimelig afslappet og husholdningsfokuseret. Gåture og lure, rengøring og madlavning. og Ramón og Gail begav sig ud i deres første eventyr med rugbrødbagning! Bagepapiret kunne desværre ikke fjernes fra brødet, hvilket gav det en… interessant tekstur. De var ret misfornøjede med værket, men det kunne da godt spises!

De bedste fuglehilsner

Jón

Flot vejr over Fuglestationen i løbet af lørdagen, hvor vi holdte nettene åbne næsten 12 timer.
Godt og vel et par hundrede fugle i nettene, og en del spændende arter. Efter et par omgange af lige-ved-og-næsten, sad spurvehøg pludseligt i nettet.

        
       Stor glad friskmærket hunhøg (tidligere på efteråret havde vi også en hanhøg i Gedser)

Særlig den tidlige morgen var travl, men vi fik tid til at knipse et par af de mere fotogene gæster i nettene:  
   
                 1k Blåmejse                                                         1k Skovpiber 

I eftermiddags kom Jón tilbage, og er på mærkerne fra i morgen søndag - sammen med Ramón, Gale og undertegnede.

Lille PS:
Fuglekikkere snakker altid meget om bimorphism hos kønnene af spurvehøg og duehøg, så her linker jeg lige til et godt foto som viser størrelsesforholdene dem iblandt:

han,hun + han,hun

Today is a day where not much was happening in the garden, so it is difficult to write something about the birds that we caught. We had 31 birds (of which 6 recaptures) and 13 species. So we had some diversity. 

The morning started with a White-tailed Eagle flying over the house. Later in the day a Sparrohawk was flying into the net, just in front of the house. IIn about 2 seconds I was outside, but bird was already gone and that happened one time more. That is the life of a birdcatcher.

In the afternoon we had a little special snack. In the morning I found some mushrooms in the garden, in the afternoon fried them and served them with some toast. That is also the life of a birdcatcher. We are not complaining but we hope that the birds start to fly southwards so that we get some more work to do, 31 birds with four people is not much.

Only one picture today: a beautiful Jernspurv:

With kind regards

Robert

Today to much wind and no new influx during the night and early morning. At Gedser Odde they had a lot of sparrowhawks and other raptors and it resulted in one that was flying in one of the special sparrowhawks nets that we have at the station. We only caught 24 birds, but nevertheless we had 15 different species. In the picture gallery of today you can find the picture of a first year male Spurvehøg, a picture of two "Musviter" one before moulting and one after moulting (they are both born this year) and a picture of a Kærsanger.

Despite the low number of birds Hans could show the visitors of the "Skattestyrelsen" a Spurvehøg and a Skovpiber. I think they were happy with the visit.

Picture gallery:

Birds caught today (new ones and recaptures):

With kind regards 

Robert