We opened the nets before 6.15 and could do a standard day (5 hours catching). There was a bit much wind but in the morning the sky was blue. So not so bad at all. We caught in total 60 birds 36 new ones and 24 recaptures (see table). 

This time a few small pictures (some are not off today) and no name is given. Hope you like to find out which species they are.

The apple desert was very good even without the mint.

With kind regards

Robert

Yesterday before we were going to bed we thought it would not be possible to catch bird because the forcast was was rain rain and more rain the whole day. But when I woke up at 5 the rain radar showed that we had a window with no rain for almost an hour. So we opened the nets and caught bird for about two and a half hours. In total we had 35 birds (see Table). This time no pictures, but i will try to get a few nice ones tomorrow. So we did some shopping, some other personal things. I, for instance, was putting my own ringed birds, caught at home or in Gjerrild,  into the database of the museum. There was time for yoga. Time for an additional nap. Time for learning al the features of the moulting strategies of the bird species. time for making a portuguese apple desert (we still have to find out how it taste, because we could not buy mint tea or mint in Gedser and I had to use oil instead of butter because some of us are vegans). So you see we were busy. Benny entertained a group even with having no birds to show (at ten and later it was raining). And as always he brought fresh bread, a very much appreciated habit of him.

I asked Jón to introduce himself:

Jeg hedder Jón Aldará, kommer fra Færøerne og er uddannet biolog fra Københavns Universitet. Jeg har arbejdet med lidt af hvert, men de seneste år har fokus især været på havfugleøkologi. Som ansat på Færøernes Naturhistoriske Museum tager jeg mig blandt andet af at administrere den færøske ringmærkergruppe, monitere havfugle, organisere og katalogisere vores hav- og landdyresamlinger, formidle museets aktiviteter og lave mange diverse små og store opgaver i forbindelse med naturformidling.

Desuden er jeg meget aktiv musiker, og spiller meget rundt omkring i Europa med mit hovedband, Hamferð. Genren er meget sammensat, men har hovedsagelig sin base i metal af den hårde slags!

I løbet af min tid på Gedser var jeg også i USA og spillede koncert for allerførste. Dette var med mit finske band, Barren Earth, hvor jeg er den eneste ikke-finne.

Min tid på Gedser Fuglestation har været fantastisk indtil videre, selvom vejret har forhindret ringmærkningsarbejdet en hel del. Forhåbentlig får vi bedre vejr de kommende dage. Hvem ved, måske får noget usædvanligt i nettet. Vi fik fat i en dværgfalk på min første dag hér, så lad os håbe at heldet vender tilbage!

Birds caught and recatures today:

With kind regards, we are now going to try the vegan apple desert from Portugal (maybe I will tell you how it tasted tomorrow). 

Ciao Robert

The day started very good, but we had to close the nets at eight o`clock. Could open it later in the morning for an additional hour, but only a few nets. In total we caught 127 new birds and had 6 recaptures. The weather forecast for the day and the next day is only rain. So tomorrow we could probably sleep in and come only late out of bed. The highlicht of the day were probably the 5 Grå Fluesnapper that we caught.

In the picture gallery of this day you will find two close ups: one of a male Rødstjert and one of a Grå Fluesnapper and one picture of Gail in action.

The results of the day:

With kind regards  Robert

Change of weather and there were the birds. Whole week no bird calls when opening the nets in the dark, but now they were everywhere. Crazy first round, so we decided to call Hans to help getting the birds out and also Gert has helped us. First three hours was hard work, but that is where we come for. We had a Nattergal and a Rødrygget Tornskad. Probably a day record for the Rødstjert (41) and also very many Havesanger (54). 

In total we caught 323 birds (17 species) of which only 5 were recaptures:

In the picture gallery you find an impression of the first round and the other picture is a kind of quiz, which one is which. Hope you see the differences.

I do not know who made the bird bags but today we used them almost all. Thanks for the new ones.

I will go early to bed today, I am tired.

With kind regards

Robert

Today was again very quiet. We had 28 birds, but more than half of them were recaptures. We had a lot of visitors, a family of three and a larger group of about 25 people. Luckely we had some birds to show and to explain what we are doing here. 

The day started with some wind but quickly the wind became less. It looks like we get a weather chance and that is normally resulting in an influx of new birds. Lets hope that will be the case. Claus-Jannic and Nina are also here, so there are hands enough to handle some more birds.

In the afternoon we had time to do some other things and we made some nice pictures. You will find a few of them below. This time no birds but a frog and a duehale.

Catches and recaptures of today:

With kind regards

Robert

Today was again a day with too much wind and because there is not much bird migration going on and  hardly any new birds are arriving in the garden. We had to share 12 birds between about 15 persons. We had a visit of the "Staten Naturhistoriske Museum". The Ringmærkningscentralen is merged with another department and they were visiting us to show the new colleagues how birds are caught and how we handle them for getting the information we are searching for. It was a pity that the weather circumstances were not completely right.

In the picture gallery you can find one picture of Hans and Ramon who is showing a gaerdesanger, the two other pictures are of a gulspurv, which looks a bit fluffy. The reason for that is that the birds was moulting all over, see the picture of the wing. You see the brownish older outer primaries and the brownish secondaries and in the middle the nicely coloured fresh new primaries.

 Catches and recaptures of today:

With kind regards and I hope that the weather soon will change and we get a whole influx of new birds.

Robert

Again much wind and later some rain. But we opened the nets at six o`clock and had almost as many birds as yesterday, 25 birds and 16 species. We opened at some time the low nets at the pond and that brought a nice bird, see below.

Ramon and me are not the only bird ringers at this moment at the station, we have two helpers which are very keen to learn the the birdes and how to handle them. Jón from the Faeröer islands and Gail from the UK. Today you will find below a little introduction of Gail. Jón is a few days away, had to perform with his Finish Rock band in the US, but will be back on sunday. I will then ask him to introduce himself to you, but now first Gail Stride:

I’m a british ecologist and in the past have worked predominantly on trees - so this is my opportunity to fill in a big hole in my knowledge! I had my first experience of mist netting in Borneo where I was collecting data for my PhD, and was able to tag along with some of the other scientists out there working on understory rainforest birds, and later in Spain and Sweden with Ramón. I’m very excited to be here at Gedser for the next few months and want to learn as much as possible! Today I ringed my first bird at Gedser - a beautiful tree pipit (Anthus trivialis)!

As mentioned by her we caugth a Skovpiber/Tree Pipit at the pond (see picture):

Catches and recaptures of today:

With kind regards Robert

Again not such a busy day. We opened the nets at 6 o`clock and had in total today 26 birds and 16 different species. In the morning we had one little surprise, a little visitor from Sweden. It was a Kærsanger/Marsh Warbler. Dubble checking the ring number and taking pictures of the ring.  We closed the nets at 11.00.

In the afternoon we tried to catch at the pond Yellow Wagtails / Gule Vipstjerter in special low nets and by using the sound of the birds to attract them. During the morning and early afternoon we had seen several flocks migrating in the direction of Germany. And yes we were lucky, we caught three Yellow Wagtails. 

Picture of Yellow Wagtail 

Catches and recaptures of today:

With kind regards

Robert

Jeg har endelig modtaget mail om den spansk-mærkede løvsanger fra Gedser fanget 17. maj 2019
Kommer her:

This morning we found the Weather too bad to open the nets. There was a lot of wind, but also too much rain. That was a pity because a large group of school kids were going to visit the birdstation, and now we would not have many or any bird to showto  the group. In the end we were able to catch two birds for showing what we do at the birdstation, a Blackcap/Munk and a Redstart/Rødstjert. So 25 kids for one bird each. In total we ringed 4 birds and had one recapture.

But before the kids were arriving Hans came with a bird in a bag. The bird, which was a Merlin/Dværgfalk, was found inside the shelter at Gedser Odde where you can sit and eat your lunch. The Merlin had probably tried to catch one of the Barnswallows/Landsvale. By trying this it hit the window and could be picked up by one of the birdwatchers. The bird was a bit groggy but nothing was broken. They phoned Hans and he brought the bird to the station for ringing. Hans did the ringing and we did the measurements. It made Hans extremely happy because it was for him a new species that he was able to ring. After taking some pictures we released her and she was happely flying away. A nice surprise!! 

Some pictures of the Merlin/Dværgfalk:

Catches of today: