The wind is getting stronger. So strong that we could not open all the nets today - we had only 178 meters open today. What's worse, the wind is blowing from East, so from the direction opposite to our desirable. We put a new ring on only one Song Thrush, all the other birds (5) were recaptures. Instead, on every round we found a lot of ``caterpillars´´ in the nets. They are another sign of winter making room for spring, we really can not wait to see the garden completly green and in fool bloom. I guess that it would get greener even faster, but it was a full month without any rain here, what is really uncommon.

In spite of little number of birds and heavy wind, the day is splendid and we have a reason to celebrate - I got promoted and have a C license instead of X! I can assure You, that I will do my best to make the best use of it and try to contribute to the Station and Denmark's ringing.

The ´´Caterpillar´´ that we catch a lot, in fact these are some trees' inflorescences. Photo: Maciej Wozniak

People at the station: Agata Balicka, Maciej Wozniak, Henrik Jørgensen

Complete list of birds caught today (ringed/recaptured):
Jernspurv / Dunnock: 0/1
Rødhals / Robin: 0/2
Solsort / Blackbird: 0/1
Sangdrossel / Song Thrush: 1/1

Total: 1/5

It may be harder to surprise us each next day but Gedser still manages to do it. In the morning when we begun opening the nests, the day greeted us with a gorgeous pinkish-orange sunrise. It was quite cold all day, but not really windy, so we opened all the nets. Again many of birds that were caught were recaptures. That may suggest that most of the local birds breeding in our garden are ringed already. However, we did catch a beautiful male yellowhammer without a ring, as well as house sparrows! There were two of them, so both me and Agata could ring one, as we have never banded them before. What is also satisfying about these catches is that it was the first time house sparrows were caught in Gedser this year! Henrik told us that only a handful of this species is caught every year, so we are more than happy to have such luck.

Extraordinary pattern on yellowhammer's tail and wings. Photo: Agata Balicka

Our today's star - house sparrow. It's a boy! Photo: Agata Balicka

People at the station: Agata Balicka, Maciej Wozniak, Henrik Jørgensen

Complete list of birds caught today (ringed/recaptured):
Gærdesmutte / Wren: 1/1
Jernspurv / Dunnock: 5/0
Rødhals / Robin: 1/7
Solsort / Blackbird: 0/1
Sangdrossel / Song Thrush: 1/1
Vindrossel / Redwing: 1/0
Gransanger / Common Chiffchaff: 3/2
Fuglekonge / Goldcrest: 0/1
Rødtoppet Fuglekonge / Firecrest: 1/0
Gråspurv / House Sparrow: 2/0
Grønirisk / Greenfinch: 1/0
Gulspurv / Yellowhammer: 1/0

Total: 17/13

Every day we experience new great things, what makes our stay in Gedser really wonderful. Yesterday we tried to catch the Brent Goose one more time, but unfortunately couldn't find it again. We observed flocks of Golden Plovers instead, what is nice as well, because we did not see them before.
Today it was a bit cold in the morning but the wind was not blowing as hard as yesterday, so we could open all the nets. However, we did not catch many birds and many of them were recaptures (some individuals got caught in various nets few times today - maybe in fact they like us and want to be measured?). We even put up the wader trap (looking like a large box made of net), hoping that we catch some pipits or a wagtail, but nothing got inside of it. Maybe tomorrow will be a more lucky day? 
But day with a little number of birds has it's advantages - in the meantime between the rounds we managed to do some data-check, tidy the garden, cut few branches that were disturbing the nets and put great part of bird-carrying bags to the laundry.
Around noon our Station was visited by a lovely pair: Kristian and Benthe. They brought us wonderful and delicious cake! We have never eaten such in Poland and now think that we just have to take some with us when we will be returning home.

Excepcionally grey Robin, probably very old one. This year is at least third year of it's life. Photo: Maciej Wozniak

People at the station: Agata Balicka, Maciej Wozniak, Henrik Jørgensen

Complete list of birds caught today (ringed/recaptured):
Jernspurv / Dunnock: 6/0
Rødhals / Robin: 2/6
Solsort / Blackbird: 1/2
Gransanger / Common Chiffchaff: 0/1
Fuglekonge / Goldcrest: 0/1
Rødtoppet Fuglekonge / Firecrest: 0/1
Blåmejse / Blue Tit: 4/0
Musvit / Great Tit: 1/1
Bogfinke / Chaffinch: 1/0

Total: 15 / 12

Sixth day of our great birding adventure has passed. It got really windy so we were not able to open all the nets in the morning, but we still caught some birds, and the day with birds (even very few of them) is always a great day! During one of rounds we even found three bramblings hanging in one net - all of them were young females. They were not so beautifuly colored like males are, but they were still gorgeous. Moreover, we caught quite a lot chiffchaffs again, so we had another opportunity to train ageing them. While we were putting all the informations to the database, we noticed that every individual that we were able to sex today was a female!
Yesterday in the evening, after writing the daily blog post, we saw a lonely Brent Goose (Knortegås) on the field. In Poland they are super rare, and as it was never ringed here in Gedser, we decided to try to catch it. Henrik showed us how it is done - by walking through the field in night in complete silence with a flashlight. However, we did not manage to catch it - it wasn´t there when we returned to that field with a net. We saw there only some waders, but in the dark couldn't identify what species that were. Maybe tonight we will try again - hopefully this time we will be successful!

Me and Ben banding the Brambling. Photo: Agata Balicka

A wing of a Brambling. Photo: Agata Balicka

People at the station: Agata Balicka, Maciej Wozniak, Benjamin Bechgaard Lisse, Henrik Jørgensen

Complete list of birds caught today (ringed/recaptured):
Rødhals / Robin: 3/7
Solsort / Blackbird: 0/1
Gransanger / Common Chiffchaff: 8/1
Fuglekonge / Goldcrest: 1/0
Rødtoppet Fuglekonge / Firecrest: 0/1
Blåmejse / Blue Tit: 2/0
Bogfinke / Chaffinch: 1/0
Kvækerfinke / Brambling: 3/0

Another day in Gedser passed, adn instead of getting bored, we are falling in love with this place more and more. The weather is perfect and we feel like sitting on a spring bomb that can explode any moment, covering every bush with fresh green leaves and flowers. We already see some butterflies and bumblebees, and even spotted a frog in a pond next to one of the nets.
Today we did not make any spectacular observations, although Agata got to ring her first Redwing and Greenfinch, and it´s really buce ti see these species in hand. Moreover, we caught quite a lot of chiffchaffs hatched last year, and as it´s very hard to age them, it is super good to have an opportunity to practice it.
Ben joined us again and was gaining more experience with Hans being watchful over all the ringing. In total we banded much more birds than yesterday and hope that this growing trend will continue in next days.


Redwing being aggresive. Photo: Maciej Wozniak

People at the station: Agata Balicka, Maciej Wozniak, Benjamin Bechgaard Lisse, Hans Lind

It was another day of first times!
It was quite windy since morning and we caught less birds - 12 new ones and 9 recaptures. Also, today we got help from Benjamin, who came to Gedser by bike. What's really impressive is that he rode almost 20 kilometers just to get here! It was big day for him, becasue he had banded his first bird, what quite officialy started his life-long adventure as a Ringer! He practiced disentangling birds from mist nets, measuring and ringing them, under the watchful eye of Hans, whose knowledge and experience are remarkable.
Moreover, today was a significant day for me and Maciej as well: he banded his first Reed Bunting, and I got to ring my firs Bullfinch!
Our excitement does not stop and we are looking forward to seeing what following days have for us.

Benjamin ringing his first bird. Photo: Agata Balicka

Beautiful adult male bullfinch with a blooming mirabelle plum in the background - the spring is definitely here! Photo: Maciej Wozniak

People at the station: Agata Balicka, Maciej Wozniak, Benjamin Bechgaard Lisse, Hans Lind

Complete list of birds caught today (ringed/recaptured):
Gærdesmutte / Wren: 2/1
Jernspurv / Dunnock: 1/0
Rødhals / Robin: 3/4
Solsort / Blackbird: 0/4
Gransanger / Common Chiffchaff: 3/0
Fuglekonge / Goldcrest: 1/0
Dompap / Bullfinch: 1/0
Rørspurv / Reed Bunting: 1/0

Today was another great day in Gedser, although we did not see anything as spectacular as yesterday's King Eider. However, we caught quite a lot of birds in the morning, and again I had ringed species that were new for me: a redwing and two greenfinches. One greenfinch was ringed by Agata, so that's a new species for her as well. The bird that was most common in the nets today was a goldcrest. We don't catch them so often in Poland, so are very happy that we are able to gain so much experience with this species here.
After the standarized hours of ringing we had some time to take advantage of the beautiful weather, as it feels like summer today, and went on a small walk around - we are really fascinated with Danish landscapes.
Tomorrow the winds are said to be getting stronger, but we still can't wait to see what will happen and what species will fly into the nets.

Comparison of wings of greenfinches hatched last year: female on the left and male on the right. Photo: Agata Balicka

People at the station: Agata Balicka, Maciej Wozniak, Henrik Jørgensen

Complete list of birds caught today (ringed/recaptured):
Gærdesmutte / Wren: 5/0
Jernspurv / Dunnock: 7/1
Rødhals / Robin: 6/4
Solsort / Blackbird: 4/1
Sangdrossel / Song Thrush: 1/0
Vindrossel / Redwing: 1/0
Gransanger / Common Chiffchaff: 4/0
Fuglekonge / Goldcrest: 23/0
Rødtoppet Fuglekonge / Firecrest: 2/1
Blåmejse / Blue Tit: 1/0
Musvit / Great Tit: 1/0
Grønirisk / Greenfinch: 3/0

Today was just our second day in Gedser, and it already exceeded our expectations! We had caught a lot of birds (including the first yellowhammer that I ringed), but also managed to go to the shore with telescope to watch some sea birds. We saw hundreds of common eiders, that are rare for Poland and hard to see there, as well as few red-breasted mergansers, great cormorants, common mergansers, an oystercatcher and a scoter - it's not that easy to spot these species in one place where we are from! Also, today was the day when Agata ringed her firs birds: chaffinch, robin and dunnock. Although the whole day was very exciting, today's highlight was the king eider, that we were able to spot from the shore thanks to Sir Preben Berg, who called Henrik and told him that it is coming our way, what we are so so grateful for! Seeing a Turkan, as we call them in Poland, is extremely hard there, so we still cannot believe our luck, especially that we just begun our adventure in Denmark. Now we are even more excited about what next days are going to bring us and really looking forward to them.

King eider in common eider's flock. Photo: Agata Balicka

People at the station: Agata Balicka, Maciej Wozniak, Henrik Jørgensen

Complete list of birds caught today (ringed/recaptured):
Gærdesmutte / Wren: 2/1
Jernspurv / Dunnock: 10/0
Rødhals / Robin: 4/4
Solsort / Blackbird: 3/1
Sangdrossel / Song Thrush: 1/0
Gransanger / Chiffchaff: 5/0
Fuglekonge / Goldcrest: 9/0
Rødtoppet Fuglekonge / Firecrest: 1/0
Bogfinke / Chaffinch: 1/0
Dompap / Bullfinch: 0/1
Gulspurv / Yellowhammer: 1/0

Hello! We are Agata and Maciej, we come from Poland, so not that far away, but we already find Denmark quite exotic. Both of us have been fascinated in nature since our childhood and try to connect our future with ornithology. We studied forestry in Warsaw and specialized in zoology. For few past years we attended different bird ringing actions in Poland and wanted to see how bird banding looks in other countries, so we can learn as much as possible and share our new knowledge with various ringers. Therefore, we are glad to have possibility to be here, can admire Gedser's landscapes and may learn something new about ringing. Now we are after our first day, and I (Maciej) already ringed 3 species that I have not ringed before: Firecrest (Rødtoppet Fuglekonge), Brambling (Kvækerfinke) and a Tree Sparrow (Skovspurv)! Although today's morning was really full of work, as many birds got caught in the nets, we are happy and excited, beacuse that's exactly what we were hoping for. We caught 67 birds in total (of which only 4 were already banded) - most in the early morning. The other species that we got today were: wren (Gærdesmutte), a lot of dunnocks (Jernspurv) and goldcrests (Fuglekonge), few robins (Rødhals), blackbirds (Solsort), song thrushes (Sangdrossel), chiffchaff (Gransanger), great tit (Musvit), chaffinch (Bogfinke) and a bullfinch (Dompap). We attach a photo of our little star - a tree sparrow. They are common in our country, but it is really rare to catch them. We hope that tomorrow there will be even more birds and we will do our best to contribute to the station as much as we can! 

Complete list of today's ringing and recaptures:

Gærdesmutte / Wren: 1/0
Jernspurv / Dunnock: 15/0
Rødhals / Robin: 9/2
Solsort / Blackbird: 8/1
Sangdrossel / Song Thrush: 2/0
Gransanger / Chiffchaff: 1/0
Fuglekonge / Goldcrest: 14/0
Rødtoppet Fuglekonge / Firecrest: 7/1
Musvit / Great tit: 1/0
Skovspurv / Tree Sparrow: 1/0
Bogfinke / Chaffinch: 2/0
Kvækerfinke / Brambling: 1/0
Dompap / Bullfinch: 1/0

Endelig en morgen hvor det ikke var så koldt, der var faktisk 4 grader.

Allerede fra første runde hang der 2 rødtoppede fuglekonger i nettene og resten af tiden kom flere i så de endte på 7. Rekorden er dog 14 på en dag, men 7 er ganske pænt også.

Ellers var det en ok dag med fugle på de fleste runder.

Dagens billede bliver ikke en fugl men denne "tamme" hare som sad 3 meter fra mig.

Til aften kom 2 ringmærkere fra Polen, de vil skrive lidt om sig selv i bloggen i morgen.

Dagens ringmærkning og kontroller/Todays ringing and recaptures:

Gærdesmutte/Wren 5/0

Jernspurv/Dunnock 5/0

Rødhals/Robin 3/1

Solsort/Blackbird 2/1

Sangdrossel/Song thrush 1/0

Fuglekonge/Goldcrest 2/2

Rødtoppet fuglekonge/Firecrest 7/0

Bogfinke/Chaffinch 2/0

Total 27/4