As yesterday not much wind and clouded sky, good for catching birds. But because there was no real influx of birds overnight, the result was 16 birds (11 new and 5 recaptures). But in the last rounds two surprises. The first one was a Red-Breasted Flycatcher (not so colourfull, because it was not an adult male (see picture), but nevertheless a very good species to ring. And the second was a Red-Backed Shrike (Rødrygget Tornskade). Both species were the first of this year at this location.

We caugth 14 moths this night (10 species, see table). Two species were new the Bright-line Brown-eye (Haveugle, see piture) and the V-Pug (V-Dværgmåler), both rather common species in Demark.

Joakim left today and goes tomorrow to Scotland for work (guiding some people) and looking for Nessie, the monster of Loch Ness. I will stay for 5 days more.

With kind regards and till tomorrow

Robert

Almost no wind and a clouded sky. So good for catching birds. But there were only a few birds in the gardenand even less flew into the nets. We had in total 12 bird (8 new and 4 recaptures). Highlights of the day were two new Icterin Warblers (Gulbug) and a Spotted Flycatcher (Grå Fluesnapper). Of these two species you can find a pictures below.

We caught 8 moths this night and again there was not any moth twice in the trap. 3 of the 8 species were new for the season at the station.

We had a Citronmåler (Brimstone Moth). The entry for Gedser Fugke Station was the first entry for this species in Naturbasen for this year. The second new one was Bøgenonne (Pale Tussock Moth) and the third new one was an Almindige Tigerspinder (White Ermine), a predominately white moth with bsmall white dots. All 3 species are common in Denmark. I think the 3 species also show how divers the kingdom of moths is (3 completely different types of shape).

With kind regards Joakim and Robert

Morgenen startede med flot, klart og stille vejr. Men nye fugle udeblev. Det blev kun til 11 nye fugle og 3 genfangster. Så vi måtte gøre os nyttige på andre områder. Vi fyldte vandhullerne op til glæde for frøer og fugle. Det er et stykke tid siden der er kommet regn af nogen betydning. Vi fik også repareret 2 net der var i dårlig tilstand og manglede bundline. Der kommer en del besøgende igennem fuglestationen, pga. den lille ferie som Kristihimmelfart er. Vi håber snart på lidt varme og dermed måske nogle flere fugle. I mellemtiden kan I nyde den fine fangst af natsværmere. Det skal lige tilføjes, hvis nogen er i tvivl, at ingen af natsværmerne lider overlast. De bliver sluppet fri efter de er blevet fotograferet.

As written above we had a few nice moth species in total 5 and the diversity could not be greater 5 differen species. Three were new species for the season:

A Poppelsværmer (Poplar Hawkmoth) which is one of the bigger moths of Denmark and I think the most common hawkmoth.

A Hvid-punkt Græsugle (The White Point), a species more commen in the east of Denmark and not common in Jutland.

And a Birkemåler (Peppered Moth), a common moth in Denmark. In Dutch it is called the Peper-en-zoutvlinder. In this particular case I find the Duth name the best one.

I do not put the names under the pictures because I am sure you know which one is which.

With kind greetings Joakim and Robert

I dag fik vi besøg af 20 kursister fra Marielyst Højskole. De er på Fugle-ugekursus på højskolen. Det blev en dejlig formiddag med fugleglade og vidende kursister, der var meget interreserede. Vi fik fortalt om stationens arbejde og præsenterede ringmærkningen.

Dagen bød på 29 fugle. Ganske gennemsnitligt for maj. Der drypper stadig især tornsanger, gærdesanger og munk ind. Dagens "sjældenhed" var en ringdue. Ringduen er en af de mest almindelige fugle i Danmark, men de går ikke ret tit i et ringmærkningsnet. Så det var dagens overraskelse.

Natsværmere var der heller ikke mange af. De har også haft det sværet med vinden. Men Robert har dog en enkelt at vise frem. Det skriver han lidt om herunder.

Only 4 species (see table) and only one picture today of a Yellow Barred Brindle (Tørstetræblomstmåler).

The whole night and the morning the wind was very strong. But we decided to open the nets, but due to the wind not all. As expected we did not catch many birds. In total 14 birds (11 new ons and 3 recaptures). The highlight was a male Yellowhamer (Gulspurv).

Also the moths decided not to fly. Only used 2 traps and caught 5 moths (4 species, see table). Again an Eyed Hawk Moth (Aftenpåfugjeøje) and this time the picture is better and can be found below..

Greetings from Joakim and Robert

Lets hope tomorrow will be better

The wind shifted from east to west with the result of a few new arrivals. We caught 8 new Common whitehroats (Tonsanger) and 7 new Lesser Whitethroats (Gærdsanger). In total we had 33 birds and this makes it one of the best days of the week (29 new ones  and 4 recapturs, see table).

Joakim caught a phyloscopus that was a bit strange and needed some special attention. It was a rather large one (wing length 71) and P6 was not emarginated which points to a Willow Warbler (Løvsanger). But the wing formula was a bit strange. I have made a copy of the wing formula presented in the "Identification Guide to Birds in the Hand". This gives you an impression of what it normally should be. And a picture is presented with what we saw.

Normally P6 is a little bit shorter than P2. In our bird the P6 is larger than P2 and P2 is approximately as long as P7. See pictures below of the bird. For the time being the bird goes in the database as a Willow Warbler. We have material for a DNA test, but in the group of Willow Warblers this is not particular helpfull in separating the subspecies. In case you have an other idea please contact us.

We caught about 30 moths (15 species). There were 6 new ones for the season, amongst others the Eyed Hawk Moth (Aftenpafugleøje), but the picture was not good enough for the blog, have to wait for the next one. 

I have choosen to show the Flame Shoulder Moth (Hvidrandet Jordugle) and the Early Thorn (Almindige Månemåler).

Lets hope tomorrow will be the same as today,

Joakim and Robert

We had hoped for an influx of birds, but that was not the case. Even less birds than the day before. I had contact with the Dutch ringers and they are also "complaining" that there are less bird than expected. We are waiting for a weather change, but the weather is very stable. It is nice sunny and it is a little warmer than the week before. Tonight the wind goes to the west, so lets hope the birds find that good enough to travel to the North.

Today 16 birds (8 new and 8 recaptures, 9 species see table). Highlight of the day was Black Redstart (Husrødstjert) we caught (see pictures).

There is one more recapture of a Dunnock (Jernspurv), but we could not get it in the table.

Husrødstjert (Black Redstart)

Also still not so many moths. 23 moths in the traps or on the wall behind the traps, but 16 species. See the table, there are a few moths that do not have a Danish name according to Naturbasen and one even has no English name. They belong all to the group of micro moths and many of the species in this group are difficult to identify and I think that is the reason that they are probably undervalued.

I have chosen to show you two nice moth: the Zigzagspinder (Pebble Prominent) and the Rosen-Bladmåler (The Streamer) 

Zigzagspinder (Pebble Prominent)

Rosen-Bladmåler (The Streamer)

Today Joakim and me caught in total 27 birds, 11 species, 22 new ones and 5 recaptures. Nothing special to mention about this ringing day.

Also still not many moths, only 11 moths but 9 different species and I would like to show you two species: the Lille Måneplet (Chocolate tip), just because it is such a funny moth and the Lilla Perikonugle (Purple Cloud), which is relative rare in Denmark

Lille Måneplet (Chocolate-tip)

Lilla Perikonugle (Purple Cloud)

Lets hope the following days will give us more work.

With kind rgards

Robert Luttik and Joakim Dybbroe

Vagn left the station and I arrieved to be here for two weeks.

Nets were open before the sun came up, but there were hardly birds. First round only 1 bird, Joakim was the lucky guy to take the bird out. In all the years I have come to GFU I never had a first round of 0. In the end we caught 23 birds (14 new and 9 recaptures). Two of the recaptures were interesting. One blackbird (Solsort) caught by myself 4 years ago and was not caught in between those 4 years in the garden. One Garden warbler (Havesanger) was caught 5 years ago by Hans Lind as a 2k+, so the birds is at least 6 years old. Birds of the day were the Redpols (Gråsiskin) we caught (see picture) 

I had put out 3 moth traps in the garden and caught only 3 moths, which is very very low for the time of the year.Three species: a Gotisk Foråsrugle (Hebrew Character), a Frønnet Landman (Shuttle-shaped Dart, see picture) and a moth without a Danish name (Brindeld Flat-body). All common moths for Denmark.

Redpol (Gråsiskin)

Frønnet Landman (Shuttle-shaped Dart)

Efter en dag i går med mange fugle var det en stille dag ved nettene. Dagen bragte dog et dejligt gensyn med årets 2 første havesangere.

Kun 22 fugle i dagens net. men op ad formiddagen fik vi os enoverraskelse. En meget sort jernspurv. Sorte kinder,sort hage, lyse øjenbrynsstriber. Lys bug. meget sansynligt en melanistisk fugl. Men det sorte er meget symmetrisk på begge sider af kroppen. Så meningerne var delte mellem dem der har set fuglen på stedet og også blandt dem der har set den på billeder. Sortstrubet jernspurv kan ikke helt udelukkes, eller måske en hybrid. Vi afventer en DNA test, for at få det endelige svar. Speciel så den ihvertfald ud.