Perfect weather for bird catching, almost no wind and cloudy. Nets open at 4.30 and in first round a Icterine Warbler (Gulbug). The first of the year. It is funny how for this species the names in Europe are different and still a bit the same. In Danish it is the yellow belly. In English it is the yellow singer. In Durch it is the bird that imittes and in Germany it is the yellow bird that imitates. I think the German name is the best.

In total 84 birds (68 new ones and 16 recaptures. Again a high diversity: 16 species. 

Yesterday we caught a Great Tit (Musvit) with a Danish ring not from this place. It was ringed as a 2k in february 2014 in Ulbølle. So the bird is almost eight year old.

Two pictures today one of the yellow belly and one of a male Red-backed Shrike (Rødrygget Tornskade).

Tomorrow looks promising

Ciao Robert

Today I woke up with the idea that I could go back into the bed after checking the weather. But the meteorologists had it completely wrong the day before. They had forecasted 15mm of rain in the morning. No way, no rain at all. I assume that the weather of the last few days is difficult to predict and not that they have no idea of what they are doing (smiley).

There was a slight change that there would fall some rain around 7.30 so I opened not all the nets. First few rounds brought only a little bit more than 10 birds, but the first Pied Flycatcher (Broget Fluesnapper) of the season. And all of a sudden, the birds were there. I caught in total 76 birds (68 new ones and 8 recaptures). A second Tree Pipit (Skovpiber), two more Spotted Flycatchers (Grå Fluesnapper) and another Barn Swallow (Landsvale). It was a good and interesting day with a high diversity (17 species).

Today two close ups, one from the BarnSwallow and one of a Pied Flycatcher.

Hope tomorrow will be the same or even a bit better.

Till tomorrow

Robert

The rain and thunder had just past the fuglestation and I could open the nets at the standard time for the year (today they had to be opened before 04.45). Luckily, no new rain was arriving and I could catch for five hours. In the end some very light drizzle. But birds were not flying anymore. It was a day with many Sylvidae (Munk, Tornsanger and Gærdesanger). Those three species were more than half of the total number caught today. In total 54 birds (39 new ones and 15 recaptures. One of the recaptures was a male Munk (Blackcap) ringed in Belgium.

There were two new species for the year. I found a Skovpiber (Tree Pipit) in the second round and later saw Bo a Rødrygget Tornskade (Red-backed shrike) hanging. They are always difficult to get out of the net (see sharp beak of the bird in the picture). The claws are not really a problem, but I could get it out of the net without being bitten.

The weather forecast for tomorrow is really lousy. I am afraid that I probably only can open the nets at the end of the morning.

But that I will tell you tomorrow.

Robert

When I came out off the bed it was still raining and I could open the nets around 6 o’clock. But it was not for nothing that I had to wait. It was the day of the Whitethroats (24 lesser and 7 common whitethroats (Gransanger and Tornsanger). And two nice surprises the second Wryneck (Vendehals) of the year and the first Rosefinch (Karmindompap) of the year. AT the end of the session I found a Barn Swallow (Landsvale) in one of the garden nets which also was a little surprise.

In total I caught 68 birds (60 new and 8 recaptures). It looks the spring migration is now starting.

A few days ago, I was writing about a recapture from Germany with a Helgoland ring. The Robin was caught on Helgoland in September 2018.

I have made a few close ups of four birds caught today: (Vendehals (Wryneck), Barn Swallow (Landsvale), Rosefich (Karmindompap) and a beautiful male redpoll (Gråsiskin).

With kind regards and hopefully tomorrow as surprising as today.

Robert

When opening the nets in the darkness I already heard a Nightingale (Nattergal). First time this year. And I was lucky it was hanging in the net when I made my first round. And it was also the first one for this season. And to my surprise there was another new one for the season a spotted Flycatcher (Grå Fluesnapper). It looks like that they are now finding the way to garden, In total 55 birds (46 new ones and 9 recaptures) and some variation in species, 15 different ones.

Some birds are going to the hair dresser before they are flying in the net (see picture of Lesser Whitethroat (Gærdesanger). It is not a disease but a site effect of the stuff they eat. Something in the flowers is glueing the feathers together and does not harm the birds, I think.

The Nightingale had a tick and after taking the picture I removed the tick.

And last but not least a close up of the Spotted Flycatcher

With kind regards and till tomorrow

Robert

We opened all nets (Clausjanic and me) and were ready opening at 4.45. The wind was still strong (10 m/s) and it had rained in the night. Numbers of birds in the garden are still relatively low for the time of the year. But we had our first Whitthroat (Tornsanger), so there is some progress. In total we caught 44 birds (37 new and 7 recaptures).

We caught a relative large willow warbler (wing length 72 mm) and th bird appeared to be lees green as normal Willow Warblers (løvsanger). Also the underside of the bird and the throat were not as yellow as the normal one. It could have been the Nordic Willow Warbler a different subspecies as the normal one. I have added a picture, not a good one. The bird refused to calm down and then it is difficult to make a good picture. And in addition I do not like to make pictures under those circumstances too.

In the last edition of the Dutch Birding you can find an article about the difficulties between recognising the different (sub)species of the Chiffchaff (Gransanger). There was a research project on this complex of (sub)species: collybita, abietinus and tristis. The result of the project (DNA analysis) was that Dutch ringers are able to recognise in most cases tristis but were in most cases not able to pinpoint abietinus. They say in the article that it is impossible to differentiate between those two subspecies based on plumage and on size.

Maybe to differentiate between de Nordic Willow warbler and the normal Willow Warbles is also not really possible. There is a huge overlap in size and the plumage is also vary variable.

The weather in the afternoon was pretty nice so I decided to eat outside. But I had to go inside again because there were too many, I believe in English, picnic beetles (could not find the Danish name), but maybe somebody can help me. See picture.

Tomorrow on my own again and I am possitive for the day to come, maybe Hans has to help me.

Ciao Robert

Dagen startede som sædvanlig med netopsætning - denne gang med 'mødetid' kl. 04.15. Det er tidligt, men det bliver kun værre og værre de næste uger.

Nattens vejr havde ikke helt været med os, og det blæste stadig godt fra morgenstunden, men trods alt ikke mere end at alle net kunne sættes. Første runde var vel egentlig OK med 12 fugle, men det var så også det! Resten af runderne slæbte sig afsted med 1-5 fugle, så det var ikke meget sved vi fik på panden i dag.
I alt 32 fugle gik i dag i nettene, hvoraf de 21 var nye mærkninger og 11 var genaflæsninger. Der gemmer sig dog hele 13 arter i tallene. Flere arter lader stadig vente på sig.
Den mest spændende fugl i dag kom på lukkerunden, hvor en rødhals med tysk ring fra Helgoland blev fanget. Det tager vist normalt lidt tid inden, der kommer svar tilbage fra Tyskland, men det gør det ikke mindre spændende at få data tilbage på den.

Stationen havde i dag besøg af Katja - en sød ung kvinde, som efter at have besøgt os på Åbent hus for et par uger siden, var blevet endnu mere interesseret
i fuglene og stationens arbejde mm. Det er altid skønt at få lov til at fortælle os vores fælles passion, og forhåbentlig får Katja lyst til at gøre endnu mere ud af interessen.
Da det var småt med fuglene lukkede vi nettene efter standardtid.

Efter en kort afslappende kop kaffe, hvorunder årets første hvepsevåge tog en æresrunde over stationen inden den igen fortsatte sit træk mod nord, gik turen mod Odden, hvor Louis, Gert m.fl. talte trækkende fugle. Det var som altid super hyggeligt, og bl.a. flere havørne, tinksmed, stor regnspove, en nysgerrig sæl mm. krydrede oplevelsen. Endnu en enkelt hvepsevåge kom også i land, og også den hastede mod nord.

Efter besøget på Odden var det for alvor blevet tid til en slapper inden enkelte gøremål skulle gøres færdigt. Robert indtastede dagens mærkninger i databasen, mens jeg påbegyndte mit projekt med at fylde huller på grusvejen til stationen. Hvis det er rigtigt, at godt begyndt er halvt færdigt, så er jeg vist halvvejs nu! Vi fik dog tid til at nyde Roberts nye Kowa-teleskop fra Naturbutikken med tilhørende telefon adapter. Nedenstående billede af stæren er taget med mobil gennem teleskopet. Imponerende! 

Anne-Marie skrev pludselig, at en rødrygget svale huserede over fårefolden, og alle mand strøg derud, men desværre uden at vi fandt den. Den var dog tilsyneladende over folden minimum indtil klokken 16.10. Det nærmer sig et kompleks. Jeg er altid kommet enten for sent eller er lige taget hjem, når der har været rødrygget svale på stationen, men heller ikke denne gang skulle blive lykkens gang for mit vedkommende.

Nina kokkerede endnu en gang et dejligt måltid for os - paprikagryde med ris - så nu er der faldet ro på os alle.

I morgen kunne godt blive spændende, da vinden går i syd, omend det lige nu tyder på en lille smule regn fra morgenstunden, og så skulle varmen komme forbi for en kort bemærkning.Det kunne give lidt spændende fugle - vi er som altid optimistiske.

Dagens mærkninger (aflæsninger i parentes)

Hvid vipstjert 1
Gærdesmutte 1 (1)
Jernspurv 1
Rødhals 7 (5)
Rødstjert 2
Sangdrossel 1
Gærdesanger (1)
Munk 3
Gransanger 1
Løvsanger 2
Fuglekonge (1)
Stillits 1
Tornirisk 1 (3)

This morning, when waking up, the weather was much better than the days before. Opened all the nets, but did not hear many birds when going around. But, nevertheless I came to the total of 47 birds (12 species). Amongst others a  beautifull male Linnet (Tornirisk), the first Garden Warbler (Havesanger) of the year and several Redstarts (Rødstjert). So happy guy again. Bo (Kayser) did a few rounds with me and he heard the Garden Warbler already singing and somewhat later it was hanging in one of the nets. Two of the pictures are made by him and the other one of the linnet by me.

Tomorrow looks promising again. Clausjanic will help me and I hope we will have a lot of work and of course Nina will be there too and will make our lives much more pleasant.

With kind regards

Robert 

The day started as predicted. Lot of wind and rain. So no nets open, only after 13.00 hours I opened a few nets and caught in total 8 birds: one new and 7 recaptures (see table). I checked all the nets whether they were opening easy to prevent surprises in the morning when I open the nets in the dark. I try not to use any light so early in the garden. Maybe a wrong idea, but I think you scare away the birds when doing so.

I got today just before writing this blog a mail that a chiffchaff ringed by me on the tenth of september last year here in Gedser Fuglestation was fround dead near Santander in Spain on the 24th of april this year. A pity that its live ended there. Maybe the bird was on its way back to Denmark.

I think I can open all nets tomorrow, weather forecast is much better than the last few days.

Let see what the new day will bring.

With kind regards  Robert

Not that I speak all of a sudden fluent Danish. This was the comment of the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) describing the weather of this day. Wind force 7 Beaufort or 14 to 15 m/s made me deciding not to open the nets today and it does not look good for the rest of the day either. Will be the first time for me being in Gedser that I will not be able to catch birds.

Yesterday I made a picture of some flowering trees in the garden. I think it really looks nice. And today one of the sea when a wind of 15 m/s (Bft 7) is blowing. I walked along the coast but was sometimes not so easy.

With kind regards

Robert