I had no big expectations today. Yesterday a group of about 40 cranes (Trane) were starting to go to Germany, but out at sea they turned to the left /east) and were probably turning back to Denmark (could not see that from the bird station. Birds are waiting for the right weather to make the crossing. And the weather is not right. So hardly any migration and no new influx in the garden. As yesterday only leftovers from two days ago.

There were a lot of Sparrowhawks (Spurvehøg) and because of the hard wind they were flying low, which resulted in 4 birds captured. And in addition, a Kestrel (Tårnfalk). All those raptors in the garden make the life of the few passerines not easy. And then you can find places were the birds have cleaned before eating (see picture).

In total only 24 birds (17 new and 7 recaptures).

The moth of today is a Diamond-back Moth (Kålmøl). A rather common moth in Demark but probably not often observed unless one uses a light trap. It is about a 1 cm long

Although there was some wind, I opened all the nets, because wind from the east is not so disturbing in the garden. I caught in total 34 birds today (29 new and 5 recaptures). It was the leftover of yesterday mainly Robins (Rødhals).

The life of a bird ringer is not all “rose scent and moonshine”. I forgot that it is already autumn and the leaves of the trees are falling. One net is notoriously good in catching leaves when there is an eastern wind (should not have opened that one). See picture and taking the leaves out is a lot of tedious work.

The moth of the day is called in Danish the “Linde-Septemberugle” (Orange Sallow). I found it this morning close to the light trap. This year till now only six entries in Naturbasen (in 2020 3 sightings and in 2019 only 2). It is not such a common species and mainly found in the eastern parts of Denmark.

Så er der nyt om den svenskmærkede vandrefalk, som blev fundet ved Gedser Lystbådehavn den 5. september. Fuglen var åbenbart et år ældre, end jeg troede, idet den var mærket som redeunge allerede i 2020.

Falken kom jo på plejestation for at komme til kræfter og blive behandlet for en betændt tå. Status er, at den har taget på og er begyndt at flyve fint i volieren. Dog vurderede dyrlægen, at tåen måtte amputeres, og det er sket i dag. Lad os håbe, at den kan klare sig uden.

Her er data på falken:

When I woke up and started with opening the nets I did not hear much, but had the feeling that there were birds in the garden. So decided not to open all nets resulting in a smaller round that I had to make. And my feeling was right in the first round I had about 40 birds and was afraid that the second round would even be worse. Luckily not. At the end of the morning, I had ringed 116 bird, of which 61 were Robins (Rødhals). Except for one all the robins were born this year. I handled 16 species, nice diversity. Many birds in the garden also attract many Sparrowhawks (Spurvehøg) and 3 were ending up in the nets.

At eleven o’clock the maintenance working group were starting to trim the bushes. And the garden looks well kept now. Thanks for all the work.

Normally birds are looking very well, particular just after moulting. But when they moult, they have sometimes funny appearances, like the Blackbird in the next picture.

Hopefully tomorrow will be the same as today. Till then.

Ciao Robert

Today started as yesterday in first rounds hardly any birds. There were only a few birds in the garden, but later around 10 o’clock there was a little influx of new birds. The special species of the day was the Tree Pipit (Skovpiber) of which I caught 4 individuals. The third Goldcrest of the season popped up and there was a recapture of a sumpmejse (one of my favourites). In total 37 birds (14 species, 30 new ones and 7 recaptures).

The moth of the day is the L-album Wainscot (det hvide L eller det store L). This moth species is relative new for Denmark and is only found on the east side of Denmark and only at one location in Fyn (information from Naturbasen). Hans Lind is the man with the most sightings of this moth. For me it was the first time.

Till tomorrow (hopefully with more birds than the last two days).

With kind regards

Robert

Today was a day with not much to do. There was a bit wind but not too much and I opened all the nets. But there were no birds, first round 4 and then 2 rounds with nothing. In total I caught 13 birds (8 species, 12 new ones and 1 recapture). Bird of the day was a female Sparrowhawk (see picture).

Because there was not much bird news I will close the blog of the day with three moth species that I found in or near the light trap.  The first is a "Hvidrandet Jordugle" (Flame Shoulder Moth), the second is a "Trefarvet måler eller Nåleskov-måler (Barred Red) and the last one a Haveugle (Bright-line Brown-eye). All common ones but nice ones.

Today we had expected to catch many birds, because there was a change in the weather, which is normally resulting in an influx of new birds. We caught 13 species and in total 33 birds (31 new one and 2 recaptures). In the first round we saw a Nightjar (Natraven) bouncing back out of the net. That was a pity because it would have been for both of us a new hand species. I was the lucky one today. In the last round I found an Icterine Warbler (a bit late in the season) and the second Red-breasted Flycatcher (Lille Fluesnapper) of the week.

Today Søren Mygind had to go home and two days ago Adam Qvist already went back to Berlin. So, I will be the only ringer this week till the weekend. But luckily, I have a very good backup in case I have too many birds. Hans will be available to help me out when that is necessary.

Below you will find the table with the species caught nd a picture of a Sparrowhawk (Spurvehøg) and the Red-breasted Flycatcher (Lille Fluesnapper).

Today was a nice and interesting day. There were quite some birds in the garden. Many Willow warblers (Løvsanger). WE caught 14 species and in total 84 birds (83new and 1 recapture). Søren was the lucky guy. Ttoday he started with a Red-breasted Flycatcher (Lille Fluesnapper) and at the end of the morning he took another flycatcher out of the net and that one was causing some discussions whether it was a normal Pied Flycatcher (Broget Fluesnapper) or a Collared Flycatcher (Hvidhalset Fluesnapper). P2 was a little bit longer or almost as long as P5, but P2 was certainly not shorter than P5. The bird had a second wingbar (spots can be found on first winter Pied Flycatchers too, but this bird had more than a few). There is a possibility of hybrids between the two species and therefor we collected a sample for DNA analyses. For the time being we put the bird as a Pied Flycatcher in the database but perhaps other people can help us with deciding. 

Pied or Collared Flycatcher

Red-breasted Flycatcher

Today was a bit better than yesterday. In total 39 birds: 35 new and 4 recaptures. Half of the birds were Chiffchaffs (Gransanger) and we caught 4 Redstarts (Rødstjert) all young males.

It is in a way remarkable that so many people that ring birds in Gedser also are very interested in butterflies and moths. And it gave us some really nice species last few weeks.

I only started with this hobby in May of this year. And catch mainly in my garden in Gjerrild. What is also surprising is the number of species that fly around during the night. At home I am already over 200 species. If you have to name them  by only having guides and books it will be a hard job. But luckily there are a number of apps available that will make your life easier. Most people know iNaturalist: an app that covers most of the world. So you have to be careful not to choose an American twin species. But there is another app available named Obsidentify. This program is oriented to the Netherlands and Belgium and Denmark is a location they do not support, but Denmark and the Netherlands and Belgium have many species in common. Obsidentify is a very quick and easy program. So I start mostly with that one. It gives a probability of how accurate the prediction is. Then I use iNatualist and look whether the programs give the same species. If not I put the name the one of Obsidentify in iNaturalist and compare my picture with those on board of iNaturalist. In most cases Obsidemtify is giving the right prediction. And when the two apps are not helping, I put my record in Naturbasen “artsbestemmelse” and hope they can help me. Maybe this short story will make you enthusiastic enough to start a new hobby.

Today we had a Blåt Ordensbånd (see picture) and in addition I have added two more common ones, one that is called the Snout (Næbugle) and one with the beautiful name Blood Vein (Gul syremåler).

Maybe tomorrow more bird news

With kind regards

Robert

Fra morgenstunden gennemsøgte spurvehøge igen haven og i mørket sprang Robert frem og nåede nænsomt at få klørene (overført betydning) i een som prøvede at undgå et net. Indtil sidst på formiddagen onsdag førte spurvehøgene som dagens hyppigt mærkede art, men måtte til sidst dele den enkelige førsteplads på en dag med kun 10 fugle.


Spurv 1k hun og ja i det mindste så vi denne enkelte rødtop

Frø-nyt:
Det er nu officielt - den ene alene frø i vores havedam er en grøn frø (Pelophylax esculentus). Den skal der værnes om for ikke at ende på snogens tallerken, igen.

I dag blev engen mejet, høet høstet og det hele pakket ind i nogle kilo plast. Som det ses på fotoet har vi også mulighed for at spænde net op ude ved vandhullet og ringmærke blandt andre digesvale, gul vip og sortstrubede bynk.

Mozarella-emballage og vindstille

Med de to dobbeltbekkasiner vi så dér i vandhullet i morges må der lægges en ekstra indsats de næste dage. Ja, vi er vildt imponerede over mærkning af de tredækkere syd for Aalborg (yikes) og dobbeltbekkasin i Skagen.

Ude på odden sås der lille kjove og når der ikke sker det store, er der altid mening i at luge lidt ud i haven. Er labyrint-haven i go' stand til de mærkende folk og de vingede fæ, så kører det smurt når de store efterårsdage kommer.
Der mangles stadig hænder, erfarne og de mindre erfarne, på Gedser fuglestation, til de travle dage på efterårssæsonen hvor dagene er korte og de store indtog af spurvefugle ventes hvert et øjeblik.

Dagens mærkninger:

På stationen: Robert Luttik, Jimmy Skat, Adam og Søren Mygind

En stor han af en yderst sjælden art - den største sommerfugl der kan opdrives i DK.
Til vores fryd havde den ikke noget imod at sidde og lade sig fotografere på det træ hvor vi efterlod den, helt frem til aften.

Vejret var ikke genialt og udover rigtig mange gennemflyvende spurvehøge, så var der ikke bevægelse i haven. Sammenlagt 31 fugle mærket. Fra Odden var to sorte glenter de bedste hits i dag.


Dagens mærkninger:

På stationen: Jimmy Skat, Robert Luttik, Adam og Søren Mygind