The ringing:

A recapture Dunnock "Jernspurv" from the morning

No rain this morning, that was good news, but it was a bit windy and cold. I caught 12 birds, 7 of them new and five recaptures. At the moment, my highlights are the 1K birds, these were a young House Sparrow “Gråspurv” and a very young Icterine Warbler “Gulbug”, that looked like it was not out of the nest for long. The Icterine Warbler “Gulbug” is a very noisy and vocal species. This little bird did not show this behaviour yet and stayed calm and quiet until it was released. I am sure, it will learn soon. And although this might be annoying for the ringer, it is just a good thing. Birds are wild, it is a pleasure to handle them but the most important thing is, that we just keep them for collecting our data and then let them continue their fascinating and impressive lives. Not long, maybe one and a half moth, two at maximum, and this bird will be on it´s way to Africa, without the care of its parents. We might meet it some more times in the garden until then and after, we hope to have it back here next spring.

The moth:

Windy nights do not make many moth fly, but there is always something nice in the trap or on the wall. Today, Biston betularia “Birkemåler” and Deilephila elpenor “Dueurtsværmer” were the highlights.

Biston betularia “Birkemåler”

News of the station:

Today, two employees of Naturstyerlsen were here and repaired the wooden gate at the entrance of the garden. Hans came shortly to see them and helped me closing the nets.

People: Hans Lind, Hanelie Sidhu

The ringing:

Today I managed to catch one recapture of a Icterine Warbler “Gulbug”, that Hans ringed in 2022. Else, there was a lot of rain in the morning, so I stayed inside.

Gulbug - Icterine Warbler 0/1

The moth:

It was mainly moth species, that I already know very well in the trap and also not many, but Anania hortulata “Nædehalvmøl” was new for me and it’s a really nice moth.

Anania hortulata “Nædehalvmøl”

News of the station:

Later in the morning, Anne-Marie and Vibeke came to the station and cleaned the windows. Thanks to them, working together one inside and one outside of the building, the windows were soon sparkling clean and it seems as the green of the garden is even more coming into the station. This is a nice view. Also Anders and Hans came to the station, because Anders had to extract the data of the spring season which will now be send to the Zoological Museum.

People: Hans Lind, Anders Zuschlag, Anne-Marie Raith, Vibeke, Hanelie Sidhu

The ringing:

This morning looked good for ringing and for opening the pond nets, it was a little cloudy and shallow wind. But there were no birds at the pond in the early morning. Instead, I got a little surprise in the garden in the first round, there was a Thrush Nightingale “Nattergal” in the net. Henrik had one a few days ago, but it is a very nice species in hand. Here in Denmark, the Thrush Nightingale “Nattergal” is more common, and the Common Nightingale “Sydlig Nattergal” is quite rare, but of course, you need to pay attention. Besides appearance, wing formula and wing length, a very good characteristic to differentiate them is looking at P1. Last autumn, I ringed a few birds of both species which came at the same time, and I thought P1 to be really helpful and obvious characteristic. While it is very short in Thrush Nightingales “Nattergal”, it does not even reach the end of the primary coverts, the Common Nightingale has a very big, long P1, which is noticeably longer than the primary coverts. I took a picture to show you the short P1 of this Thrush Nightingale “Nattergal”. Unfortunately, I do not have a comparison picture of a Common Nightingale “Sydlig Nattergal”, but there is a good drawing of that in Svensons Identification Guide to European Passerines, which I can show to you instead.

P1 Thrush Nightingale "Nattergal"

Another nice bird in the garden was a 1k Black Redstart “Husrødstjert”.

1K Husrødstjert

When the morning came to an end, I had zero rounds in the garden and thought, well, game over for today, but now, the pond got alive! The Barn Swallows “Landsvale” had arrived with their young and one of the 1k birds landed in my net.

1K Landsvale

I was already confident but then I saw, that there were two 1k Stillits low in the bottom pocket of the other net. In the closing round, I found another White Wagtail “Hvid Vipstjert” in one of the pond nets, so I decided, just to close in the garden and keep the pond nets open for a bit longer. I exchanged the bottom line of one net, that was broken and went in to look at the moths. Regularly, I went to the pond, but there was nothing new. So I closed. It was a morning with very nice species in the nets!

The moths:

It was a rather good day for moths today, I had days with more, but also with fewer moths. There were also some new species in the trap. I want to show Euthrix potatoria “Græsspinder” because I got male and female in the trap today and I also had the larvae some weeks ago.

Euthrix potatoria (male top, female bottom)

Euthrix potatoria larvae

People: Hanelie Sidhu

My conversation with the "weather frog" (Grøn frø - Pelophylax esculentus) at the pond yesterday evening did not help for today...

The weather forecast for this morning did not look well, already yesterday, when we checked the weather. But you never know, especially here, at the tip so close to the sea, the weather can change very fast and sometimes, the forecast can change within less then 20 minutes. So we had our alarms set. But honestly, we were not to sad, when we saw, that there was way to much rain for ringing, which would not stop for the next five hours. It is out of the season now, but still, we always did the five standard hours of ringing so far.

The rain meant, that we could go back to sleep and this was much appreciated, because yesterday evening, Henrik and I had exchanged the nets at the pond and in the end, it was quite late and there was still the blog to write… At this point, I need to apologise, the last moth in the list, A. lithoxylea was not caught at GFU but in Hans garden, the moth list was also done quite late, but I will update it with the right location now. Besides that, this rainy night, I didn´t have the light on, so no new moth for today.

For Henrik, it was the last day for this time, he left the station in the late morning, but will be back rather soon in August.

The ringing:

So a boring and quite day? No, later in the morning, I opened the nets, the weather looked fine outside and on the radar, but soon, a slight but constant drizzle began. I checked the radar and indeed, it showed this now, so I shut the nets down again, because in a while, it should stop for real and I could open again. After I had waited for a while, it was dry outside, the radar showed no rain at all for this afternoon and I opened again. I just had the nets open for 1.15 h, then, it started drizzling again. This time, the radar showed no rain at all. What a crazy weather! At the moment, it is a very sensitive time, temperatures are fine, so if 2k/ 3k+ birds get a little wet, but are extracted soon, we don´t need to worry, they won´t get cold and will be dry soon. But we are now also getting young birds, that just left the nest. They are much more sensitive and we do not want them to get wet. So I closed again. The 1.15 hours I could do were quite good, I caught 6 birds of six species, of which 3 were new and 3 recaps. The highlight was a White Wagtail “Hvid Vipstjert”, that I caught in one of the new nets at the pond!

People: Henrik Jørgensen, Hans Lind, Hanelie Sidhu

Ringmærkningen:

Vinden var ret hård da nettene skulle op, men alt kunne sættes op. Vinden lagde sig dog meget og det blev en ok dag(i forhold til de andre dage) og 9 fugle blev fanget hvoraf de 8 var nye.

I aften er det sidste dag for denne gang, men jeg ringmærker i morgen tidlig inden jeg tager hjem, men jeg er retur i august.

1K Husrødstjert - Black Redstart

Dagens ringmærkning og kontroller:

Hvid vipstjert/White wagtail 0/1

Husrødstjert/Black redstart 1/0

Gulbug/Icterine warbler 2/0

Gærdesanger/Lesser whitethroat 1/0

Munk/Blackcap 1/0

Gråspurv/House sparrow 1/0

Bogfinke/Chaffinch 1/0

Tornirisk/Linnet 1/0

Total 8/1

The moths:

The windy night did not make many moth fly. I got a new species for the season though, and also Hans in his garden. Pictures below. 

Apamea lithoxylea - Hvidlig stængelugle

Arenostola phragmitidis - Tagrørugle

På stationen: Hanelie Sidhu, Henrik Jørgensen

Ringmærkningen:

Efter gårdagens uvejr havde jeg regnet med at der var kommet en hel del vand, men vores måler viste kun kun at der var faldet 3mm her. Om sommeren har odden ofte den effekt at regnen går i opløsning ude over havet inden det rammer.

Fuglemæssigt var det endnu en tynd dag med kun 6 fugle hvor alle var nye.

Årets første unge af gulbug blev fanget og den kunne knapt flyve, så den blev ringmærket hurtigt og blev sluppet tæt på hvor den blev fanget.

Det var ret tryggende varmt til sidst under ringmærkningen og lige da alt var lukket begyndte det at dryppe lidt, men det var så også det. Det blev dog mere behageligt op ad dagen da vinden tog til.

1K Sangdrossel - Song Thrush

Dagens ringmærkning:

Rødstjert/Redstart 1

Sangdrossel/Song thrush 1

Gulbug /Icterine warbler 4

Total 6

The moths:

Many moth were in the trap today, many of the familiar species that are in the trap every day now, but also new ones and quite some small ones, some of them could be identified, but others were a bit difficult…

One of the micro moths: Argyresthia spinosella

Also Hans found many in the trap in his garden with a little highlight: Aedia funesta “Særgesnerleugle”, which is rare in Denmark and Scandinavia. That and the fact, that it was a bit worn, indicates, that it is a migrant, which is quite exciting and impressive for such a small, delicate creature.  

Aedia funesta “Særgesnerleugle”

På stationen: Jasper Mosmann, Hanelie Sidhu, Henrik Jørgensen

The ringing:

It was a slow morning, five new birds and two recaptures. Two of the new ringed birds were 1Ks , a Greenfinch “Grønirisk” and a House Sparrow “Gråspurv”.

1K House Sparrow "Gråspurv"

June is a slow month, but what I like about that time is the 1K birds, you can´t resist their cuteness.

Next to one of the nets, I found the feather of a Tawny Owl “Natugle”, it was probably not in our garden, but the wind could have brought it. Owl feathers are special, they are extremely soft.

Feather of a Tawny Owl "Natugle" 

The moths:

Again, it was 21 species of moths, that I found in the trap today but unfortunately, they were very flighty again. A new species and my favourite of today luckily did not fly away, it was Anania coronata “Hyldehalvmøl”.

Anania coronata “Hyldehalvmøl”

Later the day, I went along the dyke at Gedesby stand (and tested the sea, it is very good to go for a swim now) and a shimmering moth caught my attention: I caught it and found out that it was Adscita statices “Metalvinge”, a common but very pretty species.

Adscita statices “Metalvinge”

People: Henrik Jørgensen, Hans Lind, Jasper Mosman, Hanelie Sidhu

Ringmærkningen:

Det var meget lunt med 17 grader da vi gik ud 3.45 for at sætte nettene op.

I dag var vi tilbage til normal, hvor de sidste 4-5 runder var tomme.

Vi havde besøg af Doro fra Tyskland de fleste runder fra start af og heldigvis var der fugle på de runder hun var med til.

The moths:

It was not a bad day for catching moths, I had 22 species in the trap and many individuals of Cidaria fluvata "Gul bladmåler", which Hans also had in his trap.

Cidaria fluvata "Gul bladmåler"

Later in the day, I went to Bøtø skoven and found a petty new moth, which is quite common:  Cabera pusaria "Snehvid stregmåler"

Cabera pusaria "Snehvid stregmåler"

På stationen: Hanelie Sidhu, Jasper Mosmann, Henrik Jørgensen

The ringing:

After opening nets together this morning, I took poles with a net on and ringing equipment and went to the tip to catch Swallows. I set up the net there, but the light was a bit diffuse while we were opening nets because there was so much moisture in the air, the sun was going up now and I was worried, the net would be too visible for the Swallows. But after a while, I had success, one of the House Martins “Bysvale” which has a nest with chicks there, went into the net.

House Martin "Bysvale"

But after, Barn Swallows “Landsvale” flew very close and turned just before going into the net. I closed before most of the tourists would wake up and went back to the garden. It was just time for a round when I came. In my round after that, I got a little surprise, in the last net, just before going to the lab were four birds! This is quite unusual for this time (and this spring in general). When I came closer, I saw that it was very young Common Whitethroats “Tornsanger”, probably on the first trip out of the nest. It nearly felt like ringing chicks from the nestbox, all four got into one bag and after they got a ring on, they were released close to the net, the parents could find them and they could continue their adventure.

One of the four Common Whitethroat "Tornsanger" siblings

It was an okay day for ringing but in the last rounds it slowed down a lot and it got very warm, one of the first real summer days in Gedser.

The moths:

I found twenty moth species in the trap today. That was not too bad and there some new species. There were two species, that looked very much alike, Idaea dimidiata “Sortplettet løvmåler” and Anania perlucidalis “Kåltidselhalvmøl”, at first I thought it was just a variation of the same species. Look at the pictures, it is mostly the point, where the black spot on the wings is placed, which helps to differentiate them.

People: Jasper Mosman, Gert Jeppesen, Henrik Jørgensen, Hanelie Sidhu

The ringing:

This morning was the best since the end of May. Considering the low numbers this spring (except March) we cannot call it a wild day. But a hvid day: Two White Wagtails “Hvid Vipstjert” went in the nets, a young 1K bird and probably one of his parents, which already had a ring on.

1K White Wagtail "Hvid Vipstjert"...

...and parent.

Also, two Great Spotted Woodpeckers “Stor Flagspætte”, Henrik and I each had one.

Great Spotted Woodpecker "Stor Flagspætte"

In the closing round, Henrik got a Thrush Nightingale “Nattergal”. So there were some nice species in the nets today and it was not a boring morning.

The moths:

Finally, a warm and sunny morning, how it is supposed to be in June and she is complaining? Just a little, but yes, because I feel like the warmth makes the moth quite flighty so I think there were two that might have been new and that escaped before I could take a picture. But still, I was happy with the moths this morning, especially about one new for me, that I was hoping to catch: Pterophorus pentadactyla “Hvidt fjermøl”.

Pterophorus pentadactyla “Hvidt fjermøl”

Some of the moths camouflage very well on wood so I sometimes put them on the firewood in the garden. When I came with one of the moths, I saw a tail coming out under the bark of a log. Carefully, I lifted the bark, there was a lizard underneath, which did not seem to bother much. I took some very close pictures until putting the bark back again. It was of the species Zootoca vivipara “Skovfirben” not rare, but nice.

Zootoca vivipara “Skovfirben”

The same with the beetle, Dorcus parallelipedus “Bøghjort”, that was sitting on our wall today.

Dorcus parallelipedus “Bøghjort”

Jasper came back to the station today after spending a nice weekend with his sister and her boyfriend, who came to Denmark on holiday.

People: Jasper Mosman, Hans Lind, Signe Gartig, Henrik Jørgensen, Hanelie Sidhu