Today I had 33 birds (31 new and 2 recaptures) and 14 species. Highlights were 5 Icterin Warblers (Gulbug) and two male Red-backed Shrikes (Rødrygget Tornskade, see picture).

 One Garden Warbler is missing, so it total 31 ne ringd birds.

It is difficult to make good pictures when you are alone at the station and in particular of this species. That is the reason that I wear a glove, else it would have eaten me.

Yesterday I caught a moth that was a bit damaged. It is according to me a Poppel-dromedarspinder (Three-bumped Prominent). I was not sure about the name, but had put it in Naturbasen. This morning I caught it again and another one. This was not damage, have put that one too in Naturbasen and till now nobody said it is not that species and I got 3 likes. So I think it is this species, which is rather rare for Denmark. Both looked a bit worn out, but that is a normal thing for old moths that come to the end of their life.

It is a migratory species mostly found on Bornholm and Falster (and incidentely in Nordøstjylland and Anholt).

In total I had 20 moths (15 species) of which 3 were new for the season here. One moth the Pine Beauty (Setaceous Hebrew Character, see picture below). This species was not occuring in Falster till now according to Naturbasen.

 Pine Beauty

Till tomorrow, lets see what the day and night will bring

Ciao Robert

When I was opening the nets this morning all of a sudden there was some rain (not much). So decided to open most of the nets, was a good choice because soon the rain was gone.

The day brought 29 birds (24 new and 5 recaptures. The diversity was great: 17 species. Found 2 Marsh Warblers (kærsanger) in the nets (first of the year), 1 Reed Warbler (rørsanger, second of the year), 3 Red-backed Skrikes (Rødrygget Tornskade) and a beautifull male Common Rosefich (Karmindompap, also the first for the year). Happy man today!!!

Today I have a few nice pictures, Below you will find 2 male birds the Rosefich (Karmindompap) and a Redstart (Rødstjert).

Today I found 40 moths in or near the traps, 24 species of which were 9 new for the season. Tomorrow I will try to get nice pictures of some moths again, today only the table.

With kind regards

Robert

Today again hardly birds in the garden in total 11 (8 new and 3 recaptures). I hope the birds will still arrive, but have no idea whether this will influence the breeding result of many species. Normally many birds lay their eggs in the May month, but when they are not there they have to start later. Maybe it is the cold weather or the long period of easterly wind that we have the last few weeks. This probably also influences the number of insects available for food. Some people that catch moths, as I do, complain that there are less than normal.

 Luckely the moths gave me some more work today, still not many, but some nice ones. In total 29 moths and 18 species. Two were new for me: the Puss Moth (Hermelinskåbe) and the Orange Footman (Guldgul Lavspinder). In addition to those two I have choosen to show an additional moth: the Chinees Character (Silkevinge) a funny moth. If you do not know it is a moth you would think it is a kind of dropping.

 Hermlinskåbe (Puss Moth)

Guldgul Lavspinder (Orange Footman)

Chinese Character (Silkevinge)

Till tomorrow

Robert

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)