The wind had dropped drastically this morning when we opened, but due to fog, it looked like the sun would never rise. 

There were fewer blackbirds and goldcrests around. However we still got the same hawfinch as yesterday back in the nets, and it has been a good opportunity for Jesper to handle a bird without loosing a finger :p Especially after we heard Gaetan screaming when he extracted it.

Henrik also got depressed in the last rounds because of a great grey shirke who escaped in front of him! Please send us all your postive thoughts to have it back in the net tomorrow, we really prefer when Henrik is happy :D

Flere net kunne ikke sættes op da vinden var for hård i flere net, men 211/295 meter net kom dog op. Der var dog stille i haven og kun et par fugle kunne høres under netopsætning. Heldigvis var der flere fugle under de første par runder så når man tænker på at vi snart er midt i november var det godkendt. Under ringmærkning sidder Gaètan med en solsort og kigger op og siger Latvia, den har så en ring fra Letland. Det er kun et par håndfulde fugle med ring på andre steder fra end her nede på Odden som bliver fanget her.

Dagens ringmærkning/Todays ringing:
Gærdesmutte/Wren 3

Rødhals/Robin 6

Solsort/Blackbird 15

Fuglekonge/Goldcrest 34

Kvækerfinke/Brambling 1

Grønirisk/Greenfinch 1

Gråsisken/Redpoll 3

Dompap/Bullfinch 1

Total 64

It was slightly raining this morning when we woke up this morning. This probably settled the birds on the spot. There were plenty of blackbirds in the garden but as they are big birds, many escaped from the nets and although we got a fair amount of them (32) it was not a huge number.

However the hightlight of the day for me was definitely the hawfinch we got in the middle of the morning.

This has been my cursed species for a while. I have had much trouble to see it at home, even when it was feeding in my garden! As for ringing, it has been trapped in many stations I visited but always one day before or after my stay! So you can imagine my enthousiasm even thought this particular individual was a young male moulting and definitely not the prettiest hawfinch you can get. Hopefully, now that the curse is broken, I'll get a pretty male next time?

After the stormy wind, we could open again our nets this monday. The weather was incredibly quiet with almost no wind at all. 

There seem to be a lot of blackbirds and trushes around again. And we did get some indeed. Like many David and Goliath, we have had a good amount of goldcrests and blackbirds.

We were not overwhelmed by the birds but we got two species we were relly happy to see. 

First, another David, even if it is a bit bigger than a goldcrest. The treecreeper that the French get in Brittany is the other species, the short toed. This Danish one is much more white with a wide eyebrow. It makes them look a bit grumpy but there are really beautifull.

The other species, this time more a Goliath, is the first Fieldfaire of the automn season. Where we ring in France, we do not get them so it was also a good species for us. And they are gorgeous.

Add a few bramblings and 1 redpoll to that and you can understand we were happy with ourselves by the end of the ringing.

The ringing: We were expecting not to ring this morning due to the weather forecast... The wind was blowing too strong and it also rained several times.

At 9.30 am we decided to give it a try and opened some nets. After a small fight against the rain, we stopped because there was really no movement in the garden.

This is why it is really good that we thought about you, dear readers, and saved you two little surprises from yesterday evening!

As you know, your devoted ringing team is always keen to try other techniques and despite the stormy weather and the nice fireplace in the house, we were 4 yesterday to face the wind and chase some birds by light at the beach.

As we started moving out of the house, four eyes stared at us and we were lucky to spot their owners in the dark. Gaetan even succeeded to take a really good picture:

At the beach, we succeeded not once, but twice in a row! And the Frenchies were really happy with the two species we got, a beautiful sanderling (Sandløber):

But also, this barnacle goose (Bramgås), which was definitely a first in the hand for the four French.

The weather forecast predicts the wind will drop to almost nothing in the middle of the night, so we have high hopes for a good day tomorrow!

Trækket på odden: Trækket er i gået ind i den sene fase, og i den hårde vind søndag formiddag var der ikke mange fugle at se undervejs. Til gengæld var der omkring 1.800 Ederfugle (Eiders) en stor flok, som holdt pause på vandet tæt på odden. Der er også kommet en del Havlitter (Long-tailed Ducks) til området i de seneste dage. På trækruten var det fint med to Nordiske Lappedykkere (Slavonian Grebes) samt nogle Rødstrubede og Sortstrubede Lommer (Red-throated and Black-throated Divers).

Fire Havlitter tæt på Gedser Odde søndag formiddag. Ingen andre ænder har sådan et udseende eller lange haler, som de tre adulte/voksne hanner på billedet. Foto: Ole Friis Larsen/GFU

Se alle registrerede arter og tal fra Gedser Odde søndag i DOFbasen ved at klikke her.

Folk på stationen: Marie Chevalier, Gaetan Guyot, Aurélie Roussel, Jesper Sonne, Preben Berg, Henrik Jørgensen, Ole Friis Larsen.

A fresh morning wind prevented us from opening most of the nets. The few nets we had open caught a handful of Bramblings and, suddenly, a beautiful Siberian Chiffchaff.

With so little work at the station, the French invasion went to the tip for seabird watching. Here, a Velvet Scoter presented itself nicely close to the shore.

The weather report promises terrible winds tomorrow. Therefore, we will save a few surprises from this night’s beach walk. Stay tuned…

Ringmærkningen: Undertegnede er på fuglestationen på en uges ringmærkningskursus som forberedelse på en længere ekspedition til Sydamerika. Her skal jeg ringmærke fugle i de såkaldte Polylepis skove i ca. 4500 meter. Måske finder vi et par nye arter for verden eller måske en ny geografisk variation. 

På fuglestationen lagde vi hårdt ud med en kæmpe spurvehøg hun.

Den lod man dog de mere erfarende tage sig af - den så lidt ond ud... Personligt ringmærket mine 16 første fugle. Den var alt i alt en lærerig men intens første dag. Der må være noget i luften hernede, for man bliver meget træt meget tidligt på dagen (den berygtede odde-syge). 

Trækket på odden: En stille dag på havet, men der kom først en mindre opklaring og siden en længere opklaring med blå himmel og sol, og begge gange bragte det rovfugle på banen. Med i alt omkring 175 Røde Glenter (Red Kites), Musvåger (Common Buzzards), Fjeldvåger (Rough-legged Buzzards), Blå Kærhøge (Hen Harriers) og Spurvehøge (Sparrowhawks) blev det en af det sene efterårs store og smukke rovfugledage ved Gedser Odde.

En af fredagens Musvåger. Man kan i godt lys af og til se, at de unge fugle har lyse øjne. Desuden har de typisk uregelmæssige striber på langs af undersiden.

Adulte/voksne Musvåger har til gengæld mønster på tværs af undersiden (hvis de ikke er helt lyse eller mørke) og mørke øjne, som ses meget tydeligt på denne fugl i fredagens træk. Foto: Ole Friis Larsen/GFU

Fredag blev tilmed efterårets næststørste trækdag i Gedser Fuglestationes registrering af Røde Glenter ved Gedser Odde med 46, kun overgået af torsdag med 60. De to novemberdage står tilmed for næsten en tredjedel af efterårets samlede tal på 332 udtrækkende Røde Glenter talt af observatører for Gedser Fuglestation. Et andet stort træk af Røde Glenter foregik præcis en måned tidligere med 97 fugle i løbet af tre dage fra 4. til 6. oktober. Ind imellem de to perioder er der typisk kun trukket nogle få Røde Glenter dagligt, siden trækket begyndte med en trækforsøgende fugl for to måneder siden, 4. september.

Mest bemærkelsesværdigt i fredagens træk var dog, at der både var en Mosehornugle (Short-eared Owl) og mindst ni Skovhornugler (Long-eared Owls) i området. Allerede i mørket før solopgang så ringmærkerne seks-syv Skovhornugler flyve omkring ved stationen, og om eftermiddagen fandt vores vagthavende træktæller Preben Berg ni rastende fugle godt gemt i træer tæt på ringmærkernes laboratorium.

Mosehornuglen på vej ind mod land igen efter sit trækforsøg. Mosehornugler kendes blandt andet fra Skovhornugler på deres gule øjne og sorte maske omkring øjnene. Foto: Ole Friis Larsen/GFU

En af de mindst ni Skovhornugler godt gemt under dagens rast i fuglestationens have. Med lidt god vilje kan man vist godt se et øje og en af de lange 'ørefjer'. Foto: Ole Friis Larsen/GFU

Mosehornuglen så vi om formiddagen i et trækforsøg ude på odden. Den fløj langt ud over havet, men vendte om og kom ind til kystskrænten, hvor den flere gange i løbet af dagen blev skræmt op af intetanende fodgængere på standen. Det betød dog, at ringmærkerne også fik set Mosehornuglen, da de midt på eftermiddagen havde placeret sig ved indkørslen til fuglestationen for at opleve trækket af rovfugle, og den franske jubel over den sjældne trækgæst var let at forstå. Ved samme lejlighed vakte en Stor Tornskade (Great Grey Shrike) i en busk begejstring. Senere fik vi at vide af Preben Berg, at den kort efter var trukket ud over havet.

Der er næsten altid en del Havørne ude på Rødsand vest for Gedser. Det var nok en af dem, der fredag drog ud i verden mod sydøst. Det mørke næb og de stadig mange spidse fjer i vingerne fra den første dragt veser, at det er en yngre ørn. Foto: Ole Friis Larsen/GFU

Vores franske ringmærkere er desuden meget interesserede i Havørnene (White-tailed Eagles) ved Gedser, for det er en sjælden fugl i Frankrig. Ørnene er ikke trækfugle, men af og til ser vi en flyve ud over havet på strejftogt. I teleskoperne kan vi ofte se flere Havørne ude på Rødsand vest for Gedser, hvor der holder sæler og tusindvis af fugle til. Formentlig er der derfor masser af mad til unge ørne, som ikke er selv er rutinerede jægere endnu. Netop fredag så vi en ung Havørn flyve ud mod sydøst i retning af den tyske nationalpark Vorpommersche Boddenlandschaft, som også er et kendt tilholdssted for mange Havørne.

Se alle registrerede arter og tal fra Gedser Odde fredag i DOFbasen ved at klikke her.

Folk på stationen: Marie Chevalier, Gaetan Guyot, Aurélie Roussel, Jesper Sonne, Preben Berg, Henrik Jørgensen, Ole Friis Larsen.

It was almost raining a tiny bit and there was no wind when we opened the nets this morning. 

We already could predict it would be a good day while opening because there were a lot of trushes and blackbirds calling and fooling around the garden.

And it has been very good indeed! We had a lot of robins in the nets in the first round as well as a fair amount of blackbirds. Then, it barely slowed and goldcrests arrived. There were really big flocks of fieldfares in the sky and some raptors migration as well. Gaétan came back from the third round with a good suprise: a ring ouzel! The first for Henrik who was happy to ring it! And the 33rd of the station but the first of the year!

The total amount of new birds ringed today reached 277!

There was absolutely no wind this morning again and we expected to have another nice day. We did, but surprisingly, there were almost no goldcrests ring today and we had an average number of birds in the nets: 69 ringing and 8 retraps. 

Nevertheless, it was a very good day in term of diversity with 17 species of birds handled today. We were really pleased to get several of them, but espcially two: we got the second redpoll of the season, really good bird in the hand for us

and a few long tailed tits, some of them with a much more white heads than the ones in France!

Today, the two french teams were changing and Aurélie and Gætan are taking over after Anne and Sébastien.

It was therefore the first day for two people and the last day of ringing for the two leaving. And what a day!

It was a silent opening of the nets but the wind was almost absent and we had high hope that it was going to be a busy day. And right, we were! 

As soon as the first round, we were busy picking golcrests out of the nets and it was good to be 5 to ring this morning to handle the birds. All in all, we ringed over 200 of these tiny fluffy birds. We also had 1 firecrest, almost 20 siskins, a couple of these good looking bullfinches birdies and a still good amount of wrens.

So for a first/last day, it was a nice busy day!

After ringing, a trip to Bøtø brought us the couple of the white tailed sea eagles bringing materials to their nest area, a rough legged buzzard, a hen harrier, some waders and loads of ducks. And highlands, of course.

We want to thank heartily Anne and Sébastien for their time and implication in the ringing!