Super strong winds have passed, but not entirely. Today we still were not able to open all the nets, but at least we opened 133 meters of them (the minimum length necessary to perform standarized ringing is 60 m). However, we managed to catch only 3 birds. But only one of them was a recapture so it is still a success! But at the Station there is always some work to be done, so we can take care of datacheck and cleaning. And of course, we are planning to go catch some birds in the late evening, so stay tuned for a late night update!

Aftermath of yesterday's heavy winds - garden furniture flying all over the garden. Photo: Maciej Wozniak

Opdatering/Update:

Efter gårsdagens held med sortanden/common scooter fik vi lyst til at prøve endnu en aftentur, vel vidende, at der næppe blev netfangst dagen after pga. regn. Vi delte os i to hold: Agata og Maciej gik på stranden fra sydspidsen og op til P-pladsen ved Birkemose, og Henrik og jeg tog strækningen fra samme P-plads og godt 4 km mod nord og tilbage ad diget.

Sydholdet havde desværre ikke heldet med sig, så ingen fugle på stranden, men det skyldtes måske nogle ravsamlere, som gik der med deres ultraviolette ravlygter.

Nordholdet var lidt mere heldige, idet vi lokaliserede en sandløber/sanderling et stykke oppe ad stranden. Det lykkedes Henrik at få den i ketcheren. Stor var vores overraskelse, da det viste sig, at den allerede var ringmærket af Maciej for tre dage siden, men det var forøvrigt første gang en af vores ganske få ringmærkede sandløbere/sanderlings bliver genfundet!

Kun denne ene fugl blev set på selve stranden, så det var desværre lidt tyndt! Nogle få harer og 7-8 rådyr rendte rundt på diget og i skovkanten.

Med venlig hilsen, Hans

People at the station: Agata Balicka, Maciej Wozniak, Henrik Jørgensen

Complete list of birds caught today (ringed/recaptured):
Jernspurv / Dunnock: 1/0
Solsort / Blackbird: 0/1
Bogfinke / Chaffinch: 1/0

Sandløber/ Sanderling 0/1

Total: 2/2

UDPATE BELOW

The weather forecast was not wrong - today wind was as strong as it never was during our stay in Gedser. Since early morning it was blowing with a speed of about 12 m/s in most peaceful moments, and was only getting stronger every hour - reaching up to 27,3 m/s about 2 p.m.! To make things worse, it was raining almost all day. Because of this we decided to leave all the nets closed, for the safety of birds. That means that we had a bit more time to rest today. We also went for a short walk to see the waves, and although we got our clothes wet, it was worth it - the view was gorgeous and felling such strong blowing straight into our faces was an unforgettable experience.
Hopefully tommorow we will be able to open some of the nets and catch many birds.

Waves! Photo: Maciej Wozniak

UPDATE:

In the evening we decided to use the ´´bad´´ weather to try catching some birds with a flashlight at the shore again. It was getting dark at 9 p.m. but the clouds were already starting to diverge so it seemed like we had not much time with good catching conditions, but wanted to try anyway. We came across a pair of mallards but they must have noticed us and ran away quite quickly. But about hundred meters later we spotted a common scoter and I though that I must give it a try. Some seconds later I succeded in catching it in the net! Right after we rushed to the lab and let Henrik ring it. We checked and it seems that it is the firs Scoter ringed in Gedser Fuglestation!
That was a good day.

Handsome young gentleman - Mr. Scoter (not to be confused with a german techno band ´´Scooter´´). Photo: Agata Balicka

It's feet are soooo soft! Photo: Maciej Wozniak

UPDATE BELOW

Today we were finally able to open all the nets because of the wind blowing much weaker than in previous days. It contributed to the higher number of birds that were caught. Early in the morning we repaired two nets, and although I almost payed for it with frostbitten fingers, we have all the nets fully working now.
One of the rounds brought us a Wood Pigeon, that I had an opportunity to disentangle. Maciej ringed it, and it was his first one. Personally I never thought that pigeons are so soft and calm during banding! What makes us even more happy, it was only the 19th individual of this species ringed in this Station. We can see the pair of Wood Pigeons bravely watching over their nest and from time to time we observe birds flying by with little branches held in their beaks.
Finally we had more newly ringed birds than recaptured ones. In the garden we can see that the spring is coming and birds are singing louder and louder.

Maciej with his firs pigeon, They look so happy. Photo: Agata Balicka

Wood pigeon being extremaly handsome. Photo: Agata Balicka

UDATE:

Late in the evening (at 10 p.m.) Henrik took us to the beach to try catch some birds with a flashlight and a net held by hand. Although we walked about 4 kilometeres, we found only one bird. But it was an awesome experience anyway! Henrik catched a Sanderling and Maciej had a chance to ring it. It was beautiful!

Sanderling! Photo: Agata Balicka

People at the station: Agata Balicka, Maciej Wozniak, Henrik Jørgensen

Complete list of birds caught today (ringed/recaptured):
Ringdue / Common Wood Pigeon: 1/0
Jernspurv / Dunnock: 6/0
Rødhals / Robin: 0/2
Solsort / Blackbird: 1/0
Bogfinke / Chaffinch: 3/0
Sandløber / Sanderling: 1/0

Total: 12/2

After friday with very few birds, 8 newly ringed and 8 recaptured seem to be a great success. The wind changed it´s direction a bit and was blowing more from the North. As most of our nests are located in the southern part of the garden, and therefore covered by bushes growing in the northern part, we were able to open much more than yesterday. It presumably contributed to the amount of species caught today. Almost every round we brought some birds to the lab to be ringed or noted (if it was a recapture), so we decided to leave the nets open three hours longer than we had to. This decision was also backed up by observations of Linnets in the garden. We hoped to catch at least one, as Agata and I have never ringed one yet, however we were not lucky this time.
Anyway we are continously overjoyed with our stay in Gedser. The sun is shining gorgeously, trees' and bushes' buds are sprouting more and more every day so soon everything will be green, and as we have some free time to relax, we are enjoying summer-like weather.
The weather forecast warns us that in next days the wind will grow even stronger, but although we grieve that we might expect a day with all the nets closed, we are looking forward to seeing waves bigger than last time and the overal look of the Fuglestation in ´´bad´´ weather.

Blackberries seem to be the fastest ones in terms of growing leaves in the garden. Photo: Maciej Wozniak

People at the station: Agata Balicka, Maciej Wozniak, Henrik Jørgensen

Complete list of birds caught today (ringed/recaptured):
Jernspurv / Dunnock: 5/0
Rødhals / Robin: 0/4
Solsort / Blackbird: 0/2
Sangdrossel / Song Thrush: 1/0
Blåmejse / Blue Tit: 0/2
Bogfinke / Chaffinch: 1/0
Gulspurv / Yellowhammer: 1/0

Total: 8/8

P.S.: Yesterday's info about the sighting of a bee-eater was just a prima aprilis joke - the photo was taken by me in Poland in August 2021. The rest of the blog post is true :)

After the continous series of succesful days, it seems that the weather finally interrupted the occurence of birds in nets. The wind is blowing harder than yesterday (reaching the speed of up to almost 15m/s) in direction that does not favor the spring migration of birds. Moreover, having the safety of ornithofauna in our minds, we did not open a lot of nets today. If it wasn't for one Reed Bunting without any ring, that flew into the net today, we would have caught only 4 recaptures.
Just after the standarized ringing hours me and Agata went to the shore in hope of seeing some interesting species above the sea. We sighted common scoters, long-tailed ducks, a lot of common eiders, some cormorants, red-breasted mergansers and few swans (we were looking very carefully if some of them were banded, so we could read the numbers and report them, but did not see any rings on their legs). We also enjoyed just watching the sea, as we really seldom have an occasion to admire such high waves.
But the peak moment of the day was yet to come. On our way back to the station we spotted some colorful dot on a power line nearby and did not hesitate to check with telescopes what was that. It seems that another day brought us a great gift - individual of species that are incredibly hard to see here, especially at that time of the year!

Digiscoped photo of a bird that we thought is impossible to see on the 1st of April in Denmark. Photo: Maciej Wozniak

People at the station: Agata Balicka, Maciej Wozniak, Henrik Jørgensen

Complete list of birds caught today (ringed/recaptured):
Rødhals / Robin: 0/3
Solsort / Blackbird: 0/1
Rørspurv / Reed Bunting: 1/0

Total: 1/4

The wind is getting stronger. So strong that we could not open all the nets today - we had only 178 meters open today. What's worse, the wind is blowing from East, so from the direction opposite to our desirable. We put a new ring on only one Song Thrush, all the other birds (5) were recaptures. Instead, on every round we found a lot of ``caterpillars´´ in the nets. They are another sign of winter making room for spring, we really can not wait to see the garden completly green and in fool bloom. I guess that it would get greener even faster, but it was a full month without any rain here, what is really uncommon.

In spite of little number of birds and heavy wind, the day is splendid and we have a reason to celebrate - I got promoted and have a C license instead of X! I can assure You, that I will do my best to make the best use of it and try to contribute to the Station and Denmark's ringing.

The ´´Caterpillar´´ that we catch a lot, in fact these are some trees' inflorescences. Photo: Maciej Wozniak

People at the station: Agata Balicka, Maciej Wozniak, Henrik Jørgensen

Complete list of birds caught today (ringed/recaptured):
Jernspurv / Dunnock: 0/1
Rødhals / Robin: 0/2
Solsort / Blackbird: 0/1
Sangdrossel / Song Thrush: 1/1

Total: 1/5

It may be harder to surprise us each next day but Gedser still manages to do it. In the morning when we begun opening the nests, the day greeted us with a gorgeous pinkish-orange sunrise. It was quite cold all day, but not really windy, so we opened all the nets. Again many of birds that were caught were recaptures. That may suggest that most of the local birds breeding in our garden are ringed already. However, we did catch a beautiful male yellowhammer without a ring, as well as house sparrows! There were two of them, so both me and Agata could ring one, as we have never banded them before. What is also satisfying about these catches is that it was the first time house sparrows were caught in Gedser this year! Henrik told us that only a handful of this species is caught every year, so we are more than happy to have such luck.

Extraordinary pattern on yellowhammer's tail and wings. Photo: Agata Balicka

Our today's star - house sparrow. It's a boy! Photo: Agata Balicka

People at the station: Agata Balicka, Maciej Wozniak, Henrik Jørgensen

Complete list of birds caught today (ringed/recaptured):
Gærdesmutte / Wren: 1/1
Jernspurv / Dunnock: 5/0
Rødhals / Robin: 1/7
Solsort / Blackbird: 0/1
Sangdrossel / Song Thrush: 1/1
Vindrossel / Redwing: 1/0
Gransanger / Common Chiffchaff: 3/2
Fuglekonge / Goldcrest: 0/1
Rødtoppet Fuglekonge / Firecrest: 1/0
Gråspurv / House Sparrow: 2/0
Grønirisk / Greenfinch: 1/0
Gulspurv / Yellowhammer: 1/0

Total: 17/13

Every day we experience new great things, what makes our stay in Gedser really wonderful. Yesterday we tried to catch the Brent Goose one more time, but unfortunately couldn't find it again. We observed flocks of Golden Plovers instead, what is nice as well, because we did not see them before.
Today it was a bit cold in the morning but the wind was not blowing as hard as yesterday, so we could open all the nets. However, we did not catch many birds and many of them were recaptures (some individuals got caught in various nets few times today - maybe in fact they like us and want to be measured?). We even put up the wader trap (looking like a large box made of net), hoping that we catch some pipits or a wagtail, but nothing got inside of it. Maybe tomorrow will be a more lucky day? 
But day with a little number of birds has it's advantages - in the meantime between the rounds we managed to do some data-check, tidy the garden, cut few branches that were disturbing the nets and put great part of bird-carrying bags to the laundry.
Around noon our Station was visited by a lovely pair: Kristian and Benthe. They brought us wonderful and delicious cake! We have never eaten such in Poland and now think that we just have to take some with us when we will be returning home.

Excepcionally grey Robin, probably very old one. This year is at least third year of it's life. Photo: Maciej Wozniak

People at the station: Agata Balicka, Maciej Wozniak, Henrik Jørgensen

Complete list of birds caught today (ringed/recaptured):
Jernspurv / Dunnock: 6/0
Rødhals / Robin: 2/6
Solsort / Blackbird: 1/2
Gransanger / Common Chiffchaff: 0/1
Fuglekonge / Goldcrest: 0/1
Rødtoppet Fuglekonge / Firecrest: 0/1
Blåmejse / Blue Tit: 4/0
Musvit / Great Tit: 1/1
Bogfinke / Chaffinch: 1/0

Total: 15 / 12

Sixth day of our great birding adventure has passed. It got really windy so we were not able to open all the nets in the morning, but we still caught some birds, and the day with birds (even very few of them) is always a great day! During one of rounds we even found three bramblings hanging in one net - all of them were young females. They were not so beautifuly colored like males are, but they were still gorgeous. Moreover, we caught quite a lot chiffchaffs again, so we had another opportunity to train ageing them. While we were putting all the informations to the database, we noticed that every individual that we were able to sex today was a female!
Yesterday in the evening, after writing the daily blog post, we saw a lonely Brent Goose (Knortegås) on the field. In Poland they are super rare, and as it was never ringed here in Gedser, we decided to try to catch it. Henrik showed us how it is done - by walking through the field in night in complete silence with a flashlight. However, we did not manage to catch it - it wasn´t there when we returned to that field with a net. We saw there only some waders, but in the dark couldn't identify what species that were. Maybe tonight we will try again - hopefully this time we will be successful!

Me and Ben banding the Brambling. Photo: Agata Balicka

A wing of a Brambling. Photo: Agata Balicka

People at the station: Agata Balicka, Maciej Wozniak, Benjamin Bechgaard Lisse, Henrik Jørgensen

Complete list of birds caught today (ringed/recaptured):
Rødhals / Robin: 3/7
Solsort / Blackbird: 0/1
Gransanger / Common Chiffchaff: 8/1
Fuglekonge / Goldcrest: 1/0
Rødtoppet Fuglekonge / Firecrest: 0/1
Blåmejse / Blue Tit: 2/0
Bogfinke / Chaffinch: 1/0
Kvækerfinke / Brambling: 3/0

Another day in Gedser passed, adn instead of getting bored, we are falling in love with this place more and more. The weather is perfect and we feel like sitting on a spring bomb that can explode any moment, covering every bush with fresh green leaves and flowers. We already see some butterflies and bumblebees, and even spotted a frog in a pond next to one of the nets.
Today we did not make any spectacular observations, although Agata got to ring her first Redwing and Greenfinch, and it´s really buce ti see these species in hand. Moreover, we caught quite a lot of chiffchaffs hatched last year, and as it´s very hard to age them, it is super good to have an opportunity to practice it.
Ben joined us again and was gaining more experience with Hans being watchful over all the ringing. In total we banded much more birds than yesterday and hope that this growing trend will continue in next days.


Redwing being aggresive. Photo: Maciej Wozniak

People at the station: Agata Balicka, Maciej Wozniak, Benjamin Bechgaard Lisse, Hans Lind