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