Again not many birds today, the weather is just not good. It is sunny so some people will not complain, but we the ringers are not really happy. Only ten birds today (5 new and 5 recaptures). The new birds were two Havesanger (Garden Warblers), one Rødrygget Tornskade (Red-backed Shrike) and 2 Tornirisk (Linnet). The recaptures were one Solsort (Blackbird), one Gærdeanger (Lesser Whitethroat), one Havesanger and 2 Tornisisk.

Red-backed Shrike "Rødrygget Tornskade"

The next 2 weeks we will catch in addition to the birds also moths and we will mention in the blog what the results are. The highlights of today are the Ribsbredcvngemøl (Lampronia capitella) and the Brillespinder (Tethea ocularis). See for further catches the table below.

Both moths mentioned above were new species for me. And the Ribsbredvingemøl had no entries in Naturbasen for Falster. And the Brillespinder is only found in Lang Land, Lolland and Falster.

Ribsbredvingemøl

Brillespinder

Hans came later in the morning, helped us with the closing round and then we drove together to Gert´s place. There was a nestbox for tawny owls and we wanted to check if the chicks were already big enough to be ringed. But unfortunately, it was just eggs in the nestbox, something must have gone wrong with that breed. That was sad, but we continued to the summerhouse of a friend and volunteer of the bird observatory. Already when entering the garden, we saw that it was the garden of a big bird friend, there were many nestboxes and I could observe Starling “Stær” and Great Tit “Musvit” flying in with food in der bills and hear the young starlings in the nestbox. But it was neither Starling “Stær” nor Great Tit “Musvit” that we were coming for, there was also a nestbox for Tawny Owls  “Natugle” and checking with our nestbox camera on a long stick before opening the box, we saw, that there were two chicks which had the perfect size to be ringed. So, Hans climbed up the ladder and took the chicks down in a basket.

They were ringed and are now back safe in their nestbox and we hope the best that they will continue to grow and develop well.

After, Hans and Robert drove back to the station and Gert and I brought the ladder back to his home and went to Kalløgrå after. On the way there, we saw some Common Swifts “Murseijler”, they are arriving here from there wintering grounds in South Africa. This spring is weird, a few individuals of African Migrants as Willow Warblers “Løvsanger” and the first Wood Warbler “Skovsanger” up in Skagen on the 9^th of April! were arriving very early, but on the other hand, numbers of birds in the nets in April and May are very low this year. We are waiting and wondering, when the birds just come… Then it is nice to see a new species for the year (I already saw one a few days ago at the tip, but it is a new year species for Gert) birds are definitely coming, but passerine numbers are a bit low. At Kalløgra, it was a bit windy and the highlights were two Black Terns “Sort Terne” and a Raven “Ravn”. Thanks to Gert for the trip, it is always great to see some different places, even if there is not so much, but if you don´t try, you will never find out…

People: Robert Luttik, Hans Lind, Gert Jeppesen, Jasper Mosman, Hanelie Sidhu