The ringing: 

Today there was definitely an improvement in the morning, it was loud with singing birds in the garden when we went on the first round. And we got some nice species: A new Rosefinch “Karmindompap”, the first Spottet Flycatcher “Grå Fluesnapper” for this season in Gedser and a Reed Warbler “Rørsanger”, we also got one in the second round and in total, we just got four of this species by now in the spring season.

Common Rosefinch "Karmindompap"

Spottet Flycatcher "Grå Fluesnapper"

Robert also took two birds out of the net, which we had seen every day, but never had in the nets so far. First I had to think a bit, but then I got what it was before the birds were out of the bags: It was two Starlings "Stær"!

Starling "Stær"

Unfortunately, there was a lot of rain on the radar and when we felt the first drops when we came out of the lab after the second round, we decided to close the nets. First the rain was just very light, but then it became heavy so many moths, data entry and data checking kept us busy for the rest of the morning and afternoon. Still we got 12 new birds in the nets in just three rounds, which is better than the numbers we had in 5 hours in the last couple of mornings.

After we had this weather change now, with quite a lot of rain and also the wind turning, our expectations are a bit higher for tomorrow. Maybe as many birds as we have had moth today? That would be great! And there are still birds on their way as we see with the Spottet Flycatcher “Grå Fluesnapper”!

Moths: The night was evidently good for moths to fly around. We caught in total 21 species of which 11 were new for the season at this location (bold in the table below). Some of the species were very small (3 to 5 mm) like the Hundegræsmøl and Mompha subbistrigella. It is difficult to make nice pictures of these small ones, because they are not sitting still as most of the bigger ones. That is the reason that I have chosen not to present these pictures, but have taken the Halmugle and the Udelt mesingugle as the species of the day.

Halmugle (Mithimna pallens)

Udelt messingugle (Diachrysia stenechrysis)

Trækket på Odden: En af de få fordele ved at stå på Nordens sydligste punkt i fem standardtimer med silende regn er, at der ikke skal bruges meget arbejdstid på at indtaste dagens resultater i DOFbasen og at skrive dagbogen/bloggen. Nå ja, men på en eller anden måde er det også godt for ens egen og for vores fælles viden at opleve, hvordan trækket tager til og af hen over året og fra dag til dag.

Regnen tog meget af udsynet torsdag morgen; sigtbarheden faldt med den tiltagende regn helt ned til nogle få hundrede meter, og det var nødvendigt at stå i tørvejr stort set hele perioden under taget på den gamle marinestation, som heldigvis er der endnu.

Alligevel var der en overraskelse, som der af og til netop er i vådt vejr. Lige før tællingen sluttede dukkede en stor flok fugle frem af regndisen som grålige silhuetter, der med rolige vingeslag hurtigt forsvandt igen i disen mod nordvest – en usædvanlig trækretning. De lignede umiddelbart en flok Hjejler, som vi er vant til at have her om efteråret og vinteren, men de havde lange tynde næb, som buede opad, og derfor kan det kun have været en stor flok Små Kobbersnepper.

Nogle få kald fra den mindst 350 fugle store flok lignede heller ikke Hjejlers kald, men passede i hvert fald bedre med kaldet af Lille Kobbersneppe på mobiltelefonens Fugle i Felten-app. Der foregår ofte store træk så højt oppe, at vi ikke kan se fuglene. Det gælder også vadefugle, og flokken af Små Kobbersnepper har måske søgt nedad i regnskyerne; det kan også forklare den lidt mystiske trækretning - måske mod Rødsand.

Se alle observationer på Gedser Odde fra torsdag i  DOFbasen.

Folk på stationen: Hanelie Sidhu, Robert Luttik, Ole Friis Larsen.