Ringing: 

Due to fairly strong winds, none of the nets were opened at the station today. As the season for standard ringing is almost over, Henrik took the opportunity to take down all the nets barring 5, and he also powered through all the data checking, so we are now fully up to date! Thanks Henrik!

Migration count at Gedser Odde:

We had an exceptional day at the point, particular with regards to the number of Common Eider/Ederfugl on migration. A total of 15,402 Eider were counted migrating, with a further 2,400 resting on the sea, a remarkable number for November. Sometimes, when the birds rest on the sea like this, we see them almost circling around - flying south for a little ways only to come back north, or simply moving a few hundred metres from one "restaurant" to another. We made doubly sure that those birds counted "migrating" were absolutely moving purposefully south. The numbers were truly incredible, and at one point, the pilot boat chugged its way right across the area of the sea where we had spotted most of the Eider resting - a veritable swarm of birds arose, stacked perhaps 20m off the water and stretching for 300m at least north-south. These birds came back down to rest after the boat had passed, but it gave us a much better idea of just how many birds were resting on the water. We think this vast number of Eider have finally been pushed to migrate south (as numbers have been significantly lower for a good fortnight or more) by approaching low pressure from further north in the Baltic Sea. 

In total, 17,242 birds of 24 species were counted migrating; as stated above, the vast majority of these were Eider. However, larger numbers of Common Scoter/Sortand and Long-tailed Duck/Havlit were also seen migrating, with 930 and 358 counted respectively. Red-breasted Merganser/Toppet Skallesluger were also seen in good numbers (287), along with a few less common species such as Red-necked Grebe/Gråstrubet Lappedykker (4) and Razorbill/Alk (22). 

A single Gannet/Sule was spotted relatively close to shore, plus 14 Great White Egret/Sølvhejre, which at first glance I thought were Swans/Svaner, given they flew from the north low over the water - every other time we have seen this species over the point, they have flown much higher and only in flocks of up to 6. 

Great White Egret/Sølvhejre on migration at Gedser Odde, approximately 1km off-shore. Photo credit: LAH

All in all, a very blustery morning with plenty of birdlife to distract us from our increasingly numb fingers and toes! 

People at the station: Larissa Britton, Henrik Jørgensen, Lara Winsloe