29/10/2013 You can't Polish a bird...

Yet another day dawned of strong winds ruling out misting netting once again.  At least this time there were some signs of movement with lots of sparrowhawk visible from the garden with one even taking a rest on one of the picnic benches immediately outside the front door.

A resting adult male Sparrowhawk, picture taken through the kitchen window! (Hugh Hanmer)

After a leisurely breakfast Hugh and Lars went to the tip to see what migration was occurring and recorded the following from 09:30 to 12:00:

Red-breasted Merganser 23
Eider 107
Common Scoter 11
Long-tailed Duck 6
Red-throated Diver 1
Great-crested Grebe 3
Common Buzzard 1
Rough-legged Buzzard 1
Buteo Sp. 1
Hen Harrier 1
Sparrowhawk 36
Kestrel 4
Little Gull 6
Wood Pigeon 25
Stock Dove 1
White Wagtail 1
Starling 3
Loxia Sp. 20
Redpoll 4
Linnet 450
Twite 86
Goldfinch 87
Siskin 17
Greenfinch 39

On our way back for lunch we investigated a mixed flock of Gulls sitting on the stretch of beach closest to the observatory itself and to our pleasant surprise discovered a juvenile Caspian Gull in amongst them and even better that it had a yellow darvic colour ring with a 4 letter code beginning with the leter P suggesting a Polish ringed bird.  The flock spooked easily though so we couldn't read the code but they did want to hang around, so we decided to leave them in peace for a bit. Lars managed sneak back later to read it, giving PNHB and Jack later managed to get clear record shots of it.

Record shot of first winter Caspian Gull showing a Polish darvic ring reading PNHB (Jack Ashton-Booth)

Further searching found another unringed 1st winter Caspian later in the afternoon in the same flock as the above bird.

Also during the afternoon Jack and Lars found another colour ringed bird this time a 3rd winter Danish Herring Gull (V.P9C) ringed fairly locally by Jesper Brinkmann as a rehabilitated bird that had been taken into care, named 'Heidi' and subsequently ringed on her release.  Its always great to a healthy rehabilitated bird back out in the wild!

'Heidi' ready for release after being rehabilitated back to good health, photo by Anders Nielsen

Thanks for reading Hugh, Jack, Rael and Lars

28-10-2013 HEY JUDE!

Although we wish we could entitle this blog with another Beatles song like "BlackBird",  "Here, there and Everywhere" or "Norwegian Wood (this Bird Has Flown)" there was no way of escaping the storm that is currently cluster bombing the west coast of the UK with Nearctic vagrants!

The only thing St Jude was throwing our way here at Gedser was branches from the dead trees in the west of the garden and leaves in countless quantities.

Unsurprisingly the nets were furled along with the smiles on the GFU teams faces!

Owl netting seemed like an age ago now and OUR window for Tengmalm's Owls is getting smaller and smaller on a daily basis much to the concern of everyone here who put the time and efforts in to getting the owl nets up. On the plus side when we do finally get them open we may have a chance of a Saw-whet or a Boreal owl! ;)

A few hours during the day were spent at the tip and although masses of birds were not counted an Adult Kittiwake was observed which is less than annual sometimes here at Gedser. Other species braving the white horses include:

SV-South West
V- West
SØ-South East 
TR-Migrating then Resting

BR-Female Type

FU- Foraging

S-South

TF-Migrating then Foraging

N-North 

Ø-East 

OF-Overhead

NØ-North East

Great Crested Grebe 1 S
Greylag Goose 1 S
Barnacle Goose   10 TR
Barnacle Goose 3 S
Greater Scaup 2
Eider 79 S
Eider 34 FU/TRLong-tailed Duck 2 S
Common Scoter 22 FU/TR
Common Scoter 49 S 
Red-breasted Merganser (a handful of birds blogging on the sea/feeding)
Sparrowhawk 7 S
Kestrel 1 TF
Merlin 2 S
Golden Plover 19 S
Curlew 1 Ø
Black-headed Gull 4 S
Little Gull 1 S
Common Gull 7 S
Guillemot 7 S

Given that this blog post is relatively quiet we thought we would take the opportunity to try and see if  we can get some more information regarding Raptor Colour Ring Sightings observed from Photographs taken by Gert Jeppesen in the local area.

Although the colour rings have been submitted we thought we would upload the pictures in the hope that more light can be shed on the origin of these birds. We understand that some of the ring codes/lettering are illegible but we hope the colours can at least offer some hope in finding the place in which the bird was ringed and the birds age.

From what we can gather from our own research regarding the birds can be seen underneath each of the images. Thankyou for your time and please don't hesitate to share your thoughts or information with us if you have any realting to the birds shown below.

2cy Golden Eagle chasing a Brown Hare by Gert Jeppesen about 40km north of Gedser.

Golden Eagle showing blue colour ring with what appears to be white lettering on left tarsus and black colour ring on right tarsus. From Northern Sweden?

Click on the link below to see a very similar colour ring combination on a
Pullus Golden Eagle photo taken by the incredible photographer Conny Lundström from the province of Västerbotten we believe.

Immature White-tailed Eagle over Gedser photo by Gert Jeppesen.

Close up of talons on immature White-tailed Eagle showing Silver or White (uncoloured) as some people like to call it over blue on right tarsus and a black colour ring on left tarsus with obscured white lettering. From what we can find out this bird maybe from the inland freshwater's of Sweden governed by the colour of ring on right tarsus. However we are unclear about the origin of the ring on the left tarsus which could be from either the Baltic coastline or from Germany???

Also here is a fantastic link Louis found of juvenile bird in the west coast of Sweden (Örnutfodringen, Getterön (Halland)) taken on the 30-10-2013 as it happens of a bird showing the exact same colour ring combination as in the bird Gert photographed.

http://svalan.artdata.slu.se/birds/gallery_imageinfo.asp?imageID=530689

Adult White-tailed Eagle (6cy+)

Close up of talons of Adult bird showing colour rings and some numbering. Left tarsus = Black (8,8 or 8 ,6 white lettering?) over Blue (5, 7 or 9 in white lettering?). Right tarsus = Orange or Gold (3 or 9 or 8?) over Silver or white;uncoloured (with illegible code). From what we can find we think it may be a Danish ringed bird???

 Here are a few more photos of the adult White-tailed Eagles colour rings taken by Gert and kindly edited and cropped by Louis Hansen showing the rings and some of the coding a lot more clearly!

27/10/2013

Once again the wind blew today but it was possible to open a few nets to give Pernille a better taste of bird ringing than yesterday on her second and final day with 15 birds of 11 species.  It also meant we had a few birds to show some visitors from the Vadefuglene, a society that supports Gedser Bird Observatory.

Ringing Totals:

Sparrowhawk 1 

Pernille with her first ever Sparrowhawk, a juvenile male (Hugh Hanmer)

Wren 1

Robin 2

Blackbird 1

Song Thrush 1

Redwing 1

Goldcrest 1

Blue Tit 1

Chaffinch 1

Goldfinch 1

Siskin 4

Hans showing our Vadefuglene visitors the Goldfinch (Hugh Hanmer)

Whilst our time was spent around the garden with nets Louis was manning the tip for the 1st time in the while due to work commitments. Here follows his Birding Highlights and his observations: 

SV-South West
SØ-South East

TR-Migrating then Resting

BR-Female Type

FU- Foraging

S-South

TF-Migrating then Foraging

N-North

Ø-East 

OF-Overhead

NØ-North East
V-West

Red-throated Diver 8 SV

Black-throated Diver 8 SV

Red-necked Grebe 2 SV

Slavonian/Black-necked Grebe  1  SV

Black-necked Grebe  2  SV

Gannet (rare in Gedser)  1 SV

Whooper Swan  6 S  FU

Barnacle  160 OF

Barnacle  95 V

Wigeon  1 SV

Teal  8 V

Mallard  7 FU

Mallard  2 SV

Tufted Duck  1 FU

Tufted Duck  1 SV

Tufted/Greater Scaup  3 SV

Greater Scaup  1 S

Eider  20 FU

Eider  1084 BR/SV

Eider  221 SV

Long-tailed Duck  1 SV

Common Scoter  311 SV

Velvet Scoter  5 SV

Goldeneye  2  SV

Red-breasted Merganser  4 FU

Red-breasted Merganser  62 V

Sparrowhawk 73 S

Common Buzzard 2 S

Common Buzzard 1 FU

Rough-legged Buzzard 9 S

Kestrel 2 FU

Little Gull (NON) 0 T

Black-headed Gull  50 FU

Black-headed Gull 16 SV

Common Gull 400 FU

Common Gull 60 SV

Lesser Black- backed Gull (fuscus) 1 S

Lesser Black- backed Gull (intermedius) 1 FU

Auk sp. 1 T R

Stock Dove 2 R

Stock Dove 6 S

Wood Pigeon 18 FU

Skylark 1 S

Barn Swallow 1 S

Meadow Pipit 3 FU

Meadow Pipit 26 S

White Wagtail (alba) 1 FU

Fieldfare 400 FU

Jackdaw 64 V

Tree Sparrow 20 S

Chaffinch/Brambling 365 S

Serin 3 BR/SV

Greenfinch 384 S

Goldfinch 5 FU

Goldfinch 109 S

Siskin 710 S

Linnet 155 S

Twite 25 FU

Twite 22 S

Redpoll 14 S

Red Crossbill 9 S

Red Crossbill 30 TF

Crossbill sp. 9 S

Snow Bunting 1 V

Yellowhammer 1 OF

Yellowhammer 4 S

Reed Bunting 3 S

Exotic species unidentitied (large finch type yellow-green large prominent yellow wingbar) 1 S

We wish Pernille who left us at lunchtime the very best of luck in the future and want to wish a very warm welcome to Lars who arrived mid afternoon to join us for the next couple of weeks. 

Thankyou for Reading
Hugh, Jack and Rael

26/10/2013 Spurvehøg Day!

With the wind returning with a vengeance we only managed to open a couple of nets before sunrise which was not promising start to Pernille's first ever full ringing session with Hans arriving to supervise.  During our 1st net round shortly after daybreak it was clear that  it was going to be a good day for sparrowhawk migration with them charging overhead almost immediately.

An adult male Sparrowhawk, one of the many seen today (Hugh Hanmer)

With so few nets open and Hans present looking after Pernille, Hugh, Jack and Rael disappeared off to the tip to observe visible migration until around midday.  As expected there were masses of Sparrowhawks around, both hunting through the fields and migrating straight off the Tip along with a few Rough-legged Buzzards and two juvenile Peregrine Falcons; giving excellent close views!  There was also some finch migration occurring and 2 Serins were picked out within a flock of Greenfinches.

A migrating Rough-legged Buzzard low over the fields with Gedser Bird Observatory in background (Hugh Hanmer)

A distant shot of one of the Peregrine Falcons (Hugh Hanmer)

When we returned to the garden for lunch we found that Hans and Pernille efforts had only resulted in 2 birds, a new Wren and a re-trap Robin.

In the afternoon Hugh along with Pernille and Gert returned to the Tip for an hour or so and added a few more Rough-legs and brought the day total of Sparrowhawks to 261 individuals before migration seem to fizzle out for the day.

A shot of a stunning adult male Rough-legged Buzzard (Hugh Hanmer)

In the late afternoon Rael and Pernille partially opened the more sheltered high net with a Redpoll tape playing and managed to catch a Song Thrush to add to Pernille's ringing and handling experience.

Thanks for reading Hugh, Jack and Rael

25/10/13 "THIS BIRD BAG SMELLS LIKE CHRISTMAS''

Finally after many days of catching little or even nothing, the weather gods smiled on us and the wind eased to more mist net friendly levels. Thankfully the birds took this as a hint  to try and migrate too and so with almost all the standard nets open for the first time in quite a while 181 new birds were ringed.  They were joined by 3 foreign controls; a Mealy Redpoll from Norway and 2 more Blue Tits from Falsterbo, Sweden.  The ringing highlight of the day though came in the form of 2 Common Crossbills (Loxia curvirostra) caught in the bottom of a net nowhere near the spruce trees they usually frequent, and no we don't know what they were doing there, but who cares!!

Ringing Totals:

Wren 13

Dunnock 3

Robin 12

Blackbird 4

Blackcap 2

Chiffchaff 2

 Goldcrest 28

A soldier ants head impaled in the foot of a first year Goldcrest!!!! (Hugh Hanmer)

 

Coal Tit 1

Blue Tit 14

Great Tit 8

Chaffinch 3

Brambling 3

Greenfinch 2

 Siskin 76

One of the many Siskins caught today, a first year male (Hugh Hanmer)

Common Redpoll 5

Mealy Redpoll 2

 Common Crossbill 2

First year female Common Crossbill, if that's how big the the bill is on a Common Crossbill, I wonder how big it is on a Parrot Crossbill! (Hugh Hanmer) The glue like substance you can see on the birds tail was a resinous sap from the coniferous trees it had been feeding in and made the bird bags smell abnormally pleasant for a change!

First year male Common Crossbill (Hugh Hanmer)

And together, note the different colours of the rumps (Hugh Hanmer)

Yellowhammer 1

Having had our appetites whetted by the two Crossbills we in vain tried to lure some more into the nets after standard and though we didn't manage to get any more we did managed to catch a few more Siskins.

In the evening Pernille arrived to join the GFU team for the weekend to learn how to ring birds. Lets hope the next few days bring her some birds and some more netting conditions!

Thanks for reading as always, Hugh, Jack, Pernille and Rael

24-10-2013

No Birds were ringed on the 24th with very poor mist netting conditions from strengthening west south-westerly winds!

After a lazy morning to regain a little energy Rael and Hugh ventured to the tip to see if any birds were on the move and they were queitly suprised with the following hardy individuals observed braving the winds as they headed south:

Mute Swan 3 (south)

Bewick's Swan 4

Eider 501

Goldeneye 1

Tufted Duck 1

Common Scoter 11

Velvet Scoter 2

Red-breasted Merganser 10

Common Buzzard 5 ( 2in, 2 Blogging & 1 south)

Rough-legged Buzzard 1

Sparrowhawk 18

Knot 15

Woodpigeon 505

Stock Dove 21

Woodlark 2

Meadow Pipits 3

Loxia sp. 19

Common Crossbill 1

Greenfinch 52

Chaffinch 12

Goldfinch 100

Siskin 219

Twite 45  (20south + 25 Blogging) 

Linnet 75

Reed Bunting 9

Yellowhammer 4

Given the strong winds and sediment content in the sea, the local White-tailed Eagles we struggling to hunt. One individual even took a swoop at Gert on sighting his danish pastry and prized COKE ZERO!!!!

Jack headed to Gerts house to utilise his workshop facilities and made a start on a gull trap to be used in the forthcoming weeks and throughout the winter by the permanent GFU Team. 

Although it should be a lot more effective at catching gulls in harder weather conditions later on in the year we should stand a chance in the next three weeks given how tasty the danish baked goods are......that's if we don't beat the gulls to it first, we are SUGAR PIGS after all!

 Thanks for reading, Hugh, Rael and Jack

23/10/2013

A very very quiet day again  in the nets today with strong south westerlies continuing to dominate. Only 4 birds were ringed during standardised ringing with singles of Wren, Robin, Blackbird and Chiffchaff caught in the garden along with 4 retraps.

Fortunately the robin was caught whilst Hans and Gert were attending to a group of visitors allowing for a ringing demonstration and enabling the four guests to get a first hand experience of a bird up close.


By midday passerine nets were furled and 5 raptor nets were left open and it didnt take long before a Sparrowhawk was extracted given a slow southerly trickle of these birds during the day.

Its just a shame it wasn't caught while while our visitors were here, but nature rarely does things to order!

Rael spent a large part of the day at the Tip and after lunch Hugh took over while Jack did a bit of work in the garden.

To make for the lack of words here's a few pictures taken over the day:-

Anybody lost a Canary? A curiously yellow Common Crossbill with a normal adult male (Jack Ashton-Booth)

Common Crossbill (Rael Butcher)

Adult Great Grey Shrike on a bush at the Tip (Rael Butcher)

Adult male Rough-legged Buzzard (Jack Ashton-Booth)

Juvenile male Sparrowhawk caught in the garden after standard ringing (Jack Ashton-Booth)

Thank you for reading Jack, Hugh and Rael

21st - 22nd October

Recent days have been a touch disappointing in relative Gedser terms as the last two days we have stepped outside to near silence with unusually few birds calling as we unfurled the nets and our daily ringing efforts have reflected such. A combined total of birds ringed on the 21st & the  22nd included the following:

Wren 7

Robin 14

Blackbird 3

Chiffchaff 2

Blackcap 1

Goldcrest 6

Blue Tit 2

Great Tit 10

Chaffinch 1

Greenfinch 2

Siskin 14

Linnet 2

This is, however, not a complaint as a juvenile Long-tailed Skua low over the station on 21st was certainly a welcome sight if not a little unexpected, as was a Red Squirrel Hugh found whilst exploring, and we all know the next switch in wind direction will produce more magical migration and the bushes, sea and sky will be back to normal; alive with birds. We also continue to have Parrot Crossbills passing over, albeit in fewer numbers but still a great education for us Brits both vocally and visually.

A local Red Squirrel found while exploring up the coast (Photo: Hugh Hanmer)

On 22nd Benny and Hans once again did a superb job sowing a small school group the work we do and allowing the children in-hand experience of bird ringing which is always enjoyable for all.

With the aforementioned quiet spell and no huge incentive to go to the tip we decided to try new things, Hugh ventured off to a small nature reserve north of the Harbour in Gedser and the rest of us attempted to lure any nearby Parrot Crossbills with the hope of getting birds settled for a change- we failed! All was not lost though as we did catch e few Siskins and came very close to  catching a small group of Common Crossbills.

Tufted Ducks on a pool in the small nature reserve next to the ferry port in Gedser, well worth a visit on a nice day. (Photo: Hugh Hanmer)

With birds few and far between and owls non existence in the garden Hans hung some wine soaked ropes up in the hope of attracting some moths to the garden!

Our efforts to lure in Parrot crossbills with a stuffed Common Crossbill and an artificial spruce tree didn't go to waste as Siskin seemed to love it!

The forecast for tomorrow is not looking good so comfort food  in the form of a huge Yorkshire Pudding and Champions League football seemed easily the best option as catching Owls was quite literally blown out of the equation.

TOAD IN THE HOLE!

Thanks for time and interest, Rael, Hugh and Jack

20-10-2013 A brief escape from Gedser

After the 19th's dramatic migration day with thousands of birds on their way south the 20th was far quieter in the sky's above Gedser.  The situation in the garden though was oddly similar to the 19th with again only 37 birds ringed in the morning (and an additional 6 ringed in the late afternoon) with the wind limiting the number of nets.  However, there was one late morning ringing highlight as you'll see below!

Daily totals:

Wren 5

Robin 20

Blackbird 1

Fieldfare 2

Song Thrush 1

Redwing 1

Blackcap 1

Chiffchaff

Goldcrest 3

Firecrest 1

Chaffinch 1

Gert arrived and had a wander up to the Tip and back, leading him to declare that there were few birds about and would we like to go on a birdwatching trip away? With Rael sadly not feeling up to it, Jack and myself took the chance to have an explore away from our little world Gedser and we're certainly glad we did on this migration quiet day!

Gert drove us off the island of Falster and onto the neighboring island of Lolland to pay a visit to a couple of nature reserves in the Northeastern corner of the island, whistling along to the radio all the way.

Firstly we visited some wetlands at Maøjlle close to the tunnel that links Lolland to Falster.  Here from the small observation tower we had close views of a couple of pools covered in Tufted Duck, Teal, Shovlers, Barnacle Geese and Greylag Geese.

Tufted Ducks and Teals on the smaller pool at Maøjlle

Greylag and Barnacle Geese at Maøjlle

In the near near hedgerow of trees a small group of Long-tailed Tits were moving through and we kept our eyes pealed for the northern white headed race (caudatus) though they all appeared to be normal europeaus birds.  Further off in the distance something kept on disturbing the Lapwings and Golden Plover on another pool and we couldn't see any raptors so possibly a fox was at work.

The next stop was Kalløgrå near to the village of Kallø further to the northwest were we found a bay with waders and geese and immediately adjacent an area of pools and reedbed that if it were in the UK would likely have hordes of birders wandering about on a Suday but as it was we had almost to ourselves.  Out in the bay there was plenty of waders consisting mostly of Golden Plover, Dunlin and Lapwing with the odd Curlew, Grey Plover, Bar-tailed and Black-tailed Godwit all relatively close along with some ducks and geese.  Way off in the distance were a couple of Common Buzzards and White-tailed Eagles.  We had a walk around the reedbed hearing the distinctive "plinck plinck" of Bearded Tits (Reedlings) and disturbed a few Common Snipe.  Off in the distance Jack spied what appeared to be a late Honey Buzzard before Gert took us back to Gedser Fuglestation

Waders at Kalløgrå, mostly Golden Plover

Dunlins and Grey Plover in the Kalløgrå bay

A huge thanks to Gert for taking us out somewhere different and we'd happily recommend that anybody visiting us at Gedser take a day out or half day out to visit these reserves and indeed any of the others in the local area on a quiet migration day, particularly Kalløgrå with it's waders as Gedser has relatively few.

Thank you for reading,

Hugh, Jack and Rael

(Photos: Hugh Hanmer)

19-10-2013 'YOU HAD TO SEE IT TO BELIEVE IT'

It was hard to believe that only 37 birds were ringed during the day of the 19th given the shear the volume of birds moving over the garden. Birds were clearly wanting to move given the very few birds landing to drink, feed or rest in the Fuglestation Garden.

Wren 13

Dunnock 1

Robin 11

Blackcap 1

Chiffchaff 1

Goldcrest 4

Common Redpoll 1

Birds were literally streaming over and after a text from Louis to say duck passage was also beginning to pick up just as standardised ringing was coming to a close we made our way hastily to the tip.

Words don't really do the day justice and pictures in this case speak a thousand birds!

PLEASE CLICK ON THE LINK FOR AN IDEA OF MIGRATION OVER GEDSER!!!! Migration Madness  

In the video you may see the bushes behind the assembled crowd, These are the southern most bushes in Denmark and once the birds have passed them they are over the sea and on their way south! MAGIC!!!

Vis mig notes:

Red-throated Diver	15		SV
Red-/Black-throated Diver	4		SV
Black-throated Diver	4		SV
Red-necked Grebe	13		SV
Grebe sp.	1		SV
Tundra Swane	8		SV
Bean Goose	38		S
Greater White-froned Goose	15		SV
Brent Goose	26		V
Wigeon	1460		SV
Gadwall	7		SV
Teal	165		S
Mallard	3		FU
Mallard	75		SV
Pin-tailed Duck	100		SV
Shoveler	15		SV
Red-crested Pochard (MEFGA! First for Gedser)	1		SV
Tufted Duck	20		SV
Greater Scaup	88		SV
Eider (Females & 1. year)	4350		BR/SV
Eider (males)	2345	M	SV
Long-tailed Duck	81		SV
Black Scoter	158		SV
Velvet Scoter	13		SV
Golden-eye	15		SV
Smew	8		SV
Red-breasted Merganser	187		SV
Goosander	5		FU
Red Kite	1		FU
Hen Harrier	1		S
Sparrowhawk	17		S
Kestrel	1		FU
Grey Plover	1		OF
Dunlin	1		SV
Wader sp (greybrown - surfing!)	1		S
Little Gull	59		SV
Sandwich Tern	1		SV
Arctic tern	1		SV
Stock Dove	19		S
Stock Dove	45		TF
Wood Pigeon	3200		S
Wood Pigeon	25		TF
Collared Duck	3		TF
Greater Spotted Woodpecler	1		R
Greater Spotted Woodpecler	1		S
Wood Lark	2		S
Skylark	39		S
Barn Swallow	2		R
Barn Swallow	5		S
Meadow Pipit	77		S
White Wagtail (alba)	5		FU
White Wagtail (alba)	9		S
Fieldfare	1300		TF
Fieldfare	1100		V
Red-winged Thrush	4		S
Mistle Thrush	39		S
GG Shrike	1		S
Starling	80		S
Tree Sparrow	23		S
Chaffinck&Brambling	29,100		S
Greenfich	1715		S
GoldFinch	532		S
Siskin	3780		S
Linnet	400		FU
Linnet	1175		S
Redpool	38		S
Red Crossbill	24		S
Hawfinch	2		S
Yellowhammer	12		S
Reed Bunting	45		S