fredag den 24. maj 2013

Kursister og en korsnæbbet fugl/ trainees Jonathan and Andrew and a crossed beaked bird

For two days Jonathan and Andrew (aka Jon and Andy) was visiting Gedser bird observatory and ringing station. The primary purpose was to learn to extract birds from mist nets and handling of birds.

They arrived shortly before 2000 hrs on Tuesday evening in order to begin their training very early in the following morning. The weather forecast for Wednesday was not exactly promising for ringing.
The following morning Louis arrived early – before the head ringer Ruben was up – this was simply due to the fact that it was raining. So tea and coffee was made for us all.
After a while Andy and Jon woke and the rain ceased just enough for Ruben to feel it was safe to set up a few nets. Hans Lind had also made his way to the station despite the not too promising weather.

Despite the weather Andy and Jon did manage to handle a few birds this the first morning.

Andy with his first shrike - happy young man

Jon with his first shrike -
skillfully demonstration that a hand must be held over the wings too

After about three hours we had to close the nets due to too much rain. A quick breakfast, tea and coffee and it was time to discuss their project in more details and to hear what they were hoping for to accomplish in Indonesia – which is going to be where there their field work eventually will take place. Louis poured from his experience from his many years of work in the tropics. And later tried to give Jon and Andy feel of how a camp could be set up – this via a few slides from his own camps in Tanzania.

Lunch break and a long session with opening and folding of nets on the loft of the station followed until almost 3 pm. It was really great to be able to work indoor with this – a great opportunity and advantage of the Gedser ringing station.
The wireless internet was set up to they could be in contact with the world – much appreciated.

Following Thursday (yesterday) morning they were up at around 0500 hours – and we were off into the garden where thanks to Ruben all nets had been set!! Thank you J

So following Hans’ arrival we could begin the session with extracting birds from the nets – all in all Jon and Andy managed to extract between 10-15 birds each which was a good number and not stressful.
Two Shakespeare? Or Romeo and Juliet?
During this sunny day we also had reasonable views of two red-breasted flycatchers, a few eiders, barnacle gees, common and honey buzzards and heard a serine and a funny sounding white-throat on this very beautiful but windy day – Jon was really cold so he was “set to do some hard work”.





Around lunch time even Jon felt a bit warmer so Jon and Andy enjoyed their lunch in front of the ringing stations' house.

Though shortly before lunch a nice bird was caught;
A female cross-beaked redstart!


The danish version......


I to dage blev der afholdt et lille men intensivt kursus i håndtering og udtagning af fugle fra spejlnets på Gedser Fuglestation. Den første dag var meget regnfuld så efter en sen morgenstart netop på grund af regn blev det kun til ca. tre timers med net oppe men alligevel lykkedes det at få fugle i hånden til kursisterne Jon og Andy. Efter de tre timer var det tid til inden døre diskussioner omkring deres feltarbejde der skal tage plads i Indonesien og udveksling af erfaring fra feltarbejde i Tanzania. Senere var det tid til at lære at håndtere spejlnet og lære at lukke dem – dette kunne kun lade sig gøre takket være Gedser fuglestations meget store og lange loft hvor vi så kunne gøre dette i ro og mag og uden den silende regn der faldt udenfor.
Anden dage bød på et markant vejrskift og godt var det da det var mange fugle for Andy og Jon at lære at tage ud af nettene. Det forløb godt og hele dagen bød på masser af sol men kold vind og meget af sidst nævnte.
Ved 14-tiden var det tid til Andy og Jon at vende tilbage til København.


Jon, Andy and the head-ringer Ruben from Spain!

Ruben, Hans og med hjælp fra Louis og Gert naturligvis

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