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)