Gedser goodies.

This morning a strong south westerly wind limited the amount of nets opened in the garden! Standardised was met and a few birds were caught but it was clear that we weren't missing out on the ringing as there wasn't many grounded birds about!

Ringing totals are as follows:

Spurvehøg - 1
Rødhals - 3
Rødstjert - 1
Gulbug - 1
Gærdesanger - 1
Tornsanger - 2
Sydlig Gransanger - 3
Broget Fluesnapper - 1

Numbers of the latter are well well down on those of last year! By this date in 2014 150 Broget Fluesnapper had been ringed for the year, compared to a mere 48 this year. It is sad to see the demise of such a fantastic common migrant, but a couple of bad breeding seasons can really take the wind out of a species' sails, hopefully over the coming years they will make a comeback, that's one reason standardising data is great, to track changes, good or bad. Anyway, less of that!

A school visited for a guided tour this morning and were lucky enough to see a Sparrowhawk in the hand, the kids seemed to thoroughly enjoy gedser, and the blackberries around the garden.

I controlled (Re-captured a bird already ringed) a Spurvehøg (Sparrowhawk) from Norway this morning too, potentially the first Norwegian ringed sparrowhawk caught in Gedser? We'll send the news off to the museum and await the response.

Out on the tip Preben and his friend had been having quite the morning, ducks moving in relative numbers. 3 Osprey, 15 Honey Buzzard and a Montagu's Harrier had also migrated before I arrived!

Throughout the day migration persisted with my notebook reading

Wigeon 860
Shoveler 130
Teal 26
Montagu's Harrier (a second individual) 1
Ruff 2
Little Ringed plover 1
Pintail 30
Swallow 872
Sand Martin 164
House Martin 261
Yellow Wag 67
Common Scoter 33
Sparrowhawk 3
Eider 14
Arctic Skua 5
Kestrel 4
Swift 4
Cormorant 18
Common Tern 2
Sandwich Tern 36
Osprey 1
Goldeneye 4
White Wagtail 2
Red-breasted Merganser 1
Goosander 1
Honey Buzzard 1
Black-headed Gull 3
Dunlin 2
Curlew 1
Whimbrel 1

and finally the best bird of the day, which flew by all too quickly was a probable Bonaparte's gull. I got onto the bird and immediately recognised it as a Bonaparte's, then the scale of the rarity kicked in, as I was thinking it over in my head, the bird rounded the tip never to be seen again (At least not tonight).

Craig