Playing safe

One of the most essential lessons in bird ringing is for a ringer to know their limits. Looking at the forecast overnight it was clear there would be a fall of migrants in the garden and given the 2 days of rain, time of year and the temp plummeting I was expecting a biggie!

I opened few nets today, just enough to fulfill standardised and kept myself well on my toes. 97 new birds were ringed, many more could have been taken from the garden but it's simply uncontrollable to open more nets when I'm alone as the birds will not wait for help to arrive.

Spurvehøg (Sparrowhawk) 1
Tårnfalk (Kestrel) 1
Gærdesmutte (Wren) 1
Jernspurv (Dunnock) 3
Rødhals (Robin) 21
Rødstjert (Redstart) 8
Solsort (Blackbird) 1
Sivsanger (Sedge Warbler) 1
Kærsanger (Marsh Warbler) 1
Gærdesanger (Lesser Whitethroat) 9
Tornsanger (Whitethroat) 5
Havesanger (Garden Warbler) 5
Munk (Blackcap) 6
Gransanger (Chiffchaff) 5
Løvsanger (Willow Warbler) 13
Rødtoppet Fuglekonge (Firecrest) 1
Grå Fluesnapper (Spotted Flycatcher) 1
Broget Fluesnapper (Pied Flycatcher) 12
Skovspurv (Tree Sparrow) 2

The Gærdesmutte and the Rødtoppet Fugglekonge were the first for the autumn season. The Sivsanger (a juvenile bird) was the first (maybe the only) of the year!!

Hans and Bo also joined for the ringing today and it was nice to have a manageable amount of birds of many species.

Gert also arrived mid morning and put himself straight to work making wood chips, boys and their toys!

Hoping for similar numbers tomorrow as the weather looks promising!

Apologies for the lack of pictures, dropped my phone in an act of tiredness yesterday and bust the screen straight off; cracking!

The weekend that was.

An absolutely awful weather forecast greeted us at the middle of last week and thoughts were that the weekend would be a washout. No ringing was undertaken due to inclement weather, but the birding spectacle was just sublime. I'll start with a quick breakdown of Saturday.

Hvepsevåge dag

Under clouded skies amidst showers I headed out to the tip just after first light, Louis and Anders were already there, a juvenile sortterne (Black tern) bounced through the waves to the west of the tip giving simply stunning views in the morning light.

A few birders turned up for the weekend watching and together, we all sat out on the tip; sheltering from the wind.

The first hour was slow with a few regular migrants: Skovpiber, Pibeand, Krikand, Sortand etc. Also the days first Almindelig kjove (Arctic Skua) came through along with a Markpiber (Tawny pipit) and a couple of Hvepsevåge (Honey Buzzard).

Birding was regularly quiet until around 9:30 when Louis picked up flocking Hvepsevåge (Honey Buzzard) long in the distance around Birkemose.

A quick breakdown of the Hvepsevåge passage.

Passed by 7:00 - 0
Passed by 8:00 - 2
Passed by 9:00 - 24
Passed by 10:00 - 174
Passed by 11:00 - 530
Passed by 12:00 - 626
Passed by 13:00 - 911
Passed by 14:00 - 1259
Passed by 15:00 - 1319
Passed by 16:00 - 1321

64 also migrated west in the late afternoon. Not only were the Honey Buzzards breaking migration records, there was other birds on the move too.

The day record for Fiskeørn (Osprey) was also broken with 40 individuals passing. 3 Steppehøg (Pallid Harrier) and a single Blå Kærhøg (Hen Harrier) passed. It was very much a raptor day with 71 Tårnfalk (Kestrel), 74 Spurvehøg (Sparrowhawk), 8 Dværgfalk (Merlin), 3 Lærkefalk (Hobby) and 23 Rørhøg (Marsh Harrier).

Hvepsevåge day finished with 3 Dotterel whipping south just before 19:00.

Sunday 6th September

It's always hard to follow an epic day of big migration as often many birds have cleared out and there's not so much happening. Sunday though, however much slower than Saturday, it still produced great views of top quality birds!

Gul Vipstjert (Yellow Wagtail) 1700
Landsvale (Swallow) 400
Tårnfalk (Kestrel) 45
Dværgefalk (Merlin) 2
Bysvale (House Martin) 325
Hvepsevåge (Honey Buzzard) 128
Fiskeørn (Osprey) 25
Fiskhejre (Grey Heron) 19
Skarv (Cormorant) 212
Almindelig Kjove (Arctic Skua) 6
Spurvehøg (Sparrowhawk) 94
Rørhøg (Marsh Harrier) 28
Sort-strubbet Lom (Black-throated diver) 7
Krikand (Teal) 98
Hvid Stork (White Stork) 11
Sort Stork (Black Stork) 1
Hjejle (Golden Plover) 20
Lærkefalk (Hobby) 4
Ederfugl (Eider) 71
Sortand (Common Scoter) 309
Gøg (Cuckoo) 1
Skærpiber (Rock Pipit) 2
Knørdegås (Brent goose) 146
Rødben (Redshank) 1
Sortklire (Spotted Redshank) 1
Hvidklire (Greenshank) 1
Skeand (Shoveler) 87
Fjørdterne (Common Tern) 41
Havterne (Arctic Tern) 5
Spidsand (Pintail) 148
Pibeand (Wigeon) 29
Vanderfalk (Peregrine) 1 Juv female
Brushøne (Ruff) 2
Strandskaded (Oystercatcher) 1
Dobbelbeckassin (Snipe) 1
Islandsk Ryle (Knot) 1
Hedehøg (Montagu's Harrier) 1
Blå Kærhøg (Hen Harrier) 3
Steppehøg (Pallid Harrier) 1

A Vendehals (Wryneck) also rested in the garden during the early morning downpours.

I'll finish off with a few pictures from the weekend, all taken by Louis A. Hansen.

Pallid Harrier 1cy, Circus macrourus. Gedser Odde 6th September 2015. © Louis A. Hansen

Honey Buzzard 2cy+ female, Pernis apivorus. Gedser Odde 6th September 2015. © Louis A. Hansen

Black Stork 1cy, Ciconia nigra. Gedser Odde 6th September 2015. © Louis A. Hansen

A fantastic weekend at the tip. Apologies for the late blog, I was simply wiped out after such long days taking a battering from the weather. With such great birds and company though, it's more than worth it. 

Autumnal indeed

With a forecast of rain looking 'iffy' in the middle of the night, I thought the session this morning could be shortened by incoming inclement weather. The weather, as per was wrong! As I was baking in the sun picking blackberries around the garden I was reminiscing of the summer that has been.

Have all the marsh warblers left now, will we in fact catch a single sedge warbler this autumn? never mind the vandsanger dream; which seems dead for another year. (It's only been 100 years since that one flew into the lighthouse; that I'm sat looking at as I type!) Yes, it all seems a bit final. Wagtails are whipping through and the janglings of autumnal jernspurvs now fill the morning air, robins tick from dense cover and the lesser whitethroats angrily share their thoughts as I wander around stealing their food source. Finches and pipits are beginning to move through now too. The phwipping of løvsanger is slowly being replaced with the harsher phwit of gransanger and sparrowhawks are flashing through the garden left, right and centre. Less of this poetic nonsense; onto today. 

99 birds ringed. 

Spurvehøg  5

Jernspurv 7

Rødhals 5

Nattergal 1

Rødstjert 7

Rørsanger 1

Gulbug 6

Gærdesanger 17

Tornsanger 12

Havesanger 1

Munk 13

Løvsanger 19

Fuglekonge 1

Lille Fluesnapper 1

Broget Fluesnapper 3

Ficedula parva, adult female. Archive photo. © Craig Brookes

The Lille Fluesnapper is the first caught in the autumn season after a short stayer last week which evaded capture. The Fuglekonge (to my knowledge) is also the first for the autumn. 

Other things of note. A hobby flew through the garden early on and a few kestrels too. Gert saw a harrier (not Rørhøg) of some sort whiz through over the sea field, I was inside having a sit down after 6 hours taking rounds non-stop and didn't see it. 

The weather for the weekend looks atrocious in fairness. I'll attempt to do something productive, but staying dry is up there on my list of priorities! 

Have a good weekend, 

Craig

Slowly into September

Ringing this morning was a little better than recent days with 47 new birds ringed

Spurvehøg 2
Vendehals 1
Skovpiber 2
Jernspurv 2
Rødhals 2
Rødstjert 1
Kærsanger 1
Gulbug 3
Gærdesanger 16
Tornsanger 6
Havesanger 3
Munk 4
Sydlig Gransanger 1
Løvsanger 2
Broget Fluesnapper 1

Nothing major of note around the garden, though a singing male Collared Dove was my first this year in the garden. After the rain, in the afternoon, I had a couple of hours gardening and keeping the net rides in order!

Hopefully tomorrow is a further improvement on today!

NB: a note about last nights blog. Preben's first harrier over the sea was in fact Pallid harrier, and not Montagu's like initially though.

Craig

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

A batty goodbye.

A solemn day here in Gedser, at dawn a dense fog hung over the station and there was hope for many grounded birds. Robins and dunnocks ticking certainly brought a September feel!

Slow ringing eventually with only 30 new birds captured.

Skovpiber 1
Rødhals 1
Rødstjert 1
Gulbug 2
Gærdesanger 6
Tornsanger 7
Havesanger 2
Munk 2
Sydlige gransanger 1
Løvsanger 4
Gulspurv 1

2 Spurvehøg were also caught though not in the standardised ringing.

The strangest catch of the day however, came mid-morning when I was forced to adorn some thick gloves and head for the high-net, a bat had become entangled! After a very delicate extraction, the bat was released unscathed and flew to a nearby roosting spot.

A couple of hours and some light later I returned to the bat and took a few pictures to identify the species.

Vespertilio murinus, Gedser 01/09/2015. Craig Brookes ©

Vespertilio murinus, Gedser 01/09/2015. Craig Brookes © 

Vespertilio murinus, Gedser 01/09/2015. Craig Brookes ©

The species was identified as Skimmelflagermus (Parti-coloured Bat), it appears that this is the first record of the bat in the Gedser area, but we are happy to be corrected if not. Whether this bat was a migrant or a local is unclear, what I do know, is that it's very rare to catch bats in mist nets whilst catching birds. A quick google search suggests that this species normally forages between 10 and 40 metres, I'm not sure why I caught it less than 4 metres up.

Other notable sightings were a juvenile Hvepsevåge (Honey Buzzard) sat in the garden and an increasingly late Mursejler (Swift).

It was sad to see the station empty this afternoon, with the departure of Lydia, Roberto and Helen. It's been a great few days with Roberto and Helen and a fab month with Lydia.

Personally, and on behalf of the station I would like to thank Lydia for the hard work over the last few months and through the tiredness, disagreements and cookie times, we certainly gelled well as a team and learnt a lot from each other. I would like to wish you the best of luck in the future, wherever your travels should take you and hope that one day, post PhD, we will meet again at an observatory.

Migration is certainly hotting up now and I'll hopefully be reporting more from the tip after a few leisurely days of tourism!

Craig