Sparrowhawks!

Wow, what a day. Off to a good start this morning with nearly 40 birds caught in the first net round. Lots of Willow Warblers (Løvsanger), Redstarts (Rødstjert) and Blackcaps (Munk).

At around 07:00 we caught another Tree Pipit (Skovpiber) - the third for the year - and a bird that we'd never even seen before. Back at the banding shed Lucy identified it as a Whinchat, a bird not often caught at GFU and a first for this year.

We continued to catch a good number of birds each net round throughout the morning. We were just finishing up a round at 09:30 when we heard the rustle of wings in the high net near to the house. We ran around the corner to find a Sparrowhawk (Spurvehøg) in the net! We've had 2 or 3 in the nets in the past month since we've been here but this was the first one that we managed to grab before it could get out (it also grabbed me! - Joe).

Wanting to make sure we'd identified it correctly we took some field guides and sat down at one of the benches in front of the house. As we were sitting there with the Sparrowhawk, another flew into the bottom panel of the net right next to us! Both birds were 2k females and were the first two ringed this year. While it's common to catch this species at GFU in autumn, they're rarely caught in spring and we weren't expecting to catch one - never-mind two!

After the excitement we continued netting through the day, the total new birds ringed got up to 95 (our best yet) but despite having the nets up until nearly 17:00 we just couldn't make it to 100, still an outstanding day.

Joe & Lucy

First Whinchat for the year - Lucy Dadour

Not one but two Sparrowhawks! - Hans Lind

Sparrowhawk - Joe Krawiec

First Tornsanger for the year

Another windy morning at Gedser Fuglestation. We were able to open enough nets to catch a few more birds for the new ringers, 19 new birds in total including another first for the year - a Common Whitethroat (Tornsanger). There were quite a few migrants in the mix this morning including four more Lesser Whitethroats (Gærdesanger), a Redstart (Rødstjert) and a pair of Linnets (Tornirisk).

Thanks to everyone who joined the new ringers course for a lively weekend. Good luck in your future ringing activities!

Joe & Lucy

First Common Whitethroat for the year - Joe Krawiec

Kursus for nye ringmærkere

With heavy rain forecast we were worried that the new ringers wouldn't get many birds. But we were in luck, the rain held off until 08:00 by which time we had caught 37 birds. Participants in the course had a chance to extract Willow Warblers (Løvsanger), Lesser Whitethroat (Gærdesanger), a Blackcap (Munk), a Redstart (Rødstjert) as well as the usual array of resident species. A flock of Reed Bunting (Rørspurv) also turned up in the net, a new species for us.

While it rained through mid morning there were educational presentations of ringing techniques and data collection. 


After lunch we tried our luck with the nets again and its just as well that we did! On the first net round Hans managed to catch a Ring Ouzel (Ring Drossel) that was just about to escape from one of the high nets. This was just the 12th bird of this species to be ringed at GFU and the first since October 2008. More Willow Warblers, Blackcaps, another Lesser Whitethroat and another Redstart took today´s total new birds to 51.

The day ended with explanations of moult strategies, feather notation and fat and muscle scoring. 

 Fairly strong winds forecast for tomorrow but the direction is good so we should be able to find quite a few nets out of the wind so the new ringers can have more practice.

Joe & Lucy

Rune demonstrating how to extract a bird from a mist net - Joe Krawiec

The new ringing lab in action - Lucy Dadour

Happy to have some birds - Lucy Dadour

Not caught at GFU since October 2008, a Ring Ouzel (Ring Drossel) - Joe Krawiec

Litauisk Rødhals

Strong southerly winds prevented us from opening any nets before 9:30 when the wind changed direction slightly allowing us to open a few nets. Netting until 16:00 only resulted in 11 birds (only 2 new!). The last bird however was exciting, a robin from Lithuania! Possibly the first Robin from this country caught at Gedser.

We're going to be very busy here over the weekend as people arrive tonight for the ringing course. Rain forecast for tomorrow morning, the new ringers may have to bring there own birds with them!

Joe & Lucy

Lithuanian ring on a Robin - Joe Krawiec

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Wind, rain, Redstart

As predicted the weather was pretty awful this morning. We found a few nets out of the wind but only managed to catch 10 birds (7 new) before it started raining around 09:00 and we had to close up. However among the catch were the second Lesser Whitethroat (Gærdsanger) and second Redstart (Rødstjert) for the year, a female this time.

Joe & Lucy

Redstart, a second year female - Joe Krawiec

One better than yesterday

Another slow morning today with just 15 new birds ringed. However we did ring the first Lesser Whitethroat (Gærdesanger) for the year after the two controls caught yesterday. We also caught another Tree Pipit (Skovpiber), a species which we were not expecting to see again.

If we identified the call correctly there were Reed Buntings (Rørspurv) in the garden today. We tried luring them into the net with the callers after standard time but were unsuccessful. There was also a female Mallard (Gråand) wandering around under one of the nets early this morning.

Weather forecast for tomorrow is awful! Lets hope Gedser Odde is a law unto itself as usual and we can open some nets.

Joe & Lucy

The second Tree Pipit for the year, not a common catch in Spring - Lucy Dadour

Lucy ringing a Blackbird - Joe Krawiec