A good mix

A good morning lasted until around 11:00 when the wind suddenly picked up bringing with it several sharp showers - up until then it had been very productive as 63 new birds were caught with some nice variety; the highlights included 2 Firecrests (with a third bird also present), a Black Redstart, a Coal Tit, 12 Chiffchaffs, 2 Blackcaps, a White Wagtail and a Treecreeper in amongst 17 new Robins and 15 new Dunnocks including a Belgian control.

Coal Tit and Black Redstart - I'm sure the Coal Tit meant more to me than the two other European ringers present this morning as these smart, grey-backed birds P. a. ater are only scarce visitors to the UK but look much nicer than our olive/greeny/browny backed resident birds P. a. britannicus

 

There were a few other birds seen around the station through the morning with 40+ Common Crossbills zooming around, 4 more Black Redstarts dotted about and a smart pair of Mediterranean Gulls which flew over the house calling loudly.

 

A walk in the afternoon north up the coast produced the highlights of a beast of a female Goshawk over the wood just north of Birkemosse, more Common Crossbills, 30+ Bramblings feeding in nearby fields and 12 Sanderling roosting on the beach.   35+ Sandwich Terns flew west along the coast in the evening.

 

Also moving through today was Marie who has left us after ten days of ringing; we wish her well with her guiding job and future ringing back in France.

Firecrest

deja vue

A very similar start to the day as yesterday with very thick, very wet, very horrible fog covering the station however, it didn't linger as long allowing us to open the nets by 10:00; we then managed another 50 new birds (again like yesterday!) including the first Blackcap of the year, another 36 Robins and 5 Song Thrushes.   A Green Sandpiper flew over in the fog and a Woodcock was flushed mid-morning.

The Blackcap didn't want to pose nicely in the hand so here's an Edible Frog Rana esculenta in the pond!

 

In the two hours between the fog half clearing and clearing enough to open nets there was a good wildfowl movement with 6,000 Eiders and 700 Barnacle Geese passing along with small numbers of Teal, Pintail, Wigeon, Gadwall, Shoveler, Shelduck, Oystercatchers, Curlew and a single Bar-tailed Godwit.

 

A very pleasant afternoon jaunt to the Bøtø Nature Reserve just to the north of Gedser produced a good range of birds including 2 Great White Egrets, 4 Garganey, 16 Ruff, a White-tailed Eagle, a Common Crane, a booming Bittern and still hundreds of Ducks and Barnacle Geese reminding us that its still early in the spring!

 



Lie in!

Very thick, very wet, very horrible fog blanketed the station all morning preventing any nets being opened until it began to clear around midday; after which it was clear that there were a few birds about as a couple of hours netting produced 50 new birds with 32 Robins the main species while 8 Redwings, 3 Song Thrushes, a Fieldfare and a few Dunnocks were also noteworthy - a good day after all!

Fieldfare

 

As soon as the fog started to clear Eiders wasted no time in making the most of improved conditions (although visibility was still very poor!) with large flocks piling through; Louis who was counting just down the coast recorded 14,000 in three hours before the weather closed in again late afternoon.

 

We also welcomed Henning Ettrup to the station who, after putting his wife on a plane to Rome dashed down here for two weeks of ringing just as the spring starts to get going!

Marts en lille oversigt (Happend in March)

Marts var relativ varm og først halvdel bød også på rigtig meget sol men der var også dage med frost men ingen sne.

På Gedser Fuglestation kunne der derfor ringmærkes alle dage – udtagen én - dagen hvor Simon fra England havde sin første dag!

Det var ikke overraskende at der var mange mejser – musit var den art der blev ringmærket flest af. Nænves skal også to musvitter fra Polen.

 

Genmelding af en Polsk musvit - Recapture of a Polish Great tit

Oversigen over de ringmærket fugle indeholder disse arter:

Data-marts

Art	Antal
Lille Korsnæb	1
Hvid Vipstjert	1
Lille Gråsisken	1
Vindrossel	1
Sjagger	1
Sortstrubet Bynkefugl	1
Stor Gråsisken	1
Gråspurv	2
Husrødstjert	2
Tornirisk	3
Kvækerfinke	4
Træløber	4
Stillits	5
Rødtoppet Fuglekonge	8
Rørspurv	8
Skovspurv	9
Grønsisken	12
Sangdrossel	12
Gulspurv	16
Gærdesmutte	26
Solsort	40
Gransanger	40
Grønirisk	44
Blåmejse	47
Bogfinke	54
Fuglekonge	56
Jernspurv	137
Rødhals	161
Musvit	220

Lille Korsnæb - Red Crossbill

Gulspurv - yellowhammer

Rødtoppet Fuglekonge - Firecrest

Hey English readers

March was warm relatively sunny, though on a few mornings we did have frost but luckily no snow so we were able to ring birds all days - except one - Simon's first morning!

It was no surprise that tit dominated the nest the first weeks - with robins gradually taking over.

For a total list see above.

Regards, hans, Simon and Louis

Re-trap Robins

A somewhat surprising day with very good conditions - almost calm, overcast and a bit of rain overnight with what wind there was still in the east producing very little!   We managed to catch 14 new birds with a few Dunnocks, Robins, Song Thrushes and Chaffinches in the mix; there were still plenty of Robins in the garden but they were all re-traps from the previous days!

It was pretty quiet over the sea as well with two Sandwich Terns, a Black-throated Diver and 21 Curlews passing east through the morning.    Kroghage in the afternoon then produced a pair of Stonechats, a male Wheatear and three Black Redstarts.

However, we got back to the station after birding to be told by Rune and company that there had been a big flock of 130 Fieldfares in the garden shortly after we had closed the nets - slightly frustrating but hopefully it bodes well for tomorrow!

Windy Windy!

A very windy day so only a few nets could be opened in the morning - just enough to be classified as a standardised session but it was clear that there were very few birds around anyway, so a quiet day was predicted and a quiet day was achieved admirably!  We managed to catch 11 new birds with 4 Robins, 3 Dunnocks, 2 Wrens and single Chaffinch and Blackbird.

 

There weren't many birds to photograph so here's a Hare from the kitchen window!

 

Unfortunately the sea was also unproductive this morning with 9 Sandwich Terns drifting east and 13 Teal the only birds of note seen.   Rune arrived early evening for a few days of hopefully ringing and a Danish Bird Observatories / Ringing Stations meeting tomorrow.