Up before dawn as usual. Opened the door and checked the weather. Blowing a gale from the south west. We decided to have a think about which nets we could open. The nets around the house would be too windy, as would most of the east garden. The always reliable nets in the north garden would be acceptable along with a couple of sheltered nets by the road to the point. We wouldn't use the high nets.

The standardised netting session requires 300 net metre hours. So 5 hours with 60 metres of net. The length of all the nets is 285 metres, so we can usually find 60 plus metres. We added up the viable nets and the total was 99 metres.

Opening the nets before first light and a few robins and song thrushes were out and about. The first net round and the nets were full. Of leaves, rather than birds. It's best to clear out the leaves on each round as it will only get worse.

We incresed the frequency of net rounds and made a respectable 27 birds, with only one retrap.

Nets were closed for 11:30. However, several checks were made during the day to make sure that they stayed tightly furled.

Hilsen

N

Opened my eyes at 5:00am this morning. Dark, apart from the silent flash from the lighthouse, all is quiet, where's my watch! No sound outside, No wind?

Light breeze from the north west. Here we go, could be busy. Weetabix, fruit and fat free yoghurt. Nice cup of Yorkshire tea from home. Set up for the first couple of hours.

5:45am and still dark, headlamps on, I take the north garden and Rainer the east garden and meet near the gate. A few robins "ticking" in the bushes. That's a good sign. Nets up by 6:15 and back at the house. Another cuppa sitting outside watching activity as it grew gradually lighter. Out at sea the lights of the early ferry Rostock. A few small passerines flitting between the bushes.

6:45am I leave for first round, just light. Plenty of bird bags, just in case. Five or six birds in each net, more in the high net. Get part way round and take what I have back to the lab, getting heavy round my neck. Hans arrives and much needed help. The song thrushes and dunnocks from yesterday have been replaced in numbers by that staple Gedser autumn fayre of robins, chiffchaffs and a few others.

Unable to break the chains that tie us to the desks in the lab, Hans kindly bought out  flask of fresh coffee. Gert arrived along with Anders to help with extracting the birds from the nets, while Rainer and myself were kept busy processing the birds. 

Bespoke boxes were used to keep multiple birds of the same species. 

10.00am, party visiting from the local bird club. Very interested in what we were doing and the value to science. They all, individually, saw the ringing process. I do a lot of ringing demonstrations at home and apart from the language differences, they are just the same. Showing birds to the public at close range  is such a privilege. They also provided some excellent and much welcome cake.  

Then came the blue tits! Several flocks of up to 50 birds were seen flying over the garden and 88 managed to find the way into the nets. Danish blue tits are augmented by migratory birds with the Swedish population moving south in to Germany. In the UK I have been a trainer for over 20 years and we love blue tits (and great tits) because they form the staple diet of trainees during the winter months. Ringing blue tits provides excellent training to new ringers. They are a challenge to extract from mist nets, but are an easy introduction to the moult process and ageing techniques,

12:30pm, end of the standardised ringing session. My stomach is rumbling, Rainer has decided to go back to the house. I decide to carry on, don't want to sit inside when there are birds to study. Quick sandwich on the go. Some nice birds coming through now, a few bramblings, chiffchaffs, a late garden warbler. A nice surprise was a short-toed treecreeper. Very different with the common treecreeper with a greyer hue, but only reliably identified by biometric measurement. Bill and hind claw. 

Short-toed Treecreeper/korttået træløber with long bill and short hind claw

Please note the white "diamant-spots" on the tips of the primaries

4:30pm, Starting to go quiet, so decide to call it a day. Closing the nets and processing the remaining birds, ignoring a few retraps from earlier in the day. Back to the house, somethng to eat.

16:30pm, Start entering the data onto the Fuglestation database, then entering on to DOFBasen and Trektellen. Filing the full data sheets. Rainer makes supper. Then write the blog. Trying to get my camera to link up to the office computer. Sorry it won't work, so no pictures tonight, unless Hans manages to upload an image remotely.

Now 20:10pm. Soon be morning, wind turned west, so should be a few stragglers left in the garden, maybe some newbies. Can't wait.

Hilsen

Gedser Fuglestation 2018 September 24.

Ok! What just happen? Today, at 0700 hours and throughout the day we were buffeted by the infamous nor’westerly winds.  The same winds we desperately wanted to break the boredom we experienced during the past week arrived last night as a harbringer. These winds were the slingshot for the thousands of migrating birds from the northern hinterlands. Simply put, we got wacked. On the first round Song Thrushes (48), hung in the nets. These were quickly replaced with Dunnocks on the second round and subsequent rounds. By 1000 hours many nets hung empty but by 1430 hours we managed to squeeze 229 birds through the weigh scale. 

Birds of the day: Song Thrush/sangdrossel and Dunnock/jernspurv

That was our nets. But the many hundreds of passerines and hunting or moving raptors overhead flying into the westerly winds was beyond description. I was simply awe struck and humble.  Don’t you love Gedser?

Today started with less wind and high cloud. Birds calling from the bushes as it got light. We had more variety today with a Reed Warbler, Garden Warbler and 13 Dunnocks. A sign of an increase in migration were the 13 Dunnocks that we caught.

There was a strong movement of raptors throughout the day and we caught 5 Sparrowhawks in the raptor nets. Follow the migration watch at Gedser Odde on the Træk pages from the home page.

Here are todays slightly better results.

Spurvehøg         5

Jernspurv            13

Sangdrossel        1

Rørsanger            1

Havesanger          1

Munk                      2

Gransanger           5

Løvsanger             2

Bogfinke                1

Tomorrow the wind is forecast to move round to the North West. Much better for migration. But the wind speed may be too high to erect all of the nets. I think we will have to consider what to do in the morning.

Hilsen

Today was a very sad day, we had to say a fond goodbye to our resident Dane.

But, the very windy weather kept any birds low in the bushes, we could only manage 102 net metres, with nets in the more secluded rides. Several rain storms passed over after we had finished the standard netting.

Here are todays totals:-

Rødhals/Robin              1/1

Gransanger/Chiffchaff   2/0

Blackbird                         0/1

Great Tit                           0/1

Cups of Coffee                10+ (some of the subspecies med mælk)

Jimmy, our new resident Dane, had an excellent day at the tip with, as well as others:-

1900+ Swallows

220 Kestrels

550 Eiders.

Many thanks to Jimmy and his company over evening meal (and Dr Nielsen's)

Here is today's little joke for you, especially for our departed Dane:-

How many therapists does it take to change a light bulb?

One, but the light bulb must want to change.

Hilsen, Ta-ta etc.

Today we woke with great hopes and the knowledge that it is the first day of the rest of our lives.

But it was like groundhog day.

The wind was stronger than yesterday.

Here are todays totals:-

Spurvehøg               1

Rødhals                    1

Rødstjert                    3

Munk                          1/1

Gransanger               3

Grå Flueshapper      1

Broget Fluesnapper 1

Blåmejse                     0/1

Of the observations at the point were 640 Scoter, 142 Wigeon and 94 Eider. Overhead were 120 Swallows.  The observers do a magnificent job out at the point, they are there in all weathers. Today well over 1000 individual birds have been counted of over 30 species. We ringers are comparative softies, being able to shelter inside and have a fresh cup of coffee whenever we want. I'd like to salute our trækers. 

The weather is forecast to change on Sunday evening to a northerly wind. The winds from the south-west have been stopping the migration. Somewhere there are birds waiting to come to Gedser next week. Or was that a dream I have just had?

The poet is too depressed today for his ditty and the photographer is fast asleep in bed, so there are no images. Our colonial colleague is "discussing" a point with a friend of GFU on the interweb thing. A point I fear will run and run. Knowing both parties I am backing the Danish team.

Here is a poor English joke.

What do you call a deer with no eyes?

No idea.

Hilsen

Another quiet day with sunshine and a westerly wind that made us delay opening the nets for an hour.

Our Five Star accomadation taken a few years ago. The observant of you will have seen that it was taken before the alterations. Especially for those of you who have never visited Gedser.

Here are todays birds:-

Sparrowhawk       1

Robin                      5/1

Redstart                  1

Blackcap                  2

Great Tit                    1

Blue Tit                       0/1

Blackbird                   0/1

Luckily around 14:00 we caught a female Sparrowhawk in the raptor nets.

No pictures of birds today, so an image taken a couple of years ago of Gedser´s main street just after the stage coach has left. 

Here is todays little ditty:-

There were thre men in a fuglestation,                                                                                                           They each came from a different nation,                                                                                                       From Canada, England and Denmark,                                                                                                         Like brothers they made their mark,                                                                                                             Despite being no relation.  

Trækket på Odden var ikke imponerende: de største tal stod Sortand/ Black Scooter (330) for sammen med Landsvale / Swallow (200) og Bogfinke / Chaffinch (300).

Rainer Ebel fra Canada har igen i dag et indlæg om fangsterne her på Gedser Fuglestation - her Kommer det:

Migration Blues

September’s newly ringed birds are compared between last year and this year (See graph).

For the most part, both years reflect each other at least until 14 September. But this year, from the 7^th to the 11^th we almost discovered the abyss of the Marianna Trench The 10^th, 13^th, and 16^th represents an off phase oscillation. What it means is anyone’s guess. With missing data and weather data not at the finger tips for 2017 it is impossible to compare. Thereafter numbers of netted birds increased reaching the ultimate peak of 358 netted birds on the 18^th . What happened?

This year we just managed to bump along, our nets sitting essentially empty, waving to the birds flying overhead. We did everything within our power short of the mystic Canadian rain dance that appears not to work in Denmark. But do blame our lack lust performance on the wind or more generally, on atmospheric conditions of the day.

Vi havde i dag besøg af 3 Nøddekriger, der kredsede over haven en tid og samtidig havde vi også besøg af Lars Peter Bærendsen fra Næstved. Han var kommet for at fotografere Duehaler i vores sommerfuglebusk.

Vi var så heldige at han fik taget et foto af den ene Nøddekrige og heldigvis også fik Duehalen i kassen.

Dagens fangster: