Så faldt det i min turban at skrive dagens blog. Sådan er det når man er en af de nytilkomne, - så lad mig lige præsentere os nye på stationen: Vagn og Lars, som er kommet igen efter 4 ugers fravær, Nina og Clausjannick fra Holmeolstrup, samt Søren Mygind, som er under oplæring for weekenden. Vi må da sige, at der nu er god ringmærkerdækning på stationen: 6 mærkere til i alt 186 meter net (på grund af den stærke SV-vind måtte vi droppe at sætte alle nettene i dag)

 Vi nåede næsten de 100 nymærkninger i dag, hvilket er nogenlunde godkendt. Ud over spurvehøgen var det nu kun almindeligheder i dag.

 Vi troede ellers at det ville blive en stor dag i dag, idet der allerede da sidste net var sat, var 5 fugle i det første net og i andet net sad der 9 på første runde, men så begyndte det også at ebbe ud.

Gert kom forbi og vi lavede diverse forberedelser til i morgen, hvor der er ”åbent hus” 9-13.
Vejret tegner ikke for godt, men vi håber på det bedste.

Og som altid når Nina og Clausjannick kommer forbi, bliver der serveret dejlig middag lørdag aften. Igen var det en oplevelse i lækkerier. Tusind tak, Nina !

Lars var i det origamiske humør og lærte os hvordan man folder en indkøbspose til genbrug i trekant-facon som amerikanerne folder Stars'n'Stribes. Det havde vi nu meget grin af inden teknikken var indlært.

Having examined the forecast as usual last night we were fairly sure that rain was going to prevent us opening the nets at the usual time, but just in case we woke up early and sure enough a detemined and persistent drizzle was falling. Secretly quite happy for a bit of extra sleep, we kept checking the weather to see if we could open later in the morning, but it remained wet and windy - not good conditions, especially considering how many goldcrests we knew were still fluttering around the garden. So for the first time in a very long time we didn't open the nets today, and instead spent the day catching up on housework and other chores, tackling some of the backlog of data sheets that we had to double check to ensure the data had been entered correctly into the system, and even doing a bit of writing. 

We now have a much fuller house as Lars and Vagn have arrived to help for the next few weeks, and Søren, Clausjannic and Nina have joined us for the weekend, so unusually there are three early birds getting up tomorrow morning to put up the nets!

Hopefully we'll catch a few more birds tomorrow!

Cheers,

Gail

Having worked our way through what felt like every goldcrest within a 50 miles radius over the last few days, we had a second wave come through the garden today, mingling with birds we had already ringed. Due to the high volume of birds we were catching, Ramón and Henrik were ringing almost continuously while I went round and round the garden extracting birds from the nets. Suffice to say there were several moments when I nearly had a goldcrest-induced breakdown!

Henrik’s stay came to an end today so the dream team has disbanded, but Ramón and I kept up the rounds until about 5.15pm and I managed to ring 60 birds myself, which is a new PB!

In total today we caught 261 birds and recaptured 27 (along with a lot of goldcrests that we just released at the net in order not to stress them again). Species data can be seen below!

That’s all for now, cheers!
Gail

Da vi skulle sætte nettene op til morgen var der meget stille i haven så jeg regnede ikke med mange fugle.

Men allerede på første runde var der en del men dog slet ikke som de andre dage.

På anden runde begyndte fuglekongerne at røre på sig, men det viste sig at ca 90% af dem var fra de sidste 2 dage.

De fleste blev selvfølgelig fanget i de net hvor der blev ved med at blive fyldt med blade så vi valgte at lukke de værste net ned da vi brugte meget tid på at pille blade ud på hver runde.

Ret tidligt blev der stille i nettene så vi lukkede ned til middag lidt efter standardtid.

Vi fangede de munk med symetriske hvide fjer på vingen.

Om eftermiddagen begyndte det at regne og der skulle også komme regn i nat så det er ikke det bedste for fangsten i morgen tidlig, men vi kan jo håbe at de tager fejl så der stadig kan komme lidt.

Dog tror jeg at der igen i morgen vil komme en masse genfangster fra de sidste dage pga vejret i eftermiddags og i nat.

Dagens fangst:

Gærdesmutte/Wren 2

Jernspurv/Dunnock 3

Rødhals/Robin 27

Rødstjert/Redstart 1

Sangdrossel/Songtrush 2

Gærdesanger/Lesser whitethtroat 1

Munk/Blackcap 2

Gransanger/Chiffchaff 24

Fuglekonge/Goldcrest 32

Skovspurv/Treesparrow 3

Total 97

Bird diversity was up from yesterday, and though the day’s catch was still dominated by robins and goldcrests, we also caught a lot of dunnocks and chiffchaffs, as well as a smattering of the usual suspects - blackcaps, willow warblers, and song thrushes, and a couple of tree pipits. We also got another siskin that I was very happy to extract and ring, but the show stopper today was a yellow-browed warbler, the second of the year here at Gedser, unmistakable for its bright yellow wing bars and striking eyebrow. Ramón was over the moon to ring it!

Our total count for today was 233 new birds, 23 recaptures, and 16 species. Not a bad effort. We closed the nets around 2pm when the garden suddenly went very quiet, and almost all we were catching were a handful of the birds we had ringed over the past few days. Ramón used the afternoon to cut the grass throughout the whole garden in preparation for the open house on Sunday - no rest for the wicked!

We have been reliably informed by Gert that after a big day (yesterday - 472 birds), the following day you should get roughly half the quantity of birds (today - 233 birds), and the day after it should half again. So let's see if we have a slightly more relaxed day tomorrow…

Cheers!
Gail

Holy moly. Today was a big day. Based on the forecast we weren’t expecting to get more than a reasonable flow of birds into the nets, but from the moment we opened robins started to appear like magic. With just three of us we were working non-stop from the word go to extract birds and process them without leaving any of them waiting for too long. Just as we were disappearing under a tide of robins and a goldcrest invasion, Hans and Bo turned up to help us with the rounds for long enough to get back in control of the numbers. We had the nets open for 6.30am and didn’t close until 7.30pm - a) because the birds just kept coming, and b) because we are all pretty keen beans (very tired beans now!). We didn't manage to eat breakfast until 2pm because we were so flat out! For our efforts we ringed between us 472 birds and recorded 14 recaptures. Of those 248 were robins and 196 were goldcrests!! It’s quite something when you’re working with a bird that makes a chiffchaff seem beefy.

Although our day was dominated by these two species, a notable mention goes to the siskin ringed by Ramón (a first for him), and a very exciting first for Henrik - a grey wagtail! Only four grey wagtails have been caught in the history of this station, so it definitely required a celebratory beer.

We are off to bed now. Data below!

Cheers!
Gail

Personligt havde jeg regnet med en stille vejr pga det varme vejr, men jeg fandt hurtigt ud af at sådan skulle det ikke være for på første runde løb jeg 2 gange tør for poser så måtte tilbage efter flere.

Pga de mange fugle lod jeg Ramon mærke fuglene så jeg kunne gå runde med det samme og det viste sig at være en rigtigt god ide så alle de fugle der hang kunne komme hurtigt ud igen.

Ved et af nettene er der i jorden et hvepsebo og i dag på runden fløj den i spurvehøgenettet men desværre kom den ud igen.

Den kom flere gange over dagen tilbage til boet men vi fik desværre ikke fanget den.

Da jeg på et tidspunkt skulle ind på værkstedet faldt en lille flagermus ned på jorden.

Jeg samlede den op og den var iskold så jeg kom den i en pose og tog den ind hvor den senere satte sig på siden af posen.

Efter et par timer kiggede jeg ned til den og der var den kommet til krafter og hvæsede af mig så jeg besluttede mig for at sætte posen ud på værkstedet igen, men der vågnede den helt op og fløj ud.

Ramon og Gaile fik vasket fugleposer så nu er der friske poser til i morgen.

Dagens mærkning:

Skovpiber/Treepipit 1

Gærdesmutte/Wren 2

Jernspurv/Dunnock 10

Rødhals/Robin 56

Solsort/Blackbird 1

Munk/Blackcap 4

Gransanger/Chiffchaff 33

Løvsanger/Willowwarbler 1

Rødtoppet fuglekonge/Firecrest 1

Blåmejse/Bluetit 3

Musvit/greattit 1

Skovspurv/Treesparrow 1

Bogfinke/Chaffinch 3

Grønirisk/Greenfinch 1

Rørspurv/Reedbunting 1

Total : 119

After three days with over 120 birds, today it slowed down a bit, but it was still a nice day with 72 birds ringed. In July, 72 birds felt very busy, but I guess, being ringing everyday for the last 64 days in a row makes a difference.

No surprises today in the nets, well, if we do not count a sparrowhawk meal in the net, that my sweet collegues had put in a bag for me to "ring" saying: "oh!! we have a big surprise for you, you should ring it!". I put my hand inside the bag only to touch something very different, very quiet and a weird texture... I took it out to find that it was a dead mouse (!) that sadly, a sparrowhawk lost in the net before escaping (we did not ring any sparrowhawks today - at least 5 flew away before we got them).

The weather was beautiful, much warmer than the last few days, so we could enjoy some time outside: birdwatching at the tip, reading, collecting apples from the garden and walking to Gedser to get some food supplies.

Also, Vibeke brought us two bottles of local apple juice, corn, apples and pears! Delicious! Thanks a lot again!

Gedser Fuglestation is a great place! Not only for the birds but also because of the people.

Best!

Ramón.

Dagen startede igen med 2 runder med en hel del fugle, men i dag kunne vi næsten ringmærke alle inden næste runde.

På anden runde kom Ramon ind og spurgte om natravn var almindelig her for han havde fanget en.

Det måtte jeg så fortælle at den ikke var og at den ikke bliver fanget her hver år.

Selv om det ser ud som at fuglen bliver holdt i benene så ligger den kun på hånden.

Så han fik ringmærket den som ny art og senere fik han en spætmejse som også var ny for ham så han var vildt glad.

Dagen blev domineret af gransangere og næsten ingen rødhalse.

Der kom et par røde glenter ind over haven men ellers var det mest spurvehøge.

Dagens mærkning:

Natravn /Nightjar 1

Gærdesmutte/Wren 7

Jernspurv/Dunnock 6

Rødhals/Robin 18

Rødstjert/Redstart 2

Gærdesanger/Lesser whitethroat 3

Munk/Blackcap 12

Gransanger/Chiffchaff 66

Løvsanger/Willowwarbler 3

Grå fluesnapper/Spotted flycatcher 1

Spætmejse/Nuthatcher 1

Bogfinke/Chaffinch 1

Total 121

Today saw the arrival of some really nice birds. The wind had dropped which meant an influx of birds into the garden and we caught so many during the first few rounds of the day that Hans and Benny had to come to the rescue and help with the extractions while Ramón and Henrik ringed as fast as they could so that the birds could get back to fattening themselves up in the garden for their migration. Along with the usual robins, blackcaps, and chiff-chaffs we caught a handful of chaffinches, a smattering of gold- and fire-crests, a few more reed buntings, a couple of song thrushes and some sparrow hawks (including a particularly big female). The icing on the cake though was during the last round of the day - a short-toed treecreeper! Very cute, very cool.

We also saw some cranes flying overhead on their migration to the south, as well as barnacle geese and some honey buzzards. Hans brought us a wasp spider from his garden - it has really incredible markings and builds a spiral orb web. Apparently it only arrived in Denmark a couple of decades ago, slowly spreading north from the south of Europe.

We opened the nets again later in the afternoon in the hope of enticing in another yellow-browed warbler by playing its song loud across the garden, but to no avail. Maybe tomorrow!

Jón sadly had to depart for reality this afternoon so tomorrow we are down to three for while. Good thing I am getting faster at extracting birds from the nets!

Hope you all managed to get out and see some wildlife today. The birds from the morning are listed below for your enjoyment.

All the best!

Gail