Ringmærkningen: A windier day than we would like for ringing, so not a big surprise when the first round didn't bring a lot. The first bird I extracted was a recapture of a Great Tit (Musvit) though, that Théo later exitedly told us, was one he ringed himself October 13th, first time he was here this past autumn. On top of that I also got my Lesser Whitethroat (Gærdesanger), as promised, and then the most adorable Goldcrest (Fuglekonge) couple, that were ready to make it official and put a ring on it.

Bird (Fugle). Foto: Théophile Fontaine

With the slower day, there was time to practice and optimize my handling, and with Théo continuing to be a great teacher, I've now unlocked a safer and more effective way of the whole process, that I'm actually super excited about.

The singing birds around the house have been dominated by Chiffchaffs (Gransanger), Dunnocks (Jernspurv) and Skylarks (Sanglærke) for a while, but now the Blackcaps (Munk) are really making themselves heard, while also being our most caught species today. However with all the different calls and variations, I'm still nagging Théo the whole day like: "Is this *insert bird name*?" and "Who's making that sound?". I'm definitely improving, even though he still REALLY doesn't like my imitations.

 Today's numbers:

Trækket på Odden: The day started cloudy, but it became brighter and brighter as the time went on. The first hours were pretty actives for migration, as we could see big flocks of Barnacle Geese (Bramgås), as well as Eiders (Ederfugl) and Pigeons (Ringdue). Other species that we could see flying over the sea were some Divers (Lom), Mergansers (Toppet Skallesluger), Terns (Dværgterne & Fjordterne), Shelducks (Gravand), Common Scoter (Sortand), Gadwall (Knarand), Grey Herons (Fiskehejre), Cormorants (Skarv) and Gulls. We could also hear and then see a pair of Curlews (Storspove) flying over the seashore.

On the other hand, today the bushes on the cape were full of activity. Blue tits (Blåmejse), Goldcrest (Fuglekongen), Skylarks (Sanglærke), a Lesser whitethroat (Gærdesanger) and a Black cap (Munk) tried to find some food on the big amount of mosquitoes that woke up at the same time, filling the air and surfaces like a cloud. A Kestrel (Tårnfalk) spent some time over the bushes, searching for an interesting prey. The mosquitoes are not the only insects that are appearing on the grass: beetles from the family Meloidae, bumblebees and a butterfly (Aglais io) were easy to see.

After spending some time in the garden, the Lesser whitethroat finally came to say hi at the tip! Picture by Cyann Ménard/GFU

Despite this activity, the last hours we spent at Gedser Odde were very slow for migration, the birds seemed have chosen other migration ways or were less ready to move under the shining sun.

Se alle dagens observationer ved Gedser Odde i DOFbasen.

The rest of the day: We've had some surprisingly warm afternoons in our garden these past days, since we're pretty sheltered from the wind. After today's sunny lunches and naps, the french (Cyann and Théo) and I (Mathilde, now sunburned) were hanging out on the terrace, when Mads sent Théo a message about a Black-Winged Kite (Blå Glente) approaching us, and shortly after we spotted it, as it flew close over the station! It was a first for me, and Théo hasn't seen one since he was a little kid back in 2016!

Now it's also the third day in a row we have dinner outside, so let's see how long we can keep that streak going!

Folk på stationen: Cyann Ménard, Mathilde Sif Eiby, Sjoerd van Baal, Théophile Fontaine, Olga Fernandez Enriquez

Ringmærkningen: Overcome with optimism, I guessed 136 birds for this morning. But, even though the first two rounds weren't too bad, with 34 birds in total, I quickly realised that reaching this number would be very difficult, with only three birds in the third round. The following rounds brought a few more birds, but nowhere near enough to reach 100. Nevertheless, we were overwhelmed by success in completing a difficult task: reaching the same number as yesterday, 61! The ratio is slightly different anyway, with seven more birds ringed. The apple garden net remains one of the best, especially for Blackcaps (Munk).

The African migrants are coming, but still in low numbers: two Willow warblers (Løvsanger) and two Common redstarts (Rødstjert) were ringed this morning. We are waiting for bigger numbers The little surprise of the day was the Eurasian treecreeper (Træløber) that Mathilde added to her ringing list. I'm always surprised when people say that this species is common here, when in France we catch many more Short-toed Treecreepers (KorttåetTræløber).

Impossible to get bored by the beauty of this bird ! Foto : Théophile Fontaine

The Lesser whitethroat (Gærdesanger) that we ringed yesterday is still in the garden, foraging in the trees in front of the house and sometimes singing while we were eating lunch.
The weather looks good for tomorrow. The wind will stay the same, just a bit too strong, but the good thing is that it will be a bit cloudier, so the nets will be less visible!

Today's numbers:

Trækket på Odden: The cloudless sky of this morning gave us a really great sunrise, once again. Despite the wind - which, to be honest, was a bit chilly at times - we decided to move to a different spot for today’s count, since we were tired of the building blocking our view from behind. From up there, we counted 1205 individuals of 39 different species, both migrating or just passing by. Among the migrating species, the total number of birds was really boosted by a few large flocks of Eiders (Ederfugl), Barnacle geese (Bramgås), and Cormorants (Skarv). I was also really happy to spot some Sand Martins (Digesvale), which I hadn't seen yet this year.

One of the three Barnacle geese (Bramgås) that also flew over the garden in the early morning. Foto : Théophile Fontaine

As for the non-migratory species, the field was once again occupied by the usuals Skylarks(Sanglærke) and White Wagtails (Hvid vipstjert), joined today by a Wheatear (Stenpikker) as well as a Yellow Wagtail (Gul vipstjert). We also spotted several individuals of both Grey and Common Seals (Gråsæl & Spættet sæl), which we hadn’t seen lately because of the waves caused by the strong wind.

Se alle dagens observationer ved Gedser Odde i DOFbasen.

A warm afternoon : As the sun shone bright all day long, we could all enjoy a nice outside lunch, followed (for some of us) by a warming nap on the grass or on the benches. Since I (Cyann) absolutely refused to step out of the sun and be stuck inside on such a beautiful day, I decided to make the most of it by taking my laptop outside to work there all afternoon. Fingers crossed, hopefully we all avoided getting sunburned... We obviously ate dinner outside once again, because who knows for how long we can keep on doing that? And we are glad we did, as we got the cutest visit from a curious weasel, really surprised to meet five people looking at it with a lot of awe in the eyes.

Folk på stationen: Cyann Ménard, Mathilde Sif Eiby, Sjoerd van Baal, Théophile Fontaine, Olga Fernandez Enriquez

Ringmærkningen: After a day with closed nets, we were very excited to ring again this morning. The morning wind still took our expectations down a notch, and during breakfast we each guessed 56 and 66 birds (me more optimistic than Théo, as usual). We finished with 61 birds, so we're happy with the team average. 

We had hoped to catch the Pied Flycatcher (Broget Fluesnapper) and the Wood Warbler (Skovsanger), that have been in the garden since Sunday afternoon, but we sadly haven't seen them today.
The good news is that we caught the first Lesser Whitethroat (Gærdesanger) of the season! Since Théo swore we'd have plenty in the future, I didn't get to ring it yet though. To make it up to me, he kept quiet about a Goldfinch (Stillits), until I pulled it out of the bag, and could add that to my ringing species list instead!

Lesser Whitethroat. Foto: Théophile Fontaine

In other specifics, Chiffchaffs (Gransanger) were the most abundant species, closely followed by 10 Blackcaps (Munk), that the sharp reader might have noticed, Théo spelled wrong on the blog the other day, so we're now calling them BACKcaps. Most of them were even caught in our favourite net, that we call the Apple Garden, which hasn't been opened this year before April.

Today's numbers:

Trækket på Odden: What a lovely day to be outside, enjoying the sun, and looking out for the few migrating birds of the day ! In total, we saw only 599 birds of 38 different species, most of them represented by less than 10 individuals. The weather was particularly nice for raptors migration, and it seems that it would get even better tomorrow for both raptors and passerines ! We were really pleased to spot the first Tree Sparrow (Skovspurv) of the year, calling and chilling out in the bushes.

The Tree sparrow on its branch. The characteristic black spot in the middle of the white cheek is easily noticeable. Picture by Cyann Ménard/GFU

On a completely different note, I heard that today is the World Curlew Day, so let’s talk about Curlews (Storspove). We saw a few of them today, one of them even greeted us with their melodious call. Nothing unusual so far, but I got some other news that I wanted to share here. A friend of mine sent me a Facebook post from the National Marine Park of the Arcachon Bay, which is an important stopover site for long-distance migratory birds. This post is about the Common Redshanks (Rødben) and the Curlews fitted by the National Marine Park with GPS tags, allowing to track their migratory paths. Looking at the paths on the map, we can see that some of the Curlews who left France in the beginning of April have passed really close to Gedser Odde a few days later… Curious, my friend asked about the migration date of those birds along the Danish coasts (yes, she is an invested friend), and got a quick answer : two birds indeed flew past Gedser on April 5 and 10 ! We actually counted one single curlew on the 5th, and many others on the 9th, so we might have counted those birds among the groups. The routes, the distances, and the speed at which migratory birds travel will never fail to impress me.

The red lines represent the Redshank migratory paths, while the yellow ones are of the Curlews. You can clearly see that 2 of the yellow lines get quite close to Gedser Odde, before spreading out from one side to another of the Baltic Sea. Map from the Facebook post of the Parc National Marin du Bassin d'Arcachon.

Se alle dagens observationer ved Gedser Odde i DOFbasen.

The rest of the day: In the afternoon we all had our lunches outside in the sun, while listening to the birds, with some of us (including me, Mathilde) still guessing, more than knowing all the songs and calls.

The weather stayed amazing all day, and we had some sweet Danish visitors, that came by to enjoy the sun and a drink on our benches. I had the joy of telling them about the station and showing them our taxidermy bird collection, and they were very surprised at how many Danish bird names Théo knew.

In the evening we were still soaking in the last sunshine, when Olga suggested we ate the delicious dinner she had prepared outside as well - so now it really feels like spring!

 Dinner outside today! Foto: Mathilde Sif Eiby / GFU.

Folk på stationen: Cyann Ménard, Mathilde Sif Eiby, Sjoerd van Baal, Théophile Fontaine, Olga Fernandez Enriquez

Ringmærkningen: No possibilty to ring with this strong wind this morning... But the nice species we saw yesterday afternoon are still in the garden today, so there is hope for tomorrow. In addition, we heard the first Lesser Whitethroat (Gærdesanger) of the year, soon in the nets !

Trækket på Odden: After some nice days off (thanks again Louis), I headed to the tip with Olga, who will participate to the migration counting for a few days. As the forecast had predicted, the wind was blowing very strongly, so we sought shelter near the building’s walls. I took advantage of the quiet first hour to tell Olga everything relevant information about migration I could think of, and we were able to look at the most common species here together to start getting to know them. After an hour and only a few birds, we were joined by Theophile and Mathilde, both craving a bit of action and a chance to burn off their excess energy due to the slow ringing of the past few days.

Big team for the windy, but sunny migration count today. Foto: Mathilde Sif Eiby / GFU

With all this energy, and the sun sometimes shining through the clouds, we were in a joyful and a bit silly mood. As the biggest flock seen today was of the 500 local Golden plovers (Hjejle), we eventually didn’t see many migrating birds... but still got lucky with some of this morning sighting. First of all, it seems that the Long-tailed ducks (Havlit) were not so bothered by the strong front-facing wind and the high waves, as they kept coming all morning long to eventually add up to 45 individuals, this spring’s highest number so far.

Théophile kept going back and forth, braving the wind to observe the birds flying closest to the shore, before returning to tell us which species he’d spotted from his vantage point. That’s how, at one point, he suddenly jumped to his feet and shouted “Sternes naines !!” (which is the French name for Little terns in English, Dværgterne in Danish). Funnily enough, a French visitor arrived at the exact same moment, delighted to bump into some fellow frenchies and to get to see the terns coming closer. The Little Terns were not the only unusual small water bird we saw today, as we also spotted three Little gulls (Dværgmåge) flying southwards, nor the only bird whose name has been shouted in French, as I had to get everybody attention to the Gannet (Sule, Fou de Bassan in French, in case you were wondering) coming really close to the shore.

One of the two first Little terns of the season ! Foto : Théophile Fontaine

Se alle dagens observationer ved Gedser Odde i DOFbasen.

Folk på stationen: Cyann Ménard, Mathilde Sif Eiby, Sjoerd van Baal, Théophile Fontaine, Olga Fernandez Enriquez

Ringmærkningen: The day started with a Wren (Gærdesmutte) on the first round. In the next rounds, we also got a Chaffinch (Bogfinke), a Dunnock (Jernspurv) and, of course, Robins (Rødhals). Both Chiffchaffs (Gransanger) and Willow warblers (Løvsanger) were caught on the nets, so we could appreciate the differences between both species. Chiffchafs have an emargination on the sixth primary, which Willow warblers lack. Moreover, Willow warblers have longer wings and yellow legs in general comparing to Chiffchaffs.

We also caught two thrush species: Song thrushes (Sangdrossel) and one Mistle thrush (Misteldrossel) ! The difference in size between them was clear when having them on hand.

Mistle trush (Misteldrossel) Foto : Théophile Fontaine

Trækket på Odden: Please not the play of words 'Blue and Cyann':

Two amazing moments unfolded today at Gedser Tip — but first, a real fight for survival.

Five wrens appeared out of the grey, flying low… really low. Just inches above the icy waves. A fine drizzle hung in the air, visibility was poor, and the wind wasn’t exactly helping. They were clearly pushing hard, heading straight for the safety of the hedge at the tip. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t easy — but they made it. Pure determination.

Then came something you don’t forget.

Out of the dull, grey sky, a single call cut through the drizzle — a Red-rumped Swallow. Just once. It passed overhead, heading west, unseen against the clouds. Gone as quickly as it came. One of those moments where you question your senses… but you know what you heard. The message went out immediately to the ringers and birders in town: something special just passed Gedser.

And then… something even more unexpected.

Out of nowhere — literally out of the blue — Cyann showed up with a plate of freshly made banana pancakes.

No rare bird could compete with that moment.

Stunned, grateful, and almost speechless, thanks were delivered about a million times. Because sometimes, the best surprises aren’t in the sky — they’re the ones shared on the ground among us.

Feeling of spring this afternoon : The days could have ended after the ringing, which was full of surprises. First, the Mistle thrush was caught in the nets and then, this unexpected bird, the Red-rumped swallow (Rødrygget Svale) heard by Louis a few minuts ago flying over the garden with four Barn swallows (Landsvale) ! But it seems that the weather was good for passerine migration. In the garden this afternoon, there was one Common redstart (Rødstjert), a few Chiffchaffs and Willow warblers (unringed !), five Blackcaps and two new species for the year: two male Pied flycatchers (Broget fluesnapper) and one Wood warbler (Skovsanger) ! Good signs for the coming week ?

Wood warbler (Skovsanger) Foto : Théophile Fontaine

Today it was my first day in Gedser. I am Olga, from Spain, and I have been previously in Agigea Bird Observatory (Romania) and Ottenby Fågelstation (Sweden). This is my first time in Denmark and I will travel the country from side to side because after Gedser I will go to Skagen Fuglestation. I am looking forward to keep on learning about birds through ringing and migration counting.

Folk på stationen: Cyann Ménard, Mathilde Sif Eiby, Sjoerd van Baal, Théophile Fontaine, Alba Maria Holmberg, Olga Fernandez Enriquez, Louis.a. Hansen

Ringmærkningen: Only a single robin (Rødhals) was heard during the opening round this morning, which is never a good sign for ringing. As expected, the first round was really calm, as were the next ones... However, we had roughly the same number of species as in previous days, with proportionally more Chiffchaffs (Gransanger) and Backcaps (Munk) than Robins (Rødhals). Hopefully it will continue this way, not because I’m tired of Robins (never !), but because it could signal the arrival of new species.

The small number of birds gave me the opportunity to teach Alba and Mathilde how to take other important biometrics: the tarsus and tail lengths. Measuring the tail is rather easy, but measuring the tarsus needs a bit more practice, especially with the smaller ones, so mornings like this one are perfect for that !

All in all, we had 41 different birds from 10 species, with one little blue devil: a nice Blue tit (Blåmejse).

Little blue devil. Foto : Théophile Fontaine

Trækket på Odden: Louis offered Cyann two days off, he was counting out at the tip, it was a slow morning but nevertheless, it’s not all about huge numbers and rarities, those morning are very important for the database !

A varied afternoon : This afternoon, Alba did some quantum physics, Mathilde was at a hip-hop workshop in Copenhagen, Sjoerd was working and Cyann was enjoying her day off. I took a nap (that was way too long) and then did some data check (it was necessary...).

Olga has just arrived from Ottenby and will be here until the 9th of May. Welcome !

Folk på stationen: Cyann Ménard, Mathilde Sif Eiby, Sjoerd van Baal, Théophile Fontaine, Alba Maria Holmberg, Olga Fernandez Enriquez, Louis.a. Hansen

Ringmærkningen: With the wearther being much like it was yesterday, we expected to catch a similar amount of birds, and this morning mostly delivered. Although we caught a few less birds than yesterday, we were still mostly kept busy, with the Robins (Rødhals), Wrens (Gærdesmutte) and Chiffchaff (Gransanger) still taking the lead numbers-wise. 

The highlight of the morning was no doubt the beautiful Yellowhammer (Gulspurv), a young male, that came as a bright yellow surprise when I pulled it out of a bag that Théo gave me. Compared to the younger individuals that I've previously seen in the hand, this one had much more striking colours, marking it as one of the most colourful birds I've had the pleasure of handling thus far.

The nice male Yellow hammer. Foto Théophile Fontaine

Besides the yellow, we also got some nice green and red colours within the laboratory, in the form of two Greenfinches (Grønirisk) and a Goldfinch (Stillits), who, together with a couple of Firecrests (Rødtoppet fuglekonge), marked a nice goodbye-for-now to Anne, who left the station again this afternoon after a brief, but eventful, 5-day stay here. It was a pleasure ringing with her! 

In total, today's numbers reached 89 birds distributed over 71 new birds and 18 recaptures, with 11 species being represented, which continues the downward trend of the last couple of days. This, however, is to be expected for long stretches of uninterrupted good weather, and is just a sign that the migratory birds would rather get on their way than stay in the garden.

Overview of the ringed birds:

Trækket på Odden: The forecast promised another great day at the tip, although the clear skies were accompanied by a very thick mist across the whole horizon this morning, especially towards the south, above the ocean, where we're usually observing. Because there was no wind, we were able to stand at our favourite spot on the tip, but it also meant there were no prospect of the fog clearing away. The sun took some time passing above this, and displayed a beautiful red color, where it shone through.

Red sun through binoculars. Foto: Mathilde Sif Eiby / GFU

At last it rose above, and gave us another mild morning, with no coats needed for the second half. Orla joined us early on, adding to the company, and made fun of Cyann and me trying to imitate birds, as well as me trying to pronounce the french birdnames. 

The sunlight beaming above the misty horizon. Foto: Mathilde Sif Eiby / GFU

After all, we weren't able to see that far, and maybe the birds didn't really feel like flying in it either, because it turned out to be a pretty calm day. As always, we had some highlights though:
We finally had the first Yellow Wagtail (Gul Vipstjert) at the tip, since only yesterday the first one flew by the garden, and one sat in a treetop in Bøtø.
We also saw three Snipes (Dobbeltbekkasiner) migrating with a flock of Oystercatchers (Strandskader): smaller, longer beaks, white bellies, and brown, in spite of the horrible backlight.
And I was even lucky enough to spot my second Black Kite (Sort Glente), that I once again was looking at for a while thinking and announcing the same, as when I spotted my first one yesterday: "it moves like a Kite, but it looks like a Crow?"

Yellow Wagtail through scope. Foto: Mathilde Sif Eiby / GFU

The weather continued being amazing this afternoon, so Cyann and I had a lengthy lunch in the sun, while Theo and Alba resorted to some gardening, and we bad Anne farewell. We also saw so many White Tailed Eagles (Havørn) above, we were barely even excited anymore, when someone pointed out another. Bo even spotted another Black Kite from the station accompanied be three White Tailed Eagles.

Sunny day. Foto: Mathilde Sif EIby / GFU

Se alle dagens observationer ved Gedser Odde i DOFbasen.

Folk på stationen: Cyann Ménard, Mathilde Sif Eiby, Sjoerd van Baal, Théophile Fontaine, Alba Maria Holmberg, Anne Ramskov Hermanns, Orla Jakobsen, Bo Kayser

Ringmærkningen: Based on the number of birds yesterday, we expected a similar morning today. However, we quickly realised during the first round that it would be a little calmer today. Nevertheless, the last net of the first round gave us a little surprise: the first Willow warbler (Løvsanger) of the season! This net has been very productive this week, giving us the Bluethroat (Blåhals), the Wryneck (Vendehals) and the Willow warbler. Will we catch the Lesser whitethroat (Gærdesanger) in it tomorrow ?

The long-awaited first Willow warbler of the season ! Foto : Théophile Fontaine

Among all the beautiful birds we had in the nets, two Reed buntings (Rørspurv) were trapped at the same time, which gave Mathilde and Alba the chance to practise the ageing criteria for this species, which can sometimes be a bit difficult. See below for an explanation.

In the top left picture, we can see that the primary coverts (PC) have a looser structure and that the centre is a paler shade of brown. The shape also tends to be narrower and more pointed (not very obvious in this picture). In the top right picture, the rectrices (RR) are worn, narrow and pointed. These two pictures show the main criteria that lead to a second calendar bird. In the bottom left picture, the PC are denser and more contrasting, with a dark centre, a brown edge and greyish tips, and they look well rounded. Regarding the tail, even though the feathers are slightly worn, they are broad and rounded, which is perfect for an adult bird. Foto : Théophile Fontaine

The adult Reed bunting, note the shape of the PC ! Foto : Théophile Fontaine

We ended up with 79 rings and 27 recaptures, which is not bad at all. Two Tree pipits (Skovepiber) and the first Yellow wagtail (Gul vipstjert) of the season were flitting around the garden, maybe they'll end up in the nets tomorrow ?

Trækket på Odden: As Mathilde stayed at the station to help for the few first rounds of the ringing, I headed alone to the tip. It was cold and cloudy, but the first hours flew by in a flash even though there were not so many birds. I had to keep thinking about turning back to the field to look after some raptors or other birds sneaking behind me, like those sudden 150 Woodpigeon (Ringdue) coming out of nowhere low over my head for example.

The arrival of Mathilde at the tip didn’t motivate the birds to come in bigger numbers, but this morning was actually full of surprises, and only good ones ! I was first surprised by the arrival of a Collared Dove (Tyrkerdue) from the sea, seemingly really pleased to finally reach land and being able to rest on the closest tree it found. Mathilde then arrived at the same time as a nice flock of Curlews (Storspurve), soon followed by two Black-throated divers (Sortstrubet lom) flying really close to the shore, allowing us to admire every detail of their beautiful breeding plumage. Honestly, I don’t think I will ever get tired of this sight. Later in the morning, a weird goose appeared in front of us from behind the bushes. A reddish/creamy belly, a little brown tail and a highly contrasted pattern on the wing: that was everything we could see, as it was flying really fast in the direction of Gedser, but that was all we needed to tell it was an Egyptian Goose (Nilgås). An unusual observation, but one that does happen sometimes!

Big flock of Curlew flying over the tip. Foto : Théophile Fontaine

As the count was getting to its end, I was looking out at the sea when I heard Mathilde’s voice talking about a bird behind me : “Is that a kite? Not it is not a Kite… Wait, it is a Kite!!”. When I turned to have a look on this unusual kite, I had the surprise to lay my eyes on my first Black Kite (Sort glente) of the year ! Also first of this season for Gedser ! It was flying really low, really close, and slowly headed south before disappearing over the sea. So in the end, if I had to summarize today’s migration and the observations we made, I would say it was indeed slow, but highly pedagogical!

Afternoon Side quest:  This afternoon, Mads suggested that we go to Bøtø, which is a good place to find the first Garganeys (Atlingand) of the season and some migrating waders. An Hoopoe (Hærfugl) had also been seen there that morning, which is quite rare here. The car was full with Cyann, Mads, Mathilde, Alba and me (Théophile). There was a good duck diversity, but we needed a bit of time to find one male Garganey, a beautiful bird ! There was also a flock of 18 Ruffs (Brushane) foraging, with some males with their striking summer plumage. After spending 30 minutes on the tower, Mads suggested that we try to find the hoopoe, which had been seen not so far that morning. When we arrived at the car park, Mathilde immediately started looking for it. When we suggested moving to the beach, she turned away and the hoopoe flew over the car park... Hopefully, we saw it much better 15 minutes later ! We saw many other nice species through our binoculars, including the three mentioned above, as well as two Ring ouzels (Ringdrossel), one Yellow wagtail (much better than this morning's observation), and possibly the last Redpolls (Gråsisken) of spring.

Looking out for the Garganey from the observation tower. Picture by Mads Elley

 The bird of the day ! Foto : Théophile Fontaine

Se alle dagens observationer ved Gedser Odde i DOFbasen.

Folk på stationen: Cyann Ménard, Mathilde Sif Eiby, Sjoerd van Baal, Théophile Fontaine, Alba Maria Holmberg, Anne Ramskov Hermanns

Ringmærkningen: This morning started out rather slow, and it did not get much better throughout the day. With only 13 new birds but 28 recaptures, this suggests that most of the birds currently in the garden have been stationary here during the last few days, with very few new arrivals to spice things up (at least of the species that regularly fly into our nets). Among the recaptures were a few species that I have not seen in the hand many times, such as the Redwing (Vindrossel), and the Black redstart (Husrødstjert) from yesterday, which were nice to see. We also caught a female Blackcap (Munk), which had been ringed in Gedser in the summer of last year, as well as two blue tits, one new and one recapture. 

As we neared the last rounds, we were beginning to worry that we would not have much more interesting to write about in the blog (compared to the last, rather eventful, days), but the birds must have sensed our plight, as on the second-to-last round, Anne found a Wryneck (Vendehals) in one of her nets. Since Anne and Théo both had already ringed that species, I got the pleasure of putting a ring on my first one. As soon as I took it out of the bag, it began to wring its head around from side to side, imitating a snake in a futile attempt to scare me off. Instead, all it managed to do was impress the onlookers who had arrived soon after we invited them to come see it, some of whom had never seen a Wryneck before.

Wryneck (Vendehals), the bird that saved the day ! Foto : Théophile Fontaine

After closing and typing in the ringing-data for today, we looked up previous instances of Wrynecks being caught at Gedser Bird Station in spring, and found that this one beat the previous record for earliest catch by four days (the previous record being the 18. of April). So, all in all, it turned out to be an eventful morning after all.

After ringing and typing data, Théo started looking through old nets in order to find candidates to be put up around the pond just outside the Station garden, and I helped with fixing some of the holes in one of them, which was great practice, since I don't have that much experience in this vital part of taking care of ringing equipment. Then, we put up said nets, and now we hope to use them to maybe catch a wagtail or two in the coming days. We will be sure to write on the blog if we suceed! 

Below is an overview of the birds caught today:

Trækket på Odden: We went off to the tip in a cloudy weather, with a few raindrops which would soon intensify, forcing us to seek shelter under the building. It rained for a while, and unfortunately from this point of view we barely saw any migrating birds, except for the Sandwich Terns (Splitterne) coming in big number over the water, and for the Eiders (Ederfugl) which seemed to go the wrong way for most of them.

When the rain stopped, we decided to change location so we could have a better overview of the migration close to the shore. The location was not the only reason why we saw so few birds, and the numbers stayed low all morning long. We started the day by betting how many birds we would see, and how many of them would be Eiders. With ours bets of 120 Eiders and 750 birds in total, we underestimated a bit the Eider migration, and clearly overestimated the overall migration…

All morning long, we could see the wagtails (Hvid vipstjert) partying in the field next to us, in a group of up to 15 individuals. Suddenly, their calls got more intense. When we turned our head to see what was going on, we first saw a Sparrowhawk (Spurvehøg), soon followed by some wagtails bullying it. This unusual sighting let us laughing at the poor Sparrowhawk’s face, which took the decision to carefully avoid the field on its way back inland.

As the ringing was also very quiet, Theophile joined us at the tip for a small amount of time. He spotted a Common Sandpiper (Mudderklire), so we took some time to look into the clues of the different sandpipers and other relatives. The Danish names are pretty confusing for this group of species, but I am happy to learn new Danish names every day, and to actually remember them ! Even though I am still unsure of some pronunciations…

5 Gadwalls (Knarand) came just after the Common sandpiper (Mudderklire) Foto : Théophile Fontaine

Less than an hour before the end of the standard time, we got a call from Theophile (who was back in the garden). We obviously had to have a break on the migration count and rush back to the station to get to see the Wryneck !! When we came back to the tip, it was raining again… We stayed a little longer to make up for the time we spent on the Wryneck observation, but sadly the last 15 minutes didn’t help us to reach our 750 birds goal...

Despite the low numbers, the rain and the cold, we stay in good spirits and keep on going out there with an open mind. Hopefully tomorrow will be better !

Se alle dagens observationer ved Gedser Odde i DOFbasen.

 Folk på stationen: Cyann Ménard, Mathilde Sif Eiby, Sjoerd van Baal, Théophile Fontaine, Alba Maria Holmberg, Anne Ramskov Hermanns