Så er besætningen på GFU blevet skiftet ud med brødrene Lind og det vil vare ved måneden ud.

Jeg (Vagn) har glædet mig gevaldigt, både til at være sammen med storebror Hans, men også til de forhåbentlig rigtig mange spændende fugle som Gedser kan byde på i den gode ende af maj.

Det var nu ikke fordi der var ret meget at se til på vores 1. arbejdsdag og de spændende ting lod også vente på sig. Men i gang kom vi da med det, der er et gennemsnitligt dags-antal for det samlede forår. Vejret kunne vi ikke klage over: stille, solrigt og rimelig lunt.
Til gengæld fik vi lavet lidt praktiske opgaver i det gode vejr: udskiftet det øverste net i hejsenettet, vasket og tørret en god portion fugleposer og repareret et ”harehul” i et af nettene i haven.

Tornsanger, Havesanger, Løvsanger og Grå Fluesnapper slås om værdigheden til at være talrigeste art i dag, så det er Afrika-trækket der er godt i gang.

Grå Fluesnapper

Løvsanger

Dagens fangst:

Folk på stationen: Hans Lind (sover dog hjemme), Vagn Lind

Lydkulissen på GFU var endnu engang fantastisk, da haven næsten boblede af syngende fugle. Det var bl.a. gulbug, bogfinke, løvsanger, gransanger, gærdsesanger, tornirisk, tornsanger og rørsanger. Havens gulbuge er på plads og bidrager i den grad til lydkulissen, og den ene gulbug laver nogle fremragende efterligninger af strandskade. 

Besætningen bestod i dag af Robert og undertegnede, og efter anden runde også Benjamin og Jonathan. Der blev i alt fanget 40 fugle fordelt på hele 14 arter og kun to genfangster. Det blev til to nye arter i denne ringmærkningssæson - skovsanger (se billeder herunder) og kærsanger. Årets anden rørsanger fik også ring på. Havesanger og Løvsanger blev topscorere med 8 stk. af hver, skarpt forfulgt af gærdesanger med 7 stk. Bemærkelsesværdigt var også broget fluesnapper med 5 stk - alle hunner. Vi har i alt indtil nu fanget 15 af dem.

Det blev en stille og rolig dag med god mulighed for læring for de unge. Da Louis meldte syngende Pirol i Birkemose 'skulkede' de dog fra ringmærkningen i en kort periode for at se om de kunne finde den igen. De kunne de ikke, så de returnerede hurtigt. Dagen bød også på indtrækkende musvåge og en flot rød glente lige over stationen. 

Robert tømte som sædvanlig lysfælderne, hvilket bl.a. gav natpåfugleøje og den smukke poppelsværmer samt to nye arter for sæsonen - Husmoderugle og Frønnet Landman.

Robert er i dag taget afsted efter et par gode uger på stationen, og i dag tager Vagn over de næste uger. Robert fik som det sidste indsat et par billeder på denne blog, mens Nina klarede rengøringen, så stationen blev klar til at tage godt imod Vagn. 

En rigtig dejlig og smuk dag, hvor det er mere end svært at 'bevare pessimismen'! 

Two pictures of the Woodwarbler (Skovsanger) caugth this morning.

And this night we caught a few moths of which two were new for the season (see pictures): a Herald Moth (Husmoderugle) and a Shuttle-shaped Dart (Frønnet Landman). Both rather common ones.

På stationen: Robert, Benjamin, Jonathan, Nina og Clausjannic

We opened most of the nets, but there was already a lot of wind. And the wind had been blowing the whole night. As expected almost no birds: In total 14: 7 new and 7 recaptures.

No pictures today and also not anything about moths. They also did not want to fly this night.

Used the afternoon for replacing a net and taking one down at the pond. Cleaning the ringing place and doing a wash. Tomorrow is my last day of the spring overhere. Was a nice time again, not so many birds, but the moths kept me busy too.

Will be back in September

With kind regards

Robert

Because there would be helping hands today I opened all the nets except one too much in the wind. But there were hardly birds in the garden. Only a few new ones and the breeding birds know were the nets are.

Highlight of the day was a Barn Swallow (landsvale), first one for the year, an adult male with nice streamers. And we had the second Spotted Flycatcher (Grå Fluesnapper) of the season.

In total 26 birds including 4 recaptures (see table)

I have some pictures of the higlights of the day and a funny looking Blackcap (Munk).

I had a few new species of moths and have chosen to show the Birch Mocha (Birk-bæltemåler) and another picture of the Poplar Hawkmoth (Poppelsværmer) because it was showing itself in optima forma. It is another one than the one of yesterday.

Till tomorrow

Robert

When I woke up it was raining, but it stopped raining shortly after 5 o´clock and I opened most of the nets. Wind was not good and even increased over the morning, but new birds had arrived. In total 53 including 2 recaptures. 10 different species. The second Icterine warbler (Gulbug) and  4 Pied Flycatchers (Broget Fluesnapper). And three Redstarts (Rødstjert) of which 2 were males (see picture). 

The day still counts as a day fit for research. The nets were open within an hour of the normal starting time. So that was nice.

I did not go to the moth traps with the expectation to find many moths because of the rain at the end of the night. There were not so many, but to my surprise I found 8 Eyed Hawkmoths. I have never seen so many together. And there was another Hawkmoth in the trap too: the Poplar Hawkmoth (Poppelsværmer). Also a rather large moth (see picture)

Lets see what tomorrow brings. Benjamin will be there again and will help me.  Hope we will have a nice number of birds.

With kind regards

Robert

When I went to bed I hoped for more birds because we had a weather change, which is normally initiating migration. But the change was too small I think. Nothing arrived during the night. In total only 8 birds of which one was a recapture (see table).

I counted the steps I made for catching and handling the birds. Each bird was 1860 steps worth and in total 11670. So I had easily my 10000 steps. 

The moths made the day good. I had the first two Eyed Hawkmoths (Aftenpåfugleøje) and several other new species of which I will show you 3. Next to the Hawkmoth you see the Flame (Brændeugle) which just looks like a piece of wood.

The next one is a Pale Tussock Moth (Bøgenonne) note the `hairy` legs and the right one is an Oak-tree Pug (Grågrøn Egedværgmåler). Of this one I was not sure but thought it was the right species. Had put it in Naturbasen and rather quickly got the answer. That they thought I was right.

I am not an expert,but with the apps I use I normally can figure out which species I have found. The apps are Obsidentify and iNaturalist. The first one is a Dutch one which is good for me, but it give also the latin name.This program is rather good in identifying the species. iNaturalist I use because this one has pictures which allows you to compare your own picture with those in the program. This program is also good but is more difficult to use for identification as such.

Hopefully tomorrow more birds

Robert

Again a day with only a few birds in the nets. In total 17 birds (10 species) and including 4 recaptures. But one of the recaptures was an Icterine Warbler (Gulbug) caught in 2021 in the garden and ringed as a first year bird (1K), maybe even born in the garden. The Garden Warbler (Havesanger) was ringed in 2019 in the garden too as a 2K+ which means that the bird is at least 5 years old.

Bird of the day: Gulbug

Moths of the day.

This night I had 3 new species and will show them all. From left to right the Flame Shoulder Moth (Hvidrandet Jordugle), the Bordered Apamea Moth (Aksugle) and the White-Point (Hvid-punkt Græsugle). All rather common moths.

With kind regards

Robert

It was a very quiet day, maybe Henrik had taken all the birds with him to Copenhagen. Only 19 birds birds in total (13 species) of which 6 were recaptures. One was the second Red-breasted Flycatcher (Lille Fluesnapper) for the year (still waiting for an adult male).

Because it was so quiet in the garden the hares had a good time. Everywhere they were eating of the grass.

When I had my dinner at 4 o'clock in the afternoon (getting up so early and going to bed early does shift my eatings time too) I heard an Icterin Warbler / Gulbug (for me the first of the year). The Icterine Warbler is a real imitator of other birds and it always makes fun to use my bird app and see what kind of birds are proposed by the app. Amongst others one species of harrier and the Golden Plover was proposed.

The night brought some new moth species and I have chosen to show two of them. Both common species. The left one is a Red-green Carpet (Brungrøn Bladmåler) and the right one Turnip Moth (Agerugle). The last one can be find everywhere on the world and is known to cause damage to crops.

So maybe tomorrow the first Gulbug (Icterin Warbler).

Greetings Robert

Today the last day of Henrik and we had some help of Benjamin. In total 43 bird of which 3 recaptures.

The highlight of the day was the first Lille Fluesnapper / Red-breasted Flycatcher of the year. Had no red breast, but you can not have them all. And Henrick and me gave the bird to Benjamin and made him a happy man. See picture of below.

And the two moths of the day are a Poppelugle (Poplar Grey) see left picture and on the right a Grå Tigerspinder (Muslin Moth). They are common species but it is to give you a taste of the variation among the moths.

With kind regards and till tomorrow, hope I can manage, else I have to ask Hans to help me.

Robert

Today we did everything as normal, but there were almost no birds in the garden. In total we only caught 25 birds, of which 9 were recaptures.

Rødhals (Robin) 1 (1), Solsort (Blackbird) - (4), Gærdesanger (Lesser Whitethroat) 5 (3), Tornsanger (Common Whitethroat) - (1), Munk (Blackcap) 5 (-), Gransanger (Chiffchaff) 1 (-) and Løvsanger (Willow Warbler) 4 (-).

Maybe it was good that we had so few birds because when we came to the place where we do the ringing we did not have light. And some of the things are not going well with bad light. For instance, aging and assessing the fat degree. Hopefully we can figure out what is wrong.

Yesterday I caught a little moth and was not sure which species it was. It belonged to the difficult group of he Pugs ( Dværgmålere) and it was either the Markbynkedværgmåler or the Malurtdværgmåler. In Naturbasen you can put this species in with a reference to both and I added a text that I thougth it was Malurtdværgmåler. And rather quick one of the expert did agree with me. Nice that Naturbasen works like this. Below you will find a picture of the moth. The colour is not completely right because I have made the picture inside the house.

The second species below is a Zigzagspinder (Pebble Prominent) a very nice medium sized Moth which I found this morning in the trap. In Dutch it is called kameeltje (little camel) which is a reference to the caterpillar.

Hopefully we will catch more birds tomorrow

With kind regards Henrik Jørgensen and Robert Luttik