Today was my last full day at Gedser Fuglestation and it was a great one!

Early in the morning Hans arrived, bringing vegan cake for us as the wager for a bet we had on Saturday. Yum!
Vagn, Hans and I had each guessed how many birds we thought we would ring that day. With 40 Hans was the furthest away from the in total 55 newly ringed birds that day (Vagn 55, me 50).

For todays ringing Jasper joined us having aquired his license and ringed his first birds! The first few rounds started off slow but then rainy weather around Gedser brought us more birds including a new species for the year: a Reed warbler (Acrocephalus scirpaceus).

Jasper with his first ever ringed bird a male Common redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus)

But that wouldn't be the only new species today as we caught a Tree pipit (Anthus trivialis) a few rounds later and a female Red-backed shrike (Lanius collurio) soon after! The latter is called Neuntöter in German which can be translated into "killer of nine". This name is based on the fact that the shrike makes provisions of insects by transfixing them on thorns. And the number nine comes from pure superstition.
The shrike made Jasper especially happy as it is his favorite bird!

Tree pipit (Anthus trivialis)

Red-backed shrike (Lanius collurio)

In total we ringed a 41 birds and recaught 11. The most frequent being Lesser whitethroats (Curruca curruca) and mainly female Blackcaps (Sylvia atricapilla).

Tomorrow morning I will be heading back to German having ringed many new species and seeing my first Wryneck (Jynx torquilla). I will be leaving as a more experienced ringer and birder, and with a camera roll full of bird photos:)

Thank you so much for having me and until next time!

Folk på stationen: Bianca Neuner, Jasper Mosman, Vagn Lind, Hans Lind