Ringmærkningen: Late last night Henrik tried to catch nightjars.  Unfortunately he was not successful.  Sometimes nature is like that, as bird watchers, ringers, naturalists one does not always succeed; but much of the pleasure is in trying.  Hopefully he'll succeed in the coming evenings!  

And sometimes with nature you get small but but interesting surprises. Today was such a day that provided several small, yet rewarding surprises.  In the faint pre-dawn light, as we opened the nets, we were surprised at how quiet the garden was: I heard no birds calling and Henrik heard a robin and a blackcap, emphasis on the singular.  But the first couple of rounds were not complete duds, they did produce a few birds, most of today's birds as shown in the figures below.  As the morning progressed the number of birds caught went down.  But the captures included some welcome species, notably pied flycatchers, spotted flycatcher and an Icterine Warbler, pleasant and welcome surprises on a quite day.

In what seemed to be a well-coordinated move, a lot of ants came up to fly away in different sizes for their purpose in life. Photo: Ole Friis Larsen/GFU

After lunch, and with a darkening sky, there were many swallows flying low over the pond and gardenand black-headed gulls too. Clearly they were feasting on something.  Shortly some redstarts joined the feasting and then the source of their gastronomic delight became apparent.  Hundreds, no thousands, of ants were taking flight from numerous nests and the birds were enjoying this arthropodian feast.  We enjoyed watching this surprising, unexpected spectacle; and as ever were impressed by nature's productive.  A productivity that seems, superficially, to be wasteful but in the wider ecological and evolutionary context it makes sense.  Most of the ants will provide food for other organisms but a few will survive, reproduce and so guarantee that species survival, for now.  Though it may sometimes seem wasteful, actually nothing goes to waste in nature, everything on a healhty planet, fits into numerous chains and cycles, and drives life onwards. 

Today's captures:

Rødhal/Robin 2/1

Gulbug/Icterine Warbler 1/-

Gærdesanger/Lesser Whitethroat 3/2

Tornsanger/Whitethroat 2/-

Havesanger/Garden Warbler -/1

Munk/Blackcap 4/1

Løvsanger 9/-

Grå Fluesnapper 1/-

Broget Fluesnapper 2/-

Totals: 24/5

Trækket på Odden: Dagens vind fra sydøst trak folk til med forventninger om, at vinden ville presse kjover tættere på land, end de normalt flyver på trækket, og det gjorde den. Vi var to tællere fra fuglestationen og et godt ekstra hold af folk, som er vant til at komme på lokaliteten. Forventningerne om en Lille Kjove (Stercorarius longicaudus) blev ganske vist ikke indfriet, men vi så ni af de Almindelige Kjover (Stercorarius parasiticus), som heller ikke er mere almindelige, end at de er værd at komme og kigge efter.

De fleste var mørke former, men en enkelt i lys form lyste op; en adult/voksen eller næsten voksen fugl med skinnende hvid underside og sort hætte. Alene den var hele arbejdet på Odden værd. Samlet blev det til lige under 2.300 fugle på træk fordelt på 3 arter plus et stort antal svaler, som nogle beskæftigede sig mere med, mens fuglestationens folk koncentrerede sig om de havfugle, som vi lægger mest vægt på at få talt. Det pæne tal var domineret af over 1.200 Sortænder (Melanitta nigra), som måske blev presset så tæt på land af østenvinden, at vi kunne se deres træk. Ofte foregår trækket af Sortænder formentlig så langt ude, at vi slet ikke kan få øje på flokkene.

Værd at bemærke var også pæne tal for svømmeænder og Dværgmåger (Hydrocoleus minutus), verdens mindste af sin art, som ved Gedser Odde trækker fra ynglepladser i østersølande for at overvintre langs Vesteuropas kyster.

Se alle dagens observationer fra Gedser Odde på DOFbasen

Folk på stationen: Chris Sharp, Henrik Jørgensen, Mads Elley, Ole Friis Larsen