Ringmærkning: Today is one of those days that show you that you can never judge from the first impression. After the first round, it seemed like another one of those days with a medium amount and specialty of birds. But I should have been suspicious already, as Storm handed me a bag with the words: "Tree Pipit - wanna ring it?" Of course I would. All in all, we captured and either ringed or read the number of 69 birds - quite a respectable number but nothing too unusual. However, it is not about quantity but about quality. And wow, did we get some quality today! 

It all started when we opened the swallow nets down in the meadow, as there were a lot of swallows flying around. Suddenly, Lua came back from checking those, holding a bag and announcing that she had found the bird of the day (not for the last time...).It was a Whinchat (Saxicola rubetra) in its beautiful plumage.

Whinchat (Saxicola rubetra)

Later, we only heard faint screams, wondering what was going on at the nets. When they returned, I got to pull out of the bag a young Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopus major). While ringing it, the bird scratched my hand with its enormous claws, marking the first small injury I acquired at my stay from a bird, and certainly not the last. But the true bird of the day came in the last net round, when Lua went down to the swallow nets again and came back with a bird we have all been hoping for the whole morning: A Western Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava). We got to admire the beautiful colouring of this bird and its wonderful long tail. I hope to get many more of them in the future! That pretty much rounds up another amazing ringing day at the station. 

Gorgeous Western Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava)

Trækket på Odden:

Dagen i dag var skøn  til træktælling. Vi var seks tællere ude og det bidrog uden tvivl også til at det blev en fornøjelse.

Vi havde flere trækfugle end de foregående dage, heraf mange sortænder (Melanitta nigra) og desuden en del svaler, primært bysvaler (Delichon urbicum), på træk. Ternerne kom igen i dag også i en lind strøm.

Fire rørhøge (Circus aeruginosus) tog sig mod til at trække mod syd.

En gøg (Cuculus canorus) fløj også omkring ude på Odden. Måske den samme som vi har set de tidligere dage.

Dagens højdepunkt kom dog uden tvivl klokken lidt over 8, hvor en lille kjove (Stercorarius longicaudus) hastigt fløj forbi os, dog længe nok til vi alle at kunne se den rigtig flot. Den er en elegant, slank fugl og med sin lange spidse halefjer, er den en sand fornøjelse at få lov at se suse afsted.

Alt i alt en skøn dag, hvor vi endte med 1839 individer fordelt på 34 arter. Tællingen startede 5:22 og sluttede 10:22.

Se alle dagens observationer fra Gedser Odde i DOFbasen.

Om eftermiddagen nød vi en tur ind til en af de få, men hyggelige caféer Gedser kan byde på inden Signe tog hjem. Vi spillede kort i solskin og kunne indimellem betragte svalerne i ivrig jagt efter en tårnfalk (Falco tinnunculus).

På stationen: Storm Hauris Borum, Mathilde Lundt Larsen, Cyann Ménard, Signe Agermose, Lise Mastrup, Lua Koplin, Morten Mastrup, Ole Friis Larsen, Marek Ebert, Mads Elley, Tina Elley, Agnes Pilborg, Orla Jakobsen