Ringmærkning: Due to strong wind and heavy rain, no ringing was possible.

Trækket på Odden: The ringers decided not to ring today and instead joined me to enjoy the lovely weather. Already after the way out to the tip were we completely drenched. Luckily, we could take shelter in the old navy station and were protected from the wind and rain. Before the sun had risen, we barely couldn't see anything; the rain blocked all views. With a bit of light, it became slighty better and we were able to admire high waves and an empty water surface. Soon after though, we also noticed our first birds: European Herring Gulls (Larus argenteus, "silvery gull") glided up and down the coast, seemingly enjoying the wind. 

The old navy station is incredibly helpful by protecting from the strong winds and rain. Here, we could have an actually decent morning and it wasn't too cold. Photo: Børge Langkilde

Far out at sea, something changed. Suddenly, big flocks of Common Eiders (Somateria mollissima, "very soft wool-body") appeared and for some reason migrated against the wind. Their good migration was very surprising to us and made hope for more. In total, we counted 4.734 Eiders, today mostly males. This number makes up more than 90 % of all birds counted today. The Eiders were joined by other ducks, especially Eurasian Wigeons (Mareca penelope, "Penelope's small duck") and Common Scoters (Melanitta nigra, "black black duck"). 

In the strong wind, we mostly hoped for typically pelagic birds that get blown closer to shore. Alba was very sad about not seeing her big wish, a Sabine's Gull (Xema sabini, "Joseph Sabine's xema [invented name]"). Other than that, we got almost all our wishes though. Together with some Eiders came a huge white bird that was quickly identified as a Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus "idiot from bass rock") - see yesterday's blog for more on that species. An adult light morph Arctic Skua (Stercorarius parasiticus, "the parasitic one from the dung") came very close to the shore and left no doubts on its identification. This was definitely one of the closest Skuas anyone of us has ever seen! Over the course of the count we could also see two small black-and-white birds with very quick wingbeats. One of them turned ot to be a Common Murre (Uria aalge, "auk waterbird"), the other one was a Razorbill (Alca torda, "auk auk"), the closest living relative of the true penguin. All species of auks are quite rare here in Gedser as they prefer more open water. In strong winds though, it is more likely to see them. 

Gulls too had a nice day. Not only the Herring Gulls migrated, especially Common Gulls (Larus canus, "grey gull") came by in good numbers too. Continuing the theme of very close birds was a small group of Little Gulls (Hydrocoloeus minutus, "little water-jackdaw"). This allowed us to take a close look at their wings. Adult Little Gulls have jet black underwings that rend them an unmistakable look. The young ones have black feathers on top of the wing that form a "w". These birds have to be one of my favourite gull species!

Fugle registreret i standardtiden: 5.259 . Arter: 29. Tællingen startet 06:30, sluttet klokken 11:30.

Se alle dagens observationer på Gedser Odde i DOFbasen. 

På stationen: Alba M. Holmberg, Børge Langkilde, Marek Ebert