Bird diversity was up from yesterday, and though the day’s catch was still dominated by robins and goldcrests, we also caught a lot of dunnocks and chiffchaffs, as well as a smattering of the usual suspects - blackcaps, willow warblers, and song thrushes, and a couple of tree pipits. We also got another siskin that I was very happy to extract and ring, but the show stopper today was a yellow-browed warbler, the second of the year here at Gedser, unmistakable for its bright yellow wing bars and striking eyebrow. Ramón was over the moon to ring it!

Our total count for today was 233 new birds, 23 recaptures, and 16 species. Not a bad effort. We closed the nets around 2pm when the garden suddenly went very quiet, and almost all we were catching were a handful of the birds we had ringed over the past few days. Ramón used the afternoon to cut the grass throughout the whole garden in preparation for the open house on Sunday - no rest for the wicked!

We have been reliably informed by Gert that after a big day (yesterday - 472 birds), the following day you should get roughly half the quantity of birds (today - 233 birds), and the day after it should half again. So let's see if we have a slightly more relaxed day tomorrow…

Cheers!
Gail