Dagbok SFOS

We were a few people at the ringing station today so I open all the nets and they were ready
at 3.45. Around 9, three more nets were set up as well.

The sky was clear blue in the morning with little wind from the south. In the afternoon the
wind increased a bit and the sky became partly cloudy but there were very few birds around.

We stopped the ringing at 6pm with 41 birds ringed. The highlight of the early morning was
a red breasted flycatcher in the first round. It was a young male with much orange! Not the
handsome adult yet, but we are getting there. 1 robin, 1 trush nightingale, 1 restart, 1 blackbird,
2 icterine warblers, 1 lesser whitethroat, 1 garden warbler, 1 chiffchaff, 28 willow warblers,
1 greenfinch and 2 redpolls constitute the birds of today.

There also has been two more retraps from abroad today! One lesser whitethroat from sweden
and 1 meadow pipit from belgium!

It was raining at 3am today and I had to wait until 8 to be able to open some nets. Showers
kept on showing up now and then so I opened only 3 nets in the beginning and after a couple
of rounds, had 11 nets open. Unfortunately, some heavier rain started again at 2pm and I had
to close. Nevertheless, it was an interesting morning with 36 birds ringed of a good variety. The
highlight of the day was a Blyth’s reed warbler, a bird I had never even seen, it’s a rarity at
home! The wing formula confirmed the species. Except for this special one, the other news is
that garden warbler (10) dethrone the willow warblers (9) this morning! There were also 2
icterine warblers, 6 blackcaps, 2 lesser whitethroats, 2 spotted flycatchers and 4 redstarts.

At 5pm, I opened 3 nets close to the house again and they just brought me a new
species for the day: a sedge warbler. So, now it’s 37 birds ringed today.

If we have a look at the podium of individuals ringed by species, at the moment:

Number 3:
Chiffchaffs with 115 individuals ringed this spring up to now

Number 2:
Robins with 227 individuals ringed this spring up to now

Number 1:
Willow warblers with 1101 individuals ringed this spring up to now!

But from
these last days, the Sylvia warblers are catching up! We’ll see!

At 3am it was way too windy to open any nets. I started opening some at 6am when the wind
had dropped a little bit and I picked only the protected ones. I open some more a couple of rounds
later and could maintained them open until 1pm where the wind had started picking up again and
there were so few birds in the nets anyway.

25 birds were ringed today, but it was definitely a day of quality over quantity! Except for the 14

classical willow warblers, there has been a good diversity in the nets today with a bit of everything;
1 blackcap, 1 whitethroat, 2 lesser whitethroats, 1 trush nightingale ( the first one I actually get to
ring, since I had a couple of retraps already), 1 redstart, the first whinchat of the year!, 1 common
redpoll and 1 linnet. Seabird watching seemed to be good in the morning but I didn’t spot much in the
afternoon.

The weather was playing with my nerves this morning, not deciding if it was going to rain or not.
Heavy clouds were here from 3 am and stayed until the evening. In the end, it didn’t rain and the
wind moved south in the afternoon. But there were really few birds through all day and the island
was particularly quiet and almost silent except for a couple of garden warblers and trush
nightingales. At 4am, I opened some nets and open the rest at 7am when the sky cleared up a bit.
The round were quiet but there were surprinsingly quite a few spotted flycatchers around and I
thought there might be more caught than traditional willow warblers but I was wrong.

21 birds ringed today in the end: 4 young greenfinches, 2 chiffchaffs, 5 willow’s,
3 whitethroat, 4 spotted flycatchers, 2 garden warblers and 1 whitethroat.

It was a bit windy while opening in the early morning and cloudy. I didn’t really know what to
expect from the weather so I decided to open 12 nets. I opened the other ones at 5am. The first
couple of rounds were good, and I was lucky enough to get my second red breasted flycatcher of
the year during the second round! The sylvia’s warblers were also present and I thought that they
might overcome the willow warblers but they didn’t in the end. Instead, the 1000e willow warbler
of the month of may was ringed today!

All in all 54 birds ringed: willow warbler (24), garden warblers (3), whitethroats(3), lesser
whitethroat (12), greenfinch (1), tree pipit (1), redstart (1), spotted flycatcher (4), redpolls (5)
and of course the red breasted flycatcher constitute the catches of the day!

Nets were open at 3.45 this morning, knowing there was going to be some rain later. It was
cloudy and already a bit windy and the wind picked up slowly up to 10m/s at 7am. The rain started
as well half an hour later and I decided to close, since the weatherforecast was predicting it would
just get worse and worse. At the end of the day, the rain stopped and I opened a couple of nets
just for two hours.

15 birds were ringed today: 6 willow warblers, 1 whitethroat, 3 lesser whitethroat, 2 spotted
flycatchers, 1 superb male brambling, 1 young greenfinch and 1 linnet.

The rosefinch was singing near the house again in the early morning but didn’t get caught.
A goshawk was also seen on the island in the afternoon.

Nets were open at 3.45am, with heavy clouds above our heads and no wind. It had
probably been raining a tiny bit during the night, so the conditions looked good and they
were! With Stig, tommy and Anders, we have had a busy and very interesting day. It
started directly with a red backed shrike but above all a red breasted flycatcher in the
first round! I had never had one in the hand, so I was so very happy about it! It continued
with a very good diversity through all day. The first wryneck of the year was trapped
today as well as the first two siskins. We also had a retrap of a blackcap, this time from
Denmark!

In the afternoon, the sun chased the clouds and from 2pm it got quiet. Nets were closed
at 4pm with 254 birds ringed! It means we passed the 2000 birds this spring! We have now
2073 birds ringed this year. You will find here under the list of thespesies and numbers ringed
today.

Moreover, it was also a good day in birdwatching with 65 species seen today. Among these, a
carrion crow, a citrine wagtail and a grasshopper warbler.

Now, the guys have left the island and I’m on my own once more. I really want to thank Tommy,
Anders and Stig for their great team spirit and the very good company!

Species and numbers of individuals ringed today:

Wryneck: 1

Tree pipit:
1

Wrens: 2

Robins: 9

Redstarts: 15

Song trush:
1

Icterine warbler:
4

Lesser
whitethroat: 45

Whitethroat:
4

Garden
warblers: 32

Blackcaps:
17

Chiffchaff:
1

Willow
warblers: 108

Spotted flycatchers:
2

Pied flycatchers:
4

Red
breasted flycatcher: 1

Red backed
shrike: 2

Greenfinch:
1

Siskins: 2

Redpoll: 1

Sedge warbler:
1

Nets were open at 3.45 this morning but it was already slightly raining at some times. It got
worse and worse and at 6.30 we called it off. We waited for the rain to stop and the wind to
calm down and open them again at 10. We didn’t expect much but in the end, it has been an
interesting afternoon with 60 birds ringed. Among these, we caught the second wood warbler
for the season! As well as the first sedge warbler and the first wheatear! And also a retrap of
a blackcap female ringed in Sweden. So it was definitely worth it!

We also got 3 icterine warblers, 1 blackcap, 2 garden warblers, 5 lesser whitethroat,
1 whitethroat, 4 spotted and 1 pied flycatchers and 1 redpoll. Of course, willow warblers
were the most numerous with 38 birds ringed today.