GEDSER - 17th July

A lovely sunny morning with the wind dropping away produced an excellent first ringing session as I managed 55 new birds with the highlight being 11 Icterine Warblers (surprisingly mainly adults indicating that perhaps some ‘autumn’ movements are already taking place) and a Marsh Warbler while other birds included 11 Chiffchaffs, a Sedge Warbler (usually only single figures caught here every year), 6 Lesser Whitethroats, 4 Garden Warblers, 2 Blackcaps and 2 Yellowhammers.

                Light rain moved in during the afternoon limiting things a bit but there were 2 Goldeneye at the point and 4 Common Sandpipers, a pair of agitated Stonechats (a scarce but increasing bird in the whole of Denmark) and some pinging Bearded Tits (I didn’t see any here in 2014!) at Kroghage.

 

Icterine Warbler

Marsh Warbler

A very baby Lesser Whitethroat

This young Garden Warbler had a hard time in the nest judging by the big, obvious fault bars across its tail - created when there was a period before fledging when it wasn't being fed properly so growth stopped or slowed, usually due to a spell of bad weather of disturbance near the nest when the parents couldn't bring any food in