GEDSER - 3rd October

Crystal clear overnight with light winds meant there was a bit of a clear out of yesterday’s birds but a very decent total of 209 new birds were caught through the day most of which came during a hectic first hour after which it tailed off fairly rapidly in the fine conditions; the highlight was the first Short-toed Treecreeper of the autumn along with evidence of where our birds come from with a Swedish ringed Blackcap and better still, a Finnish ringed Robin.   The main numbers consisted of 95 Robins, 30 Chiffchaffs and 27 Goldcrests along with a few Chaffinches, Bramblings, Siskins and Song Thrushes.

                At least 400 Cranes passed overhead in the fine weather with the skies through the middle of the day full of their magnificent bugling calls, seemingly coming from all directions at some stages; other birds over the garden included a Red-throated Pipit calling mid-afternoon, a few Tree Pipits, Swallows, Mistle Thrushes, Grey Wagtails and Fieldfares with good numbers of Finches, a fairly constant stream of small Blue Tit flocks which fortunately never came down to net height, a few Brent and Barnacle Geese flocks, small numbers of waders including Grey Plover and Curlew and good numbers of Common Buzzards and Sparrowhawks floating around with several Rough-legged Buzzards mixed in.

                The ringing abruptly ended around 16:00 as within five minutes the weather went from fine, sunny and warm to cloudy and spitting with rain with a blustery force 7 NE wind; this rapid change in the weather caught out a few birds trying to head south as 320+ Cranes were circling high over the town in the evening unsure what to do now that the fine migration conditions had disappeared almost instantly.   A few Goose flocks were doing the same and 6 Rough-legged Buzzards were over the fields to the north of Gedser in the early evening.

 

Short-toed Treecreeper

Finnish ringed Robin

Migrating Cranes

and Herons