After a long drive that started near Heathrow Airport and took us through Holland, Germany, Denmark and part of Sweden, three days and two ferries later, we have finally arrived at Getteron.
http://getteron.com/naturum/english/
We will be here for the whole of September, and take over from Dirk and Maria who ringed here throughout August. They captured over 7200 birds, well above the number expected. Dirk was extremely proactive getting up at 3am to put on various tape players around the site, and then going back to bed. They also had a period of prolonged easterlies that without doubt also helped. But, the totals would have probably been lower without the effort of getting up to put on the tapes. We discussed this, and we will leave the valiant effort Dirk made to get up so early to his visit, and we will remain content with putting the tapes on when we drop the nets, despite the fact we will probaby not match any of their 400+ days, with their best day processing 731 birds, though they did have more average figure days. We do not think such a concerted effort has been previously made with someone getting up to put players on several hours before nets are opened. Hopefully it might give the observatory some encouragement to try and put some permanent speakers wired in to players that can be turned on with a timer, as a number of ringing stations have that as standard.
Some information about Getteron:
2nd September
We had a rather sedate start with Westerly winds rather putting the migrants off from moving on. We had all nets open between 5.30am and 11am but not so many birds, and captured 70 new and 12 recaptured birds. The number of visitors equalled the recaps!
There are large numbers of Geese present, mostly Greylags and Barnacle Geese, with quite a large number of Canada Geese as well, supported by a large number of Cranes roosting over night. There is the odd White-tailed Eagle about, along with Peregrine and Marsh Harrier, also a mix of common waders passing through.
Total: 70 (12)
Robin - 5 (2)
Bluethroat - 1
Redstart - 4 (1)
Grasshopper Warbler - 0 (1)
Sedge Warbler - 2
Reed Warbler - 12
Whitethroat - 3
Garden Warbler - 7 (3)
Blackcap - 32 (5)
Chiffchaff - 1
Spotted Flycatcher - 1
Blue Tit - 2
3rd September
Overnight was gusty with heavy rain at times, with the morning though clear, dominated by a South-westerly moderate to strong breeze, indicating that potentially we were unlikely to exceed yesterday's total, and more likely have a quieter day. This actually proved to be so with only 51 new birds, with the first Dunnock, Lesser Whitethroat and Willow Warbler of the visit.
In addition, on the marsh two neck-colour ringed Canada Geese were found, one BXB and the other BYH. The details for BXB are ringed on 1/7/2014 at Weidanklann, Den Bosch and BYH ringed on 10/7/2014 at Melissestratt, Den Bosch. The only other sightings for either of these two Geese are in 2015 and 2016 respectively, from Holland.
Total: 51 (10)
Dunnock - 1
Robin - 4
Redstart - 2 (3)
Sedge Warbler -3
Reed Warbler -8
Lesser Whitethroat - 1
Whitethroat - 3
Garden Warbler - 3 (4)
Blackcap - 23 (1)
Willow Warbler - 1
Chiffchaff - 1
Blue Tit - 1
Great Tit - 0 (2)
http://getteron.com/naturum/english/
We will be here for the whole of September, and take over from Dirk and Maria who ringed here throughout August. They captured over 7200 birds, well above the number expected. Dirk was extremely proactive getting up at 3am to put on various tape players around the site, and then going back to bed. They also had a period of prolonged easterlies that without doubt also helped. But, the totals would have probably been lower without the effort of getting up to put on the tapes. We discussed this, and we will leave the valiant effort Dirk made to get up so early to his visit, and we will remain content with putting the tapes on when we drop the nets, despite the fact we will probaby not match any of their 400+ days, with their best day processing 731 birds, though they did have more average figure days. We do not think such a concerted effort has been previously made with someone getting up to put players on several hours before nets are opened. Hopefully it might give the observatory some encouragement to try and put some permanent speakers wired in to players that can be turned on with a timer, as a number of ringing stations have that as standard.
Some information about Getteron:
2nd September
We had a rather sedate start with Westerly winds rather putting the migrants off from moving on. We had all nets open between 5.30am and 11am but not so many birds, and captured 70 new and 12 recaptured birds. The number of visitors equalled the recaps!
Adult female Bluethroat
1st year male Redstart
Juvenile Spotted Flycatcher
Juvenile Grasshopper Warbler
There are large numbers of Geese present, mostly Greylags and Barnacle Geese, with quite a large number of Canada Geese as well, supported by a large number of Cranes roosting over night. There is the odd White-tailed Eagle about, along with Peregrine and Marsh Harrier, also a mix of common waders passing through.
Total: 70 (12)
Robin - 5 (2)
Bluethroat - 1
Redstart - 4 (1)
Grasshopper Warbler - 0 (1)
Sedge Warbler - 2
Reed Warbler - 12
Whitethroat - 3
Garden Warbler - 7 (3)
Blackcap - 32 (5)
Chiffchaff - 1
Spotted Flycatcher - 1
Blue Tit - 2
3rd September
Overnight was gusty with heavy rain at times, with the morning though clear, dominated by a South-westerly moderate to strong breeze, indicating that potentially we were unlikely to exceed yesterday's total, and more likely have a quieter day. This actually proved to be so with only 51 new birds, with the first Dunnock, Lesser Whitethroat and Willow Warbler of the visit.
In addition, on the marsh two neck-colour ringed Canada Geese were found, one BXB and the other BYH. The details for BXB are ringed on 1/7/2014 at Weidanklann, Den Bosch and BYH ringed on 10/7/2014 at Melissestratt, Den Bosch. The only other sightings for either of these two Geese are in 2015 and 2016 respectively, from Holland.
Neck collared BYH Canada Goose from Holland
Both BYH and BXB
Barnacle Geese - despite looking no colour rings so far
Total: 51 (10)
Dunnock - 1
Robin - 4
Redstart - 2 (3)
Sedge Warbler -3
Reed Warbler -8
Lesser Whitethroat - 1
Whitethroat - 3
Garden Warbler - 3 (4)
Blackcap - 23 (1)
Willow Warbler - 1
Chiffchaff - 1
Blue Tit - 1
Great Tit - 0 (2)
Barnacles coming into roost
Sunset over Getteron
