GREIFSWALDER OIE – I

December 2008
During October I was at a bird ringing station on a small isle called
Greifswalder Oie. It is situated in Northeastern-Germany.

For me, this trip offered a complete new view on bird migration. At my hometown
Leipzig, bird movements seemingly only appears with large flocks of greater
birds like Cranes or Geese. At this isle i observed mainly songbirds. One of the
most frequent appearing birds on the island were Goldcrests Regulus regulus
– their high pitched calls were everywhere.

081012, Goldcrest, Greifswalder Oie, Germany

During the hourly “control-walks” along the traps, I noticed a sound, seemingly
of geese, always from the same direction. Once a day, my compagnion Marcus told
me about a tree nearby the nets (traps) that sounded like White-Fronted-Geese
Anser albifrons or kind of New Music!? It turned out as creaking sounds of a tree.

081022, a tree, Greifswalder Oie, Germany

The acoustic highlight for me were two days of heavy migration of Trushes.
One morning I walked a bit around, as I noticed hundreds of ascending Blackbirds
T. merula, Song Thrushes T. philomelos, Mistle Thrushes T. viscivorus, Fieldfares
T. pilaris, Redwings T. iliacus and a single Ring Ouzel T. torquatus.

081025, Thrush migration, Greifswalder Oie, Germany