Gotland Blåmes

We're moving over to @bluesky - follow us there to stay up to date with all things bird+Gotland-related :) bsky.app/profile/hejbla…

As always - huge shoutout and hugs to the wonderful team. Gotland is magical but even the best magic needs the right people.

Most broods of flycatchers fledged 4 and fewer chicks, while tits performed exceptionally well. Totals: close to 400 flycatcher nests with a bit over 250 fledging young, 120 BTs and 360 GTs - most successful.

Some summaries of the 55th #gotlandseason 🧵Once again much of what we learned was that we don’t know anything about our birds… The season started with exceptionally warm April, with all tits speeding up to start - just to be stopped in blocks by end of April chill and snow

Aren’t they handsome?🤩 #gotlandseason no 55 day 73rd

Mount does not always go as planned. This female (first pic) retained few juvenile primary coverts in her 3rd calendar year. The male (2nd pic) had an uncommon leucistic rectrix - probably due to the lack of melanosomes in the feather’s cortex. Day 61 of 55th #gotlandseason

First nests go through their 14th routine, with happy BT chicks soon to fledge :) unusual season - tits are still hatching, now together with flycatchers. Rare overlap that resulted from April’s chilly weather. Day 60 of 55th #gotlandseason

Wolf’s milk (Lycogala epidendrum) sporting its Barbie vibes of early developmental stages, today on a moist ash log in Fide Odvalds #gotlandseason no. 55 Day 57

Day 52. It’s a posterior distribution of the probability of bike not filling on a given side. Prior was most likely a nice, rectangular uniform. Likelihood got driven by left-sided slightly bent stand = bike leans to the left. #reallifestats #bayeseverywhere ;)

“Shut it, dear”

True story! Plus finally it’s come to: tits hatching and flycatchers sitting on eggs. Record synchro between the two species, record delay in tit phenology, and nice counts: 150BTs, 250 GTs, 300 HBs. #gotlandseason no 55, day 51.

Day 50: barred warblers arrived :) we chased one (or were chased by one ;)) today. Plus some handsome shelducks on a pile of hay:) #gotlandseason no. 55

Black guillemot in Holmhällar - lazily drifting on the worsts of Vändburg’s harbour. First we’ve seen here in years :)

Barnacle geese keep moving around the island between feeding sites - they soon will leave their Gotland stopover and continue north-east to their breeding grounds. #gotlandseason no. 55, day 43

Most tits started incubating there tiny eggs, and first flycatcher eggs appeared - which means this year two species groups will overlap quite a lot during key monitoring stages.

Warblers time! Our plots are now filled with cacophony of common and lesser whitethroats, black caps, willow and wood warblers, chiffchaffs, with the addition of silvery high-pitched goldcrests. Even Merlin had sometimes problems disentangling the chaotic chatter!:)

Aurora over Gotland! Tbh I haven’t seen so many Swedes outside on the roads in April ;) Day 40/41 of the 55th #gotlandseason

while tits are incubating… in photo one of our first incubating ladies ;) 2nd photo - blackbirds just next to one of our boxes ;) #gotlandseason no. 55, day 39

It seems that a week of cold weather (it snowed in the last week of April…) just around time tits started nest building convinced all of them to delay… Now - I’m wondering how much will tits overlap with halsbands - cause it can get ugly if many HB males keep prospecting boxes

In 2023 by today we had 200 incubating tits. This year - 18. Eighteen! The spring is early (flycatchers arrived 2 wks earlier, first nests over a week earlier than 2023). Oaks: already bursting their buds, 5-6 days earlier. Orchis mascula emerged 1/3 on meadows that dried a bit.