Fringilla Bird Station

The Curonian Spit is a narrow bar between sea and lagoon lying directly along a major flyway, so migrating birds funnel down it in enormous numbers - millions each season. In 1901 Johannes Thienemann founded a station here at what was then Rossitten, in Germany, to ring and study them, and it was the first permanent bird ringing station anywhere. The war ended that work, and in 1956 the Zoological Institute in St Petersburg revived it at Rybachy, with the Fringilla field station running since 1957. The method is visible and impressive: enormous stationary funnel traps, up to fifteen metres high and thirty wide, made of netting on frames, standing across the spit, which birds fly into and are guided down into a catching chamber to be ringed, measured and released. Over three million birds have been trapped and ringed here since 1957. Visits are guided, and in migration season you watch the ringing being done.

Highlights

• The funnel traps - netting structures up to fifteen metres high across the spit.
• The ringing - birds measured, ringed and released in front of visitors.
• The 1901 roots - heir to the first permanent bird ringing station in the world.
• The flyway - millions of migrants funnelling down the spit each season.

When to go

April to May and August to October, the migration periods, when the traps are working. One to two hours. Outside those seasons there is little to see.

Practical notes

Outside migration the traps are not operating and there is nothing to watch. It is a working research station, not a visitor attraction - visits are guided and on the station's terms. Handling is done by staff only. Mosquitoes in summer.

Nearby

The Dancing Forest and Dune Efa are further along the spit; Rybachy is close.