Two friends from my University in Canada who also happen to be in Europe this autumn came to Copenhagen (CPH) for the weekend. I dragged them out to do some birding today at the sand spit south of CPH.
I promised them 10 000 individual birds and an unlimited supply of free plums - I don't think they were disappointed! For the most part we saw the same birds (or at least same species) that I had seen 2 weeks ago - but we found a few new ones including more land-birds (i.e. warblers).
Anyway, I'll post some photos (and videos!) soon...ish
Todays highlights:
5 tern species, 15 shorebird species and 58 species in total.
Lifers:
Reed Warbler
Curlew Sandpiper
Black-tailed Godwit - I thought I wasn't going to get this one!
Whitethroat
Sky Lark
Saturday, 10 September 2011
Thursday, 8 September 2011
The Deerpark
Conveniently there is a large park within 100 metres from my house - it is about 70% mature forest with a large field near the centre and several small ponds throughout. I expected the park to be full of birds when I first began exploring the area - on the first day I had found at least 3 gatherings of migrant land-birds within 30 minutes. But since then I have found only 1 other gathering despite several visits.
I've also gone several times with the mindset that I will take some decent bird photos (finally) but every time I get discouraged by how skittish the birds are and end up simply looking at the birds or trying to find more.
Anyway, I have taken some distant shots over the past week:
White Wagtail:
Grey Heron:
Little Grebe with chick:
some sort of water lilly:
And of course it's not called a deer park for no reason! :
The rutting season should be climaxing soon so I will try and get out there regularly (shouldn't be too difficult with my track record so far!) and hopefully get some better shots of the action.
Not too sure where the blood came from on this guy:
And, as usual, the rain clouds were never very far away:
Recently the trailer for "The Big Year" was released:
Big YearI'm not usually excited about movies but this one has been on my mind for a while for obvious reasons!
Sunday, 4 September 2011
Falsterbo, Sweden
The birding just keeps getting better and better!
Yesterday I joined two birders for a day trip to Southern Sweden - our main destination was Falsterbo which is famous (among birders) for being one of, if not, the best raptor migration spot in all of Europe!
In the one day our group had 12 species of raptors, 19 species of shorebirds and ~95 species of birds in total!! That alone was more than satisfying but combined with the fact that 19 of those birds were lifers for me makes for an amazing day!
Falsterbo is very similar to Point Pelee (for any Canadian birders that are still reading this blog) - it is a point towards which the raptors are funneled before making the dreaded 25 km flight across the ocean to Southern Denmark. Not only that, the shorebirding is amazing.
A view of the point (can't really see much):
But these people can see some things:
And a glimpse of the birds:
After a good bit of shorebirding we drove to the main raptor migration spot - although we had already seen several raptors begin the crossing to Denmark.
Sparrowhawk:
Ready for battle:
At least 200 people sitting and waiting around for some megas to pass by! Not long after this a Pallid Harrier and Black Kite passed by - which are pretty rare birds for this part.
It was also nice to see several young birders and Klaus Olsen (a birding celebrity :p) casually hanging out.
The most common raptors were Sparrowhawks and Buzzards:
Stats:
Favourite bird of the day: Bar-tailed Godwit
82 lifers in the past 2 weeks. My end goal = 103
118 birds in Europe. My end goal = 152
Admittedly it will only get harder from now, but I am pretty confident I will reach those numbers even if I don't do much traveling outside of Scandinavia.
Some of the lifers from Sweden:
Eurasian Siskin (didn't realize this was a different species from the one in North America), Bar-tailed Godwit, Red Kite, Black Kite, Pallid Harrier, Eurasian Hobby, White-tailed Eagle, Common Cuckoo, Common Scoter (similar to our Black Scoter in Canada), Gray Wagtail, Common Crane, European Robin and Fieldfare.
Yesterday I joined two birders for a day trip to Southern Sweden - our main destination was Falsterbo which is famous (among birders) for being one of, if not, the best raptor migration spot in all of Europe!
In the one day our group had 12 species of raptors, 19 species of shorebirds and ~95 species of birds in total!! That alone was more than satisfying but combined with the fact that 19 of those birds were lifers for me makes for an amazing day!
Falsterbo is very similar to Point Pelee (for any Canadian birders that are still reading this blog) - it is a point towards which the raptors are funneled before making the dreaded 25 km flight across the ocean to Southern Denmark. Not only that, the shorebirding is amazing.
A view of the point (can't really see much):
But these people can see some things:
And a glimpse of the birds:
After a good bit of shorebirding we drove to the main raptor migration spot - although we had already seen several raptors begin the crossing to Denmark.
Sparrowhawk:
Ready for battle:
At least 200 people sitting and waiting around for some megas to pass by! Not long after this a Pallid Harrier and Black Kite passed by - which are pretty rare birds for this part.
It was also nice to see several young birders and Klaus Olsen (a birding celebrity :p) casually hanging out.
The most common raptors were Sparrowhawks and Buzzards:
Stats:
Favourite bird of the day: Bar-tailed Godwit
82 lifers in the past 2 weeks. My end goal = 103
118 birds in Europe. My end goal = 152
Admittedly it will only get harder from now, but I am pretty confident I will reach those numbers even if I don't do much traveling outside of Scandinavia.
Some of the lifers from Sweden:
Eurasian Siskin (didn't realize this was a different species from the one in North America), Bar-tailed Godwit, Red Kite, Black Kite, Pallid Harrier, Eurasian Hobby, White-tailed Eagle, Common Cuckoo, Common Scoter (similar to our Black Scoter in Canada), Gray Wagtail, Common Crane, European Robin and Fieldfare.
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