Walking in the woods

Back to Vestamager today. I was hoping to catch the birds by surprise with a mid-week visit.

At first things were going pretty slow but it picked up once I got out of the wind and into the woods.

The shorebird cell held the usual suspects:

Barnacle Geese ~80
Eurasian Wigeon ~2000
Common Goldeneye -14 - just offshore and a new DK bird for me
Great Egret -1
Golden Plovers ~500
Bar-tailed Godwit 2
Little Stint 2 - getting a bit late for them I think
and many more!

Lapwings were in abundance:

Anyway, things were going a little slow out there so I headed for the woods to search out some migrant flocks. I had Goldcrest on my mind - it's high time for them now and about time I see one!

It wasn't so difficult. My second flock of passerines was hanging around some evergreen trees which made me thing Willow Tit. Sure enough I found one - another new DK bird.

And then the Goldcrests appeared. At least 3 of them but probably many more flitting about under cover. Neat birds - very similar to Golden-crowned Kinglets in North America.

After an unsuccessful search for a Tengalm's Owl I caught the winds and headed back North. I stopped when I saw what looked like good candidates for White-winged Crossbills - but I got distracted by a flock of actively migrating thrushes. They were flying from tree to tree keeping an eye out for predators which allowed me some decent looks with the scope.
It was a mixed flock of Redwings and Mistle Thrush! 2 new lifers bringing me dangerously close to 100 new species since coming to Europe!

Shortly after that the Northern Shrike was in the same spot as Sunday:

Ended the day with 55 species, 2 down from Sunday! But 5 new birds for DK (inc. 3 lifers) vs. 'only' 4 new DK birds on Sunday.

The end of birding as we know it?

Two things I've been trying to come to grips with lately. How is the hobby of birding changing?  And this proactive Danish culture that I am really coming to appreciate.


I'll start with the birding - as usual everything else comes second...


With the anticipated release of The Big Year coming soon many birders are wondering how the hollywood movie will change the birding demographic. Will there be me a mass increase of birders resulting in huge sales of Field Guides and Binoculars?


One blog post (the man the movie is about actually) made a bold prediction that over 175'000 new birders will be coming to the scenes!
Interesting thought when considering that many senior birders seem to often mention that the younger generation isn't taking much of an interest in nature (and as a result birds) as in the past.
Only time will tell but from my often pessimistic view on things I don't think there will be a noticeable increase of birders - at least not in the 'traditional' birding group.


This blog post summed it up quite well actually (a bit long but well worth the read - I've read it 3 times already actually).
The masses of new birders that join the hobby year after year (not only the young ones but the older ones too) seem to be more interested in bird feeding, backyard birds and strolls in the park. Whereas many of the serious birders would like to see the interest lie in listing and the details of bird identification - and as would I!


So how can we propagandize new birders into becoming serious birders instead of becoming feeder watchers?
Well that last blog post I linked had a pretty good idea:
Instead of telling people they should buy binoculars and field guides maybe we can start by telling them they should buy a camera (most people do already have one anyway!) - tell them to go out and photograph some birds. Then they can use the WWW to help identify the birds.

In fact, that's exactly how I started. It was a cold, dark and lonely winter in Montreal when I decided to buy a camera to find something to do. The first time I went out with it I ended up staring at woodpeckers for several hours through the viewfinder in -20 C weather:

One of my first bird photos ever!

I was instantly hooked! After showing the photos off to my family and friends my obsession only grew. I quickly insisted that my mother send me the family bird field guide via express. I started following the local bird sightings board (sometimes every hour during those long days at work) and started chasing for Snowy Owls, Eurasian Wigeon and Barrow's Goldeneye in the Montreal region - without much success I should add. I was still loving it though because almost any bird was a new bird at that time. And then April hit and I saw my first Grebe and Eastern Phoebe... In fact I thought those birds were going to be the best of the best. But damn, was I wrong - I didn't even know what a warbler or shorebird was!


So, perhaps Gunnar is right. A new method of recruiting will help convince others to join us in our great hobby!


I was going to write something about Danish culture and the influence it has had on me over the past month of living here. But that'll have to wait!


But you can read a short article about the wankers in Malta that claim that not being permitted to kill birds is causing psychiatric disorders!

Vestamager

I found myself at Vestamager again this morning on another beautiful and warm day. The birding started off well when a Merlin flew overhead just as I was leaving my house - a first for Europe for me.

Once I arrived in the area the mist was still over the land and it was evident there was no visible migration today.

I was set on concentrating on finding new birds today - that meant working the forested area for migrant passerines and checking the muddy area for waders/shorebirds and geese. I quickly gave that up when I saw two Common Pochards diving - giving a good opportunity to photograph them:

Shortly after that there was a Red Kite slowly migrating south along the shoreline as well as this fairly tame Eurasian Kestrel:

And then it was shorebird (aka waders in Europe) time! As usual there were many Golden Plovers - I took another video of the main flock roosting - about 800 of them today:

In the same area I found many other shorebird species including Spotted Redshank, Black-bellied Plover (aka Grey Plover), Curlew, Dunlin, Bar-tailed Godwit, Greenshank and Ruff.

I made my way to the other side of the 'shorebird cell' where several thousand waterfowl could be seen plus two Great Egrets - an uncommon bird at this time of year and another new bird for my EU list. According to the sightings board there were 5000 Eurasian Wigeons - plus the thousands of Teal, Mallard, Gadwall, Tufted Ducks and Shovelers! It made for an awesome sight - but one I didn't photograph... I think it will only get better throughout the autumn so no rush to take a photo.

At one point I was scoping the area with some other birders when I found a Sanderling. I thought it was odd to see one in the muddy area (usually they're on beaches chasing the waves) but didn't think much of it. I decided to tell the birder next to me by pointing at the picture in the book (I can't speak Danish so the only way we can share sightings is by pointing at the book) - he seemed surprised and said "No!".
Anyway, sure enough the others got on the bird - here's a distant digiscoped photo (it's behind the ducks):

I ended the day with a group of birders pointing out 2 Northern Shrikes for me (aka Great Grey Shrike) - another new bird for Europe bringing my day total to 57 species.

After birding I met up with a couple friends to check out a whale exhibit! More about that later.