More Denmark Birds
In my Aarhus Birding post, I highlight 5 new bird species that I saw in my first couple of days in Aarhus: Great Cormorant, Black-headed Gull, Common Wood Pigeon, Eurasian Tree Sparrow, and White Wagtail. However, during Kate and my 5 days of hiking in the Denmark Lake District, I photographed 16 additional species along with 2 more species in Copenhagen where we spent a night before returning home. In this post, I thought I would share photos of some of these 18 additional species. Above are 3 Graylag Geese. These were the first new species for me in the Lake District. Kate and I found a flock of them a few miles into our first hike just as we arrived at our first lake.
I photographed this Spotted Flycatcher on our second day of hiking while we were stopped to look at some Common Fallow deer. In general, we saw wonderful scenery but not so many birds during our first two days.
However, right before the end of our second day, less than a mile from our hotel in Silkeborg, our path wondered along the edge of a small meadow where we heard a variety of birds. Finding the birds and capturing them in photos proved to be challenging as they zipped about in the neighboring trees. This Eurasian Nuthatch photo was certainly my nicest image from my attempts. I also photographed a Common Chiffchaff, Short-toed Creeper, and a Marsh Tit at the same time. While useful for identification, those photos are not good enough for me to want to share on my blog.
I woke up early on our third morning and went back to the area where I photographed the Eurasian Nuthatch to see what might be out. There were several birds about but this cute Great Spotted Woodpecker was my only new species.
After breakfast, Kate and I headed out for our walk along the river. Before getting out of Silkeborg, I photographed this female Mandarin Duck. While these ducks are native to China and Japan, there are now stable populations in various parts of Western Europe.
As we got out of town, I photographed this Eurasian Blue Tit. I had seen this species on previous days, but only had terrible photos of it until this image. In the trees around this Eurasian Blue Tit was a Great Tit (not a new bird) and a Long-tailed Tit (a new bird but a terrible photo). As we continued to walk along the river and got farther and farther from town, we started seeing many more birds. I captured nice photographs of a Mute Swan, a Gray Heron, and of an Eurasian Kestrel. None of these were new birds for me, but the Eurasian Kestrel photo was satisfying since my previous photos were of poor quality.
Circling above the far side of the river I spotted this Common Buzzard.
Just a bit further down the river path and again across the river, I photographed this Western Marsh Harrier. I find the wings to be quite dramatic and the marsh background very appropriate.
Our third day hiking was the first day we hiked on the flooded path along the river. Mirroring the previous photo’s theme of appropriate backgrounds, a Water Rail crossed the water path right in front of us.
Our fourth day of hiking again had Kate and I walking on the flooded river path. As with the third day, there were lots of birds visible. The first new species I encountered was a Reed Bunting shown here blending in nicely with the branches of a tree.
The only other new species on our fourth day were this pair of Common Sandpipers.
The route of our fifth day took us away from the river for much of the day. As a result, we encountered many fewer birds and bird species. This Ring-necked Pheasant was the only new species on our last day of hiking in the Lake District in central Denmark.
After our Lake District hike, we returned to Aarhus where we spent the weekend with Becca. On Monday morning, Kate and I took the ferry across the sea to get to Copenhagen. After checking into our hotel, we enjoyed a long afternoon hike in the Amager Common, a huge nature preserve on Amager Island in Copenhagen. Flying overhead at one point was this Eurasian Sparrowhawk.
My final new species for the trip was this Eurasian Magpie, also photographed within Amager Common. This brings my life list of photographed bird species to 535. So far this year, I have photographed 90 new species: 23 from this Denmark trip; 22 from my cycling trip in OR, ID, and SD; 20 from my Florida trip; 8 from my Croatia trip; 12 from my trip to St. Vincent; and 5 from various outings in MA and NH. As these numbers indicate, at this point, almost all of my new species come when I am traveling. As I review this list, I realize that I should put together a blog post or two from Kate and my January trip to Saint Vincent. I do have a bit more travel planned for 2024, so it is possible that I might photograph enough new birds to get to 100 new species by the end of the year.