Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen

We caught the train to Suffolk on Thursday 27th November to visit my family for a few days before continuing onwards to Heathrow Airport for our flight to Denmark and a short stay in Copenhagen, somewhere we haven't visited before.

The train journey up to Suffolk was uneventful and I saw the usual Red Kites flying about along the way. Unfortunately there was no birdwatching for me while in Suffolk but I did see more Red Kites flying overhead while out and about in the car, a bird I never saw in Suffolk when I was cutting my birding teeth in the 1980's but now quite widespread there.

Our journey to Copenhagen was uneventful too and we arrived safely at the Scandic Copenhagen Hotel which was very comfortable and with a great view of a large lake named Sankt Jorgens So from our 17th floor room. From our bedroom window I saw Coot, Mallard, Herring Gull, Cormorant, Tufted Duck and Black-headed Gull but the most interesting sighting was a skein of around 30 Barnacle Geese flying over and heading south. I never got to have a proper walk around the lake but on a very quick scan from the waters edge one morning I added 2 Moorhen, a Great Crested Grebe and a Grey Heron to my holiday bird list.

Tufted Duck

Black-headed Gull 

On a day of sightseeing around Copenhagen on Tuesday 2nd December I also managed to add Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon, Magpie, Hooded Crow and Jackdaw to my bird list but I was too busy enjoying the sights including the Christmas Markets, the Rundetaarn (Round Tower) and the fantastic Glyptotek Museum and its Egyptian Collection to spend much time looking for birds.

Hotel D'Angleterre, Copenhagen

Radhus and Tivoli Gardens

View of Copenhagen from the Rundetaarn - very flat!

The Radhus (Town Hall)

Christmas Tree at Copenhagen Train Station

Crane Fountain

Glyptotek Musuem 

Horus

Cranes

Geese

Funerary Models

Pharaoh Amenemhat III (c. 1860–1814 B.C.)

Sarcophagi (Similar but different)

Mongoose

We took a day trip on the train to Malmo in Sweden on Wednesday 3rd December, it was a mizzley day and the top of the Turning Torso skyscraper that we went to see was hidden in clouds but we enjoyed our visit anyway. Hooded Crow, Jackdaw (with the distinctive pale neck collars of the Northern race Coloeus monedula monedula), Magpie, Black-headed Gull, Woodpigeon, Coot, Cormorant, Mallard and Herring Gull were all seen along with a Common Gull, 2 Greylag Geese, 2 Little Grebe, 2 Mute Swan, 3 Moorhen and Rooks.

Turning Torso, Malmo

Turning Torso

The Radhuset (Town Hall), now the Radhuskalleran Restaurant in the basement and a great place to enjoy a beer!

Radhuskallaren

We also took a day trip by train to Roskilde on Thursday 4th December and visited the Viking Longboat Museum there where 5 Viking Long Boats found underwater in the nearby fjord have been preseved and reconstructed. It was very interesting but my attention kept getting drawn to the view out of the windows where there were wildfowl galore out on the water and so I left the museum early to walk along the fjord shoreline for a better look, noting a Wren, a Blue Tit and a Great Tit along the way.

Viking Museum, Roskilde

Viking Museum

On a scan about amongst the birds out on the water I was very pleased to find that there were Whooper Swans present and hidden amongst the Mute Swans, I had secretly hoped to see some on our trip but had thought it would be unlikely. There were both juvenile and adult Whooper Swans present and feeding together in their family groups and occassionally they would call to each other which was lovely to hear. It was also interesting to watch the Coot and Wigeon trying to steal the weed brought up to the surface by the Swans but they got very short shrift from the Swans as they tried to do so.

Whooper Swans, Coots and Wigeon

Mute Swan

Whooper Swan

Whooper Swans

Whooper Swan

There were large rafts of Coot present and on scanning through them I managed to find an immature male Scaup, a Little Grebe, at least 3 male Goosander, Tufted Duck, Wigeon, Goldeneye, Cormorant and Eider. 

Scaup 

There were also Mallard, Wigeon, a Grey Heron, a Blue Tit and Blackbirds seen on a walk through a park to get to the Viking Museum.

Mallard, Roskilde Park

Wigeon

Grey Heron

Roskilde Cathedral

The trip to Roskilde really bumped up my holiday bird list and I ended up with sightings of 29 species which I was very pleased and surprised about considering the trip was only a Christmas city break, I enjoyed all the bird sightings but the Whooper Swans and the Barnacle Geese were the stand out birds for me.

It was back to the UK and the real world on Friday 5th December, the journey was uneventful but brightened up by seeing Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Angela Rippon in the first class lounge at Paddington Station as we sat there waiting for our train to Plymouth. 

And so our stay in Denmark had been an absolute delight and we really enjoyed our time in Copenhagen, Denmark is a very clean, tidy, organised and efficient country and the people are very chilled, polite and socially aware but it also quite an expensive place, especially the food and drink. The Christmas Markets were pretty good too and I would be very happy to visit Copenhagen again someday although I would have to save up my pennies first!

A Cold Snap

The weather has finally turned colder after what has been a very mild Autumn so far and typically it's arrived just as we are having our leaking gas boiler replaced. The boiler was eventually due to be replaced on Tuesday 18th November and with the day before being a beautiful and sunny day we headed out to Stover for a walk. It was noticably cooler but feeling quite pleasant and fresh and it was surprisingly fairly quiet around Stover considering the good weather.

Out on the Lake amongst the Tufted Duck, Coot, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Mallard and Canada Geese were a pair of nervous looking Shoveler, a female Teal, 4 Pochard (3 male) and a Great Crested Grebe but I couldn't find any Mandarin Ducks.

Shovelers

Pochards

Mute Swan

The feeding station as viewed from the tree top walkway was very busy with birds and there were plenty of Coal, Blue and Great Tits dashing about along with a few Nuthatch. Eventually I found a Marsh Tit which dashed in to the feeder, grabbed a Sunflower seed and flew off to eat it in a nearby tree. Also present were Robin, Chaffinch, a female Great Spotted Woodpecker, 2 Stock Dove, Woodpigeon and a male Blackbird along with some very portly looking Grey Squirrels feeding on the ground underneath the feeders but everything scattered when a female Sparrowhawk dashed through in full hunting mode.

The air felt chilly but it was pleasant when in the sunshine and despite the late date there were Common Darters flitting about around the Lake edge including a few mating pairs.

Common Darter

Common Darter

I had earmarked the Tuesday and Wednesday as boiler installation days but with it all going smoothly on the Tuesday I had Wednesday 19th November unexpectedly free and so I headed off to Dawlish Warren to look for the 5 Velvet Scoter being seen there. It was a beautiful day with blue skies and sunshine but a cold northerly wind kept things very cool indeed.

I arrived off the train at around 10:30am and headed straight to Langstone Rock where the Scoters have been showing but I didn't venture up onto the Rock due to the strong wind and the lingering bad memories of my last visit up there in March 2022 when I nearly broke my telescope. 

On a quick scan offshore from Buddys Cafe I found a flock of 17 Common Scoter (2 males) quite close in and as I scanned through them the 5 Velvet Scoter flew in and landed on the sea nearby. I enjoyed some good views of them but they were very unsettled and flighty (unlike the Common Scoters) and with a distant view of a Red-throated Diver off the main beach towards The Point I walked back to the lifeguard hut for a closer look.

The View from The Lifeguard Hut

I refound the Red-throated Diver but it had moved further towards The Point and with it spending very little time at the surface between dives the views were brief and distant. A Great Northern Diver was even further away and just as active along with 4 Great Crested Grebes and with the wind chilling me down considerably I headed back to the relative shelter of Langstone Rock for another look at the Scoters.

The Velvet Scoters were still showing well along with the Common Scoters, they were bringing up Mussels to the surface to eat before continuing their diving. A Red-throated Diver then appeared amongst them and gave some great views as it had a good preen before continuing its diving and a second bird also flew in and instantly disappeared under the water as soon as it landed.

I decided to have a quick look around the main pond before heading home, it was relatively sheltered amongst the trees from the worst of the wind and out on the water were a Mute Swan, a Moorhen, a Little Grebe and 8 Teal (5 male). A Water Rail and a Snipe flushed from the waters edge and disappeared into the reeds and a second hidden Water Rail was heard squealing away. In the trees 2 Chiffchaff and 2 Long-tailed Tit were feeding while out on the nearby grassland a pair of Stonechat were seen but it was soon time to head back to the station to warm up on the train back to Plymouth.

The Main Pond

Mute Swan

Stonechat

It was frosty, clear and still on Friday 21st November as I headed out to Wembury on the 7am bus, it was a beautiful morning but it felt very cold with temperatures just above freezing and I had to tread carefully on arriving off the bus as there were icy patches on the pavements and roads.

The Rarest Thing seen all day - a Frost at Wembury

I had hoped the cold weather may have moved some birds in but in these days of global warming a few frosty nights doesn't illicit a bird movement response like it used to. However a Redshank along the beach and a Redwing in the Ivy bushes at The Point were probably cold weather arrivals and a surprise Red Kite flying across the fields behind the radar station towards Plymouth and a Black Redstart on the roof of the Church (although it had been reported a few days previously) may also have appeared due to the chilly conditions.

Black Redstart

Black Redstart

The usual birds were otherwise on view with a male Blackcap, a Chiffchaff, a Dartford Warbler, a Grey Wagtail, 2 Goldcrest and Cirl Buntings the highlights and after a good search I finally found a Water Pipit feeding on the seaweed mass along the beach, it was hidden in plain sight amongst the numerous Rock Pipits and Pied Wagtails also present but it was very flitty and flighty, hopefully it will stick around for a while yet.

Dartford Warbler

Pied Wagtail

Water Pipit

Water Pipit

Water Pipit

I'm always surprised to find Water Pipits along the beach at Wembury as they supposedly prefer freshwater environments but November is always a good month to find them at Wembury, maybe they make good use of the rich food source here on the beach as they migrate through to less saline habitats.