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 from our 17th floor room of a large lake named Sankt Jorgens So. 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 numbers of Coot present and on scanning through them I managed to find a Little Grebe, at least 3 male Goosander, Tufted Duck, Wigeon, Goldeneye, Cormorant and Eider.
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 30 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!
