Eastern Jutland, Denmark - 24th-27th October 2007

The main idea for this trip was to see my mums friend, who lives in Denmark, but I tried to get a few trips out to the coast and woodland areas where possible, as her friend also enjoys watching Birds. We drove down to London Stanstead on the 23rd and got the 07.15 flight to Århus which only took an hour and a half. We Got picked up mid morning from the Airport and set off for Randers. This enabled us to have the whole afternoon free to do what we wanted. But Birdwatching began as soon as we arrived as she feeds the birds in the garden. The Highlights bird of this short watch from my Bedroom was however perched in a tree briefly, two gardens away - A Hawfinch!

Above - Hooded Crow, Vorup Enge

Our Trip took us to the outskirts of Randers to the Fjord of the Gudenådale. Here I saw maily common wildfowl including Cormorant, Coot, Mute Swan, GC and Little Grebe, Mallard, Shoveler and various other Wildfowl along with a single snipe which flew in from the East. Highlights of this reserve came from the Reedbeds and from overhead. Firstly from the second Hide I noted a pair of Beared Tit fly 50ft direcly up from the reed bed, then flew across the mere to the other side of the reedbed. After this a walk over the Bridge across the River produced a group of 15 Waxwing and a Kingfisher. This is the largest group of Waxwing I have seen and the first Time I have been alerted by their call, as my previous experiences have been with mainly silent feeding Birds.

Above and Below - Tree Sparrow

Our First full began with Mist over Randers but Garden Watching was still pretty decent as Tree Sparrow were almost ubiquitous and Fieldfare and Redwing were always overhead.

Above and Below - Fussing Ø
Below - Brambling

The First Trip of the day took us to a wonderful Forest on the Outskirts of Randers about 50km to the East. This was called Fussing Ø which held birds even in the Car Park. Marsh Tit, Brambling, Chaffinch, Goldcrest and Nuthatch. The Wood itself was split into obvious sectors, with the first part being Coniferous Pine, wher instantly I was alarmed by a group of 6 Common Crossbill calling overhead. Great Spotted Woodpecker and Treecreeper were obvious but as far as I am aware, none of the Treecreepers were of the Short Toed variety.
It was at about 30 minutes into the walk that I saw the Best Bird of the Trip, well the only Lifer! A Black Woodpecker called loudly and flew through a clearing, then Perched Briefly before presumably chasing after another bird as two birds were calling each other after this encounter.

Above - Øster Hurup

Above - Oystercather and Argentatus 'Scandanavian' Herring Gull

The 26th was Spend to the North East of Randers at Øster Hurup, which is a small touristic coastal village where I was able to get a short Sea Watch in before Dinner. Here I saw lots of Birds on the Sea including - 2 Red Necked Grebe (close in), 5 Great Crested Grebe (>S), 50+ Velvet Scoter, 100+ Common Scoter, 1 Black Guillimot (>S), 1 Razorbill (Close in), 5 Guillimot (>N). Also 15 Scandanavian Herring Gull were on the Beach

Above - Crested Tit
Above - Fieldfare.

On Our last day, we only had the Morning, so I spent time in the Garden which payed off as two Crested tit came back and forth throughout, whihc was amazing. I was only able to get one poor record shot, but you can tell what it is! Alos a group of 3 then a single Waxwing flew South, which could mean I saw as many as 19 on this trip. Brambling and Chaffinch were everywhere and two House Sparrow Flew over, whihc were the only two of the trip! Finally before we left, a Nuthatch was feeding on the Peanuts.

I really enjoyed this trip and came away with 86 Species from only 3 days