Rolling rolling rolling!

After some busy ringing days earlier this week, the nets at Grenen were quiet this morning, with 18 birds caught. Back at the observatory, Simon led our second ringing tour of the week, with a Treecreeper (Trælober) being the highlight. During the morning, we heard great reports from some of the local birders who had been over to Hanstholm the day before to see the Roller (Ellekrage) which had been discovered there. With the ringing being slow and all of us keen to see this rare Danish visitor, Simon made the call that we would try for the Roller that afternoon...the twitch was on!!

And so at midday we all piled into the car and drove across to the north west coast, with Lisa’s Roller Disco playlist providing the soundtrack (although not even that could keep the three kids in the back awake!) We arrived at a forest car park, where the assembled crowd of long camera lenses suggested the bird was still present. And sure enough it was, giving a great performance as it perched on dead trees around a clearing, occasionally darting down to the ground to pick up beetles and giving amazing flashes of turquoise and vivid blue on its wings.

Once everyone had soaked up this great bird, it was back in the car, but Simon had another couple of treats up his sleeve. First up was an ice cream stop to sample some of the area’s finest Soft Ice, complete with chocolate sprinkles - a guaranteed way to keep your volunteers quiet and happy.

Next was a second twitching stop at Hirshals, to visit a random industrial estate and parking area which is home to Denmark’s last few Crested Larks (Toplærke). It was a little sad to see the last of a population which will surely become extinct in the near future, but nevertheless the birds themselves were great, performing down to just a few metres and even giving a few bursts of song flight.

There was only one way a day like this could get any better….yes, PIZZA! After a quick stop on the way home to pick up everyone’s favourite takeaway, we collapsed onto the sofa in a pizza coma to watch Now You See Me, a film about four magicians. Now all we need is a sprinkling of that magic to bring one of the autumn rarities currently appearing on the west coast of Denmark to Skagen...I’m sure it’s only a matter of time!

Birds Rung (18): 1 Greenfinch (Grønirisk), 6 Robins (Rødhals), 1 Wren (Gærdesmutte), 1 Dunnock (Jernspurv), 1 Blue tit (Blåmejse), 5 Goldcrests (Fuglekonge), 2 Treecreeper (Trælober) and 1 Redwing (Vindrossel).

People: Molly Brown, Sarah Bedford, James Butcher, Lisa Vergin, Rolf Christensen and Simon S. Christiansen.