Passerine Paradise

This morning started as usual, with Hebe and Joakim heading to North Strand, and Dante and I heading to Grenen. It was a great day for raptors, with hundreds of common and rough legged buzzards (musvåge og fjeldvåge), kestrels (tårnfalk), sparrow hawks (spurvehøg), ospreys (fiskeørn), harriers (høg) and even a couple of merlins (dværgfalk)! The sea did not disappoint either, with highlights of 6 black throated divers and 2 black guillemots.

At Grenen the passerines were in full migrating mode, with over 30,000 counted! We also had a short sighting of a long-eared owl (skovhornugle), a couple of great grey shrikes (stor tornskade) and even some dancing cranes (trane)!

Joakim spent the afternoon ringing goldcrests (fuglekonge) and a robin (rødhals) by the lighthouse, while Hebe decided to go into town. Peter and I worked indoors, until we received a call from Dante about a great grey shrike down the lighthouse road. We headed out, sighting roe deer, green sandpipers (svaleklire) a grey wagtail (bjergvipstjert), and even a female sand lizard (markfirben) but sadly not the shrike. Instead, we stumbled through the wetlands and arrived at an evergreen copse were a crested tit (topmejse) was singing his little heart out. What an awesome end to the day!