NORGE AND DENMARK

June 2009
In June two friends and I made a trip to the middle of Norge and the west of
Denmark. It wasn´t my first time there, but the first time having more time to
participiate on the environment – I didn´t have to run from one tourist attraction
to the next like at the journeys with my parents in my boyhood.
However we had only a short time, so we went to well known hotspots – for this
first trip.

Bergen, Norway
At first we had to meet Marcus, he was there for a half year. The first surprising
thing he had shown us were breeding Lapwings Vanellus vanellus in a park near
the students hall of residence.
At home these birds became extrem rare, here it breeding under a park bench
beside a football site! A warning adult Lapwing beside it´s nest. At the nestside
almost people were going along and there were also a lot of magpies have to
feed there hungry chicks…

090531, Northern Lapwing, alarm call, Bergen, Norway

090601, Winter Wren, song, Bergen, Norway
-> song, lesser hard than in Middle Europe

Runde, Norway
This small island is a well known birding hotspot. For recordings it´s seems
almost to much windy but a wonderful place to get familiar with a lot of species
and it´s sounds. Maybe the most impressing thing there are the colonies of
pelagic living birds like:
Atlantic puffin Fratercula arctica, Razorbill Alca torda, Common Murre Uria aalge.
Futhermore a great colony of Black-legged Kittiwakes Rissa tridactyla,
Northern Gannets Sula bassana and a few Northern Fulmars Fulmarus glacialis.

It´s a shame that most of the juvenile Auk´s die by hunger, the sea is nearly
fished empty by the boundless greed of the fishing industry. Most of the catched
fish is for feeding cows and pigs: a small hint for environmentalists with a lifestyle
based on animal products…

Beside the Seabirds on Runde there are a lot of Songbirds: Rock Pipit
Anthus petrosus, Meadow Pipit Anthus pratensis, Twite Carduelis flavirostris
or Northern Wheatear Oenanthe oenanthe.

At the top of the island you can see and hear a lot of Great Skua Stercorarius skua
and White-tailed Eagles Haliaeetus albicilla (we had up to 7 individuals).

Most of the island is a table land, so if you want to record something you need
definitely a wind cover for harder conditions. On the other hand a problem for
recording are the wildlife photographers, is nearly no place beside birds without
the clicking and chattering of cameras.

A Eurasian Oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus had attack everyone came
closer to it´s nestside – the problem: it were 300m beside a main path.

090603, Eurasian Oystercatcher, alarm call, Runde, Norway

090603, Great Skua, flight calls, Runde, Norway

090603, Rock Pipit, calls, Runde, Norway

Bøyabreen, Norway
Bøyabreen is a well know glacier, there mostly you can see busses full of tourist
making photos from each other in front of the glacier. Here we had hear the only
Brambling Fringilla montifringilla of our tour. In addition there were singing
Redwings Turdus iliacus and Willow Warblers Phyloscopus trochilus.

090601, Redwing, song, Boyabreen, Norway

Tipperne, Denmark
Tipperne is a well known birding hotspot at western Denmark. After visiting this
area I can imagine how my home country had look like before the massive
industrialisation of farming.
In Tipperne I had set my focus on looking for personal new species – so I don´t
make a lot of recordings. But this is definitely a place i will visit once more. Without
the helpful guard of this area maybe we had seen not so much – thanks a lot!

090610, Common House Martin, Tipperne, Danmark
-> in background: working farmers