The Fossil, the Future and a surprise Tit

Yesterday afternoon, given the good weather forecast, I decided to make my first visit to Vestamager nature reserve, just south-east of Copenhagen (about 15 minutes by Metro from our closest station, Kongens Nytorv). In my research ahead of my move to Copenhagen I had read about this area being a great place for birds all year round so I headed off with a sense of anticipation.

It took me a good 90 minutes to walk from the entrance of the reserve to the south-east tip, where the island of Amager meets the Baltic. It is clearly a very good area for birds, the habitat consisting of a mixture of flooded fields, birch woodland and, at the southern tip, a larger area of shallow fresh water with some reedbeds. At the tip there is a large viewing platform which is a great point from which to scan the freshwater area inland and the sea. On the sea there were several duck, grebe and sawbill species including Wigeon, Red-necked Grebe, Red-breasted Merganser, Common Scoter, Goldeneye and Scaup. Inland, on the freshwater, there were Shoveler, Teal, Mallard and a few very pretty Smew, as well as good numbers of Lapwing, Shelduck, Greylag Geese, Swans and Cormorants with a few Barnacle and Brent Geese. A surprise for me was a male Bearded Tit in the reedbed which called repeatedly before briefly flying across a stretch of water from one reedbed to another. Given how vulnerable this species is to the cold, I was a little surprised to see one in Denmark in winter but maybe that is a sign of the very mild winter that Denmark, and indeed most of Scandinavia, has experienced this year.

The tip is also a great viewpoint from which to see the large coal-fired power station called Avedore. It dominates the skyline to the west and is surrounded by a number of wind turbines, seemingly living together in harmony...

Denmark is a world leader in wind technology, generating around 20 per cent of its electricity from wind.