You win some, you lose some...

Today I learned a lesson. Never leave your visible migration post while your fellow birders are still there..

It was a gorgeous day (again), so I was up and out by dawn and on site at Sydvestpynten by 0600 ready for the morning's migration. The usual suspects were there - Ole and Stefan, this time with another Dane, Morten Christensen. The main highlight early on was the Barnacle Goose migration with steady flocks working their way east.. we had seen about 1,500 by 0800am. Other than that it was slow going and, given there is some potentially 'rare' looking scrub nearby, I decided at 0900 to have a mooch around and see whether there were any migrants in the bushes. After about 5 minutes I heard the familiar call of a Common Redstart and, after a couple of minutes of carefully scrutinising the bushes, I got my binoculars onto it.. a stunning male in resplendent summer plumage. It proceeded to sing and I was enjoying watching this Spring migrant in the morning sunshine. After about 10 minutes I carried on my tour of the scrub and meandered back to the watchpoint.. arriving there around 0930. Morten asked "anything much?".. to which I replied, "Not really.. a nice singing male Redstart but not a lot else..". I could see the smile on his face and I could tell that they had seen something good while I was away.. "Go on then, I said.. what have you seen..?" He casually let out the words "White-billed Diver at 0906am".. WHITE-BILLED DIVER??? "Oh my God.." were my first words (or something very similar). I have never seen a White-billed Diver (they are pretty rare all across Europe) and only a handful are seen in any given year in Denmark. To see one near Copenhagen is almost unheard of... Ole and Morten proceeded to describe it to me in great detail - the large size, long body with a pot belly and a gleaming white bill... Unfortunately it just flew past west to east and headed off in the direction of Sweden so there was no chance of me seeing it. I thought back - what time did I leave the point? About 0900.. just 6 minutes before the bird flew past.. in fact the diver flew past at about the time I was enjoying the male redstart.. Am I gutted? Well, if I am honest, a little. But not a lot. There will be another White-billed Diver, I am sure.. and that male redstart was a stunner... On another day they would have seen nothing and I might have found a Spring Barred Warbler... (unlikely I know, but I have to comfort myself somehow!).