Greenish Delight

As trailed in my last post, I spent last night birding from dusk til dawn (and a little bit after). I was very fortunate to be able to borrow Libby's parents' car and I was determined to use it to get to some places that would be very awkward to reach via my usual mode of transport - cycle and train. It was a fantastically warm and still night with temperatures no lower than about 14 degs and not a breath of wind. I began by visiting Melby Overdrev on the north coast of Sjaelland. This is the most reliable spot to see and hear Nightjar (in Danish, 'Natravn' - literally translated "Night Raven"), a bird that was on my doorstep at Winterton when I was growing up but scarce here in Denmark. As soon as I reached the car park at around 2230 and opened my door I could hear the characteristic 'churring' of a male and the clap of wings of its display flight. A few minutes later a female flew around making the familiar 'chip' call. In the semi-light of dusk it is always special to see these crepuscular bird. I spent a good hour there before the light faded to the extent that I could just see silhouettes. A great start.

Next stop was the small village of Mønge just a few kilometres to the south-east where a Quail (Danish name "Vagtel") had been reported singing in a grassy field. On arrival there were two people on site who hadn't heard it in half an hour. As we wandered up the road on foot we heard a family of Long-eared Owls ("Skovhornugle", literally translated as "Forest Horned Owl") in a small copse and, a bit further on, we heard just a single "whip whiip whip" - Quail! In the next 30 minutes we heard it another 9 or 10 times. Excellent. On the way back to the car it transpired that one of the guys was the finder of the River Warbler I enjoyed just a few days ago... top man.

Third stop was the first of three Corncrake ("Engsnarre", literally "Meadow Fool") sites. Half an hour of waiting in the car by the side of the road drew a blank so I decided to cut my losses and drive south to another Corncrake site. All the time I had an eye on being at Møns Klint (a good 80 miles south) at dawn - around 4am - to try for the Greenish Warbler. The second Corncrake site was also silent so I moved on a bit further south to a place called Fensmark, near Naestved. This was super habitat - fields of tall, wet grass with a narrow lane right through the middle - perfect for being able to hear all around. Immediately I could hear a Corncrake, then another. Then another. I counted at least 7 calling males along a stretch of about 500 metres. Brilliant. Also recorded here were at least 3 Grasshopper Warblers. What a great site.

By now it was 3am so I made my way to Møns Klint - a beautiful bit of coastline with the highest cliffs in Denmark. Ok, just about the ONLY cliffs in Denmark, lined by a lovely mature deciduous woodland. Finding a single Greenish Warbler ("Lundsanger", literal translation "Grove Singer") in a woodland about 5km by 2km was never going to be easy but the positive thing about searching for Greenish in July is that most of the other woodland birds have stopped singing by now, so there were only a few Chaffinches, the odd Wren and a few Garden Warblers singing. After about 45 minutes I heard something that I thought was Greenish and, after a bit of patient investigation I got onto it in the canopy. It was pretty lively and gave good views at times as it made several tours of a circuit. Bizarrely, this bird had two songs. One was typical Greenish. The second was almost a perfect, albeit partial, imitation of a Wren. I thought there must be a wren accompanying it in the canopy at first but, as I watched the bird over an hour and a half, it was clear that the Greenish was giving this wren-like song with regularity. I heard the bird sing about 40 times and almost half were of the wren imitation. I have no idea if this is normal as I have never heard Greenish singing before but it certainly came as a surprise.

With the sun rising above the sea to the east a very enjoyable night and early morning's birding came to an end but with one final offering. A young Tawny Owl flew onto a branch just a few metres from me, looked at me intently and then flew off again back to its siblings that were calling in a dense area of beech. A fitting finale.

I'll be back on my bike at the weekend...

Photos: Greenish Warbler and the local church (typically Danish) at Elmelunde, shortly after dawn.