At least it was frozen!

Picture 1: Frozen Cormorant Lake

Today was a very eventful day. We awoke to another windy and very cold day again, but as this is the norm we got ready, cosy in our snow suits, and headed out on the bikes to Nordstrand as today we had a new job to do. Our job was to cut back the reeds in front of one of the Cormorant Lake viewpoints whilst the lake was still frozen. We met Knud, Simon and another volunteer at the carpark and got all the kit ready including hedge trimmers, shears and bush cutters too. We said goodbye to our guest of the last few days Jørgen and wished him safe travels back to Copenhagen ahead of the big snowstorm forecasted for Thursday/Friday where 10-20cm may fall!

Picture 2: Eleanor in the reeds.

Splitting into two teams, Eleanor and I were faced with a wall of reeds spanning 20m along the shore and a little over 10-15m out into the frozen lake. All but the edge were over ice! At the same time, Simon and the other two set out to clear another viewpoint further along the track. We were provided with two hedge trimmers to begin but due to a lack of power in one of them it ran out of change within 5 minutes. As a result, we took it in turns to trim the reeds with the other trimmer whilst the other crawled over the ice snapping the reeds by hand which was quite easy to be fair.

Picture 3: Me in the reeds.

We turned into true ‘Bitterns’ of the lake, sat on our reed bed made from the reed bed and happily spent the next few hours cutting back the reeds on the ice. After a couple of hours, the other team emerged; they had completed their task so headed off home leaving us to finish our section. Our other trimmer soon ran out of charge, so we resulted to hand picking the last of the reeds, even the far out ones. We are very determined so completed the task in a little over 2hrs 30mins. Our reward was soon to follow as a small pipit flew over us calling with a single note each time. Watching as it descended into the cut reeds, we could see that it was a Water Pipit (Bjergpiber)!! which is not only unusual at the time but a big win for our hard work habitat creating! Hopefully it will stick around.

Picture 4: The final product.

With our task completed, we headed back for lunch and chill. Eleanor oiled the second coat for the guest apartment surface, and we went for a short walk along the beach finding Common Scoter (Sortand) and Eiders (Ederfugl) on the sea. Popping into Ellekrattet we found 3 Woodcock (Skovsneppe), a small flock of Bullfinches (Dompap), a Goldcrest (Fuglekonge) and a Great- Spotted Woodpecker (Stor Flagspætte) Back in time for dinner, more cookies and maybe a nightcatch session too but we shall see as it is so windy out there.

Highlights:

-    Woodcock (Skovsneppe) - Ellekrattet

-    Water Pipit (Bjergpiber) - Cormorant Lake

Link to Dofbasen here.

Observers: Thomas Weston, Eleanor Harris, Knud Pederson, Jørgen Hulbæk, Simon S. Christiansen