Holiday. Oh, how that word is sweet.

My parents visited Denmark this April, and together we traveled five days in the north of Denmark. Thy, Vejlerne, Skagen, Aalborg and Lille Vildmose were our destinations, and I plan to talk about all these. But first, Nationalpark Thy!

It’s the first national park of Denmark, it was established in… 2008. Yes, that wasn’t long ago, but as we say in French, “better late than never”. It’s situated along the coast of northwest Denmark and shows a mix of forest and moorland landscapes. The southern tip shelters a lagoon appreciated by many water birds: geese, ducks, swans and all kinds of waders, including curlews, avocets and redshanks. The very end of the peninsula is more sandy, and is apparently appreciated by Brant geese (Branta bernicla) and Ruddy turnstones (Arenaria interpres). When we arrived there, it was already raining, so we had our picnic in the car. In a patch of grass wandered two Common ringed plovers (Charadrius hiaticula), a Eurasian skylark (Alauda arvensis) and a Northern wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe). Our adventure in the dunes ended shortly, as water started to infiltrate my rain clothes (apparently, the merchandising from my university is not really good), but I still had the time to sight a pair of noisy Sandwich terns (Thalasseus sandvicensis) fishing along the coast.

Continue reading “Land of the rain”