Birds all year round
The birds came with the water
With the end of grain farming and the restoration of the Skjern Å river valley (1987-2003),
the natural conditions required to support a rich and varied birdlife population soon reappeared. In fact, geese, swans, ducks, wading birds and other aquatic birds “returned with the water”. Today, more than 250 different species can be seen in the area.
All year round you san see impressive numbers of mute swans, moorhens, cormorants, herons, grey geese and all kinds of ducks. The first breeding birds of the year are greylag geese and mallards. Later on, these are joined by common shelducks, shovelers, garganeys and gadwalls. The diving ducks – tufted ducks and pochards – breed along with the eared grebes in the shelter of the colonies of black-headed gulls. The great crested grebe is joined by the red-necked grebe and the little grebe.
One of the most exciting breeding birds to be seen is the spoonbill, which bred here for the
first time in 2002. Spoonbills are most commonly to be observed in the western part of the
area. You may also be lucky enough both to see and hear the bittern – a brown heron with a
voice that sounds like someone blowing across an empty bottle. The marsh harrier is sometimes observed flying low over the meadows, hunting for mice and birds. The most visible breeding wading birds are the lapwing, the avocet and the oyster catcher.
Migratory and winter guests
Wading bird migrations can be seen in the spring and autumn. Almost all species of wading
birds can be observed at Skjern Enge. The most numerous species are the lapwing, the
golden plover and the dunlin. In spring, you can see hundreds of ruffs, when the males –
with their distinctive feather “collars” – are en route from their “winter quarters” in Africa to
the breeding grounds to the north and east. When they return from the breeding grounds,
as early as July, they will have lost their “collars”.
In August and September, the osprey flies by, and in the winter you may be able to spot a
white-tailed eagle or a peregrine falcon in the area. Other birds of prey seen here include the hen harrier, the common buzzard, the roughlegged buzzard, the kestrel, the merlin, the red
kite and the marsh harrier.
Some of the birds that fly to Skjern Enge in the autumn remain through the winter months, too. The yellow-billed tundra swans and whooper swans arrive from Siberia, Scandinavia and Russia, while large flocks of pink-footed geese, greylag geese and barnacle geese fly in from
Svalbard, Norway and Siberia. Thousands of teals, wigeons, mallards, pintails, shovelers and
gadwalls also leave their breeding grounds to the north and east and settle in on the water.
