Countdown to Copenhagen

It is now 11:17pm in the UK and my wife has been busy packing this evening for our holiday in Copenhagen. My last visit to this capital of Denmark was in 2012 on a business trip. I wonder how I might feel now as a 'tourist' travelling to this Scandinavian city....

Retirement has its rewards. The stress of the commercial aspects of travel is a distant memory as I have been retired for 16 months now but I do sometimes miss the buzz of visiting customers and meeting up with old business acquaintances. I still maintain a keen interest in the success of the company that I ran as MD before my retirement and am happy to report that it continues to prosper. But, there is no going back....

Travel now, for me and my wife, has to contain all the elements of history, culture, comfortable accommodation, good food and wine and of course - good weather. Here's hoping...

 

Phalarope's 8,000-mile Trip

Where do Shetland's Red-necked Phalaropes go in the winter? It has long been assumed that they join birds from Scandinavia to overwinter in the Arabian Sea but data from a bird tagged on the Shetland Isle of Fetlar in 2012 has shown that these tiny birds make an even more epic journey than was thought.

One of 10 birds tagged with tiny tracking devices by the RSPB and the Swiss Ornithological Institute, aided by the Shetland Ringing Group, when recaptured was found to have undertaken an 8,000-mile journey over the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean and Mexico, ending up in Peru, before returning again for the summer, a journey never recorded for any bird that breeds in Europe.

The Red-necked Phalarope spends the winter at sea feeding on the plankton that blooms in colder currents. The birds may be directly affected by El Nino events, which reduce the amount of plankton available.