Sort Sol

As a way of thanking Lisbeth’s parents for all they did for the wedding, we took them on a tour called Sort Sol, which means black sun. It’s the nightly resting place of the starling, which settles in massive flocks in different areas in Southern Denmark as part of migration. We were told that this particular night there were up to 600,000 birds.

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We were also told that one of the reasons that the location varies is because people (who are not, it was made clear, on one of their tours) occasionally use loud noises to rouse the birds once they settle in order to see them darken the sky again.

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Although “black sun” is quite an exaggeration, it was amazing how many birds there were. But  the most impressive part for me was the sound of tens of thousands of birds changing direction at the same time as they swirled around us. It was a little like a sound an airplane might make.

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The birds flock to these locations in Western Denmark after spending the summer in other parts of Denmark to gourge on the plentiful food sources that the region provides before migrating South to areas generally in France and England for the winter.

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They settled into clumps in the marsh rather abruptly as the light faded, at which point we walked back to the bus where we were taken back to the parking lot where the tour started. It turned out that we the location was actually in Northern Germany. (Especially given American security after 9/11, it amazes me every time I cross an international border without so much as showing identification.)

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Back in Vejle, I look the following pictures to try and capture how pretty the place is with the leaves turning. It was the first time we’d been back to the house since the wedding, and I half-expected to see the tent still standing for the wedding — despite the fact that we had helped break the tent down.

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