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 Goosanders

 

Winter showed its power last night and by morning snow was once again on the ground in Saaremaa. But the morning at Sõrve säär was cloudless and the sun warmed pleasantly. After a number of rainy and foggy days the unexpectedly beautiful weather was even a little unfamiliar as if something were wrong. But after all, spring arrived this morning. Despite the beautiful weather there was no migration to be seen in early morning. The wind was probably too strong and from the wrong direction and quite cold too. Rather some skylarks and starlings attempted instead to return to Latvia from the snowy Sõrve säär.

Instead of staying in the Sõrve sääre sea bunker to observe birds I checked out the western shore of Saaremaa until Karalane. All ice-free little bays were already well filled with ducks, pochards, goldeneyes, meergansers and swans. Among the other waterfowl in Rahuste were 4 Canada geese. In Hiiumaa at Vaemla a larger bunch of Canada geese have been in place already for some time, but for me this was a new species in the year list. One more species was added to my year list – in Tammuna village a black redstart was busy. It was probably the first to arrive this year, no news of black redstarts have come yet from elsewhere. Altogether my 2012 year list has  131 bird species now.