looduskalender.ee

The autumn of last year dragged on and even in December proper winter had not arrived yet. The first days of January too reminded rather of late autumn (especially on the western islands) and many late migrants are still here. The sea has not even started to freeze and the larger inland lakes were still free from ice in the beginning of the year. Thus there are plenty of waterfowl everywhere. Whooper swans could be seen in nearly every little bay, in several places barnacle geese were observed, other waterfowl were unusually numerous too (ducks, mergansers, diving ducks).
Even waders that generally leave no later than in November were seen uncommonly often: flocks of lapwings were noted in several places on the western coast, there were at least three snipe observations in January, 160 golden plovers were still  in Keemu (southern shore of Matsalu bay) in the beginning of January!
Many passerines, unusual in winter, were found too. Some skylark, woodlark and wagtail observations are known, starlings were still to be seen by flocks. Even a chiff-chaff was observed on January 1 on western Saaremaa.
However, blackbirds and common buzzards for instance were noticeably fewer than usual .
All bird observations in the e-Biodiversity data base during the first week of January  can be seen here.
My 2012 species list collected 89 species during the first week. This is by far not an extraordinary result. For instance in 2009, a year rather similar to this year, the most dedicated birders had reached 100 species already by January 3rd - 4th. It would have been theoretically possible to repeat or exceed that rather special record this year but my aim is to find as many species as possible during the whole year and a rush in the beginning of the year was not in the plan. 100 meter records are not set during a marathon.
During the first week of the year the only particular rarity for Estonia was the red phalarope that I myself managed to twitch at Laoküla shore on January 1st. The mandatory species on a winter trip to Saaremaa – Steller’s eider and purple sandpiper – were also successfully seen. No setbacks occurred during the first week and spirits are high, the “Big Year” project has started at full speed.