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Weather conditions today on the north-western coast  were not the best for birdwatching and so I decided to delay the North Estonia trip by one day. Instead I went to help Tarmo Teppe to count the waterfowl wintering on River Emajõgi in Tartu. In the river section from Kvissental to Ihaste we counted almost 500 mallards, which is a quite high number but nothing spectacular compared to the last few winters. It is more surprising that there was only one teal among the mallards, other species we did not even find (e g goldeneye, goosander).

Today it was announced in the birdwatcher list that a crane was still in place at Pärnjõgi near Vändra. It happens, but rarely, that cranes stay in Estonia for winter; generally we then have to do with injured birds that have not been strong enough to fly away. But during the present warm winter cranes have been observed in several places. At the New Year holiday a crane was seen for instance in Pärnumaa in Audru and in Kärla in Saaremaa and two birds in Martna in Pärnumaa.