Birder's diary - 31.01
Birder: Margus Ots, linnuvaatleja.ee
Photo: Arne Ader
Translation: Liis
Black woodpecker
January 31
It is not particularly tempting to go on birding trips in the severe cold, and the birds are not very active or loud-voiced in the cold either. Yesterday and today I only made short trips. At the Aardlapalu landfill near Tartu a twite was seen a few days ago in a flock of redpolls. Unfortunately this company seems to have moved on to somewhere else, and the twite has not been refound despite repeated searches. Checking the redpoll flocks I observed one more arctic redpoll . It is always worthwhile to inspect flocks of small passerines, all sorts of interesting birds may be among them.
Anyway, yesterday I succeeded in getting one more species on the year list. At the Tartu water treatment plant channel a kingfisher was there in addition to the usual duck soup. This is the 105th bird species on my 2012 year list. Around Tartu kingfishers have also been seen in Haaslava and Ilmatsalu. If all waters finally freeze with the severe cold here now, it may, sadly, happen that the kingfishers cannot hold out until spring.
Silence reigns in the forests too. In the harsh cold no owls call and the woodpecker isn’t drumming. The great spotted woodpeckers can be seen everywhere and I have come across the black woodpecker in several places, but any other woodpeckers I haven’t found during the last days. Of the owls only a pygmy owl caught my eye. When the frost wave passes at last then evidently on the first milder morning the forest birds will be much more talkative.
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