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February 18th

Capercaillie cock basking in the sunrise (18.02.2012, Virumaa).

 

The plan was to go to Saaremaa for a couple of days but since a more serious kind of snow storm was gathering on the western coast I turned instead to the opposite end of Estonia – Virumaa. The weather here was beautiful all day, calm and sunny, only the early morning was a bit chilly, the thermometer showed 20 degrees of cold. To plan the owl trips I drove hundreds of kilometres on forest roads. When the night-time trips come in March-April it will be good to know where recent felling has been done. In darkness it doesn’t show if a previously valuable forest area has been worked over with axe and saw or even a major clear felling made. It is not worthwhile to visit such spots, because when the forest is no longer there, the species of a valuable forest will be gone too for a while.

I got one more species today into my year list. At sunrise a capercaillie cock  was sitting at the roadside in a pine top. My 2012 list now has 113 bird species. Of the wild hen species now only the red or willow grouse is missing, but searching it will surely be hard work. I have only come across this rare bird three times in Estonia, but to be honest I haven’t been a particularly eager bog visitor either.