looduskalender.ee

February 22nd

 

Between days with stormy and snowy weather a nice quiet morning happened to come and I at once turned towards  the forests at Järvakandi: maybe the approaching spring has made the woodpeckers more vocal. And so it was, at sunrise the forest was full of all kinds of drumming. A great number of great spotted woodpeckers could be heard, in addition some black woodpeckers, white-backed woodpecker, grey-headed woodpeckers and three-toed woodpeckers. In a dense forest it is not at all always possible to see a drumming woodpecker  so every bird enthusiast should make sure to know the sounds of the woodpeckers. The drummings of the various woodpecker species differ in length and rhythm and since we only have 8 woodpecker species, learning them is not a very great effort. An excellent collection of bird sounds is for instance Andreas Schulze: Die Vogelstimmen Europas, Nordafrikas und Vorderasiens. The calls of 819 bird species are collected in the volume and in addition to song there are also the invitation and warning calls and the calls of female and juvenile birds. More can be read about identifying woodpeckers (for instance by their drumming and calls) in a Estonian Museum of Natural History 2010 booklet with tips for enthusiasts in different areas of natural history (in Estonian).

 

Today one new species was added to my year list. At the Aardlapalu landfill site a flock of linnets (at least 37 birds) had appeared again. But while in January a twite was among the other birds then today no rarities were to be seen. My 2012 year list now has 114 bird species.