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More cranes arrive by each day  – Sõrve säär 19.03.2012

 

A day with very changeable weather at Sõrve säär – rain to start with in early morning, after that dense fog, at mid-day a few hours of sunshine, after lunch hard snowfall, in the evening hard storm. Those few clear and calm mid-day hours I used at once to stay at the sea bunker. So when the fog started to lift, birds began arriving from the Latvia direction. Cranes and grey herons, geese and swans, eiders and mergansers travelled by small groups. But nobody very sensational was encountered today.

Yesterday on the Soodevahe fields I managed to read 3 neck rings. Already  today information came from Matsalu ringing centre about the birds. The Bewick’s swan with the yellow ring 024E had been ringed in January 2011, in its wintering area in Netherlands. In the two previous winters it had been observed tens of times in western Europe and now it was noted for the first time in Estonia on its migration journey. The  bean goose with the yellow ring A-BX had also been ringed in January 2011 on the wintering grounds in the Netherlands. In the two previous winters it had been seen a couple of times in western Europe and in between, in May last year, also in the Russian part of Karelia. The  whooper swan with the blue ring 0E93 was ringed in July 2011 in Latvia. It has spent all winters in Germany, during migration periods it has been seen in Latvia and Finland as well. This spring it was observed in Germany on February 19th, then on March 4th in Poland and now, on March 18^th, in Estonia.