looduskalender.ee

April 17

 

Lapland longspur (17.04.2012 Rahuste)

 

The weather today at the Sõrve peninsula was not precisely the best and I didn’t feel much like staying at Salme looking for raptors.  Instead I roved around on the Saaremaa western coast looking for birds landing on their migration. Most interesting for new species was the Rahuste shore meadow in the morning. Here I saw 2 Lapland longspurs. One of them was very bold and posed nicely. But, as always, the camera battery ran out just at the „right“ moment and I got only a couple of foggy photos.  At the edge of a seaweed bank I also found 2 twites and on a rock at the peninsula tip a rock pipit. All three are quite tough rarities, they are usually only seen in passing at migration and they certainly don’t come in a watcher’s view on all trips. From Salme I got in addition as a new species for my year list a little ringed plover too; altogether my 2012 name list now has 168 bird species.

In several places larger thrush flocks were noticeable too, mainly fieldfares and redwings. Now is the right time to look for ring ouzels among the others. It is a rare passing migrant here but this year it has already been seen a couple of times in Estonia. Maybe I will manage to catch sight of a ring ouzel myself in the next few days, it has most often been seen in the juniper stands of Western Saaremaa.