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The Estbird birding trip and general meeting took place in the weekend in Kalana on Hiiumaa. With a large gang of birders let loose on the island there is always hope of finding some rarity. In the morning we stayed at Ristna nina to watch, but unfortunately no remarkable movement of waterfowl took place during these days.

 

The Ristna beach season has started  (13.05.2012)

 

Carrion crow (Corvus corone corone) at Ristna nina 13.05.2012, 7th Estonian observation (Photo: Uku Paal)

 

The most exciting find at Ristna must be the observation of a carrion crow – on Sunday one bird was busy at the Ristna southern tip. Last year a carrion crow was seen in the same place at the same time. According to the  Bird Rarities Committee data this subspecies of crow, common in Western Europe, has only been seen in Estonia 6 times before. Moreover in the Ristna thickets and also in Kõrgessaare port the  ringed ouzel was found and at Tahkuna this year’s first Pomarine skua was observed.

 

 First collared flycatcher in Hiiumaa - 13.05.2012 Palli (Photo: Uku Paal)

 

The most interesting find of the weekend came however on Sunday when we went to Palli beach on the Kõpu peninsula to check the possible collared fly-catcher. On Saturday glimpses of a flycatcher with a collar had been seen but the species identification was left unconfirmed. On Sunday we succeeded to find the bird and it was a collared flycatcher! This species has, according to data at the Bird Rarities committee only been seen about 30 times in Estonia, mostly in Saaremaa. In Hiiumaa the collared flycatcher has not been observed before.

In the weekend I got two more species for my year list – on Saturday 5 ruddy turnstones were migrating at Ristna nina and on Sunday I saw two honey buzzards in Kiduspe village. My 2012 year list now has altogether 235 bird species.

Once more we had a memorable Estbirding meeting – many birds were seen, reports were confirmed at the meeting, we listened to presentations of how to identify birds, travel impressions were exchanged and future plans were discussed in the sauna. The Estbirding autumn birding trip and general assembly will be on October 19-21 in West Saaremaa.