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 Ropka water meadow at river Suur-Emajõgi

 

Compared to the best migration months of April and May I have been on rather few trips. Only the birds at the Ropka-Ihaste water meadow and the Aardla polder near Tartu got investigated more in detail, since this year a major monitoring project is running there. In June I also went over my census track in Setomaa where I could note the booted warbler (Iduna caligata) as „compulsory“ species. The European roller (Coracias garrulus) search trip in Valgamaa regrettably produced no results and it seems as if this species has disappeared from us as a breeder. Once I also landed up in the forests of Virumaa where the looked-for species was the great grey owl (Strix nebulosa), but for now I didn’t come across the creature. During the month I only went on one major twitching  trip – on June 6th I managed to twitch a red kite at Sõrve säär in Saaremaa. And that was the sum of my June trips. In June I only collected 93 watching hours (from the beginning of the year altogether 1015), driving kilometres were 2511 (from the beginning of the year altogether 27340) and trip kilometres by foot in June were 66 (from the beginning of the year altogether 621). In July a more active bird migration already takes place and surely I will move around much more then.

Only 4 species were added in June to my year list of species, but the small number of additions was no surprise, because of the „certain“ species I only haven’t seen the sanderling (Calidris alba) yet. All other possible species are rarities and finding them takes some hard work. Altogether my 2012 list at the end of June stands at 264 bird species.