looduskalender.ee

Translation: Liis

 

Last night at first a message came by Rariliin (Birdline) that in Rahuste on Saaremaa a  pallid harrier (Circus macrourus) was in place. Although this creature is not yet on my year list I did not start making any twitching plans because birds of prey generally don’t stay in a place for longer periods. A couple of hours later however a message came that in the same place in Rahuste a pectoral sandpiper (Calidris melanotos) was busy among the other sandpipers. And this species I have never seen before at all. Since the weather was really bad it could be presumed that the bird would not disappear somewhere during the night . There was no hope of reaching the last evening ferry, so I could sleep a few hours and took the first morning ferry. On the mainland it was raining quite hard but reaching the island the sun was shining. A doubt began to creep into my soul that maybe the waders had started on their migration all the same in the bright weather. I slowed down and turned to the Kõinastu Lee to start with, where generally lots of waders are busy. But the water level was high and there were only about twenty sandpipers and ruffs to be seen. At the same time there were thousands of ducks in shelter from the wind and feeding here, the most numerous was the teal (Anas crecca) (2000), wigeon (Anas penelope) (1500) and pintail (Anas acuta)(500). I didn’t have the time to examine the ducks particularly carefully because a surprising message came by way of Rariliin (Birdline) saying that in Rahuste the palled harrier had shown itself this morning too. So I headed without any stops for Rahuste.  I checked the whole of the shore there but found neither the pectoral sandpiper nor the pallid harrier. This way a real twitcher’s depression could take hold of one.

 

At first I thought that the Sõrve säär foxes had become particularly cocky and now quite openly steal dog food but ...

 

I checked some more of the Sõrve peninsula wader spots, sandpipers and plovers were numerous but I didn’t see anyone particularly exciting. In the evening I reached Sõrve säär where some particularly arrogant foxes stood out, one even came stealing dog food. Later it turned out that a fox litter had grown up near the bird station and were now lording it here. Beautiful animals but still great robbers and bird eaters.

 

... but then it turned out that a new domestic animal had joined the Sõrve bird station (02.09.2012)

 

(Estonian original 03.09.2012)