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Long-eared owl (Kabli bird station 27.09.2012)

 

Today was a somewhat quieter day compared to yesterday at Kabli bird station, but more than 400 birds got rings on their legs. The great majority of the birds that got into the nets were goldencrests  (Regulus regulus)  and long-tailed tits (Aegithalos caudatus) as before. The most exciting creature of the day flew into the bird trap already before sunrise, in the dark – the first long-eared owl (Asio otus)  of the season also got a ring on its leg.

September 28

In the last days geese and Branta geese have started on a mass migration and so I checked the best goose spots of Läänemaa today. Around Matsalu bay thousands of  barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis) and greater white-fronted geese (Anser albifrons) and bean geese (Anser fabalis) were on the ground in several places. The largest flock, with at least 10000 barnacle geese and in addition some hundred Anser geese were just beside the Risti-Virtsu road between  Kirbla village and the Kasari river. I settled down on the road verge to telescope. Checking this large flock thoroughly finally took nearly 2 hours. In the large flock the birds are hidden behind each other and even when you have already checked the flock several times some new surprise will still turn up from behind the others. After long searching I managed to find 2 red-breasted geese (Branta ruficollis) in this great flock. This rare passing migrant has been observed quite often here in recent years. In the e-Biodiversity data base too quite a large number of red-breasted goose observations have been entered.

 

 Probably a snow goose and Canada goose hybrid. At a first glance the bird is similar to the dark or blue morph of snow goose but it is quite large and the colours of the tail and wings also point to Canada goose (Kirbla 28.09.2012)

 

Some excitement was caused by a bird very similar to the dark or blue morph of snow goose (Anser caerulescens)   in the flock. The bird was in the most far-off part of the flock and at first, seeing only the head and neck behind the geese it really  seemed that this creature was a snow goose. But finally the bird walked out from between the geese and something seemed wrong. Fortunately I managed to get a couple of foggy photos through the telescope before the bird flew away. Checking the matter more closely from the photos it turned out  that it was a hybrid after all. From the size of the bird and the colour of the body and tail it can be supposed that a snow goose has been playing around with a Canada goose (Branta canadensis). With geese these things happen. In spring too a snow goose hybrid was found near Matsalu, that time the other partner had been a barnacle goose (see photo in May 1st diary entry).