looduskalender.ee

 

Common pochards. Matsalu bay

 

October 19th

This weekend Estbirding will have its autumn meeting in Läänemaa in Tuksi. I arrived early and went to watch for birds at Cape Põõsaspea already at first light. Unfortunately there wasn’t any particular migration to be seen in the hard south-westerly wind. Only some long-tailed ducks, scoters, loons and mergansers were on the move. After that the best bird spots around Haapsalu got checked. In the best wader spot of Läänemaa in Havers the usual silence of the second half of October reigned. But a bar-tailed godwit  (Limosa lapponica) was present on the seaweed bank, in the second half of October the creature is a quite hot rarity here. At Sutlepa sea a horned grebe (Podiceps auritus) caught my eye among the waterfowl, you see few of them now and rather at open sea, not in inland waters. A denser duck pack could be viewed at Saunja bay – near the Kirimäe platform 1720 common pochards (Aythya ferina), 240 tufted pochards  (Aythya fuligula), 380 wigeons  (Anas penelope), 690 coots  (Fulica atra), 1900 mute swans (Cygnus olor) were busy. On the road back to Tuksi we saw a hawk owl  (Surnia ulula) on a power line at the road; this rare visitor has already been seen several times in Estonia this autumn. A photo of the hawk owl is in the e-Biodiversity database.

 

October 20th

Although the weather in Tuksi was off, that is, continuous rain and visibility quite rotten, a large gang of us spent the whole morning watching at Põõsaspea. In the miserable weather largely no-one was to be seen migrating, only loons were leaving quite nicely  – altogether 461 loons, mainly red-throated loons   (Gavia stellata), to a smaller extent also black-throated loons  (Gavia arctica). Only a rock pipit (Anthus petrosus) caused some excitement at Põõsaspea; for many birders it was a first encounter for the year or even a lifer.

In the afternoon the Estbirding general meeting took place in Tuksi; lectures were heard and plans for the future discussed. A new board for Estbirding was also elected; starting next year the society of mainly male twitchers will be headed by Mariliis Märtson.