Birder’s diary - 2.-3.12
Birder Margus Ots, Linnuvaatleja.ee
Translation: Liis
December 2nd
Wood lark at Sõrve säär 02.12.2012. In the morning 4 wood larks were busy near the lighthouse. One of them was visibly weak and let itself be captured by hand. Sadly, the bird died, apparently from injury (one leg missing), cold and hunger (Photo: Uku Paal)
During the night pretty much more snow fell on Sõrve säär and the view was quite wintery here too. At once at first light we went to the lighthouse to look for birds. 4 wood larks (Lullula arborea) were among the most interesting creatures. One of them was in a rather sorry state and let itself be captured by hand. The injured bird (one leg missing) was evidently weak from cold and hunger, and one hour later we found it dead in the same place. Among the hotter winter rarities to be seen among the shrubs at the Sõrve bird station were the black-cap (Sylvia atricapilla) and song thrush (Turdus philomelos), in addition wren (Troglodytes troglodytes)and robin (Erithacus rubecula).
Jack Snipe at Jämaja beach 02.12.2012, the bird flew up just at our feet (foto: Uku Paal)
At noon we inspected the Rahuste shore meadow, but here everything was covered with thick snow and there were not many birds. Last year waders in large numbers were still at Rahuste on the first days of December, this year however nothing much was there to be remembered except wet feet. However, going to Rahuste was not pointless because at Jämaja beach we found a Jack Snipe (Lymnocryptes minimus) and 2 common snipes (Gallinago gallinago), not often seen in the winter months.
In the afternoon such a dense snowfall arrived at the Sõrve peninsula that we did not even get out to watch birds. As we discussed plans for the next day information came by way of Rariliin (Birdline) that in Haapsalu a bunting-like bird had been photographed but it could not be identified to start with. With the photos in hand it became clear that a North American fox sparrow (Passerella iliaca), was looking at us from the photos; the photo is in the Estbirding gallery. This creature is truly a mega-rarity, it has been seen only a few times previously in Europe at all. So plans for the next day were in place, at once in early morning we search for the fox sparrow in Haapsalu. Since it is truly a very rare errant visitor indeed twitchers from all Europe will be probably be seen in Haapsalu in the next few days-
December 3rd
The fox sparrow on 02.12.2012, Haapsalu (photo: Aivar Veide)
At first light in the morning we were already at the Haapsalu water treatment plant fence, searching for the North American fox sparrow (Passerella iliaca). Luckily the bird was in place as before and let itself be observed from only a few meters away. Since it is an extremely rare bird even for Europe it can well be supposed that in the next few days a larger number of twitchers from Estonia, Finland and even other places will visit Haapsalu. As there were decent photos as proof of the bird already from yesterday we did not begin try to hem it in. We did not want to scare it off, other birders too would want to have the species noted. The Bird rarities committee however has a rather serious deliberation coming. Have we a bird that has happened to come here naturally or is it after all an escaped cage bird? In the British isles the fox sparrow is in the A category, that is, in the list of naturally occurring birds. But in Germany the bird is in the E category, that is, it counts as a cage escapee. At the moment it is not known precisely why this species is in the E category in Germany. The bird seen in Haapsalu belongs to the most northerly subspecies iliaca that inhabits a large area in northern Canada and undertakes long migrations. Thus it could arrive in Europe naturally. Of course it cannot be ruled out that some distance across the Atlantic it came on board a ship. Such things occur quite often with migrants at high sea. From the preliminary information the fox sparrow could be included among the A category species in Estonia, that is, it would be the 386th bird species in Estonia. In my own 2012 species list the fox sparrow is the 276th bird species.