A week in the Silma nature reserve area: loud-voiced northern swans arriving
Text Marko Valker, www.silmalk.ee/kool
Photos Tarmo Valker
Translation: Liis
Whooper swans stop in fields
In the sea bays of the Silma nature reserve area the ice is beginning to break up. At the end of winter we measured an ice thickness of 30 – 50 centimetres. Now cracks have formed in the ice, and it is covered in places by melt water. The first small openings in the ice appear in river mouths and at springs. There grey herons, hungry after arriving from the migration and preying for fish, and goldeneyes and goosanders gather.
Every day more arriving migrant birds are added. In West Estonia early spring is signalled by the arrival of vociferous whooper and Bewick’s swans. While the sea is still ice-covered they stay in large flocks in the fields. At that time their mating display where the male birds "dance“, dipping their necks up and down, can be seen. The more powerful male birds show off their strength by wing-flapping. From time to time short fights in the group occur.
Grey geese are in place already since a couple of weeks. Their cackle, reminding of the calls of domestic geese, is often heard when they fly past nearby. Soon the grey goose pairs start looking for suitable nesting places in the reeds.
the snow has retreated wonderfully fast from the open fields. In the forest too the snow cover is fast getting thinner. The first Hepaticas however we have not yet managed to find.
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