Some nest, some migrate
Text: Eet Tuule and Aarne Tuule, Tallinna linnuklubi
Photo: Aarne Tuule
Translation: Liis
Singing starling.
The development of spring in Harjumaa is more and more catching up with the average indicators. Even though some remnants of snow may still be seen in dense spruce forests this year’s exceptional flood waters have already receded. The weather has stayed capricious, but today - 27.04. – the night was warm and in daytime brought feelings of summer; tomorrow however will again be clearly cooler. But so it has always been in May – Jürikuu, the month of St. George – with the eyes of summer and the teeth of winter.
The spring migration of birds nearly stopped for a time - but the birds have always arrived here in waves. And this is so, regardless of whether species or bird flocks are counted. Just now there are many new kinds arriving here around Tallinn, but these very first arrivals don’t give the complete picture: quite often we have to do with individuals who have hurried here in advance and the majority of their kind actually come much later. The barn swallow can be taken as a typical case: this year we have seen solitary individuals several times already during the last two weeks.
But we will leave the interpretations of the ornitho-fenological observations to everyone’s own taste. The first arrivals are always exciting to meet, and especially so when you know where and when someone can be seen and heard again after a long winter pause. So we go to the known and familiar places, and we will see if our planned meetings with old friends succeed. The warblers, whitethroats, tree pipits, pied flycatchers, redstarts, swalllows, nightingales, cuckoos and many others are waiting. And there is a not so small group of birds, now sitting patiently in their nests and waiting for more work and worry to hatch out of the eggs …
Eesti | 
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