A time of changes

Text: Eet Tuule and Aarne Tuule, Tallinna Linnuklubi
Photo: Aarne Tuule
Translation: Liis
 
Barn swallows are fewer for each day
September arrived with autumn weather and the late summer doings in the world of birds are coming to an end. Just before the first autumn storm skylarks, wagtails, fieldfares, yellowhammers and greenfinches were most noticeable in the landscape around Tallinn, seeing to numbers, and particularly the greenfinches with at least 300 individuals in the largest flock. Starlings and barn swallows in contrast were unexpectedly few. In the trees mixed flocks of tits were moving around and in the conifer woods goldcrests. Here and there nutcrackers made themselves heard. Occasionally we managed to hear the calling or a snatch of song from a robin or a chiff-chaff or willow warbler. Many  passerines – such as the nightingale, various warblers, whitethroats and others – have of course already left.

The sea is inevitably an obstacle for mainland birds that they don’t easily launch themselves across. So they gather in large numbers, to go on along the coast when the winds are favourable. Most waders have already travelled on from our shores but many new migration adventures are still to come for bird enthusiasts. So for instance a stationary immature redfooted falcon was observed at Paljassaare on Agust 29. There is an invasion of this species in Estonia at the moment, but so far the falcons this year have been encountered mostly in southern and western Estonia.



 

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