A few Black Woodpeckers

Plenty of Black Woodpeckers to be see in the forests of Estonia and this one was particularly tame feeding in a car park! We also had Grey Headed, White Backed, Three Toed and Great Spotted Woodpeckers but no Lesser Spots or Middle Spots

White Stork

Of course White Storks were numerous throughout Estonia feeding in most fields and nesting in most villages.

Red-backed Shrike singing

 

Icterine Warbler singing

 

Wild flowers of Estonia

Pasque Flower

Birdseye Primrose

Wood Anemone

Not sure?

Globe Flower

Water Avens

Honesty?Herb Paris

Fields upon fields of Dandelions

BIRDING ESTONIA 17/5/12-24/5/12

Well the title gives it away we have just had 7 days in Estonia - myself, Wayne, Neil and Adrian booked flights with Easyjet at £62 Liverpool to Tallinn - booked an estate car through Jigsaw.com at £244 and picked up accommodation wherever the birds were.  Our itinerary was 2 nights in Haapsalu, 2 nights in Nigula. 2 nights at Tartu and the last night back at Nigula twitching Ural Owl!  The trip was easy to plan and navigating your way around Estonia is easy - the roads are good with little traffic on them, probably too good as we did get stopped for speeding and fined 40 euros!  Birding is challenging in as much as you have to constantly do battle with clouds of mosquitoes which makes photography and concentration very difficult and although we had a wonderful time clocking up 175 species I would hesitate in returning - the mosquitoes were by far and away the worst I have ever known and we have travelled around the world fairly extensively.  However it is a beautiful country with acres of wildflowers and a true sense of wilderness - the exact opposite of Britain in fact and you get true peace and quiet with very little industry to be seen and with a population of only 1.5 million you rarely see anyone!  So a few images but not nearly as many as usual as the mosquitoes just drove you to distraction and it was just easier to run!

Fieldfare on nest

GarganeyRed-backed ShrikeBlue-Headed WagtailCitrine WagtailHerring Gull on nest

Home again after a fabulous weeks birding…

….but where did we go? Much more to follow here’s a star of the show

A Hobby Day

Not often you get perched up Hobby where you can get reasonable images.  This second calendar year bird posed for a good hour in the wind occasionally mobbed by a Chiffchaff, this and another bird were also watched hawking insects giving superb flight views.

Messingham Sand Quarry Bird Race 2012

On Sunday Wayne and I did our annual bird race - this year we concentrated on Messingham Reserve only.  A 03.30 very frosty start gave us a Water Rail, 4 Tawny Owls and a few Reed Warblers.  Notable totals throughout the day were; 18 Blackcaps, 5 Garden Warblers, 16 Reed Warblers, 4 Sedge Warblers, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 1 Common Whitethroats plus double figure counts of Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs.  On a downward side Willow Tits were right down at only 1 pair and as water levels remain high our only waders were Common Sandpiper, 6 Avocet and a flyover Whimbrel and one drumming Snipe in the car-park - is this the only druming Snipe left in the Scunthorpe reporting area?

When the sun came out raptors were represented by 2 Hobbies, numerous Buzzards, 2 Kestrels, 3 Sparrowhawks and 5 Marsh Harriers.

Our final total was 89 species which isn't so bad for an inland reserve in the middle of a cold wet spring.

Wood Sandpiper at Alkborough Flats

Yesterday’s Wood Sandpiper still at Alkborough this morning, its the strangest wader I have met, instead of flying away from you it flies towards you!  Arctic Terns still on the move with circa 40 at Bagmoor this afternoon.

Images by Neil Drinkall

Tree Felling again!

Couldn’t believe my eyes this morning as once again at the peak of the bird breeding season someone has cut down two perfectly healthy mature Oak trees.

On the birding front a very nice Wood Sandpiper very close to the track at Alkborough Flats this morning and 8 Arctic Terns and a Hobby at Bagmoor last night.

Should we or shouldn’t we - is it or isn’t it a definitely maybe Atlas Flycatcher….

Well of course we did, a potential first record for Britain at Flamborough -  virtually no news on the bird all day but we shot off at 5.oopm to get their just before 7 and there it was - across the ravine at south landing showing on and off but very well.  A beautiful little bird definitely worth seeing whatever it is!
UPDATE -following DNA results it was an ordinary Pied Flycatcher! so why did it stay so long at Flamborough and not go straight to its breeding grounds?