Common cranes
Common cranes are such a beautiful birds, and I always enjoy seeing them. Of course they are ususally one of those “must see” things on our birdwatching day tours as well. Best time would be spring and autumn migration but they are easy to see during summer as well. Either you choose to go to west Estonia birdwatching day trip or half day Tallinn day tour (Okay, its not only Tallinn, we will drive outside a bit as well) you will most probably see them. But I collected some images of them from 2019 season tours.
Ural owl
A throwback…. You know there is no good explanation for that but you sometimes JUST KNOW that somebody is looking at you. I was following some fresh moose tracks, as I happend to see young moose about distance of 300…400m. Found the footprints i tried to follow it but lost it in few hundred meters. I also realized that it’s too damn dark to get a reasonable quality image anyway. And then i feel that somebody is stearing at me. i turned arund and there was a about 7-8 weeks old ural owlet up on the tree just about 10 meters away. So i climbed a tree myself to get an better angle for the shot but it was too dark already for proper shot. Luckily Sony a7iii allows to shoot okay quality with really high ISO, so I got at least some memory of that moment. Find HERE more…
The black grouse
Black grouse in the action. He is waiting for rivals and preparing himself for a fight. We have bird watching day tours! Check them out here!
Curious capercaillie
There are some curious (and a little bit crazy) capercaillies in the forest. The best time for seeing them is in early spring when they have their mating rituals. Usually they are seen in the bog forests and gravel roads. But as I mentioned before there are some crazy ones who can be seen everywhere. š
Autumn migration
Autumn migration is ongoing in west-Estonia. Here are some shots from last weekend. there is still time to enjoy the experience, find your daytrip HERE
Ural owl nesting
Last year (2018) in May I was filming ural owl nesting period. some of those clips ended up to Estonian National Television to very popular enviromental show Osoon (Ozone). Although the clip is in estoninan language without subtitles, if you are into birds you will get it without translation. I have added short description of the clip below Ural owl clip starts from 21:25 , and its about 5 min long. So the clip is about ual own nest which I found in the middle of April. The owlets hatched 3rd of May and left the nest on the 27th of May, which I unfortunately did not witnessed. In this clip there is only few minuts of this period but alltogether I filmed about 40h of footage. Please CONTACT me if you are interested of using some of that material.
The Varbad family
I have not counted how many hundred hours I have spent near ural owl (strix uralensis) nest, mostly filming but some photography as well. I have got some good and some great footages and I hope that the result will be some 15-20min movie about the owl. So since my last post there has been explosion of spring, everything is green and it has been beautiful weather, but it has been also explosion of mosquitoes and I mean the air is thick of them!!! So filming near the nest have been challenge. As you see, 2 chicks are out, good and strong and I think just few days are left before they leave the nest. So I must use the time left to get most out of it! I want to thank the people around me who understand and support that project! š
Beginning of the season
It has been a very good start for birdwatching season. of course its always little bit matter of luck what you see on the specific day but in general it has been without any anomalies. Well of course 2017 about 10th (ish) of May we had minus degrees and snow for 2-3 days. So there is enough time for the weather to make a wicked joke. I have had a lot more elk observations than usually. Must have been just lucky because I have not made any specific efforts to find them. Its good to be out there after the long winter. I loose the sleep already early in the morning, feels such a waste of time :D.
Last hawk-owl!?
Last week I spent time on doing some location scouting and preparing the spring tours. Winter is still here and shows its teeth but not for long. Its clear that sun will win any time soon within next couple of weeks and spring arrives finally! The hawk-owl was probably last meeting for this year. I hope next year will bring an other good year for them- lets see! Anyway, waiting for spring, bird migration and wildlife. See you in Estonia!