Winter does not give up
It’s mid- March but the temperatures are still quite wintery. Night temeparatures drop down to -10C, around zero during the daytime and snow is still usual every day. Badgers are up and active, so there is finally something to enjoy from the trail cameras Also some migratory birds have arrived aleady some weeks ago, skylarks first geese, lapwings. The only thing we have to wait is that COVID would ease things and sot of “normal” life would be restored.
Spring slowed down
It was beautiful start for the April but now the spring has slowed down. It has been raining, snowing and stormy last 8 days. Just few warmer moments. Hectic weather has slowed donw the nature as well. Not much of a good light to take photos, cold and wind is not exactly motivating to go out. Juts for the clearification- we do not have agressiv isolation rules in Estonia and we are allowed to be outdoors as log we keep 2m distance. Ural owl is still sitting quitly on her nest, not much of activity, i keep monitoring her once per day or two days. Elks are much more present, i have been stumbeling upon them every now or then on the same spot. Some bird species have arrived within last 2 weeks, white stork, marsh harrier, first blackcaps. And of course artic waterfowl and cranes are covering the fields…
Ural owl nest
Found a new ural owl nest. Very good location for filming and photography. Well lit and minimal if any disturbance while approaching the area. It’s european aspen forest edge that is surrounded by cleared area with low shrub, some mixture of and beside ural owl there is also balck and white-backed woodpecker habitat, heard pygmy owl far away, common cranes, roe deer and elk trails. This time the nest itself is more challaenging then 2018. Current nest is way deeper. So you can see on the image that owl dives inside the tree about 30-40cm. in the owl nest the owl sit much higher so it was well visible most of the time like you see on the image below. In general I feel very sad that such a nice spring is without birding tours. COVID has done its job and i need to do all birding tours alone. 🙂…
Mornings..
Some mornings are prettier than others. I woke up 5 am. The sky was clear, blackbird was singing and I decided to take a short bird watching trip (it’s a little part of our West Estonia birdwatching tour). The weather was very-very windy near the coast, but we still saw more than 35 species. Cranes, swans, lapwings, geese, cormorants were the most popular. #springmigration Be careful, enjoy the nature! Have a great day 🙂
#visitestonialater
Spring is on but the virus has done it’s job, so i think #visitestonialater is proper way to describe the situation. Europe is more or less closed, just last few days some emergency routes are open. It’s huge impact to the toursim sector. It’s clear that for nature toursim the spring season is officially off but i have pretty strong gut feeling that it will have huge impact to autumn season as well. But looking to the future, I think more people start to appriciate closer destinations and more sophisticated way of spending their holidays. So i do see that Estonia has here a nische to fill. I also hope that those guys who just few weeks ago thought that climate change is somewhere other side of the globe, approximately as fas as is the Wuhan province in China, now think a moment before posting a next comment to support…
Coronavirus and travelling to Estonia
The Estonian Government has declared a state of emergency in order to limit the spread of the COVID-19 i.e. coronavirus epidemic. The situation means special measures, some of which also affect tourism in Estonia. MORE INFORMATION HERE! We fully understand if you wish to postpone your March / April trip to May or June, please contact us for more information. We still will bring you fresh new and images from Estonian nature, spring bird migration and life of wildlife. Stay safe!
Elk watching
Elk watching is considerably easy in spring and autumn (Sept-October). Some areas of Estonia are probably suffering because of high hunting limits and might be bit difficult to see them. Around Tallinn and west Estonia there are still many high success rate spots left and there is good chance to see them. Of course it’s a nature and nothing is guaranteed! More information of such wildlife watching daytrip you can find HERE.
Spring birdwatching
Spring birdwatching has started well now. Last evening got the first crane, lapwings, skylarks, mixed flock of geese and of course common residents. Also went to check 3 pygmy owl spots and got positive reply from all of them. Was a good evening! (sorry for the poor image quality, subjecte were far away and it was getting dark, my intention was not to get images but just do some birding). If you need a guide for birding, click HERE for our daytrips
Spring bird migration in Estonia
Spring bird migration in Estonia is about to start. I went for a short tour this Sunday to find some skylarks lapwings or cranes but it was raining and snowing heavily most of the day and had no luck to see any of them. Still i got decent 34 species within some hours including snow bunting, huge flocks of redpolls, bullfinches, very nice observation of sparrow hawk, white-tailed eagle, dipper and after sunset got one balck woodpecker as well. Got a reply from pygmy-owl from 2 spots but did not saw them. In central Estonia, Tartu, Pärnu area and west Estonia larks, lapswings and cranes are present, first small flocks of geese are flying over as well. Last week we had also rare natural phemomena called snow 🙂 here. Of course I was travelling and almost missed it but at least had few hours of snowy landscape Today the snow…
Who is a gamekeeper?
Well, still no snow.. Atleast we have some sunny days! Some days ago I went for a little hike.. and I found something.. Here is an old gamekeeper’s log house. It’s 6km from small borough and not everyone knows where it actually is. Gamekeeper is like a main forester in certain area. Have you heard that in the last century we had gamekeepers all over Estonia? Actually, the first signs of gamekeepers are from 13th century, when landlords had their own forests. In the 19th century the forest management was more popular than before, so the gamekeepers became more important. They had their own log houses in the forests and they knew exactly, what was going on, how many different animals are there or who’s walking there. Estonian history is various and interesting. Would you like to know more? Our Lahemaa National Park tour is for people, who wish to…