Autumn buglife
Autumn, until some minus degrees, the buglife is relativly active and one very good place to find them is on mushrooms. There are still plenty of them in the forest but taking the photo is sometimes very tricky. Cloudy weather and location under tall trees seems like hour after sunset in the middel of the day. So small LED videolights with batteries are very handy here and offer possibility quickly to change light setup. So i saw there was fly climbing on the mushroom. Hoping that it will climb on the top placed light to have strong contra light. waited for 10 min and there it was. Patience and some luck pays off! If you want to discover the nature of Estonia check here all the nature day tours, follow the link HERE for our day tours. All day trips start from Tallinn.
Bohemian waxwings
Bohemian waxwings, those lovely nomads are typical birds to see during winter and we always try to find them during our birdwatching day tours around Tallinn (see the details HERE). This year has been good for mountain ash, so the food base is relatively good for them. But of course eating about twice of the body weight daily or 800-1000 berries a day the berries vanish quickly :). Did you know that they are called “pestvogel” plaguebird in Dutch and “Russ”- a Russian in Italy?
Suurupi
One of my favorite spots around Suurupi. Most of the time I come here without camera, just to sit and listen the sea. It’s moody during autumn, I don’t really mind dark days and cloudy weather at the moment. If you want to see north Estonia with your own eyes then HERE you can find details of north Estonia day tour
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.
Autumn patterns
Autumn has created beautiful patterns. It’s interesting to see how nature is preparing for the winter. So, it’s the last change to enjoy autumn. There are still some pretty yellow leaves and even the sun shines now and then. The weekend was very stormy, but it’s a new week with a better weather.
Winter darkness – Kaamos
Word ” kaamos ” is used to describe winter darkness short days and lack of sunset (cloudy most of the time) during the period between beginning of November and end of January/midFebruary. Word comes from saami langugae, word “skam” means short day. Well, if there is snow then i don’t feel that this period is affecting me, but if it’s rainy- muddy- cloudy- grey then it gets sometimes really frustrating. For instance few years ago , during that 3,5 month period there was only 5 (five) sunny days in Tallinn. But on the other hand, I enjoy the sadness and washed colors i can see outdoors. If you want to try our your photography skills, then check HERE for Nature Photography day trip, its available during winter as well!
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…
Day tours to north Estonia
Day tours to north Estonia contain lot of costal landscape and different coastline types. Limestone cliffs, sandstone cliffs, sandy beaches, some waterfalls. Of course, we try to find on our way some wildlife and birdlife activity and history and culture in included to every day trip. It’s a shorter daytour and suitable to do it also during winter. All our day trips start form Tallinn. Check HERE north Estonia day trip details
Lahemaa National Park, Nõmmeveski
Lahemaa National Park is worth visiting every season. One of the stops there is Nõmmeveski waterfall which is always nice place for photography, see some geology and enjoy fresh/natural spring water. See more details of the daytour HERE
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!