Estonia, wildlife watching of red squirrels
To see red squrreils in Estonia is easy and they are frequently seen animals at every type of wildlife watching or birding day tour but still they need some patience, good light and luck to get a decent image. During the low season I invest lot of time into environmental and nature education and one output is to teach children photograph nature. So squrrels are first subjects to try out after theoretical lessons and i think it’s lot of fun as they are sort of human friendly, some areas almost semi-tamed. Its fun to have that first connection and interaction with wildlife and kids are more motivated to go further with their wildlife interest. Beside that they get some tips and tricks about wildlife photography, animal behaviour and physiology and concious wildlife watching. If you wish to find your contact with the nature find a suitable daytrip HERE. All trips…
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…
Lynx photography
So I made myself a Christmas present and updated my trail cameras to 4G ones to get finally live information about observations. It took some time and finally last Sunday being semi-illish I managed to set them up at two spots in the forest. The first spot has been success for elks already for couple of years. So on Sunday there were lot of fresh moose footprints and droppings, so it was just matter of some climbing and testing. But the first visitor for that camera was lynx. Although I spend bit more time in the forest than avarage hobby photographer, I have not had any luck so far to get even miserable photo. I have had couple of lynx observations every year, but those have been short and unexpected. So it’s my lucky day then, even i didn’t press the shutter button i’m still happy to see that image.…
Winter in Estonia
This winter in Estonia has started slowly. I really hoped that Christmas would have been white, but no. On the 27th finally there was some snow outside of Tallinn. But it was a very thin cover. On the 28th Lahemaa National Park looked much better and there was even few degrees below zero. Viru bog looked awe and fresh snow and unfrozen bog pools are nice combo. Then had my usual stop at Nõmmeveski and around Palmse… On the way back to Tallinn went to check the Jägala waterfall but its clearly too early for the ice formations there. Today we are back to 7C and rain & wind. Same forecast for tomorrow. I ususally go for the last sunset of the year, if the conditions will be the same… hmm… I might skip that this year… and I wish there will be proper winter in Estonia at least for…
Slow winter
Winter has stated slowly. Well, okay, November is mostly foggy/cloudy/grey so nothing new there. Sunday evening it dropped for few hours down to -7C but bounced back to around-zero again and there is a heat wave somewhere around Irland and UK on it’s way to east so it will be warmer again. I just wish to have a white ground . First because I just like snow, second I need to film some stuff. Third, I would like to have white Christmas. To think about it, it was white Christmas last year!? (I’m getting old, i don’t remeber things). But Sunday I had a half day outdoors with my friend Peeter and the evening was just beautiful compared the usual grey s….t in the sky. Just few people who have had tour with me have had a chance to see that spot. It’s a public coastline but i keep it…
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.
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