The calm day

The bird migrational activity was very weak in the morning. weather was quite overcast, quite warm and very slight breeze from the north-west.  It was evident, that some songbirds have dropped down form night migration - Margus have seen the first Red-breasted Flycatcher / väike-kärbsenäpp Ficedula parva for this year. Also the first Chiffchaff /väike-lehelind Phylloscopus collybita was visiting the southernmost bushes of the cape.

Margus and Andrea are counting birds and tag the radar tracks with species information

The calm and warm day attracted myriads of insects from small flies and mosquitoes up to dragonflies to fill the air around our base. This surplus of food was not used only by night-migratory insectivorous songbirds, but also by appr 200 House Martins / räästapääsuke Delichon urbica. Although there was about dozen breeding pairs altogether under the lighthouse and our filed station, its seems that martins from the whole village or even from island are gathering. If the swallows use electric wires for sitting in groups and socializing, the martins use the same constructions for sitting there they built their nests. The space is tight and often there are more birds than space and often there are screaming of the competing birds could be heard. If some birds detect small raptors approaching, the all the flock is bursting into air and nervous alarm calls are filling the air. Now we have our vertical radar functional again and we can track the martins and other passing birds above our airspace.

The Kihnu lighthouse - the house of the martins

All Martins are looking for the sitting place under the platform of the lighthouse