The new species for the Pärnu county!

Quiet birding morning. Almost no movement at all. Two Sparrowhawks/ raudkull Accipiter nisus fly into net and we ring them. Also beautiful adult male Waxwing/ siidisaba Bombycilla garrulus are caught today - first ringed individual for us on the island.

But quiet days often offer nice surprises. I do seawatching at the western side of the spit while Margus scope sea level on the eastern side. Suddenly he runs to me and shouts - "adamsii-adamsii"! I quickly check the water level and after few seconds my lifer bird flies into view - stunning Yellow-billed Diver/ tundrakaur Gavia adamsii showing itself for a half a minute in sideways with its heavy body, dark head and neck and of course with very powerful and pale bill. Also Mati and Andrea manage to see the bird. Unfortunately we enjoy the bird through the scope for "too long", so we notice to take record shots too late and all attempts to get any proper picture failed. It is not only first sighting for Kihnu island, but also first record for whole Pärnu county. Fabulous birding week at Kihnu - 3 days and 3 new species for the island!

/T.V./

One step closer to the waxwing - finally one Waxwing was trapped to the net and close-up portraits become possible. The adult males have prominent black throat patch

Fanciest bird wing in the Western Palearctic - adult males have reddish tips of secondaries and wide bright yellow margins in the edges of the central flight feathers. All this conspicuousness believed to serve as male ornamentation

From yellow to white and from pink to black

Species day!

Summertime at Kihnu! It has been the best species day of October at Kihnu island - we recorded exactly 100 species!

Early morning, me and Margus are sitewatching. Suddenly we hear the call which can belong only to Pine Grosbeak/ männileevike Pinicola enucleator. It is quite uncommon migrant in Estonia, so we must find the bird to be 100% sure on ID. After few minutes Margus manage to find nice male Pine Grosbeak taking off from the tree and going for the migration with constant calls. After one hour we hear again one bird flying over - possibly the same individual but it could be easily also new one. Today 2 Pine Grosbeaks has been ringed also at Kabli Bird Station (about 30 km from Kihnu island) - so it seems to be good year for them. 

But today we manage to find also many very late migrants, like Tree Pipit/ metskiur Anthus trivialis, Rosefinch/ karmiinleevike Carpodacus erythrinus and Turtle Dove/ turteltuvi Streptopelia turtur.  Beside that we recorded also some more usual late migrants, like Ringed Plover/ liivatüll Charadrius hiaticula, Greenshank/ heletilder Tringa nebularia, Penduline Tit/ kukkurtihane Remiz pendulinus, Black Redstart/ must-lepalind Phoenicurus ochruros, 2 Serins/ koldvint Serinus serinus and 3 Chiffchaff/ väike-lehelind Phylloscopus collybita. 

Migration in general has been rather quiet compared with yesterday, but best for the autumn season for Razorbill/ alk Alca torda 53m, Fieldfare/ hallrästas Turdus pilaris 1170m and Northern Bullfinch/ leevike Pyrrhyla pyrrhyla 109m.  Also second Twite/ mägi-kanepilind Carduelis flavirostris for the autumn season has been encountered today. 

/T.V./

Waxwing (siidisaba) swallowing the rowan berry. The berry crop is not good in the current autumn and birds consume them quickly

Because of the calm day, Waxwings hunted aerially the flying insects along with berry eating. This kind of insect catching is their regular feeding mode in the boreal breeding range.

Flight acrobatics

Waxwing showing off his extravagant plumage 

Portrait of the male Bullfinch (leevike). We have trapped two males today

80 000 Geese and many raptors!

We apologize for the small break in our birding blog. We are still doing fine, but it has been very misty conditions recently with very few migrating birds. But today, everything changed....

Finally clear weather with slight northern wind which produced best daily counts of this autumn season for many migratory birds. Altogether, over 85 000 migrating birds has been counted by our team. Also species number seen today, has been as high as 87. 

It has been superb Geese migration day. At the peak of the migration some 17 000 Geese passed our study area within 10 minutes! Daily count of Geese/hani Anser species has been 76 000 which is new landmark for the season and one of the best Anser migration ever recorded in Estonia. In addition we counted 2, 750 Anser/Branta - määramata hani/lagle. Considering that Branta species are not numerous here we could say that today migrated at Kihnu island about 80 000 Anser species (+ probably extra thousands in the darkness). 

Slight backwind produced also nice movement of broad-winged raptors today - Common Buzzard/ hiireviu Buteo buteo 224m (best for the autumn season), White-tailed Eagle/ merikotkas Haliaeetus albicilla 7m,  And last, but not least - Golden Eagle/ kaljukotkas Aquila chrysaetos 2m - first sighting for the Kihnu island. Finally also Thrushes showed some movement - Fieldfare/ hallrästas Turdus pilaris 855m (best for the autumn season). Change of weather brought also first migrating Snow Buntings/ hangelind Plectorphenax nivalis and 1 Shore Lark/ sarviklõoke Eremophila alpestris. 

Other interesting birds today - 1 local Greenshank/ heletilder Tringa nebularia, 1 migrating Yellow Wagtail/ hänilane Motacilla flava (one of the latest for the country), 1 Black Redstart/ must-lepalind Phoenicurus ochruros and 3 Serins/ koldvint Serinus serinus in the field station`s garden. 

/ T.V./

Group of Waxwings (siidisabad)

Juvenile Golden Eagle - 237th bird species for the Kihnu island. Photo by Tarvo Valker. 

Today the most spectacular Goose migration took place at Kihnu island. Daily count nearly 80 000. Photo by Tarvo Valker

The snapshot from the horizontal radar database during the culmination of the geese migration between 9 -10. Majority of flocks had South-westerly flight direction. The different colours reflect various speeds of the tracks

Easterly wind has blown the water low and revealing the rocks with a green algae cover

Italian bird hunter in Estonia uses illegal bird call playback for attra...

The deadly disco

Considering the bird migration - it has been really quiet day. Only few flocks of Hooded Crows/ hallvares Corvus cornix and Jackdaws/ kaelushakk Corvus monedula moving south. But in quiet mornings, sometime something more special can show up. A very late 1cy Hobby/ lõopistrik Falco subbuteo has been encountered on migration. It is probably latest autumn record of this species in Estonia. 

In the garden it is now very few birds left compared few days ago. But still, one Serin/ koldvint Serinus serinus showed up again and Black Redstart/ must-lepalind Phoenicurus ochruros has been also presented now for several days.

Today we got also some media coverage for our project, then the TV3 broadcast the news story on our bird radar: (http://www.tv3play.ee/play/283831/) the time section 4:32 - 6:29 in the video file. Sorry, no English subtitles!

But considering other life, it has been day full of action. First, we hear constant calls of Teals/ piilpart Anas crecca and Wigeon/ viupart Anas penelope. It is clear, that it must be playback for the hunting. So our bird team went to check it and manage to find Italian hunter and loudspeakers playing duck sounds. This  is prohibited way of hunting in whole EU and we manage to get pictures and videos
of this illegal action on the island. Hopefully environmental inspectors make some pressure on local hunters society for stopping the use of waterfowl playback. 

/T.V & M.K./

Portrait of the male Sparrowhawk

The Deadly bird disco - Italian hunter has using illegal waterfowl vocalization playback next to the hunting hide, set up by local hunting managers, for attracting ducks into shooting range. The powerful loudspeakers has been erected in "stereo" to the two poles on the both sides of the hide. The poles of the bird deterring setup on the islets, we have covered in our blog in ..... could b seen as well. All this is happening in the Natura 2000 bird protection area, which is specially designated for waterbird conservation. 

The powerful loudspeakers and decoy ducks (use of these as well as lead ammunition is unfortunately still legal). The duck-disco was so loud and out of the local bird context, that we heard this from more than 1 km distance!

Quiet day

It has been fairly quiet day in respect of bird migration - quite needed break for our team.The sky was frequently darkened by passing rain and blizzard clouds. It seems, that usual migrants like finches, sparrowhawks and goose are almost gone. In the afternoon I have spotted one Black Redstart / must-lepalind Phoenicurus ochurus in our garden. 

/Mati Kose/

The threatening cloud is appoaching...

... and what is left after it's passing

The group of the Brent Geese is still here

A day without the rain

Finally - a day without any rain. Only one during last nine days. The morning is chilly and seems that many birds has migrated and Geese migration is slightly less numerous today. Although we have seen more Barnacle`s than yesterday, the numbers here are very small. Altogether 13 500 Geese has been counted on migration. And Bewick`s Swan/ väikeluik Cygnus columbianus having again small movement - 67m (best for the autumn season). 

Sparrowhawk/ raudkull Accipiter nisus migration is slightly ending - only 83 individuals today, but bigger brother is now starting: best for the autumn season for Goshawk/ kanakull Accipiter gentilis 6m. And also first movement of White-tailed Eagles/ merikotkas Haliaeetus albicilla - 5m. 

Calm sea enabled us to scope birds making stopover on the sea. At least 750 Velvet Scoters/tõmmuvaeras Melanitta fusca, 1,500 Long-tailed Ducks/ aul Clangula hyemalis and 15 Red-throated Divers/ punakurk-kaur Gavia stellata has been counted in the southwestern and southern part of the island. 

Serins/ koldvint Serinus serinus had today best movement of the autumn season - 5 migrating + local birds in the garden. 

Today there has been again several late migrants on the island - 1 House Martin/ räästapääsuke Delichon urbicum in a Swallow flock, 1 Willow Warbler/ salu-lehelind Phylloscopus trochilus and 1-2 Yellow Wagtails/ hänilane Motacilla flava. 

Theoretically it is still possible to see 100 species in a day on Kihnu island. Our bird survey team recorded today 94 species of birds (92 of those nearby field station). Good number for mid-October.

/T.V./

The second Boreal Owl from the last night

Autumn colors are in the peak

Flock of Tree Sparrows have visited the spit in the morning

Lesser-spotted Woodpecker

Like Estonian Gibraltar - Common Buzzards are circling in the thermals to gain some 500 m altitude and leave to the sea

The local 1-year White-tailed Eagle flew over our watchpoint today, while 5 other migrated south over the sea

Our staging Brent Goose flock has changed their diet to nibbling off the  green,  rock-covering algae

Raptor nets catch also Thrushes. Photo by Tarvo Valker.