Estonia was a true wilderness experience for me, an amazing if desolate country with great birds and great people. A full trip report will follow, but I'll just leave this as a taster for now:
Visited the patch yesterday morning/afternoon and minus a few species it could easily have been mid July, ridiculous heat! the HTC clocked it at 25 degrees at one point.
The main change, other than the thicker vegetation, appeared to be an arrival of Whitethroat, approximately 5 on the reserve. I was pleased to again view a Little Owl in the usual tree, and presumably the same Gropper reeled from a hidden perch.
At Rockland, no Terns, but 2 Cuckoos were heard for the first time this year. Well, for me anyway! I noticed one had been reported from the hide at Surlingham also.
I then had a drive out to Hardley Flood, failing miserably in my attempts to find the place, but I have a fair idea of where I went wrong.
Visiting my parents in Suffolk for a couple of days, and upon unloading the car I heard a call that was just about familiar......a Lesser Whitethroat, which mum thinks may have been present for a few days. It is very vocal today, infact I can hear the rattling end to the call as I type, so I plan to spend the afternoon getting decent views and maybe a picture!
Trip report to follow sometime this weekend.
Cheers for yeh comment. It was great to finally get up close to this super bird. I most certainly do remember yeh ! I've enjoyed checking ur blog out over the past few months. Still to have had the pleasure of checking out surlingham as yet but plan to soon so probably bump into yeh . Keep up the good work geezer,
ReplyDeleteShaky
Ps. Nice place for a holiday!