Migrating birds

Estonian Nature Tours invites you to watch migrating birds!
Join us Wed 29th Sep - Sun 3rd Oct and experience the same as Estonian Nature Tours' managing director Marika Mann experienced in 2004. You can read about that fantastic experience more below:

I counted birds yesterday, helping out the ornitologists. We started before 6 pm. Eve and I were at the Haeska bird watching tower. Eve sat up the telescope; her new equipment needed personal attention. But the birds already started to come. Or rather – they already went by. Or - they came and went. We didn´t have time anymore to adjust the new equipment and had to seize the binocular and start the count. I noted down the numbers, how many, from which direction they came and into which direction they went. And what kind of birds they were. Eve was angry at me when she needed to repeat herself - I didn´t mind.

More than a thousand Beene and Greylag geese had gathered on the coastal meadow. A White-tailed Eagle desturbed their peace. They took off to the west and to the north. Several hundred teals and gadwalls nibbled in the shallow water. The White-tailed Eagle was still sitting on the big stone close to the ducks. Seemingly bored, he plucked his feathers.

The southern sky drew dangerously dark. Rain started to drizzle. Eve packed up her equipment. We felt discouraged, so much time until darkness will set in, but nowhere to run for shelter. The deputy of God Vello came to check on this nets and left his car to us.

It was silent for about half an hour, some flocks of Lapwings and ducks moved here and there. Finally the rain stopped and a wonderful double rainbow spread over the sky. It lasted for nearly an hour. I noted that down as well.

And then it began... first lonely flocks of Cranes and then things got out of hand. In groupings of ten flocks at a time, in lines without end, their calls compounding to a satisfactory noise all around us. Their bellies were full, all they needed now was a suitable place to rest for the night. Some of them lagged behind, others aimed to fly towards Põgari. Eve got upset – the trees were blocking our view, we just couldn´t see anymore where exactly they landed. After 8 pm I scribbled down partial notes, like: “numbers without end” of Grus grus and “whole pile” of Anser sp, among then about 70 of one thing and 80 of another. God only knows from where they came and where they went to – it was simply too dark to see anymore …

At Haeska and Põgari-Sassi we counted about 9000 Cranes (Grus grus) and 1500 Geese (Anser sp) all in the evening of Sept. 21, 2004. The counting of cranes and geese takes place in Matsalu National Park every autumn in the third week of September. There are about 10 lookouts for counting birds around Matsalu Bay.

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Book here:http://bit.ly/cWqj7V