Tallinn 1st - 4th December 2011

Tallinn was an interesting experience too, similar but different to Riga. It was still cold but again we had no snow and the Christmas markets were better than Riga but still not a patch on those in Germany.

The Old City of Tallinn

Bird wise it was much the same with only 20 species seen but with a few highlights. The same birds as seen in Riga were black-headed gull, herring gull, common gull, house sparrow, great tit, blue tit, feral pigeon, mallard, hooded crow and jackdaw, with again some being of the Nordic type with pale collars.

Mallards in the sunshine feeding on the shore of the Baltic Sea

A trip to the seaplane museum just outside the old city was interesting with some good bird sightings. On the sea a pair of swans caused some excitement as I hoped they were Bewicks but they turned out to be plain old mute swans. Cormorants were seen flying over the waves and drying their wings on buoys. Also on the sea were small groups of goldeneye, some close to shore and all adult males except for 1 female and 1 immature male developing its white cheek patches. Further out were small groups of long tailed ducks, both males and females. A male and female goosander were also seen. All the ducks were attended by herring gulls, no doubt waiting to try and grab any food the ducks brought to the surface. A patch of weedy wasteground near the museum held a small flock of around 10 tree sparrows feeding amongst the dead vegetation and a goldfinch was seen perched in a nearby tree while great tits fed in the branches. Blackbirds were seen feeding on berries in some shrubbery.

A small flock of hooded crows and jackdaws seen feeding in Kadriorg Park had a few rooks amongst them while a small flock of around 10 greenfinches were seen flying over the tree tops. While checking out the common gulls on Swan Lake in Kadriorg Park I noticed a single herring gull which had a streaked head and yellow legs and on checking the guide book it was of the omissus race found in the East Baltic. I had not really paid much attention to the herring gulls so maybe more of them were of this race. Certainly the herring gulls had darker grey upperparts than in the UK, being of the argentatus race of Northern Europe rather than the argenteus race of Western Europe.

Juvenile Common Gull in Kadriorg Park

And so we returned home to the UK on the 4th December, this time flying with Estonia Air and SAS via Stockholm, with herring gulls and hooded crows seen at Stockhom airport while we were in transit. The flights were ok again and we returned to Heathrow and not Gatwick which made it easier for us to get back to Plymouth.

A trip to Ipswich and The Baltics

I never got to Mansands due to work commitments and the desert wheatear finally moved on after a couple of days - never mind.

We headed up to Ipswich by train on the 25th November to spend a few days with Mum and Dad pre-Christmas. It was a beautiful clear sunny day which may have been why I saw over 20 red kites from the train between Westbury and London Paddington, the most I have ever see. Also seen were 9 greenshanks along the River Exe, a stock dove near Newton Abbot and fallow deer in Powderham Park. I kept a look out for partridges, especially from the train between London Liverpool Street and Ipswich but with no luck.

Mum was poorly with an upset stomach so when we got to her house we walked over to the nearby Tesco store to stretch our legs and found a decomposing corpse of a muntjac deer by the side of the A12.

I kept an eye open for partridges over the next couple of days as we travelled around Suffolk but had no luck again. I did see quite a few common gulls though, a gull I don't see that often here in Devon.

Monday 28th November and we headed off to Gatwick Airport for our Air Baltic flight to Riga in Latvia. We were a little apprehensive as Air Baltic are the Easyjet of The Baltic States and Gatwick is not our favourite airport but the airport and the flight were actually ok.

Riga was very nice, cold but with no snow. The Art Noveau architecture was excellent, the highlight of the trip. The Christmas markets were not so great, not a patch on those in Germany but we had a good time sightseeing and exploring. I had an upset stomach one night but David was fine, it didn't stop me doing anything but I did save some money by not eating or drinking much the next day. An interesting sight were lampreys and zander (pike perch) in the fish market part of the central market, the zander were alive in tanks of water and the lampreys were alive and gasping in crates on the benches, I have never seen either before and at least they were fresh if you wanted to eat them.

Art Noveau architecture

Art Noveau architecture

Bird wise I didn't see much as I had expected. A total of 12 species were seen - blue tit, great tit, house sparrow, hooded crow, black headed gull, common gull, herring gull, mallard, feral pigeon and jackdaw. Some of the jackdaws had the pale collars of the so called Nordic Jackdaw race. Also seen was a surprise shelduck which flew across the bridge over the main river as we walked over it, a brief view only as it dropped down to the water on the other side to where we were walking, the traffic prevented me from crossing over to have a better look. Best bird was a goshawk which flew over the tops of the buildings as we wandered around the city, a large, chunky, powerful bird with the typical hawk like flight and only the 3rd goshawk I have seen. They are supposed to be quite shy and wary birds but I know they are quite tame and common in the centre of Berlin although I never saw one when I was there, maybe they are less shy and wary in Riga too.

Hooded Crow - very common around the city and usually quite tame

So not a bad trip so far and on the 1st December we headed back to the airport for our flight to Tallinn in Estonia, again with Air Baltic and again not a bad flight.