Birding in 2020, Coronavirus et al, an East European View (1 Viewer)

19 May. New Species Again!

Labanoras does it stuff again! Barely two days since the last new species, found another early morning today - a singing male Barred Warbler! All the sweeter that it was singing in an overgrown hedgeline that I planted a few years ago just adjacent to the shrike piles. Not much time to savour the bird however - singing as it worked along the hedge, it then flicked across to a more extensive area of regenerating birches and other shrubs. All of five minutes and I had lost it.

Seemed to be a bit of an arrival of Golden Orioles today, more in the forest, plus a male in the same hedgeline as the Barred Warbler, one more Red-backed Shrike too. Trying to steal the liimelight from the Barred Warbler, also could hear a distant Hoopoe later in the morning - only my fourth record at this locality.

Sixth new species for my land during the National Quarantine period in Lithuania.

Just gets better and better!

After seeing your post I did some reading and was surprised to learn Barred Warbler breeds as far west as the Baltics - and presumably is a potential breeder on your land Jos?

A far cry from my only experience of birds on breeding territory - from several hundred metres below sea level at a desert botanic garden in the Turpan Basin in Xinjiang in NW China!

Based on the current performance long may your lockdown continue!

Cheers
Mike

MKinHK said:

After seeing your post I did some reading and was surprised to learn Barred Warbler breeds as far west as the Baltics - and presumably is a potential breeder on your land Jos?

Based on the current performance long may your lockdown continue!

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Could potentially breed, I have some very nice habitat for Barred Warbler, but it is generally a scarce breeder in Lithuania and I see them very rarely ...I don't rate the chances of a breeding pair arriving on my land as very high.

As for the National Quarantine, it is becoming ever less restrictive - virtually everything is open again now, indoor restaurants from next week. Travel within the three Baltic States is now possible without restriction. Officially, however, quarantine remains and most folk still work from home and limit their time in shops, etc. For this reason (aka excuse), I shall maintain my isolation on my land in Labanoras 👍

MKinHK said:

Would love to see more pix of your piles.

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A couple of photos - they are simple structures, but effective in appealing to birds (and other wildlife).

Photo one - when I made them in autumn 2018, replacing older ones which had slowly broken down. Biggest one is about 2 metres high, several others a bit less and a few much smaller (but these much smaller ones are a waste of time, only a Whinchat uses them as a perch). Immediately after finishing them, a Brown Hare started using them as daytime shelters. Then in spring 2019, Red-backed Shrikes adopted the biggest pile, successfully breeding, Whitethroat also breeding in them.

Second photo - this week, shows the general setting. Again this year, a male Red-backed Shrike has adopted the biggest one in the middle of the photo, now awaiting the arrival of female. Whitethroat also looks set to breed in this same pile, Yellowhammer uses all as song posts, a Wryneck also loves them, singing from the back pile every day. The line of bushes (hedgeline) on the left side of the photo is where the Barred Warbler was this week, also very much liked by the Red-backed Shrike. Starling is feeding very noisy chicks in the nestbox visible in the front birch. Another pair of Starlings is in a nestbox in the birch in the hedgeline, though not visible in this photo.

Great stuff - reminds of the bramble tangle in which I saw my first RBS at Santon Downham - sadly one of the last years they bred in the UK.

Cheers
Mike

After those exceptional days with Nightjars and Barred Warbler, all relatively quiet now on the Eastern Front - Nightjars it seems were indeed migrants, two days they stayed, and the Barred Warbler a five-minute wonder.

Totally junk weather continuing, never has there been such a bad May, but did get a sunny break yesterday and a rightnice flush of butterflies, many new for the year for me - 13 species, including Weaver's and Queen of Spain Fritillaries, Small Coppers, Eastern Bath Whites, lots of Small Heaths, etc etc.

Rain, wind and cold now - no butterflies. But still, not so bad, from the comfort of my cabin, I can hear Wryneck and Golden Orioles calling and can see a White Stork plodding along the adjacent pool.

Probably due to the mild winter, an exceptionally good year for these little fellows however. On the peak day, managed a rather impressive 48 crawling up the legs of me and Little One, but there are hundreds of them out there this year, get several every time we walk through long grass

MKinHK said:

Great stuff - reminds of the bramble tangle in which I saw my first RBS at Santon Downham - sadly one of the last years they bred in the UK.

Cheers
Mike

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I've got a feeling thats where I used to get taken as a kid - in 70's...

We lived maybe 10 miles away until 78'

With May abnormally cold, even snow not so long ago, it's been a poor month for butterflies pretty much throughout. Even so, a pretty good day yesterday - in rare sunshine and temperatures hitting 19 C, I nipped off my land to check a few of my favourite haunts nor so far away. And good it was - even though numbers were not high (early season species in low numbers, typical late May species mostly late), the variety was good. I failed to fond rhe two species I was looking for (Chequered Skipper and Northern Chequered Skipper), but did see a grand total of 19 species, a colony of about 20 Clouded Apollo topping the bill. Also good one False Heath Fritillary (only usually see one or two a year), three Short-tailed Blues and a late first generation Camberwell Beauty.

As for today, back to my land, think I'm going to stretch this self-isolation for another month without big issue. And why not? Started the day in excellent style - after years of having Bitterns in my reedbed, booming day and night, finally I saw one this morning. Was near the track at the crake spot, I'd been standing there for about 15 minutes when suddenly it flew up from just close by and did a leasurely flight across the reeds. And that pleased me no end!

Otherwise, plenty of Swifts arrived today, plus a contingent of Common Rosefinches. Cloudy again though, no butterflies. Almost forgot, a pair of Crested Tits on Friday evening, a not very frequent wanderer onto my plot.

Height of the nesting season, virtually every nestbox I have put up is squawking with chicks begging to be fed (Great Tits, Blue Tits, Starlings) or have territorial Pied Flycatchers jealousy guarding them. Much breeding activity too by woodpeckers - seven species now actively breeding, their chicks even louder than the nestbox inhabitants. Elsewhere, calls of Golden Orioles and Common Rosefinches ring out. Nice spring morning.

Jos Stratford said:

Probably due to the mild winter, an exceptionally good year for these little fellows however. On the peak day, managed a rather impressive 48 crawling up the legs of me and Little One, but there are hundreds of them out there this year, get several every time we walk through long grass

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Those are bugs that I wouldn't miss if they disappeared from this ball. Do you have the TBE-virus or borrelia there?

Ticks are hell...

Warixenjalka said:

Those are bugs that I wouldn't miss if they disappeared from this ball. Do you have the TBE-virus or borrelia there?

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Oh yes ...

https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-engli...hest-tick-borne-encephalitis-spread-in-europe

Some people every year end up paralysed as a result, some die.

https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-engli...ses-in-lithuania-leave-life-scarring-injuries

But we actually play a daily game to see who can get the most ticks per day 😄 For some reason, I always lose - they don't like me very much (usually only a few per day) and even less rarely bite me (only once so far this year).

After reading the info on your link Jos, I thank God I've never been bitten by one. I do realize that they are in a different Country.

Jos Stratford said:

Oh yes ...

https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-engli...hest-tick-borne-encephalitis-spread-in-europe

Some people every year end up paralysed as a result, some die.

https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-engli...ses-in-lithuania-leave-life-scarring-injuries

But we actually play a daily game to see who can get the most ticks per day 😄 For some reason, I always lose - they don't like me very much (usually only a few per day) and even less rarely bite me (only once so far this year).

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Situation is quite similar in some parts of Finland (Archipelagos and coast mostly). Our whole family has taken vaccine for TBE. This year I haven't seen any ticks on me (I saw one in my friend), but on average, I find myself one bitten tick every summer. No Borrelia symptoms - yet. :smoke:

There are three people I know in our village who contracted limes disease from a tick bite - one in a wheelchair and effectively paralysed from neck down, one seriously ill for past 3 years, one basically ok but lacking previous energy....

Spring migration nearing its end now, but still some nice birds appearing - just along from the bush with a Barred Warbler a week or so ago, one singing Marsh Warbler along a ditch this morning. Traditionally one of the last migrants to arrive, it is not rare that a pair breeds somewhere on my land.

Woodcock continues the nightly roding, frog chorus moving up several notches, Little Crakes remain, Spotted Crake silent or gone.

A very welcome sound out there this evening - basically dark, but whip m'lips whip m'lips ...Quail calling. Not an annual bird on my land, but do get them most summers, it is nevertheless always good to hear.

Otherwise a bit of a quiet day, more due to my inaction than lack of birds. Big plodding tracks of Moose near my cabin though.

Jos Stratford said:

A very welcome sound out there this evening - basically dark, but whip m'lips whip m'lips ...Quail calling. .

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Some birds really evoke a deep response in us don’t they - for me it’s the sound of Golden Orioles calling from canopies in the Spring or Curlews on a misty moor.

It’s good to see photos of your piles

Review, the story so far: wildlife at Labanoras in the National Quarantine Period.

Way back in early March, with flurries of snow and precious few migrants in, home became a basic cabin in Labanoras, a bit cold and severely lacking in mod cons. But what an amazing three months it has been - spanning the entire spring migration, the Coronavirus restrictions could not have come at a better time from a wildlife perspective. From my isolation in Labanoras, I was able to watch the day-to-day progression of the season - from a land largely devoid of colour and life to a vibrant landscape of fresh greens all to the backdrop of a raucous chorus of frogs competing with Golden Orioles, Common Rosefinches, multiple warblers et al. And really it has been a perfect ride of one highlight after another - 142 species of birds so far, including six new species for my land.

But to pick just five of my favourite events, in no particular order:

1. Sitting upon a log one evening, perfect still conditions and the sun setting, Little Crake, Spotted Crake and Water Rail all calling just in front, Bittern booming yonder, Cranes yodelling and Marsh Harriers dropping into their nest.
2. Pure luck, I checked a seasonal pool at exactly the right moment - a superb male Citrine Wagtail arriving, pottering around for all of five minutes, then vanishing never to be seen again.
3. Nightjars. My land far from ideal habitat, to find one Nightjar during the day I thought exceptional, but finding a second later in the day was pretty mind-blowing. Two days they stayed, a male and female, flying at dusk both days, a backdrop of a Hobby hawking dragonflies, a distant Thrush Nightingale belting out its song.
4. Simple pleasures in life - a White Stork visiting the pool adjacent to my cabin each day to eat frogs, what could be nicer than such a bird plodding around?
5. Exceptional wader migration in April - without a seasonal pool in the meadows, most waders are pretty unusual on my land (except Snipe, Green Sandpiper and Lapwing, which all breed). With plentiful water in the pool, it was an absolute bonanza this year - birds changing almost on an hourly basis, no less than 10 species noted, including hundreds of Wood Sandpipers, seven Spotted Redshanks, four Common Redshanks, four Greenshanks, five Black-tailed Godwits, three Ruff and two Curlews. An eleventh wader species, Woodcock, was seen daily, roding at dusk.

So here's to another month of isolation ahead, albeit it totally voluntary now (National Quarantine is still in place, few restrictions are) - migration over, but breeding season at its peak, plus butterflies and dragonflies becoming ever more abundant.