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Eastern Europe ...Lithuania, a birder's tale. (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Jos Stratford
- Start date
Big Phil
Well-known member
Very evocative thread. I just returned from a jaunt to neighbouring Latvia which was tremendous. The Baltics rock and the summer weather is just perfect for outdoor living.
Loved the unspoilt meadows and bogs and will long remember lying in the tent one night, listening to Corncrake, Quail, Gropper, Savis, Bittern, Sposser and Nightjar and then waking up to fluting Golden Os in the morning...
Kind of hankering for a Vilnius to Tallin road trip across the Baltic States now....there's always next year!
Loved the unspoilt meadows and bogs and will long remember lying in the tent one night, listening to Corncrake, Quail, Gropper, Savis, Bittern, Sposser and Nightjar and then waking up to fluting Golden Os in the morning...
Kind of hankering for a Vilnius to Tallin road trip across the Baltic States now....there's always next year!
Mary Evelyn
New member
A wonderful read as usual and so pleased D has enjoyed herself and hope to hear from her soon.
Jos Stratford
Beast from the East
Attachments
What is a Sposser for those of us who don't understand geeky abbreviations?
Don't know if I am the only one, but I find things like "Sprawk" and "Gropper" very irritating - and this one I don't even understand!
McMadd
You should see the other bloke...
Thrush Nightingale...German name I believe so not a true abbreviation like those you quote...had 5 calling when out hunting River & Blyth's Reed Warbs a couple of weeks back...very nice too!
Jos Stratford
Beast from the East
This is the 'Make Andrew Green' month, not an effort to get him all environmental, but more that it's butterfly month up here!
On my first stroll of the month along the butterfly alley that tends to just drip in mouthwatering selections, it was all up and going - not just 24 species, but oodles and oodles of individuals. Fritillaries were out in force, at least 50 Silver-washed Fritillaries heading the cast, supported by a good dozen or so High Brown Fritillaries, plus a few Heath Fritillaries (sorry Andrew), several Dark Green Fritillaries, four Pallas's Fritillaries and at least one Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary too. So many that they were all over the place, often landing to lap up salts from my skin! Also notched up my best single day count of Silver-studded Blues, with at least 25 newly-emerged, some of them also landing on me! Moving on a half kilometre or so, a small meadow took the tally ever higher - amoungst the more numerous ones, Pale Clouded Yellow, Yellow-legged Tortoiseshell and a few Scarce Coppers.
Then whilst photographing a Heath Fritillary, an almighty squaking started above my head! Up I looked and there it looked down - a pale beak, two gawky eyes and a voice like no tomorrow! A young Black Woodpecker was peering out of its nest!
Plus, on the dragonfly front,first Brown Hawkers of the season, at least four patrolling the skies.
On my first stroll of the month along the butterfly alley that tends to just drip in mouthwatering selections, it was all up and going - not just 24 species, but oodles and oodles of individuals. Fritillaries were out in force, at least 50 Silver-washed Fritillaries heading the cast, supported by a good dozen or so High Brown Fritillaries, plus a few Heath Fritillaries (sorry Andrew), several Dark Green Fritillaries, four Pallas's Fritillaries and at least one Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary too. So many that they were all over the place, often landing to lap up salts from my skin! Also notched up my best single day count of Silver-studded Blues, with at least 25 newly-emerged, some of them also landing on me! Moving on a half kilometre or so, a small meadow took the tally ever higher - amoungst the more numerous ones, Pale Clouded Yellow, Yellow-legged Tortoiseshell and a few Scarce Coppers.
Then whilst photographing a Heath Fritillary, an almighty squaking started above my head! Up I looked and there it looked down - a pale beak, two gawky eyes and a voice like no tomorrow! A young Black Woodpecker was peering out of its nest!
Plus, on the dragonfly front,first Brown Hawkers of the season, at least four patrolling the skies.
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That Silver-studded Blue is a beauty! Any sign of the Swallow-tails yet?
As for the Black Woodie:-C
D
As for the Black Woodie:-C
D
hannu
Well-known member
Hi Jos !
I twitched today (7.7.'07) one lifer:
Long-billed Dowitcher
http://www.tarsiger.com/images/kesma/Limsco11.jpg
http://www.tarsiger.com/images/kesma/Limsco22.jpg
Very nice obs, distance only 30 metres!
Regards,
Hannu
I twitched today (7.7.'07) one lifer:
Long-billed Dowitcher
http://www.tarsiger.com/images/kesma/Limsco11.jpg
http://www.tarsiger.com/images/kesma/Limsco22.jpg
Very nice obs, distance only 30 metres!
Regards,
Hannu
Jos Stratford
Beast from the East
It's been chucking it down all weekend, barely a let up in the wind and rain! One big yuk is the basic story, still in the occasional spot of sun did score a new dragonfly species for me, a very nicely named Green-eyed Hooktail, also both Large and Yellow-legged Tortoiseshells and a few birds too ...new for the Labanoras garden, a Common Redstart (hopping about like a Robin where I was working in the garden!), plus the Hobby attacking the feeders again and, the first hints of autumn maybe, a pair of Nutcrackers and a Goshawk, both the first I have seen for some time.
Jos Stratford
Beast from the East
PS congratulations Hannu 
Jos Stratford
Beast from the East
Also, all from the kitchen window, my favoured spot to gaze out upon the rain dripping down, Red-backed Shrikes feeding young, the Rollers back and fro... and, inside the kitchen itself, two Swallows that keep taking a fancy to a light on my wall - must remember to shut the door, can see there'll be a nest there soon!
Jos Stratford
Beast from the East
White Stork update
It is now five weeks ago, a dark day that saw battle between White Storks, the finale of which was four chicks badly injured and ejected from the nest. The next 24 hours saw me struggling to keep them alive, wondering if they really even stood a chance. Two didn't make it through the first day, the remaining two showed improvement.
Then I found LGGD, a animal welfare organisation 100 km to my west with facilities perfectly equipped to get them back into the wild, so I took them there - one operation later and a couple of days on, things looked much more optimistic, they stood a good chance.
So, five weeks on, how are they doing? The answer, I am pleased to say, is they are well and growing fast...
...and they have 28 buddies!!!
A result of various calamities over the last month and, in particular, the strong winds and heavy rain of the last days, the result of which has been the loss of many trees and some stork nests.
Outlook for all is good, they will migrate. Photographs to follow in some days.
It is now five weeks ago, a dark day that saw battle between White Storks, the finale of which was four chicks badly injured and ejected from the nest. The next 24 hours saw me struggling to keep them alive, wondering if they really even stood a chance. Two didn't make it through the first day, the remaining two showed improvement.
Then I found LGGD, a animal welfare organisation 100 km to my west with facilities perfectly equipped to get them back into the wild, so I took them there - one operation later and a couple of days on, things looked much more optimistic, they stood a good chance.
So, five weeks on, how are they doing? The answer, I am pleased to say, is they are well and growing fast...
...and they have 28 buddies!!!
A result of various calamities over the last month and, in particular, the strong winds and heavy rain of the last days, the result of which has been the loss of many trees and some stork nests.
Outlook for all is good, they will migrate. Photographs to follow in some days.
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deborah4
Well-known member
That is good news Jos.
Have the ones next door fledged yet? They looked as if they were about to very soon
D
Have the ones next door fledged yet? They looked as if they were about to very soon
D
Jos Stratford
Beast from the East
Ei, they still occupy the nest, spend the whole day up there, roosting, displaying to each other, bill clapping, touching up the nest, etc. Roost at night atop too. Clearly too late for this season now, but a nest is something held over many seasons, so I guess it is far too valuable to abandon.
The two next nearest nests both have chicks doing well: the first, a hundred metres or so beyond the kitchen window, now has two well-grown flappers, they've reached the age where they jump and down exercising their wings ...but they are still weeks away from final lift off; the next nest, another couple of hundred metres on, has younger chicks, four I think, but all okay.
Jos Stratford
Beast from the East
They promise a return to sun and 30 C by the week's end, but right pissy the last days! Stopped in a petrol station about midnight last night, light rain and a bit blustery too - as the petrol sloshed its way down, my car made a most perculiar peep noise, and then again! Hmm, that's a new noise I thought, oh well, wonder what it was, couldn't be the car alam as I don't have one! Then it did it again, but then I realised it was not the car, a familiar noise, but rather out of place. I looked about and there, running about the forecourt, was a Little Ringed Plover! See, all those goofs that think cars and petrol consumption are bad for the environment, even the birds don't agree!
Today a non-birding day in the garden, constructed the third and final pool of the season ...a Black Redstart pretty impressed by the rockery that overhands it, a Hobby hurtling over yet again, but otherwise nowt much to report.
Today a non-birding day in the garden, constructed the third and final pool of the season ...a Black Redstart pretty impressed by the rockery that overhands it, a Hobby hurtling over yet again, but otherwise nowt much to report.
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Jos Stratford
Beast from the East
Skyward...
Ah, it's been a good weekend up on my land - what with Swallowtails flitting across the meadows, dozens of Silver-washed and High Brown Fritllaries too and oodles of raptors overhead, including one White-tailed Eagle, a pair of Black Kites and an Osprey, it would have been enough to keep me happy
.... but the best was happening just a stone's throw from my window - one of the avian highlights of the year, the ROLLERS have fledged their young, brilliant.
On top of that, clumsy to the extreme, one of the young White Storks also took to the skies for the first time! Full story here. Pictures to follow.
Ah, it's been a good weekend up on my land - what with Swallowtails flitting across the meadows, dozens of Silver-washed and High Brown Fritllaries too and oodles of raptors overhead, including one White-tailed Eagle, a pair of Black Kites and an Osprey, it would have been enough to keep me happy
.... but the best was happening just a stone's throw from my window - one of the avian highlights of the year, the ROLLERS have fledged their young, brilliant.
On top of that, clumsy to the extreme, one of the young White Storks also took to the skies for the first time! Full story here. Pictures to follow.
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