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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jos Stratford" data-source="post: 3170627" data-attributes="member: 12449">Estonia Jaunt - 14-15 FebruaryJohn Dixon hits the Baltics. I'm sure he will be doing a trip report elsewhere, but with John arriving, so we decided to head to Estonia my first cross-border sortie of the year (not including Thailand of course!). Well, John arrived at the very unsocial hour of 10.30 p.m., but by midnight the adventures were already well underway - stopping in one forest area, vague hopes of a big predator predictably came to zilch, but a stunning roadside Ural Owl was ample compensation! Then followed a near six-hour overnight drive to Virtsu, a small port with ferries to the island of Saaremaa. Added Raccoon Dog on the drive up and one encounter with traffic police in middle Latvia!On the islands, my key targets were Grey Seal and Ringed Seal, while the Steller's Eiders were naturally enough quite high on John's list of priorities. I am not sure that either of the seals are very easy without a boat to get out to their favoured offshore rocky islets, but my strategy plan was to scan the sea near Vilsandi Island for Grey Seal (they have a colony on the west of that island) and then, next day, hope for Ringed Seal from the ferry between mainland and the island of Hiiumaa.First up, birds. The west of Saaremaa is truly an amazing experience, great rafts of Long-tailed Ducks cooing a treat, plus mixed flocks of Velvet and Common Scoters by the hundred and no shortage of Scaup, Goosander, Red-breasted Merganser, etc, etc. So, with this bird fest ahead, and White-tailed Eagles already seen, our first stop on Saaremaa was at the small harbour of Veere, an area I have always found good in the past. And so it was this day, tremendous numbers of birds straddled right across the bay, but (and totally unexpected for me) a big head bobbing out of the water right inside the harbour itself - Grey Seal! Oh, that was easier than I had imagined - the Vilsandi colony is well beyond even optimistic scoping possibilities, so I had expected some problems with this one! And then there was another, and another! With two fishing boats at dock, it turned out that the Grey Seals were scrounging for fish scraps being dropped overboard ...drifting just off the harbour walls, a grand total of six seals were seen in the end!Next to Undva, key headland for Steller's Eider. Many birds present, a Black-throated Diver offshore, rafts of seaducks, but scanning left and right, no obvious Steller's Eiders! No worries, it was only a question of time, then three female Steller's Eiders came flying by, John breathed a sigh of relief. Spotting a number of birds in a bay some way to the left, we relocated and promptly found another small flock of Steller's Eiders, five this time and all females again, nicely in the company of several Common Eiders. So where was the big flock of Steller's? A bit of squinting into the distance and the answer emerged - far to the south, beyond a raft of Tufted Duck and Scaup, a dense flock of brown, white and orange blobs bobbed near the surf. Another relocation and soon we were watching them at rather better range - about 160 Steller's Eiders in all their glory, many males.So, back to mammals ...</blockquote>

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