Labanoras, Lithuania, my little patch of land, a cocktail of mixed forest, wetland and meadow.
6.30 am, bit chilly, woke in my cabin, ramped up the gas heater, put on the kettle. Dawn chorus in full swing - Skylark, Fieldfare, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Starling, Yellowhammer among the early singers, Cranes yodelling, Bittern booming off yonder. From the window, first sightings of the day, two White Storks atop a distant nest, then Jay at the feeders and Grey Herons and flights of Great White Egrets heading out from the colony.
Coffee duly drunk, took a two-hour stroll, cutting through the woodland and wetland edge, thereafter back through meadows. Snipe and Green Sandpipers, Great, Middle and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers all hammering away, Bitterns still booming, a pair of Marsh Harriers active over their nest site, Water Rail squealing, Goldeneye and Goosander prospecting for nesting sites. Plenty of common birds, plus a little bit of migration, with incoming flights of Chaffinches, Redwings, Fieldfares and White Wagtails. Deviated to incorporate a patch of spruce, the only area on my land to regularly get Coal Tits and Goldcrests, them got lucky with a roosting Tawny Owl.
Now 9.00 am, already 42 species seen, back to the cabin for breakfast. Despite still nippy, tucked into my porridge on the outside bench, Magpie, fly-over Mute Swans, migrating Bean and White-fronted Geese and a perching Great Grey Shrike for my reward - the later particularly nice, usually just a winter visitor to my land. Breakfast and another coffee over, a wander to the edge of my property to scan adjacent White Stork nests, effectively a twitch for the Tree Sparrows and House Sparrows that nest within the storks' nests. Duly saw them, plus Linnets, so then wandered to an area of regenerating scrub on the other side of my land, Woodlarks on breeding territory, my first Chiffchaff of the year and a rather nice Grey-headed Woodpecker.
Purely to add a few species for the day tally, I now departed my land for the first time for several days, walking all of ten minutes to a neighbouring lake – pods of Goldeneye all over, plus several new for the day, Great Crested Grebe, Wigeon, Teal and Tufted Duck. Despite this lake being only a few hundred metres from my land, and despite their abundance on this lake, I have never recorded a single Great Crested Grebe on or over my land, I think they travel by underground!!!
Approaching midday, and almost back at my cabin and enjoying the sun now showing considerable warmth, I was now in for the highlight of the day – a gaggle of geese attracted my attention to the sky, but there to a backdrop of picture perfect blue was a sight most pleasant – sharing a thermal, one adult White-tailed Eagle and one Black Stork! White-tailed Eagles are reasonably regular on my land, Black Storks aren't anymore! In former years, they used to be pretty much annual, but this was only the second in the last seven years, so pretty happy I was. And then it was time for barbecue, aka doing nothing but sitting in the sun and scanning the sky. So passed several lazy hours, a steady stream of White Storks drifting north, mostly threes and fours, but also one flock of 23, also a number of Cranes and Buzzards northbound too. One more White-tailed Eagle, an immature this time, and one new bird for the day, a Sparrowhawk.
As evening approached, and with the day's tally sitting at about 64, I took another walk, this time adding only Long-tailed Tits. Then, however, I returned for a grand finale upon my bench - just after 7.00 pm, a magnificent Lesser Spotted Eagle flying directly across my view, my first of the year and a very nice bird. Not long after, three Whooper Swans did a fly-by and then, to end the day in style, a little bit of a stake out – at 8.30 pm the previous evening, a Woodcock had passed over by cabin, calling its little grunt. So there I waited in expectation ...and at 8.30 pm, so it went over again! So the dying embers of the day, bird number 68.
Enjoyable day all in all, many thanks to Steve for the inspiration to do a 'big day'. And also a peasure to read the various accounts from elsewhere.
1. Mute Swan
2. Whooper Swan
3. White-fronted Goose
4. Bean Goose
5. Eurasian Wigeon
6. Mallard
7. Common Teal
8. Tufted Duck
9. Common Goldeneye
10. Goosander
11. Great Crested Grebe
12. Great Bittern
13. Grey Heron
14. Great White Egret
15. White Stork
16. Black Stork
17. Marsh Harrier
18. White-tailed Eagle
19. Lesser Spotted Eagle
20. Common Buzzard
21. Eurasian Sparrowhawk
22. Water Rail
23. Common Crane
24. Northern Lapwing
25. Woodcock
26. Common Snipe
27. Green Sandpiper
28. Black-headed Gull
29. Common Gull
30. Wood Pigeon
31. Tawny Owl
32. Great Spotted Woodpecker
33. Middle Spotted Woodpecker
34. Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
35. Grey-headed Woodpecker
36. Wood Lark
37. Eurasian Skylark
38. White Wagtail
39. Wren
40. Robin
41. Mistle Thrush
42. Song Thrush
43. Redwing
44. Blackbird
45. Fieldfare
46. Chiffchaff
47. Goldcrest
48. Long-tailed Tit
49. Marsh Tit
50. Willow Tit
51. Coal Tit
52. Blue Tit
53. Great Tit
54. Great Grey Shrike
55. Eurasian Jay
56. Eurasian Magpie
57. Hooded Crow
58. Common Raven
59. European Starling
60. Tree Sparrow
61. House Sparrow
62. Chaffinch
63. Goldfinch
64. Greenfinch
65. Linnet
66. Bullfinch
67. Yellowhammer
68. Reed Bunting
