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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dantheman" data-source="post: 2757056" data-attributes="member: 32998">Day One - Lithuania17/06/13Probably not a bad nights sleep, although the resumption of morning flights from about 5am meant that I was awake, fitfully, quite a bit earlier than I would have liked. Thankfully they no longer seem to broadcast the extremely annoying and, in my opinion, somewhat unnecessary announcements that 'all unattended bags are likely to be destroyed/given to homeless children/sold on ebay to fund the pilot’s private teabag fund' every 20 minutes or so. Almost makes airports seem like an expensive country retreat in comparison to the past ...The usual procedure of booking in went smoothly, a spot of mild entertainment provided by a Mr Cessna (although quite possibly not spelled quite the same as the well-known light aircraft manufacturer) trying to explain to the customs officials that the large jars of powder in his luggage were pollen from Lidl’s and not something slightly more exotic. My bag went through without a hitch and I onto the plane for my flight.And so it was that a few hours later I found myself in a brand new country – Lithuania. My first visit to the Baltics, my first to Eastern Europe even, possibly a bit remiss of me after all these years. (I still need to visit central Europe even (Germany, Austria and all that), the edges seem that much more exciting, from a birding perspective at least … ). Anyway, to meet up with my birding contacts in this virgin territory I had to first take the Olex courtesy bus from Kaunus airport to Vilnius. The driver and conductor were indeed courteous, a pleasant surprise, in a non-English speaking kind of way, despite my not having printed out my boarding ticket beforehand.The rather large gentleman with two walking sticks who managed to squeeze into the seat next to me on the bus was also friendly, insisting on conversing with me in highly limited English after I replied to his initial conversation starter with my stock phrase ‘do you speak English?’ in response to his opening native phrase. (Maybe I need to come up with something else … maybe a reply in bad French would do the trick?) The second half of the journey he spent mostly asleep, the pervading smell of alcohol in the immediate atmosphere getting stronger as time progressed. Which was when I realised he was somewhat inebriated as the oxygen in the back of the minibus was slowly replaced with alcoholic vapour. A sneezing, hacking coughing fit (in which he remained firmly asleep) liberally covered the seat and girl in front of him with mostly fine mucus, and on sudden braking on one occasion he neatly smacked his head on the headrest in front. Still he soundly slept on, like a giant baby. He even rolled his head onto my shoulder at one point. I managed to extricate my shoulder. As a result of these um, entertaining distractions I didn’t really notice that much out of the side window – apart from exciting birds like House Sparrows and Starlings early on at the airport, nesting White Storks on the outskirts of Kaunus were the undoubted highlight, their oversized stick nest constructions one of those classic holiday sights.The Panorama Hotel, our destination, arrived soon enough, and I hastily disembarked, allowing for the fact that I couldn’t until other persons had extracted themselves from the vehicle first. I don’t have a clue what the Panorama Hotel was like inside, as this was merely the drop off point for the airport bus. There was a McDonalds nearby, and more relevantly, my hosts (or half of them) and birding guide, Milda there to collect me. I say birding guides – I had not had the opportunity to gen up, but Milda and Laimonus (whom I’d previously encountered on trips to Morocco and Finland) were Lithuanian and knew the area and its birds well enough, which meant I didn’t have to until I actually experienced it. In real time. No scrabbling around for gen beforehand, frenziedly printing out trips reports and working out an itinerary by candlelight. Luxury! Milda’s driving in the rush hour traffic was not quite so luxurious as we left Vilnius behind for the more open countryside– we had a deadline to meet, and whilst the rest of the traffic was perhaps a little overcautious we certainly weren’t. Our deadline was a rendezvous with a local ringer friend who was going to be ringing a Tawny Owl and chicks at around five pm at a place called Uzutrakis Park, with which Milda was previously unacquainted. We still had time to pick up a meat pie and a quick beverage whilst a Lithuanian pasty heated up. (Actually we didn’t really, but the pie had been pre-ordered). Mosquitoes, a brief thundery shower and Great Crested Grebes on a nearby lake provided some light entertainment, with yet more provided when Milda failed to notice the car in front had stopped for a pedestrian crossing the road. Fortunately I had, and my yelp of ‘Stooopppp’ fortunately came just in time as with an ear-piercing  screech of tyres on the wet road we narrowly avoided hitting the stationary car. One of the perils of birding – Milda had spotted something flitting off to the side. All part of the fun …Milda hadn’t seen Tawny owlets before, and whilst it seemed a bit dudey we were happy to attend as the area was meant to be good for birds generally. We had a map print-out of sorts and found the spot on the other side of the lake, and eventually thereafter the group, and the owls. It was however, a little anticlimactic as the owls had been out for a while and were ready to be put back, and the chicks were a bit ugly -tiny little white things rather than the fluffy brown bundles of joy Milda had envisaged. (A rather lethal kind of joy, admittedly). Was a little perturbed when the guy climbed up the 30 foot ladder without hands to put them back in the nest – adult in one hand, owlets in the other, but maybe this is normal practise.And so to bird. The rest of the small group invited to the ringing had left, and so we explored. Apparently it was a good spot, with River Warbler to be found amongst others – we found a likely looking area, but no luck. A Hawfinch was nice (it would have been very nice had it been back in Cornwall of course), but a willow/marsh tit was too brief to be sure which. Rainclouds beckoned and with only a few other commoner-ish birds apparent we decided not to explore any further and head back to better sites with which Milda was more fully acquainted.I had managed to supply Milda with a list of 8 or so target species beforehand. Some of these were probably a bit unrealistic (eg Terek Sandpiper a rarity, not even annual), but at least some of the rest were certainly quite possible. Most of these would be lifers for me, along with the addition of Barred Warbler of which I had yet to see a proper ‘barred' adult and Black Woodpecker, of which I’d only had flight views before.  I wasn’t too worried if we didn’t connect with all, as long as could just get some generally good birding in. The next site had promise, with at least two birds on this list a very distinct possibility.Milda’s driving had abated to the point where I was now worried we were going too slow and wouldn’t even reach the next site before nightfall, but I needn’t have worried. Actually there was a slight worry there might be too much light. We broke the journey briefly when I spotted a small seemingly unfamiliar passerine of which we were probably to see hundreds over the next few days – Whinchats. Oops! Don’t normally see them as a breeding species. Smart little guys.Paluknio Meadows are a reasonably extensive area of wide-open lush meadows to the south of Vilnius which, being quite meadowy (and not being cut too soon in the year) and in the right part of the world hold a rather good population of Corncrakes. Driving slowly down a central track with the windows down, it wasn’t long before we became aware of a distinct ‘Crex Crex’ call distantly emanating from the grassland. Almost before I knew it, Milda had whipped her phone out and given a short burst of call back to the grasses.</blockquote>

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