A friend of ours joined us on trip so I took the opportunity to take a day for myself for a spot of geeking, the wife took this as a reasonable excuse to book the day at a spa.....
I'd done a little research before we'd left the UK, there is surprisingly little information regarding birding in Latvia so I opted for the Kemeru National Park as it was only a short drive from Riga.
I concentrated on the North side of the E22 as it's a vast area to cover. I started at the National Park lodge, I suppose it's the equivalent to our visitor centres, it wasn't open which I wasn't expecting this time of year. It's a beautiful lodge though.
I was up at 05:30 and arrived just before 07:00, I almost went arse over tit when I stepped out of the car, it averages -5C in February.
I took a walk through the woodland which boasts 9 species of Woodpecker...! I of course managed only 3, 2 of which I could see at home with relative ease, those are of course the Great Spotted and Green Woodpeckers. I was fortunate enough to see a number of Middle Spotted Woodpeckers, a lifer, unfortunately these are the best images I have of them, they were never close, the trees reasonably dense and of course I'm hopeless at photography..
Middle Spotted Woodpecker
Middle Spotted Woodpecker
Middle Spotted Woodpecker
I spent ages watching Nuthatches, they seemed to be paler than those in the UK but I referred to my Bird Guides App which informed me there was only the Eurasian Nuthatch in Europe. There were quite a few Raven over and a few Common Buzzard. Back in the garden around the visitor lodge were some decent sized Siskin flocks, about 30 birds. The sun had poked out from behind the clouds and afforded me some great views of Bullfinch lit up nice a colourful, small flocks of males which was bizarre as I only ever see them in pairs here in the UK.
Siskin
Bullfinch
Next I decided to head up to the main lake, on route I stopped to appreciated the Nordic Jackdaw foraging about 5 meters away.
Nordic Jackdaw
Nordic Jackdaw
The main lake was frozen solid, there was a guy kite skiing across it, that's definitely a first for me.. There were small margins which were not frozen so all the waterfowl was crammed in and of course that patch was the other side of the lake with no access points! The closest bird to me was a noisy Lesser Black-backed Gull and even he was a fair distance out:
Uncropped image at maximum 300mm range....
Lesser Black-backed Gull
This area has a boardwalk through the lagoons with a raised viewing platform, still some distance out to the birds though. There must have been in excess of 100 Goldeneye, I've never seen anything like it before, awesome to see so many, especially with the males displaying.
There wasn't much else, a few Mute Swan, Greylag Geese, Mallard and Tufted Duck. I was just about to leave when a few more Swan came into view, Whooper Swan - a year tick.
I headed back to the car but on route had to stop in awe of the cacophony from the Siskin, there must have been over 300 birds, absolutely deafening. I was glad I stopped as a tit flock also went through, plenty of Great Tit and Blue Tit but also Northern Long-tailed Tit which was another lifer.
Northern Long-tailed Tit
Northern Long-tailed Tit
I decided to check out the coast to the North, there is a road that parallels it about 200m in, you wouldn't know the ocean was there through the dense woodland. The ocean was flat calm, it looked like it was only a few inches deep, it obviously wasn't though as there were rafts of Scoter, way too far out to identify. I'd bought a small telescope from Aldi before I left the UK as the trip was hand luggage only, my primary scope would take up my whole allowance. I needn't have bothered though, it was crap and I got clearer views through my binos. I also had Goosander which was new for year, about 20 in all and again at a great distance.
Goosander
It had been a long day so I decided to head back to the wife, I stopped at one last spot, a drainage ditch which was supposed to be good for Water Rail but of course nothing. I quickly checked the coast one last time and found a group of Gulls, most were Black-headed Gull but I think this may be a Caspian Gull? He has the sloping forehead and black eye, I'm not convinced the bill would be considered 'long' but the primaries show black to the 5th with the large window 10?
Potential Caspian Gull
Potential Caspian Gull
Potential Caspian Gull
I was just about to get back into the car but in the tree next to where I was parked was 7 male Bullfinch which I couldn't resist, it is my favourite bird after all.
Bullfinch
Bullfinch
Bullfinch
Bullfinch
I would certainly recommend Latvia for birding but maybe when it's a little warmer, it's apparently great during migration period. They also have some great Owls if you can dedicate a little more time than me as you'd need to travel East to the forests.
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