Brief Birding in Latvia

My wife and I made the decision to try to have a long weekend away each month of 2015.  February we visited Riga in Latvia, a very nice city with some nice restaurants and bars.  We stayed at the Dodo Hotel a short tram ride out of the city centre, a budget hotel but very clean, friendly and cheap.

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.

Draycote Geese

My year list is only at 106 and 101 of them were found in January so this morning I decided to give the patch a miss and head up to Draycote Reservoir to try to boost that tally.  As per usual I had a time limit so I was out the door at 06:45.

I was the first car in the car park but only by a few mins, as I was getting the scope out another car arrived with two birders.

I took a walk along to Toft Bank in search of the Smew, I was hoping for Goldeneye and Goosander too as both birds have frustratingly evaded me so far this year.

It wasn't long before I found a female Goldeneye so that was a good start, there didn't appear to be much on the water at all, scope views of the opposite bank showed a large flock of Canada Geese with quite a lot of Mallard and Great Crested Grebe distributed across the far side of the reservoir.

There were loads of Pied Wagtail and even more Meadow Pipit hunting around the grassy verge.  The water close in held quite a few Coot and quite a lot of Little Grebe.

Coot

I arrived at Toft Bank and found the Black-necked Grebe which had also been reported but I couldn't find the Smew anywhere.

Black-necked Grebe

A group of Canada Geese containing a single Greylag Goose flew over head and I got to watch a Buzzard in the field hunting for worms.

The two other birdwatchers had gone on ahead and when returning kindly gave me directions to a field with a flock of Greylag Geese which also contained 2 European White-fronted Geese and a single Pink-footed Goose, these gave me another 2 year ticks.

Crappy phone scoped Geese

1 of the White-fronts - honest....

I should maybe give up with this photography lark - in my defence though, my DSLR seems to have a faulty sensor and my phone got stolen so I'm using a crappy Samsung Fame on which the camera is dire...

On the way back to the car I found 3 male Goldeneye, dapper birds and made up for missing the Smew - which was latter reported as present

Goldeneye

This evening we visited friends in Cheltenham so I took the opportunity to nip to Pitville Park to look for the Dartford Warbler which has been there for some time now.  I left it too late though as it was already past dusk so I failed to find it.  I did manage some great views of a pair of Stonechat though so that was nice.  I had to mess around with the camera a lot with the sensor being knackered, this is the best I could manage.

Stonechat

Stonechat

Patch Gripped!!

I arrived early today in the vain hope of finding Woodcock, not that I expect to find them here, the habitat doesn't scream Woodcock - result was as per expectation - Woodcock = Nil.

I started by stopping of at the small River Arrow, I'm determined to find a Kingfisher here but one hasn't materialised yet.  This morning there was a Grey Heron feeding in the margins and single Moorhen.  I had a quick scan of the small flood plain but it was frozen over so nothing here.  I also had a quick scan of the rough ground which looks like it used to contain a factory or barracks but again nothing.

Next stop was Pophills Pit where the following was noted:

Greylag Goose - 109
Canada Goose - 7
Mallard - 10
Tufted Duck - 4
Coot - 22
Common Sandpiper - 1

The Greylag were quite restless when I arrived as soon took to the air heading in the direction of the Hidden Pit.  I think I need to sort a patch map with labels, especially as @NeilDuggan80 is birding it too, be easier to discern where we are talking about.

I headed over to the Main Pit where I had 2 Rook (Patch tick), 2 Goldcrest and 3 Chaffinch around the plantation.  There was a fair amount on the water which had defrosted from yesterday, I didn't count the Mallard, Tufted Duck or Coot today as wanted to do a circuit to take in the reed beds I was targeting Water Rail today too.  I noted the following on Main Pit:

Mute Swan - 7
Canada Goose - 27
Pochard - 6
Teal - ~40
Little Grebe - 3

Crappy Phone Scoped Teal

Whilst counting, yesterday's (I presume) Peregrine Falcon sped past about 20 meters from my head as it attempted to take a Blackbird, it was unsuccessful and flew over the Main Pit and across the field to the rear.

I took a walk over to the old reed bed where a couple of Jack Snipe flushed as I walked past.  I had some great views of 3 deer atop of a small mound, the morning was slightly misty, I attempted a few shots but I think the sensor on my camera is faulty as all images are either black or fuzzy and over exposed.

I took a walk across the Flooded Field up to the Hidden Pit, this flushed 23 Jack Snipe and a single Common Snipe which was todays 2nd patch tick, they must be sensitive to ground vibration as they all flushed from about 70 meters away and were all difficult to see due to the light mist.  I also had a single Lapwing and a pair of Skylark.

The hidden pond only contained a small number of Mallard and Tufted Duck.

I crossed over to the public footpath and followed it back round to the road, there are quite a few reeds along here, this was were I was looking for Water Rail but I failed only managing a couple of Moorhen and a lot of Red-legged Partridge that escaped the guns during the shooting season.

I arrived back at the car to see that Neil was on-site with John who is a former Warwickshire bird recorder.  Neil informed me that after he left, John found Woodcock, Tawny Owl and 6.... Water Rail.... WTF...  I specifically went for 2 of these and failed.... GRIPPED...!!  Neil had also had Goosander, a site first.

I popped back in the afternoon but they'd moved on, there were 23 Lapwing on the Main Pit scrape.  Canada Goose numbers had risen too.

Canada Geese on Main Pit

Patch Birding....

A brief visit this morning as I had to take the wife for a run, I'm helping her train for her 1st half marathon in April, then we had to go buy a car..

I didn't arrive until 07:45, even though I'd planned to be there for 07:00 - that's what a bottle of Boreaux the night before does I suppose...

It was bitterly cold of course, the ground frozen solid.  Before I'd even entered the site I had some great views of 3 deer - really need to learn the different species, can't be that hard.  I tried to get some photos but my camera was taking long exposures like it was night time, the light wasn't that great I admit but it wasn't dark? In fact, even when I sorted it out by setting everything manually, images still came out a little fuzzy when zoomed in.

Anyway, the birds...  The Main Pit came into view and was partially frozen so I expect no birds but it was quite the opposite.  A Gadwall pair and Widgeon pair were new for PWC2015 with the following birds counted:

Mallard - 189
Pochard - 4 (3m, 1f)
Widgeon - 2
Eurasian Teal - 60+
Tufted Duck - 24
Little Grebe - 6
Gadwall - 2
Coot - 20
Canada Goose - 29
Grey Heron - 1
Lesser Black-backed Gull - 2

I took a walk over to the Little Owl tree with little hope.  On route I inadvertently flushed 2 x Jack Snipe and saw a pair of Wren flitting about.  Plenty of Red-legged Partridge flushed as usual too.  I got some more great view and some more poor photos of another 2 deer feeding in the long grass.

About 50m short of the Little Owl tree I saw what I thought was a Buzzard perched at the top so I put my scope down to take a look.  I couldn't believe my eyes, a beautiful male Peregrine Falcon, another tick for PWC2015 and for the year list.  I watched him scanning the area for about 10 mins before he flew off and over to Bidford.  I took a couple of photos but none any good, the best I managed was a phone camera to the telescope eyepiece shot...

Peregrine Falcon

I then left and stopped for a quick scan of Pophills Pit which held:

Coot - 20
Black-headed Gull - 16
Mallard - 6
Tufted Duck - 2

I also had a Bullfinch, Reed Bunting and Pied Wagtail in area.  A Buzzard was sat in it's usual spot on the top corner of the disused barn.

There were the usual high number of Jackdaw, Carrion Crow and Woodpigeon flying around the area too.

1st new birds for February

Took a break from sorting the garage out this afternoon, was stood at the kitchen window with a brew when a female Blackcap visited.

She is my first February tick and puts me on 102 species for the year but more importantly she is species number 48 for Patchwork Challenge 2015.

When I took the kids home tonight, I had a brief glimpse of a Barn Owl in the headlights in Brierly, Herefordshire, reminded me that next weekend I need to visit Salford Priors GP at dusk to search for the Barn Owl that I saw in December.  I didn't need to worry though, as I was driving past Pophills the Barn Owl flew up and along the hedgerow, I pulled up and thanks to the moonlight, got to watch it for about 5 minutes flying up and down the hedgerows of the road and the hedge between Pophills and the adjacent field.

That puts me on 49 species for Patchwork Challenge 2015.