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.

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.

Staying Local

Ok, so the plan wasn't to stay local, I've been waiting for the chance to get down and see the ridiculously long staying Great Spotted Cuckoo, I reckon a 3.5 hour drive is worth it? All week I've been checking BirdGuides for the latest news and all was well - until Thursday when it was reported dead! Typical... Later that day the report turned out to be erroneous, a greens keeper had found a dead magpie and reported it as the Cuckoo, there was still no sign of it though. Friday ended also with no reported sightings so I decided not to go as we had friends for the weekend, the misses wedding dress shopping again and me dragging the best man birding.

So I decided to keep it local, there were a number of decent reports considering I live in Warwickshire, that night when the girls had gone to bed, I planned the next day whilst the best man and I tried a variety of home-made ales, not a great mix.... So the plan was:

1. Up at 07:00 and a trip to Bredon Hill for migrants - esp Ring Ouzel.
2. Morton Bagot next for the Green-winged Teal.
3. Up to Bittell Reservoir for Great Grey Shrike and Sand Martin.
4. Pop into Earlswood - since we were practically passing.
5. A quick visit to Brandon Marsh for Little Gull.
6. Finish of at Draycote Reservoir for Great Northern Diver and Long-tailed Duck.

Excellent, planning complete we then stayed up until 05:00 finishing the home-made ales and a number of retailed bottles - out the window goes the plan...

I still managed to get up at 08:30 and decided Bredon Hill was a no go as the dog walkers would be way ahead of me. I had breakfast with the girls whilst waiting for the best man to surface, which he duly did at 09:30. Shower and breakfast over and it was out the door on the road for around 10:30!

First stop was Morton Bagot, on arrival we met a few birders who were just leaving, they were kind enough to direct us to the pools as I'd never been here before, quite appalling really as it's only 11 miles from my front door. We were told there was a juvenile Peregrine present but were unable to locate it. We did however manage to locate the male Green-winged Teal on one of the pools with a number of Eurasian Teal, the pool was difficult to view from the other side of a field with some of the pool being out of sight in the dead ground.

On the larger pool we were fortunate to find 4 Green Sandpipers, a Little Ringed Plover and a Grey Heron, Gadwall pair and a few Lapwing.

With that success we headed back to the car stopping to laugh at the spring lambs hopping around. Next stop was the Hopwood plantation next to the Bittell Reservoirs.

We parked up in the layby as per the instructions on BirdGuides and proceeded to scan the plantations for the Great Grey Shrike. My best man works as an actor so finds just about everything fascinating in the guise of learning so I took the opportunity to teach him some scanning techniques as per training received in the army, i.e. don't focus on specific points, look for slight movement, differences in tone, shine, shadow of objects etc. He takes life experiences like this as tools for his work on the stage, didn't help us to locate the Shrike though. We spent about 15 minutes scanning and decided to head over to the reservoirs to see what else was about.

We parked in the layby on the corner of Lower Bittells and had a quick look at them. Apart from the Great Crested Grebe they were virtually devoid of any birdlife so we took a walk up to Upper Bittell. On the way up we found a female Bullfinch singing, I never realised they females sang too? Bullfinch's are my favourite bird which I don't get to see that often so it's always a treat, their song is very unique and quite funky too.

Bullfinch

Found my first singing Common Chiffchaff of the year today too although it was hard to pin down as it flitted about the vegetation. A number of Wren were in full song holding territory and a pair of Treecreeper flitting around together also in full song. On arrival at Upper Bittell we were greeted by around 40 Sand Martin which are my first for 2014, we didn't get chance to see if much else was about as the skies opened up as forcast so we made a dash back to the car.

Since it was pouring with rain I decided to skip Earlswood and head straight for Brandon Marsh, we were both hungry now and it wouldn't be fair to drag my best man around a lake in the rain, this is my idea of fun, not his. The plan was to get some lunch in the Brandon Marsh café and hope that the rain stopped to allow us to continue birding.