Birding Estonia: Day two on Hiiumaa (Dagö)

We started at the seawatching point at Ristna. Winds from north-east and clear blue sky. Flocks of Common Scoters passing as well as groups of Arctic Divers. The morning was lovely, until seven, then guess what? Yes, the fog arrived from north-east. What unlucky birders are we? However, we relaxed patiently and half an hour later something strange happen. The fog disappear in an angle of northeast to southwest-west, whilst it continued to pass us just north of us in a southwesterly direction all morning. So, we had a very nice morning with flocks of Arctic Divers and a mix of seabirds passing in good light conditions.

We returned to our house at 11 am and took a nap for an hour. Then we cleaned up the house and packed our stuff. We visited Ristna lighthouse, which were more or less embedded in fog. After that we drove eastwards. The fog disappear and the sun shining from a blue sky. The car’s thermometer standing at 23 degrees. We did a quick visit at Kôpu lighthouse, which is located on the highest point in western Estonia. We then drove slowly southwards through a beautiful landscape, with regular stops for birding.

At 18:15 we took the ferry from Sôru to Tiirgi on Saaremaa (Ösel). The crossing took one hour with tailwind. Saaremaa is indeed a large island and our accommodation were located in the northwestern part. We decided to take the “highspeed” main road to Kuressaare, where had a very good dinner and theen we hit the road to Loode, which is located far off road on the countryside. What a lovely place! We arrived at 21:30 and fell into sleep an hour later.

Some counting results: Red-throated Diver (44), Arctic Diver (444), Common Scoter (6850), Long-tailed Duck (420) and Arctic Skua (3).

Our trip list now stands at 161 bird species.

Niklas, Ante & Janne