Warm fall means some migratory birds lingering longer than usual in Estonia
The mild autumn has been followed by a surge in the number of birds ringed by ornithologists in southwestern Estonia.
While the birds that overwinter in Africa and Asia have already left Estonia for warmer climes, the mild autumn weather so far has led some migratory species, such as tits (Tihane) and goldcrests (Põialpõiss), to linger here a bit longer than usual.
At the Kabli bird station in Pärnu County, activity is in full swing, with nearly 14,000 birds ringed so far.
Among the volunteers helping with the work is 10-year-old Christopher Robin Mäesalu, from Pärnu, who arrived together with his father.
"I came to help ring the birds, kind of to help Estonia. There are mostly long-tailed tits, but sometimes I've actually seen really big ones too. It's pretty cool," he told "Aktuaalne kaamera."
Ringing began already at the end of August and will continue through to November.
"If we look at the average of recent years, then it's certainly been a very good year. This year has been quite special in the sense that there are very large numbers of tits and goldcrests — after many years they've had a good breeding season. These so-called part migrants — tits, robins, thrushes, and goldcrests — are still very numerous in Estonia, since the cold weather hasn't yet driven them southwards. The birds that do overwinter in Asia and Africa have already left, or about 95 percent of them. One example of such a species would be the barn swallow," said Jaak Tammekänd, monitoring specialist at the Environment Agency (Keskkonnaagentuur).
Christopher Robin, whose favorites are the long-tailed tit and the goldcrest, was helping out at the bird station for the second day when "Aktuaalne kaamera" visited. On Tuesday night, he and his father had spent the night in a tent next to the station.
"This was actually funny. I went to sleep and set an alarm, but I didn't wake up at all. I also wanted to find out if some cuckoo would come out from somewhere or not," said Christopher Robin.
Instead, the boy missed out on seeing an unexpected nighttime visitor.
"A fox had gotten into one of our large bird traps. It was the first time in history that a fox had crawled into the back section of the bird trap, inside the box. All the birds remained unharmed, and the fox too was set free," Tammekänd noted.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Johanna Alvin
Source: "Aktuaalne kaamera"
