Estonia
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The price is per person and includes scheduled return flights London-Tallinn (direct if schedules permit, or via Helsinki), airport taxes, accommodation, all meals, incidental tips, transport and the services of the leaders.
The price excludes travel insurance, optional tips to the local driver & guides, drinks, and other personal expenses. For an ex-flight cost (starting and finishing the tour in Tallinn) please deduct £105 from the tour cost This trip will be operated in conjunction with Limosa Holidays. |
On the shores of the Eastern Baltic is a country of wetlands and forests, where vast numbers of birds concentrate each autumn as they head south from their breeding grounds in arctic Finland and Russia. Join us in one of Europe's newest and most exciting autumn birdwatching destinations - Estonia! |
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Few places in Europe can match the excitement of watching Estonia's amazing wildlife, at almost any time of year. But for just a few weeks of each year, Estonia plays host to one of nature's great events - mass bird migration.
This smallest and northernmost Baltic country lies in a strategic position along one of the continent's major migratory flyways. Positioned between the Finnish Gulf, the eastern coast of Baltic Sea, and Lake Peipsi near the Russian border, the Estonian waters and coastline are the natural stepping-stones along the main route between the breeding and wintering areas for millions of Arctic waterbirds, making birdwatching in Estonia fabulous at migration time. But birdwatching here is not just about non-stop passage overhead: the country's long and indented coastline, shallow and sheltered bays, straits, coastal meadows, marshes, lagoons and over 1000 islands in good natural condition are crucial feeding and stopover sites. And this is not all - the long outstretched peninsulas, spits and narrow straits offer not only plenty of good sea-watching opportunities, but also concentrate large numbers of landbirds before their departure across the sea. We have been travelling here in spring for a number of years, and in 2010 decided to try the peak autumn migration in late September and early October – it proved a great success! At this time several hundreds of thousands of waterfowl and passerine migrants can be seen passing per day at the best sites. A staggering one million waterfowl and nearly three-quarters of a million passerines can be counted on the best days. In total, over 50 million waterbirds are estimated to pass the Estonian coast and marine territories annually. The last week of September is the best time to explore this exciting spectacle, especially given the peak in Common Crane numbers stopping off, as this is the peak time of migration of both water- and landbirds, combined with the most vibrant autumn colours. Many of the birds are travelling on an East-West flight line in autumn, heading for southern Sweden before turning south. And along with them may be found late stragglers such as Red-breasted Flycatcher, early arrivals from further north including Bohemian Waxwing and Lapland Bunting, or even Siberian rarities such as Yellow-browed and Pallas's Warblers to add spice to a day's birdwatching. Two evening excursions should also enable us to experience some of the country's nocturnal wildlife, including chances for calling owls and perhaps glimpses of a few mammals, including Elk, Wild Boar and Raccoon Dog. It is not just this superb mix of wildlife which makes this such a brilliant trip. Time has stood still in Estonia, a country still caught in a wonderful time warp, where the farms are rustic and agricultural techniques favour birds and man. The country is beautiful, mainly rural with pretty landscapes and rustic buildings (a little like Old England between the wars). The accommodation is good throughout with wholesome meals and friendly staff, including several lunches at excellent rural restaurants. Roads are good and distances small, giving lots of time for experiencing the wildlife. The rapid changes in species numbers and location mean that the itinerary remains flexible in order to maximise our chances of experiencing the active migration as it happens. Itinerary Please note that this is a provisional itinerary based on our most recent tour here. However the Cranes and other birds may be in different places each year. Our guides will ‘recce' the area the week before, and may make some last minute changes to the itinerary. We go where the birds are! Itinerary Days 1-2 We take a scheduled flight from London to Tallinn, and meet our Estonian guide at the airport, before travelling to Haapsalu (Estonia). The journey there is through open farmland and we should see our first Common Cranes along the way. We may have time to visit a bird tower before checking in to our hotel in Haapsalu. Next day we drive about 30 km north-east along the coast, to the Põõsaspea watchpoint. This small north-pointing spit is beautifully situated on a migration funnel, where masses of waterbirds arrive from both the Gulf of Bothnia and the Bay of Finland before heading off southwest, making it one of the best places to watch return Arctic waterbird migration. Hundreds of thousands of Long-tailed Ducks, Common Scoters and Geese species are seen annually. It is also famous for its diver migration: up to a couple of thousand of Black- and Red-throated Divers can be seen daily, and even White-billed Diver can occur. But the spit also concentrates passerine migrants in the pine forest and meadows, and we shall look at these too. Depending on time, we take lunch either at Saare Manor-house, or back at Haapsalu, with a visit either to the Silma Nature reserve and/or back at the adjacent Haapsalu Town. This region has many shallow sheltered bays, coastal lagoons, marshlands and reedbeds, all excellent staging places for numerous waterbirds. Indeed, even from the middle of Haapasalu town and its coastal promenade, the spectacular view over Haapsalu Bay can offer views of tens of thousands of Goldeneye, Coot, Greater Scaup, Eurasian Wigeon and Tufted Duck, plus smaller numbers of other species, including White-tailed Eagle or flocks of noisy Common Cranes and Barnacle and Bean Geese flying by. We have dinner in the promenade restaurant –interrupted by a Red Fox padding past the window in 2010! Two nights Haapsalu Day 3 Today we will head out to another tower hide near Tahu, which overlooks a large lake favoured by migrant Bewick's and Whooper Swans among other wildfowl, plus many passing passerines locally concentrated along the lake edge. Nearby fields among tall shelter belts provide good feeding sites for wandering flocks of geese, swans and cranes, which we look for along the numerous tracks, with good chances of small birds and also raptors feeding in and adjacent ot the woodland. We will have lunch back at the hotel and after a break then move to the northern shore of Matsalu Bay where we visit the Haeska watching tower. The record for the highest day list of bird species in Northern Europe was achieved in this region at a similar time of year. Matsalu is also well known as an autumn Crane concentration area. As many as twenty thousand birds gather around the bay and feed in adjacent fields. Following the masses of Cranes flying in on a golden evening or out on a misty morning from their roosting places, is an unforgettable experience. After an early dinner we go out for a night drive to look and listen for some of the various owl and mammal species of the region. Overnight Haapsalu Day 4 We head back to Matsalu Bay, one of Europe's great wetlands: a vast shallow bay no more than four metres deep anywhere. Here we will be greeted with the sight of masses of Whooper and Bewick's Swans, Barnacle, Bean and White-fronted Geese and huge flocks of ducks and waders. Several pairs of White-tailed Eagle patrol the area and we hope to see one or two. This is the most famous bird area in Estonia, and is one of the most important breeding and stop-over areas for waterfowl and shorebirds in the whole of Northern Europe. Varied habitats include large open floodplains and coastal meadows, riparian and coastal woodlands, river delta and marshlands. These combine to create a wonderful migratory staging place for vast numbers of coastal and wetland birds. We then move the short distance on to the Puise peninsula to watch for migrant passerines and any late waders. After lunch en route at a superb country farmhouse, with the chance of feeding Cranes in the adjacent fields and small birds in the garden trees, we then take the ferry across to Muhu Island before continuing to Saaremaa Island in the late afternoon to reach our hotel in time for dinner. Overnight Saaremaa Island Day 5 Attached to Muhu Island by a long road-topped causeway, Saaremaa Island is only effectively separated from the mainland by 5km of sea, though stretches out its 'fingers' about 100 km westwards into the Baltic. Its west coast is thus ideally placed to attract hordes of west- and south-bound migrants, with an autumn drawing power comparable to the more famous Swedish islands of Oland and Gotland just across the sea. We think that it could turn out to be one of the best 'undiscovered' autumn migrant hotspots in Europe! This morning we target the Sõrve peninsula and Sääre spit. This is a narrow peninsula, stretching south-westerly from the rest of the island, and attracts large numbers of migrant landbirds as well as acting as a focus for departing Geese and Common Cranes , while the surrounding open sea and islets are the excellent feeding and resting spots, particularly for wildfowl and waders. The Sõrve is famous for its frequent sighting of rare birds, especially during autumn migration. Migrant birds of prey can be seen in good numbers, and incude Sparrowhawks, Buzzards, harriers and falcons as well as, with luck, a few Lesser Spotted Eagle and other eagles. The number of passerines at peak migration can be staggering. It is an unforgettable experience to follow the passage of hundreds of thousands of Chaffinches, Bramblings and Siskins from the watch point adjacent to an old Soviet military concrete fortification. At the cape, there is a bird observatory where we may to see some common migrants or perhaps even some eastern rarities in the hand. We head up the W coast for lunch in a fine rural restaurant, followed by a short walk in the forest, hoping for a woodpecker or two amongst the commoner woodland birds, or perhaps even an Elk! We round off the afternoon with a walk through the lovely, and very different Loode oak wood, with a wide range of wildlife possible, from resident Hawfinches and migrant Common Redstarts to Viviparous Lizard and even a few dragon and damselflies if the sun is shining! Overnight Saaremaa Island Day 6 After breakfast we return to the Sõrve peninsula to see what changes have occurred overnight. After a lunch stop on Muhu Island we head back to the mainland. We return to the mainland in the afternoon and follow the track of bird migration towards the south-west part of the country, the Pärnu area. While generally quiet in the autumn, a visit to Estonia is not complete without a trip to a bog, with a fabulous boardwalk across part of the vast Tuhu Bog allowing us to experience this habitat. The Nedrema wood-pasture will be our final stop for the day. This is home to Black, Grey-headed, White-backed and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers. Overnight Pärnu Day 7 Today we will travel out in the early morning to visit the Soometsa forest first. Here we'll look and listen for a wide range of forest species, including Black, Grey-headed, Three-toed, White-backed and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, and Hazel Grouse, whose mating calls can be heard in the autumn. We encountered all of them on our visit here in 2010! We then head for the famous Kabli bird station near the Latvian border. This is Estonia's oldest bird station, equipped with a huge (18m high!) Heligoland trap. In the bird station, there is a good chance to have a close look at the northern races of Long-tailed Tit, Willow Tit, Crested Tit, Nuthatch and other smaller woodland species, while occasionally owls are trapped as well. The coast here as well as at Häädameeste just up the coast where we take lunch, is a natural flyway and a walk out to a tower hide here can reveal a wide selection of the resident migrant species present, from Cranes, geese, other wildfowl and a few waders, to a few southbound raptors or even perhaps a Kingfisher on the little river. Dragonflies and even a few butterflies can also be found: we saw a superb Camberwell Beauty in 2010. After an early dinner we return towards the Soometsa Forest to listen principally for owls, with Ural, Pygmy and Tengmalm's Owls all possible, plus perhaps seeing a mammal or two as well. Overnight Pärnu Day 8 We return to Tallinn. Depending on flight times there may be time for a guided tour of the beautiful old city (and perhaps even a little retail therapy!) before we head to the airport for our homeward flight to London. Accommodation: Good quality hotels with all rooms en suite. Ground Transport: By small coach or minibus with local driver. Walking: Easy. Mostly short walks on level ground. Leaders: 2011: John Muddeman and local guides 2012: Ray Nowicki and local guides Numbers: Max. 14 clients |
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