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CABC Scandinavia Choir Tour

Day 4:  Birding Tallinn

Next morning Jevgeni Shergalin, a local birder I hired to take me around, was in the lobby waiting for me right on time! He’s a zoologist by trade who’s done gobs of research and written the papers to match (click here to check these out), but bird-guiding was a new arena! He felt the Bay of Finland and environs would be the best place to go, so off we went. It was threatening to rain, but during the course of the day we only got spit on, thankfully.

We went to several capes, the first of which was called Kakumäe. Bank Swallows were all over the place, still going in and out of their burrows, and there were several gulls out on the rocks, mostly Herring but also a few Great Black-backed and Common Gulls, with a few Blackheads thrown in. White Wagtails were all over the shoreline, and Great Cormorants sat out on the little rocks and islets. In the duck department we had Velvet Scoters (which I thought was treated as a distinct species from White-winged, but I guess not) and Common Mergansers. There was a family of Mute Swans on another little island, and several shorebirds hid in the coves, mostly Green Sandpipers with a few Greenshanks, but also some Common Sands teetering and possible Dunlin too far out to tell for sure. A feeding flock happened past consisting mostly of Great and Blue Tits (Jevgeni was very happy about the latter), plus some washed-out warblers that were probably Willows but we couldn’t tell for sure (and based on our experiences later in the trip, that’s indeed what they were, as they are supposedly Scandinavia’s commonest songbird!).

Overlook and path at Cape Kakumäe

                    Fleeing Gray Heron,                                                                                                             Young White Wagtail,

          Europe's answer to our Great Blue                                                                                              abundant on the coast

                                                                    Great Tit                                                    Blue Tit

We then walked down the entrance road a little and had more prancing wagtails and tits, plus a good look at a very definite Willow Warbler (also had a probable Icterine Warbler, but I wasn’t 100% sure). Jevgeni found a Spotted Flycatcher, and I caught a glimpse of a Blackbird. A flock of Wood Pigeons flew over as well.

        Prancing White Wagtail           Yet another Great Tit                Willow Warbler, Scandinavia’s commonest songbird

                        (adult)                                                                                                    (but try to shoot them...)!

Spotted Flycatcher; the "spots" actually refer to streaks on the forehead and chest

He then took me to an area where they had a Gray Heron rookery; the herons were long gone (except for a dead youngster Jevgeni had staked out; the rest were all on the coast) but in the pines had lots of Goldcrests calling (but not showing themselves, naturally, just like our Golden-crowned Kinglets). Jevgeni wanted to bush-beat through the woods, but I talked him into just walking down the road instead, and that turned out to have a bunch of bird activity: we had some very cooperative Marsh Tits (I’m assuming because of the vocalization: their songs are very similar to our "Plain" Titmice) and a Tree Creeper, and finally a good look at the Goldcrest, including his little neon crown! That thing really stands out! A female Chaffinch flew in as well, and she was really quite pretty!

                Marsh Tit, told best from the nearly identical Willow Tit by voice and             Goldcrest, which kinda suggests

The next cape we went to was called Rannamõisa, and he wanted to take me there primarily because he had Greenfinches and Goldfinches feeding on the thistles earlier in the week, plus a Red-backed Shrike that had the place staked out. After checking out what gulls and shorebirds were around, we did find the shrike, and he let me get some cracking shots! We did scare up a Goldfinch, but that was about it in the songbird department (aside from more wagtails).

                                            The Baltic Sea                                                                            Jevgeni overlooking the Sea

            Mute Swan                Bank Swallow nests in the         A goofed-up panoramic shot of the marsh at Rannamöysa

                                                cliffs (called "Sand Martins"

                                                        in the Old World)   

                    Yet more White Wagtails (adult left, immature right)                                            Red-backed Shrike

We swung by a bar to use the restroom, and I wanted to buy some bottled water as a courtesy, but she misunderstood and poured two glasses of ice water for us. Due to time constraints we didn’t sit down to drink it (I wasn’t sure it wasn’t tap water, either, and we were told to stay away from ice), so I went ahead and paid for it, but it was rather awkward (the language barrier can be so much fun...). So after that we went to a place called Hamlet Hill (so-called because the Soviets had filmed a movie by that same name there) where we had lunch.  He wasn’t kidding when he said he had prepared for Carol (another choir member who wanted to go birding but had to renege) as well: three servings each of cheese sandwiches, roast chicken legs, fruit, and chocolate bars (not to mention pop)! I took the third chocolate bar back to Carol as a consolation prize...

After lunch we went to Lohusalu (which when translated means Lohu Grove), which had a little marina with a lot of House Martins, but we went on to the cape where we had more gulls, cormorants, and shorebirds (including a fairly good look at a Wood Sandpiper). I really wished I hadn‘t forgotten my walking stick (I made a big deal of setting it out with my stuff the night before, and walked right out without it...) because we poked over rocks and vegetation that I would not have traversed myself without it! But it was worth it: an adult and juvenile Arctic Tern flew around and then settled down, allowing halfway decent shots! (Since both species show up here, we discussed the ID in length, but both agreed the jizz was right for Arctic...) On the way to a park where he had some nesting Black Woodpeckers we had a pair of White Storks right outside the car!

                  Adult Great Black-backed Gull    More gull puzzles: Here are two adult [European] Herring Gulls with a

                                                                                1st-year Great Black-backed, but what’s the gull on the far left??

                                                                                    (Almost looks like a Pallas’, which would be unheard of here!)

                                                More gull rocks...                                                                    Common Merganser family

            Fuzzy Wood Sandpiper            Adult and juvenile                 An accommodating White Stork by the roadside

                                                                        Arctic Terns

Next we went to a lovely little park near where he had worked, called Harku Park. We hiked a lovely loop trail through some very northern Michigan-like habitat, and while he could find the old nest hole, we couldn’t find any woodpeckers (outside of a nice Great Spotted), but I really didn’t expect any. We did find more Mallards and a Coot in a big pond, and just as we had to leave, a big feeding flock came by, consisting mostly of more tits, warblers, and flycatchers, but also a Nuthatch for the day.

                       Trail at Harku Park                                    Woodpecker nest hole               Spotted Flycatcher      

                                                                                          (no woodpeckers, though...)

                                                                                            Pond on site                 Impressionistic photo of a Eurasian Nuthatch

                                                                                                                                    (actually, that’s what happens when you don’t

                                                                                                                                                         use the flash...)

During the course of conversation we discovered that the church that housed Tallinn’s only Raven nest (I gather) was the same one we were slated to sing at that night: the Olevista Baptist Church! He was surprised to hear that it was now a Baptist church, as he had known it as both a Presbyterian and Orthodox church, I think (his quip was, "Things change every five weeks around here, anyway!"), so I had invited him to come!

Headed back to the hotel after that, where I didn’t have much time to breathe: when I got to the room Susie announced that Ray was treating everyone to dinner for Carol’s birthday, so that was fun (used that opportunity to get her chocolate to her)! During dinner Rob asked me if I could give my testimony during the concert, and I hesitantly said, "I can!" So needless to say I wasn’t much company the rest of the night cuz I was trying to sear the outline in my brain before the concert!

My feet were killing me anyway, so after standing for the whole concert I was dying (along with a whole lot of other people)! But it was great: the acoustics were great in that place, and it was such a thrill to sing in that elegant old church!  Many people were moved by the music and the testimonies: I made it through mine without blanking out, and Catherine, another choir member, also gave her very painful testimony about losing her child, and that sure touched a lot of chords with people out there. Evidently several people came forward afterwards (the place was packed), despite the fact that some people left after one quite boisterous piece (which I’m sure was coincidental but we were all chuckling about it)!

View of the church from our hotel room