Thursday morning I met Karlis at the Dzintari train station in Jurmala and we made our way directly to Kemeri National Park in the hope of Black Woodpecker. Not a great time of the year to see them, but I wanted to try, seeing as its a life bird.
At the first stop it was all quiet although I did come across probably the most voracious mosquitoes I have ever known (and I include Panamanian ones in that). Karlis was unscathed but I was eaten alive in under ten minutes.
We soon left that spot and further along stopped once more where, after a forty minute wait, I had brief views of two Black Woodpeckers as they flew across a forest clearing. Not the views I had hoped for but tickable nonetheless. In the same area a family party of Golden Orioles moved around the tree tops, when you hear that harsh shriek call they give, its not what you'd expect from such a handsome bird!
We continued up along the coast with our intention to stop at various points and look for passage waders. However, we needed to have been earlier and in most suitable places, people had already arrived and flushed the birds away.
In one spot though we had five Caspian Terns resting out on a sand bar. Probably my favourite tern species.
Eventually we arrived somewhere where the birds had not been disturbed. We scanned through the flocks of waders and in an hour picked out Little Ringed and Ringed Plover, Green, Common and Wood Sandpipers, Little Stint and Dunlin, Redshanks and Greenshanks, Ruff and Curlew Sandpipers. I was hoping for a Broad-billed Sand but it wasn't to be. Present also were many Common Terns, two Caspian Terns, Sandwich Terns and one Little Tern. After an hour the birds were flushed by some people and we moved on.
A little further along and Karlis wanted to check a spot for colured ringed Cormorants (some of which he rings himself). Just as we clim bed out of the car we noticed our back RHS tire was flat. Bugger!
By now the day had really hotted up, Karlis pulled around to the shady side of the road and began to take the wheel off. It was a narrow road, with some traffic. We must have looked an odd sight, the car blocking one lane as a shirtless Karlis changed the wheel.
After over a week of local birding I had arranged to head west with Latvian birder Karlis Millers whom I had birded with here in 2011.
Thursday morning I met Karlis at the Dzintari train station in Jurmala and we made our way directly to Kemeri National Park in the hope of Black Woodpecker. Not a great time of the year to see them, but I wanted to try seeing as its a life bird.
At the first stop it was all quiet although I did come across probably the most voracious mosquitoes I have ever known (and I include Panamanian ones). Karlis was unscathed but I was eaten alive in under ten minutes.
We soon left that spot and further along stopped once more where after a forty minute wait I had brief views of two Black Woodpeckers as they flew across a forest clearing. Not the views I had hoped for but tickable nonetheless. In the same area a family party of Golden Orioles moved around the tree tops, when you hear that harsh shriek call they give, its not what you'd expect from such a handsome bird!
We continued up along the coast with our intention to stop at various points and look for passage waders. However, we needed to have been earlier and in most suitable places, people had already arrived and flushed the birds away.
In one spot though we had five Caspian Terns resting out on a sand bar. Probably my favourite tern species.
Eventually we arrived somewhere where the birds had not been disturbed. We scanned through the flocks of waders and in an hour picked out Little Ringed and Ringed Plover, Green, Common and Wood Sandpipers, Little Stint and Dunlin, Redshanks and Greenshanks, Ruff and Curlew Sandpipers. I was hoping for a Broad-billed Sand but it wasn't to be.
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| Karlis checks for some waders spots |
Present also were many Common Terns, two Caspian Terns, Sandwich Terns and one Little Tern.
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| Caspian Tern amongst Common Terns - Latvia - 7th August 2013 |
A little further along and Karlis wanted to check a spot for coloured ringed Cormorants (some of which he rings himself). Just as we climbed out of the car we noticed our back RHS tyre was flat. Bugger!
By now the day had really hotted up, Karlis pulled around to the shady side of the road and began to take the wheel off. It was a narrow road, with some traffic. We must have looked an odd sight, the car blocking one lane as a shirtless Karlis changed the wheel.
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| The perils of birding! |
You would have said the main thing was to get the wheel changed and car off the road. However as Karlis was taking off the tyre, we both heard a strange call from something flying over our heads. I looked around, Karlis looked up and exclaimed "What the F is that!!". We forgot about the car, grabbed our bins and cameras and just had time to see a fine European Roller fly over our heads.
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| Never mind the car - there's birding to be done - Karlis snaps the Roller before it disappears |
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| European Roller - Latvia - 7th August 2013 |
We took in a couple more coastal stops before reaching a small village just in time to get the tyre repaired. As the mechanics worked the skies darkened and the thunder started to rumble. By the time we reached Kolka it was pouring rain. The upside though was that the rain cooled things down a bit. We checked our bags into a very nice guest house and decided to use the final couple of hours of daylight to look for the Two-barred Crossbills at Kolka Cape.
We hung around the car park at Kolka which Karlis reckoned gave us the best chance of seeing any Crossbills. As we chatted to the ladies in the reception shop we heard a single Crossbill fly over. But the bird appeared bigger and chunkier than any Common Crossbills I'd seen before and also gave a louder and much sharper sounding call, I had a decent view as it disappeared behind some pine tops and was happy to go with Parrot Crossbill.....my second lifer of the day. A short-time after we had a small flock of Common Crossbills fly over which included two smaller Crossbills trailling at the back, we rather fancied them for Two-barred Crossbill but could never relocate the flock. We hoped they might come down to drink in some of the pools around the car park but that didn't happen.
As the light faded we headed back to the guest house and enjoyed a very nice meal washed down with a couple of fine Latvian beers. The craic was good and Karlis and I continued to chat about the birding scenes in Latvia, Ireland and the UK. One beer followed another and it was 1.30am before we called it a night. I would pay for it the next day but I really enjoyed the evening!
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