A large lake held two Goldeneye ducks but they kept their distance no matter how you tried to narrow the gap, they were always at the furthest point away. I gave up, I can get closer at our local reserve.
A pair of Linnets were feeding in the garden
and the many trees surrounding the lake had several nest boxes attached.
These it seemed were all occupied by Pied Flycatchers.
Breakfast was served at 8.00am and we both got stuck in for a much needed refuel having survived on two small sandwiches the previous day. Fair do's it was a pretty good breakfast too. There were another dozen or so guests all on the same birdwatching tour, I wondered where they had eaten the night before.
Anyway with our first full day ahead we decide to drive up to the north coast before eventually meeting the guide where he would lead us to the bear hide ( we hoped) for that night's, and the next for that matter, stopover.
Oh, and there's one thing I haven't mentioned yet! The weather.
Dave Gosney in his 2008 guide booklet that Mike had brought along mentioned how the seasons can change in the space of a week. This at least was still a pertinent observation but more of that later. The forecast had looked promising before we arrived and it looked like we were going to get good weather. We weren't prepared for what we did get though. From the moment we arrived to the time we left I would say we had 90% cloudless skies. Our first full day was no exception.
Arriving near the beach we parked up and wandered to see what was about.
Our ordered VW Touran had been substituted by this Chrysler Voyager but we had no complaint about that. Loads of space as it has three rows of seats as well as extra space for bags too. Mike was a bit taken aback to realise it was an automatic, he'd never driven one before he said but he soon got in to the hang of it, so much so he ended up doing most of the driving which was fine by me.
Anyway, wandering around the beach area I found a cooperative Hooded Crow
and managed to catch a couple of shots of a less willing Yellowhammer hiding in a bush.
There wasn't much to see on the beach so we moved on. Eventually we found a superb little spot on the Baltic coast where there were several hundred geese resting on rocks or floating around the place.
The air was clean, the sea clear and blue.Bliss.
The geese stayed in their place, obviously feeling a bit more secure by the water separating us.
I wandered around the headland and found a single Common Scoter but by now the sun was up and the heat so intense that any chance of a sharp photograph was beyond hope, despite the bird being reasonably close.
We didn't realise at the time but this was to be a major issue for us for the entire duration of our trip. Today it was 24, maybe 25 degrees but that was as low as it was going to get, well during the day anyway.
We meandered on exploring potential sites along the way but never finding anything that good but there again, most things had retreated in to the shade during the heat of the day.
The one thing we did notice was how many watch towers were dotted all around Estonia, presumably a relic of the Soviet era. "Birdwatching towers" are regularly mentioned in Dave Gosney's book but it appears that all the ones we checked out are no longer there, perhaps they fell in to the same state of repair as this one.
Anyway, the part of Estonia we were in wasn't visited by Gosney so there were no suggestions in his booklet, the tablet we'd been given was of no real help either. We did find a gravel quarry to explore that had several pairs of Goldeneye's and a few Slavonian Grebes on the water.
There were also one or two good birds in the surrounding grassland too but the heat haze made a decent photograph impossible.
Even when this Little Ringed Plover was down to about 7 metres the shot was still fuzzy.
Anyway, time was rolling on , it was now getting to late afternoon and we had to meet our guide to get the keys for the bear hide at 17.30 and before that we needed to get some provisions in for our overnight stay.
Heading south we found a supermarket which had limited choice but we were able to put together an extremely unhealthy picnic so we wouldn't go hungry during our near 15 hour stop over.
We found the meeting place thanks to a bit of guess work which was something of a miracle, the directions we'd received had been extremely vague, and Mike in particularly was relieved to know we'd be escorted to the bear hide, along with another couple who would be stopping in the hide next door. They travelled light, I was loaded to the limits with all my photo gear, a spare rucksack with extra clothes and food and water plus my tripod. I think it's a 1.7 km walk so no easy task with my failing body which is currently suffering from back pain and sciatica but we made it. Just!
There are two hides, we had the one on the left which had sufficient room for 8 people to sleep in although only 4 photography spots.
Two of the spots have tripod head mounting screws but we opted for using our full tripods.
So having got ourselves set up we settled down in anticipation. It wasn't long, maybe an hour, before we had our first visit from an extremely wary Fox.
He circled around the whole perimeter of the clearing were food had been strategically placed but he was very nervous in his approach. Photo opportunities were limited and the one time he got very close I fired off two shots in "silent shutter" mode but the noise was enough to send him running, much to Mike's frustration. Mind you he'd done the same thing earlier!
I must admit I was rather pleased with the outcome though! The first shot grabbed his attention and he was on to the source instantly. The second a mili second later had him running. That was it for the Fox though, he made one last visit approaching from the front of the other hide and whatever set him off , possibly from there, had him running full speed and disappearing for the rest of the night. Still, we'd been entertained for 20 minutes whilst willing the Fox to put on a show. Now we were back to the waiting game.
A quick check of our photographs and we realised we had a problem. Right in front of one of the baited feeding areas there was a pole.
This was not good!
Oh well, we were stuck with it, too late now.
45 minutes passed and it was approaching 20.00hrs but still reasonably light. The sun was still shining but it wasn't penetrating the forest, just lighting up the top of the trees.
Suddenly Mike said, "there's something coming and it's not a Fox!"
"Bear?" I replied.
" No, it's too small but it's also very darkly coloured. Racoon Dog" came back the reply.
Then there it was, only slightly wary, it paused briefly at the edge of the clearing, sniffed the air and then confidently proceeded to the bait.
Obviously knew the score!
With half decent light we could get some shots of this interesting beast, one neither of us had seen before.
It stayed for maybe 20 minutes, raiding the food supply intended for the bears. We hoped that it wasn't all gone but we needn't have worried.Within minutes of the Racoon Dog leaving we had the main attraction arrive.
And nothing quite prepares you for what you are about to see either!
What a beast, they are huge!
We were treated to some close up views right in front of the hide, 30 metres away perhaps.
Unfortunately many of our shots were ruined by that damned pole but some could be saved with a heavy crop.
On one occasion he wandered right in front of the neighbouring hide too.
The bear hung around for some time before he suddenly took off. An even bigger bear came on the scene and he too went about raiding the bait of fish heads. By now it was getting too dark to photograph, a shame especially when we saw the biggest bear stand upright on his hind legs as if looking for the source of a smell or sound. Anyway, we decided there was little point in staying awake any longer and crawled on to our respective bunks, again knackered by all the travel and general lack of sleep.
The Bear experience had been something special and the good news was we'd have a second attempt tomorrow as we were back in the hide for a second night!
TBC
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