In search of more warblers

Booted Warbler

Booted Warbler provides great excitement!  An early morning visit to a local marsh produced River Warbler, Marsh Warbler, Great Reed Warbler, Grasshopper Warbler, Savi's Warbler, and Sedge Warbler - not a bad list!  Citrine Wagtails seemed to be all over the marsh, including some stunning males.  Rather more unexpectedly, were great views of Lesser-spotted Woodpeckers which were obviously feeding young near by, as they repeatedly visited a clump of willows to collect food before flying off, presumably to feed their young.

On to another marsh - hear the undoubted highlight was a pair of Lesser-spotted Eagles, perched in the poplar trees.  From here we visited an area of parkland, where after a rather frustrating search, we eventually tracked down a Middle-spotted Woodpecker.  The area also held several singing Icterine Warblers, which were much more obliging than the woodpecker.

A lengthy drive had us at an area of open grassland with scattered low scrub close to the Russian border.  A high wind did nothing for our prospects of finding our target bird here: Booted Warbler.  We scanned and scanned seeing a flew wind-blown Whinchats but little else.  Suddenly Mika was waving and pointing excitedly.  He had the bird!  We dashed over to join him and were amazed and delighted to see a Booted Warbler sitting up in full view and singing, an incredibly piece of luck given the conditions.

Bird species total: 2251

Posted 8pm, 2nd June, Still somewhere in Estonia