James Lidster writes from the field:

May 2:  Pleasantly surprised to have wifi in my hotel, so I’m writing this after dinner. Outside my window are 6 White-tailed Eagles and 200+ Smew, as well as some distant Common Cranes and hundreds more ducks and geese.

May 3: Headed out by 5:00 am. Our first stop was to look at 4 White-fronted Geese, and two of them were Lesser White-fronted Geese! Flocks of Barnacle Geese going over, and small numbers of Common Cranes. By  breakfast at 9:00, we’d also seen Tundra Bean Geese, Bewick’s and Whooper Swans, Garganey, Common Merganser, Smew, Horned Grebe, Marsh Harrier, double figures of White-tailed Eagles, White Stork, and Gray-headed, White-backed, and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers. After breakfast: more of the same plus Woodlark, Savi’s Warbler, Mealy Redpoll, and Willow, Bearded and Penduline Tits.

May 4: Today’s highlights included displaying Black Grouse, a female Capercaillie in flight, Black Woodpecker, Bohemian Waxwing, and Eurasian Wryneck–all before breakfast. The morning in fantastic fresh-smelling pine/birch forest, with Wood Warblers and Tree Pipits singing, Black Grouse “bubbling,” and a real feeling of remoteness. Later we saw several Caspian Terns, Black Stork, White Storks on nests, more White-tailed Eagles and best of all a Red-breasted Goose among the thousands of Barnacle Geese (estimate of 50,000 for the day!).

May 5-6: Thousands of Long-tailed Ducks, with hundreds of  Velvet and Common Scoters. Mixed in were smaller numbers of Greater Scaup, Common Eider, Red-throated and Arctic Loons, Little Gulls, and a lone Parasitic Jaeger. The setting for our seawatch was a superb pine forest at the water’s edge, with groups of Common Crossbill and Siskins flying about. Driving south,  Lesser Spotted Eagles, good looks at Montagu’s and Hen Harriers, and a lone Honey Buzzard. Some fields held Eurasian Whimbrel, 200+ European Golden Plover, Ringed Plover, and Ruff.

May 6: A quick coffee before driving to Nigula, a stunning area of mixed birch, aspen, and conifer forest. European Nightjar, Common Crane, two Hazelhen, Black Woodpecker at a nest hole, Wood Warblers, and a heard-only Red-breasted Flycatcher. Mammals included Mountain Hare and Roe Deer, and some distant cow-type noises were presumably Elk. Back at the hotel, I can see many Long-tailed Ducks offshore. An interesting diversion provided by an Adder hiding out under our front tire.

James’s full report on this 2009 tour to Estonia will be posted to the WINGS website. Meanwhile, you can see more of his photos at his blog, and ponder participating in next year’s tour, May 2-9, 2010.