Homeward Bound - Simon & Garfunkle 1966

A farewell drink to Tallinn, next stop Weymouth.

We fly EasyJet to Stansted this evening, so just time to get this 'post' published before leaving for the airport.

Have we featured Chaffinch on the Blog yet?

Another one of many breeding Pied Flycatchers.

Close-up of Hooded Crow.

The following 3 photographs were take during our 'Blue Period' when we had the camera setting at 'White Fluorescent Light' due to gross incompetence.

The 'Tallink Ferry' that plies between this capital and Helsinki, Finland.

'Second Summer' Herring Gull of the nominate race Larus argentatus argentartus

an adult herring Gull of the same race.

An omission from yesterday's post, as we took the bus back to Tallinn, in addition to the now all too familiar numbers of White Stork, there was a second Black Kite for the trip and an addition to my Estonia List of a fine adult male Marsh Harrier, quartering fields just outside the capital.

Some Statistics

89 species have been seen in Estonia this trip, with Whooper Swan, Pink-footed Goose, Goosander, Black Kite, Marsh Harrier, Corncrake, Little Ringed Plover, Lapwing, Common Tern, Arctic tern, Little Tern, Wood Pigeon, Nightjar, Wryneck, Tree Pipit, Yellow Wagtail, Red-backed Shrike, Blyth's Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Icterine Warbler, Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Goldcrest, Pied Flycatcher, Whinchat, Wheatear, Common Redstart, Robin, Thrush Nightingale, Song Thrush, Greenfinch, Hawfinch, Scarlet Rosefinch and Rook.

What still remain elusive, given the season and sites visited, includes Great Crested Grebe, Shoveler, Stock Dove, Turtle Dove, a number of Owls & Woodpeckers, Sand Martin, Great Grey Shrike, Dunnock, Long-tailed Tit, Wren, Treecreeper, Reed Bunting, any of the Redpoll, Brambling and Bullfinch.

and what wasn't seen this time but has been previously:- Grey Heron, Teal, Tufted Duck, White-tailed Eagle, Golden Eagle, Sparrowhawk, Goshawk, Honey Buzzard, Peregrine, Hobby, Merlin, Kestrel, Moorhen, Coot, Oystercatcher, Redshank, Meadow Pipit plus Marsh & Willow Tit.

The Stat Counter has now recorded well over 2,000 individual readers of the Blog, from 65 countries. The latest of these are:- Poland, Trinidad & Tobago, Finland, Philippines and South Africa.

I find it fascinating to look at the 'counter' daily to see just who, and from where, the readership come. This is a copy of today's findings and readers:-

	Num	Perc.	Country Name
	1279	63.95%	United Kingdom
	303	15.15%	Estonia
	77	3.85%	United States
	40	2.00%	Slovakia
	34	1.70%	Australia
	28	1.40%	Austria
	23	1.15%	Canada
	23	1.15%	Ukraine
	20	1.00%	Czech Republic
	18	0.90%	Netherlands
	17	0.85%	Hungary
	16	0.80%	Germany
	15	0.75%	Romania
	15	0.75%	Argentina
	10	0.50%	India
	10	0.50%	Japan
	9	0.45%	Bosnia And Herzegovina
	7	0.35%	Colombia
	6	0.30%	Macedonia
	5	0.25%	Vietnam
	5	0.25%	Spain
	4	0.20%	Europe
	3	0.15%	Mexico
	3	0.15%	Taiwan
	3	0.15%	Italy
	3	0.15%	Serbia
	2	0.10%	Venezuela
	2	0.10%	Ecuador
	2	0.10%	France
	2	0.10%	Ireland
	2	0.10%	Thailand
	2	0.10%	Chile
	2	0.10%	Finland
	1	0.05%	Philippines
	1	0.05%	Indonesia
	1	0.05%	Bulgaria
	1	0.05%	Costa Rica
	1	0.05%
	1	0.05%	Bolivia
	1	0.05%	South Africa
	1	0.05%	Sweden
	1	0.05%	Slovenia
	1	0.05%	Trinidad And Tobago

FAN-BLOODY-TASTIC!

It's great to know so many of you are enjoying the read, please send the link on to your friends, increasing both the readership and countries involved - THANK YOU ALL!

Viljandi to Tallinn

Good news to start today's Blog as Graham Walbridge and Paul Harris, between them, have come up with the identity of the Warbler seen on 'Bicycle Twitch' day. It is, they reliably inform me, a Blyth's Reed Warbler which I wouldn't have got in a month of Sundays - Thanks very much you boys!

We're now back in Tallinn after a lovely day in the small but interesting town of Viljandi. As we were preparing to leave Ennu Farm there was, what i like to refer to as, a 'fanfare farewell' of bird song including the now usual chorus of Golden O, Icterine Warbler and Whitethroat. In addition, our stay was ended with 2 new bird songs for me, that of Common Redstart (now in full voice) and Hawfinch, a pair of which graced the large Horse Chestnut tree in the small copse and sang for about 15 minutes. The Redstarts had by now started building in one of a number of nest boxes around the property, bringing the breeding total (just inside the confines of the garden) to c7, Swallow, Spotted Flycatcher, White Wagtail, Tree Sparrow, Goldfinch Starling and the Redstart. If they find a mate, it's likely the afore mentioned 2 Warblers will do likewise?

Male Common Redstart having just added a little more material to the nest.

Same, taking a little rest between building forays.

The female helping out as well.

As luck would have it, there was no need to wait for the daily bus as Farmer's wife Pihli was driving to Viljandi that morning as well. There was time on the way to call in at their farm and have a look at the new arrivals which included half a dozen recently hatched Chickens,

and this few day old piglet, being held by Pihli.

not quite as 'wild' as the ones yesterday.

Time for a quick family snap before getting on our way with Ille, Farmer Rauno, Pihli, Rauno's Mum and the dog.

Ille had booked us into the Grand Hotel for a single night, and as the name suggests it was rather grand. Modern, well appointed, warm and comfortable a very nice base to enjoy a day in this also very nice town.

We stopped off on one of several bridges across the moat, built high on a hill, to admire the town's church.

Next we visited the concert hall which I took too immediately, having a warm feel about it and acoustics to match. This is the small hall. We were lucky to see some of the afternoon performance.

While there was nothing at all wrong with the small hall, the larger one would have held its own in any major city. We got the impression that any artist would be well pleased to tread these boards.

The Moat looking towards the Swing Bridge.

It's what it says in the tin!

Locally, they refer to this as the 'Swing Bridge' as it does so quite a bit.

Beautiful scenery throughout, I would guess the dimensions of the lake to be somewhere in the region of 5 miles long and a mile at its widest?

What remains of The Convent which was built in the 1300's.

a view in the opposite direction.

The town is full of small deciduous woodlands and parks, while the lake is surrounded by mixed wood. Once again we found a whole array of birds, mostly singing, including Thrush Nightingale, Wryneck, Pied & Spotted Flycatcher, Common Redstart, Raven, Mistle Thrush and no end of Rooks.

Singing Wryneck (I'm getting used to this now, so should be alright when I find one in Okers Wood).

Another 'unidentified' Dragonfly which doesn't look the same as the Downy Emerald from the other day if only in the less prominent wing veins. Perhaps Paul will take a look at this one for me as well? On second thoughts I think it is the same????

The Lake wasn't quite so productive, we were expecting a couple of Grebes at least, but the following fell to the camera.

Common Tern, there were just c2.

Little Ringed Plover an addition to the Estonia List.

Male Mallard, one of c6 that were flying about.

While having a sandwich and beer c2 adult, summer plumage Black-headed Gulls flew over the lake and later we recorded c6 Herring Gulls in a place which is probably as far from the sea as you can get in Estonia.

Back to the town, and we were finding these Giant Strawberries all over the place, which are the town's 'symbol'. Looks like this one has a 'bug' in it!

In the evening we enjoyed a splendid meal in the hotel restaurant 'Eve', with as nice a Greek Salad as you'd want, delicious Russian meat soup, lamb cutlets with croquette potatoes and 2 puddings, both of which Ille ate. Since my last jaunt I have been drinking almost exclusively Argentinian wine, so a couple of bottles of Mendoza Cab Sav went down quite nicely as well.