Wild Estonia Weekly

Kickspark Trips on Frozen Rivers

Aivar Ruukel — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 05:04:21 +0000

Kicksparking is fun winter activity, in Soomaa national park frozen rivers provide great conditions for it. Kicksled are traditional means of transport on icy and snowy winter roads both in Estonia, as well in Scandinavia.

Kickspark Trip In Soomaa National Park

http://www.everytrail.com/swf/widget.swf
EveryTrail – Find hiking trails

Wild Gallery – Spring Geese

yalphax — Tue, 03 May 2011 07:44:56 +0000

The results of the annual Easter bird survey, organised by the Estonian Ornithological Society, revealed that more than half of the almost 42,000 birds sighted over the weekend were from the Branta or Ansa goose genus.

White-fronted Geese (Anser albifrons)

Eight species of goose can be typically seen in Estonia, either stopping here in early spring on their north/eastern migration or breeding here over spring and summer. Now is one of the best times to see migrating geese en masse as they continue to arrive or rest here during the first few weeks of May.

Below is a gallery of these beautiful birds and links to further information about them from Wikipedia or Birdlife International.

# – difficult to see
## – possible
### – easy

Red-breasted geese (Branta ruficollis) - #

Barnacle Geese (Branta leucopsis) - ###

Canada Goose (Branta Canadensis) -##

Greylag Goose (Anser anser) - ###

Lesser White-fronted Goose (Anser erythropus) - # first week of May

Greater White-fronted Goose (Anser albifrons) - ### first half of May

Pink Footed Goose (Anser brachyrhynchus) - #

Bean Goose (Anser fabalis) - ### first half of May

Three of the best known bird tour operators in Estonia are listed below. If you are interested in visiting one of the best bird watching places in Europe, please contact them A.S.A.P. . They may still have places left in their spring birding tours.

- Estonian Nature Tours
Contact Maarika for information about special spring birdwatching tours that also include meals and hospitality at local farms.

- NaTourEst
Contact Triin from NaTourEst about their spring tours or about hiring equipment for a self-guided birding tour.

-Birding Estonia
Contact John or Ella about their 1 day birding trips from Tallinn or their longer small group tours designed to see the best of the spring migration.

Geese by Sergey Yeliseev

Comments: If you like this post then why not share it with your friends or leave a comment! We’d love to read them and hear your own stories:)

The Original Easter Eggs

yalphax — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 08:03:20 +0000

With daytime temperatures consistently in the double figures and a few weeks of warm sunshine beginning to warm and green the fields and forests, we are certainly well into spring. There are many celebrations around the world that are connected with this time of year, such as Easter, Passover, Holi and the Sinhalese New Year. Often these traditions speak of the awakening of new life, whether it be in the fields, forests or in people’s personal and spiritual lives.

You can watch this creation of new life for yourself on the Looduskalendar Black Stork webcam nest. Two recently arrived black storks, recently named Tiit and Tiina by the Looduskalendar web forum, have made Estonia their home for spring and summer.

Three eggs have already been laid by Tiina, while Tiit spends a lot of time with Tiina in- between providing the nest with fresh layers of soft moss.

Black Storks (Ciconia nigra) are currently in decline in Estonia, although the reasons for this aren’t completely clear. They generally breed in large marshy wetlands within interspersed coniferous or broadleaved woodlands.

The Estonian Government has banned logging within a 200m radius of all known nesting sites as well as ceasing all logging activity in State forests during April and May. It is hoped that these measures will ensure that Tiit, Tiina, their relatives and future offspring will continue to make Estonia their spring and summer home.

A big weekend of ‘big water’ in Soomaa

yalphax — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 14:52:01 +0000

It’s been very busy in Soomaa National Park this week, with hundreds of people drawn there over the weekend to experience for themselves the annual spring floods known as the ‘fifth season’ or sometimes as ‘suur vesi’ which clumsily translates into english as ‘big water’.

Visiting a house at Karukose, Soomaa National Park. Photo by Kati Grauberg-Longhurst.

Soomaa is a natural lowland that receives meltwater from the adjacent Sakala uplands, leading to an annual period of flooding. The highest recorded flood level was in 1931, but with large amounts of snow falling over both the 2009/10 and 2010/11 winters, spring flood levels in 2010 and 2011 have been the second and third highest on record. The flooded area covers around 150km²and can reach 7-8 km at its widest point.

Getting ready for a big day at Soomaa. Photo by Geoff Longhurst

I (Geoff) visited Soomaa on the weekend with my wife and we joined a 9am Soomaa.com canoe trip that explored part of the flooded area. Unfortunately we also chose the coldest and wettest day of the week!

Our group paddled past road signs and over parish borders, guided our canoes through forests and across meadows and hay fields. We also paddled past a number of farm houses that seem to be well accustomed to the annual inundation.

"Läbipääs rakendatud" / "Difficult to pass". Photo by waldec

Paddling through the forests was one of the highlights for me. I guess I generally associate trees with solid ground, so It was unusual and interesting to be making waves with our canoes in the middle of a thick conifer forest. Maneuvering a canoe amongst tree trunks and low branches was occasionally tricky, but also a fun challenge. It was certainly strange to be sitting in a canoe in a place that you can easily imagine to be a relatively dry forest floor.

Paddling along a forest trail in Soomaa National Park. Photo by Kati Grauberg-Longhurst.

I think also that part of the appeal of the fifth season is that in most other places in the world, a flood like this would be seen as a disaster and cause for panic and evacuations. Here though, it is a well understood part of life and people are encouraged to come and explore for themselves what a flooded landscape is actually like.

Raudna River and floodplain meadows in dryer times, Soomaa National Park. Photo by Ruukel.

Soomaa National Park was created in 1993 and is Estonia’s youngest National Park. It is a partner of the Pan Parks network of wilderness areas and was created to protect large raised bogs, flood plain grasslands, paludified forests and meandering rivers. The territory of the national park is mostly covered with large mires, and Soomaa (literally ‘land of mires’) includes Europe’s largest intact peat bog system that is preserved as wilderness.

Riisa Bog Pool in June, Soomaa National Park. Photo by Ruukel.

Welcome back to Estonia! The snow is already gone!

yalphax — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 14:09:02 +0000

When driving from Viljandi to Tartu yesterday, Geoff was very pleased to see hundreds of geese, in flocks both small and large, flying overhead in their classic V-formations. Welcome back to Estonia!

Migrating geese. Photo by Willemvdk

It was also a surprise to see that only after about a week of gentle spring warmth, almost all of the snow cover has melted away and that the fields have already taken on a faint shade of green.

Snow Cover Map by EMHI (www.emhi.ee)

In the heart of the ‘spring action’

yalphax — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 01:45:11 +0000

It’s an exciting time of the year!

Thousands of birds are arriving from their southern wintering grounds and spring flowers are sprouting where thick snow had recently blanketed the land.

'Spring Snowflakes' or 'March Bells' (Leucojum vernum) sprouted this week. Photo by Geoff Longhurst

Rivers, bogs, lakes and fields are also brimming over with spring meltwater, turning lowlands like Soomaa National Park, in south-eastern Estonia, into playgrounds for canoeists and kayakers.

The 'Fifth Season' in Soomaa, Estonia. Photo by Lauri Väin

If you’re planning on spending some time exploring Estonia this spring, one of the best ways to discover the country’s wild side is to spend time away from cities and towns and stay in a rural guesthouse or B&B.

The Estonian Rural Tourism website is a great place to find accomodation across the country as well as ‘active tourism’, ‘catering’ and other services.

Estonian Rural Tourism homepage

Their ‘corn flower’ quality system is designed to highlight and rank quality accommodation and service providers, although not all providers participate in this ranking program.

Using their website, we found some of the places and companies that will allow you to get away from it all, while keeping you in the heart of the ‘spring action’.

Altmõisa Guesthouse
This cosy guesthouse is on the shores of Matsalu Bay and borders with Matsalu National Park, one of the top coastal birdwatching areas in Estonia.

Estonian Nature Tours
Based within Matsalu National Park, Estonian Nature Tours have a range of tours and services available for bird watchers throughout the year, as well as special botanical and mammal watching tours.

Põnka Holiday Farm (Estonian: Põnka Puhketalu)
This lovely renovated farmhouse is located very close to Soomaa National Park and is a certified partner of Pan Parks, Europe’s own wilderness protection organisation.

Soomaa.com
Specialist tour operator in Soomaa National Park and also a certified partner of Pan Parks. Soomaa.com will help you to discover Soomaa’s fascinating flooded landscapes during the spring floods, known locally as the ‘Fifth Season’.

When a newsletter becomes a blog

Aivar Ruukel — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 00:20:33 +0000

Authors of our weekly newsletter had a small brainstorming and decided to convert newsletter to a blog.

If you have subscribed to Wild Estonia Weekly you will now receive a monthly summary in you email box as of best blog post telling you what is happening in Wild Estonia.

You are welcome to read archive of 16 previous newsletters.

Get engaged and join also our Facebook Fan Page, Youtube Video Channel and Flickr Photo Group.