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On Saturday August 18th the bird race Estonian Open took place in Saaremaa. Participants were record many – 19 teams with altogether 77 members. We were of course going along with our old team, this time with the setup Andrus Jair, Mihkel Metslaid, Margus Ots, Uku Paal and Peeter Raudsepp. The victories of the last two years needed to be defended. Since all previous rally winners were  present again after a long time we did not dare to hope for a high place but we still dreamed of being among the top three .

We started the race at 3.00 from behind Mändjala at Vägara bay. There one can get in between the reeds to walk with little trouble and we hoped to get hold of some reed warbler or grasshopper warbler at once to start with but from the reeds not a cheep was to be heard. Around mid-August the majority of the known singers (such as the nightingale, cuckoo, corncrake, reed warblers and others) have turned silent and it is difficult to find them. After that we headed at once for the Kuressaare surroundings to look for owls but they did not want to call either. We had already used up one hour of valuable dark time but no night species was noted yet. A mild anxiety began to set in. But in the forests around the Viidumäe nature reserve area at last species started to dribble in, to start with long-eared owl, then the tawny owl and finally as the third owl species the pygmy owl. With the tawny owl we almost would have had a miss. We heard a tawny owl call but it seemed somehow too „clean“. The suspicion grew that maybe a member of some other team tries to tempt the owl out by whistling? The race rules do not allow luring by technical devices but to whistle oneself is permitted. Just in case, we whistled in answer in a way that any birder would recognize as a human. Quite soon banging of car doors sounded in the dark forest and the "tawny owl“ drove on. Fortunately we heard a "real“ tawny owl too later. With the owls secured there was nothing more to do in the darkness but to drive along smaller roads, maybe a woodcock or a nightjar would come up in the car lights. We managed to see a woodcock at last but the nightjar stayed unfound. When the summaries were made in the evening it turned out that all had done poorly with the night species. The nightjar and woodcock too were only seen by 4 teams, the long-eared owl heard by us turned out to be an ace (a species that only 1 team encounters), the pygmy owl was heard by only 8 teams , only the tawny owl was common, 16 teams heard it.

Around sunrise is the best time to collect forest species. We spent the early morning in a comparatively small area in the forests surrounding the Viidumäe nature protection area. The protection area itselt we tried to avoid because Viidumäe is a good forest area known to all and evidently the majority of teams passed there and the teams would simply have disturbed each other. So we visited other good forest spots found during the reconnaissance. Admittedly it worked very well for us in the forest. We found the greatest part of the species very quickly in only a couple of places and could use valuable morning time for visiting other locations. In the forest unfortunately three common species – bullfinch, wren, redwing – stayed unseen. In the evening it turned out that these creatures stayed unregistered by several other teams too.

 

Estonian Open 2012 participants at the summary (photo: Uku Paal)

 

Western Saaremaa had thick fog in the morning and waiting for it to clear we turned off for a moment to the Jaagarahu harbour before going to the Undva cape to watch. We feared that the fog would be in Undva too and there would be nothing to do at the seashore. The Jaagarahu harbour turned out to be an extremely fortunate choice. In the shrubs and reeds there we got 4 species of Sylvia warblers and 2 species of reed warblers and in addition other creatures too quickly and so again there was extra time to visit new spots. Luckily there was no fog at Undva but neither were there any migrating waterfowl. Some few birds were moving however and for registering a species a single individual is enough. We got the loons, scoters, grebes, Arctic skua and some other obligatory marine species nicely from Undva but the long-tailed duck and greater scaup stayed unseen by us. Later it turned out that the long-tailed duck was an ace (seen by only 1 team) and the greater scaup was seen by only 3 teams. At Cape Undva and several other places too we met other teams repeatedly which was a clear sign that we had made the right choices. Everybody had of course the ambition to visit only the best bird spots

After Cape Undva we made a longer stay at Lätiniidi, where life burgeoned in the shrubs at the sides of the old road going through the hayfields and among more common creatures we also found several difficult species – barred warbler, wryneck, icterine warbler. Now we had secured the majority of the hoped-for passerines already in the morning and we headed for the western coast to search for waders and the missing waterfowl. Unfortunately the water level was high with the western winds and we didn’t make a first serious stop until in Rahuste on the Sõrve peninsula. True, we did not get many additional species from Rahuste but the shore meadow here was the only spot where we for instance noted barnacle geese. We couldn’t go further south of Rahuste because Torgu parish was excluded from the race area. This was done to make the rally more interesting. Otherwise the majority of teams would have moved around in Sõrve säär or its surroundings and the results would have been too predictable.

On the road to Kuressaare we made a stop at the Salme schoolhouse. In the river stretch here the moorhen nests and for finding this secrecy-loving species this is the only chance. Searching at the same time and in the same place for the moorhen was also team Sylvia, combing the area together we succeeded in finding the creature in the reed banks. Around Kuressaare we visited the Nasva harbour, Linnulaht, Kuressaare bay and the Roomassaare harbour where we got hold of a great part of the missing waterfowl. Among more exciting creatures 2 great egrets caught our interest in Kuressaare bay. The same birds were seen in the same place by most of the other teams too. We had selected another little known great egret locality and hoped to get an ace by this species but the Kuressaare birds now put a stop to that. In Kuressaare city sparrows had of course to be found and we used quite a lot of time on searching for the collared dove. That pigeon we and several other teams saw the previous day in several places in Kuressaare city, in the race however this species stayed unregistered.

 

Estonian Open 2012 summary in progress. The teams call out species by turns and the score table changes for each species. The final result is clear after the calling out of the last species  (Photo: Uku Paal)

 

We left Kuressaare at about 14 o’clock, meaning that we had only 3 hours left, the race would finish at 17.00. Firstly we headed for the Oessaare bay where according to pre-information many waterfowl would be in place. True, there were many birds but all the waterfowl that we saw we already had registered. Oessaare bay was also the above-mentioned great egret spot, now too there were at least 30 of the white creatures there. Fortunately we were not left without a new species – in the reeds the  great reed warbler was “creaking“. In addition we finally could note a magpie in Oessaare village; for instance in West Saaremaa it is not at all a very common species, and here we also saw 4 white storks, that we otherwise would have gone to look for in the breeding spots around Valjala. Thanks to the fast finding of the white stork we again got half an hour extra time and we headed quickly for the Kõinastu lee on Muhu island where we hoped to get some serious additions to our sparse wader list. On the road we made the first serious stop in Orussaare town where the only rook colony in Saaremaa should be but this creature stayed unseen by us in the race period. Not until half an hour after the end of the race a rook caught my eye somewhere in the middle of Saaremaa on the side of a road but it could no longer be registered. We made a short stop on the Väike väin dam and carefully telescoped the sand ridge to the south of the dam. The birds were far off but from here we could finally register a whooper swan and surprisingly also the  black-tailed godwit , that finally turned oiut to be an ace. Of more common waterfowl the red-breasted merganser remained unseen. Finally it turned out that this species stayed unseen by quite many teams.

The Kõinastu road did provide plenty of added species. Firstly we got from one flock dunlin, curlew sandpiper and Temminck’s stint and moreover the  green sandpiper and the common redshank. At Kõinastu lee a group of holiday-makers moved around who to our luck scared birds from further away to come straight under our noses. For instance suddenly a marsh sandpiper appeared in front of us; it was probably the most exciting creature that our team saw in the course of the rally. The marsh sandpiper was of course also an ace species. 10 minutes were left to the end of the race and we headed quickly to a sandpit seen at about a kilometre’s distance to search for the woodlark. We formed a chain and quickly combing the area succeeded in finding the species. Now there were only 4 minutes left to the end of the race - at a run to the cars and back to the Kõinastu lee. We stayed a bit away on a higher slope to telescope and as a surprise got one more species registered in the last minute  – in a puddle a red-necked phalarope was swimming that finally also turned out to be an ace. Our finishing spurt was splendid – during the last twenty minutes 8 species got added.

On the road back to Kuressaare we added up our species and got 141 bird species as a result. At first we didn’t know what to make of this result. In the previous Saaremaa race 12 years ago the winners’ result was 137 species, but since that time many stronger teams were competing and we thought that maybe the others too fared better this time than earlier. But all the same we dared hope that maybe today’s result would bring us a place among the top three.

 

Estonian Open 2012 winners - RC & Co: Margus Ots, Peeter Raudsepp, Uku Paal, Mihkel Metslaid, Andrus Jair

 

The race summary took place in the Saaremaa Ühisgümnaasium school  in Kuressaare. When the species list had been gone through at about 22 o’clock to our great joy it turned out that we had won once more. If the win was with a minimal difference in the two previous years then this time we were 3 species up on the second place team and 6 species up on the third place (see all results below). Altogether 191 species were noted by all teams together, aces (species that only one team encountered) were 22. No real rarity was seen during the race, which was actually surprising because many skilled birders had been let loose on the island. Of more exciting species for instance the rufous calamanthus, rock pipit, red-footed falcon and marsh sandpiper were observed in the course of the race.

The race passed without losses, no bones were broken, cars stayed undamaged and a ditch visit only happened to the winners. Despite the busy day „summarising“ the race went on into early morning hours but the whole company was all the same up and ready to act in the morning. In the morning after the race for instance a crested lark was found in Sõrve säär and a Mediterranean gull at Cape Undva. Pity that these tougher rarities were not found in the course of the race.

The next Estonian Open will be on August 17th, 2013, and the race area then will be the Jõgeva and Tartu counties. Results from all Estonian Open races (1995-2012) are on the Estbirding web page.

 

XVIII Estonian Open 18.08.2012 Saare county (except Torgu parish)
at 3:00-17:00

1. 141 RC & Co: Andrus Jair, Mihkel Metslaid, Margus Ots, Uku Paal, Peeter Raudsepp
2. 138 Takaveto: Margus Ellermaa, Vesa Jouhki, Jukka Salokangas, Andreas Uppstu
3. 135 Team Sylvia: Mika Bruun, Stefan Knopman, Asko Rokala, Roland Sundström, Ari Veijalainen
4. 134 Team Ristisaari: Timo Böhme, Petri Ripatti, Pekka Rusanen, Ari Vuorio
5. 131 Jlo & the boys: Heikki Eriksson, Juho Könönen, Jari Laitasalo, Markus Lampinen, Peter Uppstu
6. 130 FcFallos: Jukka Hatva, Hannu Huhtinen, Tuomas Seimola, Toni Uusimäki
7. 129 Muovilapajengi: Petteri Mäkelä, Tom Nordblad, Jarkko Santaharju, Roni Väisänen
8. 128 Nahkhiirmees: Tuukka Kupiainen, Lauri Mäenpää, Jan Nordblad, Juha Saari, Juha Sjöholm
9. 125 “148”: Ilpo Hanski, Lasse Lindström, Martti Vattulainen, Erkki Virolainen
10. 124 Buteo: Mihkel Jürgens, Madis Karu, Eedi Lelov, Heikki Luhamaa, Tiit Vohta
11. 123 Unioni: Aki Arkiomaa, Risto Lammin-Soila, Gustaf Nordenswan, Pertti Uusivuori
12. 122 Tuhlis ja Nott: Leho Luigujõe, Riho Marja, Tarmo Teppe
13.-14. 117 Bilia: Christer Casagrande, Seppo Grönlund, Jari Markkula, Jyrki Tolvanen
13.-14. 117 Saaremaa Linnuklubi: Andres Kalamees, Andrus Kuus, Rein Nellis, Hannes Pehlak, Veljo Volke
15. 115 Odet: Biti Ojala, Markku Ojala
16. 114 Himantopus himantopus: Ilze Bojare, Ivars Brediks, Andris Klepers, Marcis Tirums
17. 113 Eesti Naised: Marju Erit, Mariliis Märtson, Kadri Paomees
18. 94 Hakit: Kalevi Hietaniemi, Matti Koljonen, Eero Vainio
19. 89 KV²+2: Peep Lassmann, Thea Perm, Kris Voog, Kaarel Võhandu
 

Species altogether 191

Aces(species encountered by only 1 team):
RC & Co: marsh sandpiper, black-tailed godwit, red-necked phalarope, long-eared owl
Buteo: lesser spotted eagle, golden eagle, Savi’s warbler, great grey shrike
Takaveto: little grebe, Montagu’s harrier, black guillemot
Muovilapajengi: spotted crake, rock pipit, European serin
Nahkhiirmees: peregrine falcon, pied avocet
Eesti Naised: hen harrier, merlin
Jlo & the boys: osprey
Unioni: bluethroat
Tuhlis ja Nott: long-tailed duck
Himantopus himantopus: corn crake

 

NB (translator's note): for bird names  there is as always, the excellent  http://www.knutas.com/birdsearch/  with bird names in 18 languages.

The Names of the Bird Species of the World of the Estonian Ornithological Society has all the names in Estonian, English, Latin and is very nicely searchable