Birding with T-shirts all last week was more like summer holidays than peak of autumn migration. We were extremely lucky with warm weather and birds we saw during our 8 days tour in Nemunas delta, Curonian Spit and Dzūkija National Park.
Wishes to witness intensive autumn migration phenomenon and to spot some rarities, came true on first few days. Observing non-stop river of birds flying along the cost of Curonian Lagoon and Baltic Sea, time by time let us felt like lazy birders looking to the sky from one spot. But it was more than worth – during this tour we saw hundrends of thousands birds. Majority of them were Common Chaffinch, Common Cranes, Cormorants, Tree Pipits, Common Crossbills, etc., but despite common ones, we saw many highlights as well: Whooper Swans, Tundra Bean Geese, Common and Velvet Scoters, Black and Red-throated divers, Hazel Grouse, Little and Red-necked greebes, Black Stork, Honey Buzzards, dozens of White-tailed Eagles, Ospreys, Red Kite, Northern Harriers, Goshawk, Lesser-spotted Eagles, Peregrines, Merlin, Little Stint, Spotted Sandpipers, Caspian and Little Gulls, Whiskered Tern, 3 Pygmy Owls, Black Woodpeckers, Red-throated Pipit, Rock Pipits, Yellow-browed Warbler, Bearded Reedlings, Spotted Nutcracker, Bramblings, Common Redpolls etc. As a bonus we saw two Moose with antlers and Smooth Snake which is extremely rare in Lithuania.
But no time for writing more, go birding, autumn rocks!
P.S. Thank you Christopher for cooperation, great guiding and your incredible paintings!
Photos by Marius Karlonas
