Latvia - Trip Report

I landed at about 1pm and started birding straight away, I was very excited to Latvia in daylight. I think the first bird was a Hooded Crow on the veritable trek from the terminal building to the car rental car park where I found my vehicle. As I drove out I added a Jay, a Buzzard, a few House Sparrow and a Herring Gull. I'd not been on the road long before I was forced to stop for an Egret that turned out to be a Great White, at this stage I did not realise that this would be pretty regular, ditto the White-tailed Eagle that flew over the car.

My first real stop was at Lake Kanieris where I walked out to an observation tower that overlooked the marsh. There were tons of people around, people jumping out of cars and rushing down the track, I couldn't figure it out. None of them looked especially like birders or nature lovers, my assumption was that there was some kind of treasure hunt or the like going on, bearing in mind this was only just outside Riga.

Lake Kanieris

I made it through the throngs to the tower and climbed to the top from where the view was fantastic. Setting up my scope, for I was in full birding mode, I started scanning the far reaches. There were surprisingly few birds in evidence, but what there was was pretty good. For instance the only Terns were Caspian Terns, and you can't really argue with that. White-tailed Eagles crossed the landscape, treating me to many more ducks than had initially been visible. I was surprised to see a group of Red-crested Pochard arrive from the north and settle with some regular Pochard, Coot and Goosander. A few Goldeneye were about, but by far the most numerous birds were Mute Swans - I nearly got to 100. Small birds were almost entirely absent, I got a Robin and a Chaffinch in the woods, but these were trumped by Bearded Tits in the reeds immediately below the tower. Perhaps this was because of the increasing wind? I hadn't been especially aware of it at the airport or whilst driving, but at the top of a tower attempting to use a scope it began to get a little tricky. Hmm, was this to be a bit of a problem?

Most of Latvia looks like this

In short the answer was yes, and as I progressed up the coast via various stops to Kolka the conditions deteriorated. At Berzciems a quick tootle out to the shoreline revealed hundreds of Mallard and Wigeon, smaller numbers of Teal, and then a handful of Pintail in with them. At Kolka itself it was raging, and the wondrously tall tower there was essentially unusable as it actually sticks out above the treeline. Birding conditions were far better at ground level, especially on the shoreline where the pine belt provided a level of protection. But of course the sea was being whipped up considerably, and keeping on the birds was very hard. There appeared to be hundreds of Common Scoter relatively close inshore, and then hundreds of Gulls hunkered down on the beach itself, doing pretty much the same as me. In the trees I found three species of Tit, Goldcrest, and a Raven flew over. As dusk fell I crossed my fingers that the weather would pass through overnight and I would have clear day the following morning. My accomodation was about 30 minutes away and as I drove there it just got worse and worse. Oh dear.

The beach at Cape Kolka

The less said about my accomodation the better, I should have paid more money to stay up at Kolka. But I survived it, managed to cook a meal even, and was out at first light. The weather was better than I expected, still very windy but far less wet. Wind I can cope with, but I loathe getting wet when birding, it just takes all the fun out of it. I drove back up to Kolka and started birding around the end of the village. Clouds of Fieldfare swirled aound in the choppy skies and a Black Redstart was on the roof of a barn. Crossbill flew between stands of pine, but some of them didn't sound quite right - Merlin picked up both Common Crossbill and Parrot Crossbill but I couldn't find any of them in the trees, the tops of which were taking a right battering. 

I walked up the beach towards the Cape seeing very little, but turning the corner and thus gaining some shelter from the pine belt birding was immediately better and I set up my scope and pointed it at the sea. There were Scoter at all ranges and as far as the eye could see. Had I continued down the beach I probably would have counted thousands but just in my limited view there were around 420 Common Scoter and 150 Velvet Scoter. A much tighter flock of Greater Scaup numbered well over 200. Long-tailed Ducks flew west to east and around the corner, as did several Red-throated Diver and a single Black-throated Diver, and amongst the Scoter a few Great Crested Grebes were to be found. The beach itself had a lot of Gulls on it, and a few Sandwich Tern resting up.

Heading back towards the village by the road I was stopped in my tracks by an unfamiliar call that I felt I knew. Willow Tit! When is the last time I saw a Willow Tit in the UK? Well the magic of eBird says that it was in 2010 at Fairburn Ings, and that all subsequent records have been in Northern Europe, most recently in Germany this summer and before that in Holland whilst twitching the Spectacled Eider (it's back btw). Looking up at these lovelies some caudatus Long-tailed Tits came into view, a group of around eight then crossing the road in front of me, and some more Crossbills flew over that again sounded a bit odd. Goldcrests were everywhere.

Tundra Bean Geese at Kolka

Birding around the chuches and nearby houses I found at least half a dozen Black Redstart, and was suprised to also find three Tundra Bean Geese near the campsite. Near where I had left the car I realised that some odd songs I had heard earlier but could not find the bird were in fact coming from a tape. This I established when the ringer emerged from the bushes and went over to his car to eat a pickle. I went over for a chat but his english was limited so instead we conversed in latin. It had apparently been a slow morning ringing-wise, a Chaffinch, but I did learn that both species of Crossbill were indeed present, and that an Amur Stonechat, a first for Latvia, had been present a few days ago but had now gone - we went to look for it together with no success. Whilst walking to where it had been he rang his son, Edgars, also a birder and a practioner of both latin and english, and passed me the phone. Thus I was able to get load of very useful gen on the area and what to try in the difficult conditions. For instance I learned that there were some Slavonian Grebes on the sea, and also that a Surf Scoter was present and that sometimes waders could be found on such and such section of beach. 

Back at the beach I had a more focussed scan of the sea and managed to pull out a Slavonian Grebe close-in in the swell, as well as a Bar-tailed Godwit, but the conditions were too difficult for the Scoter, and in any event it might have been a mile west of me as the Scoters extended at least that far. I also met a couple of Spanish birders who were enjoying the weather as much as I was. 

One of the churches at Kolka

I felt I was now done with Kolka and needed some new habitat to explore, so started making my way back south stopping along the way. I added Siskin and a few other bits, but the best impromptu stop was at Krievragciems where I managed to find a spot that had a small view of the lake which otherwise I couldn't find any way to get near. Within this tiny opening I added a pair of Whooper Swan, and behind me in the gardens were Marsh Tit, Goldfinch, Tree Sparrow, and best of all a Great Grey Shrike. Whilst failing to find a way to the water's edge I stopped for a Rough-legged Buzzard, and added Woodpigeon and Yellowhammer to my fledgling Latvia list.

As I continued south the weater got nicer to the extent that the sun came out, and with the wind having dropped it all became rather pleasant. Another stop at the sea added another Slav Grebe and loads more Scoter of both species. Given I was now about 100km from Kolka was this just a random flock or in fact are there Scoter wintering along the entire coastline?

I finished the day at the Kemeri Bog Trail to the west of Riga. I wished had arrived earlier as I not anticipated having to walk for a good 20 minutes through the forest to even arrive at the bog. Said forest did contain Great Spotted Woodpecker, more Willow Tit and also Crested Tit though. When I got to the start of the bog part a long wooden boardwalk stretched out ahead and I realised two things. One, I would run out of useable light long before I reached the end. Two, it would be much better in spring. So I'll come back another day.

The start of the Bog Trail

Anyway, with dusk approaching that was the end of birding and I made my way back to the airport and home. It had been harder work that I had thought and the trip count was only 71 - I had expected to do better, at least numerically, and my camera had barely seen the light of day. But it had still been a nice introduction to the country which seems very unspoiled. Outside of the city you feel as if you have gone back in time. Lots of very old wooden houses exude an air of self-sufficiency and permanence, and on the outskirts of villages crumbling soviet era apartment blocks stand a sombre monuments to the country's past, their year of construction often emblazoned on their now disintegrating walls. Whilst I didn't find many places to eat or get a much-needed coffee, Citro supermarkets of varying sizes were everywhere and it was easy to get by. As I said, a spring visit feels as if it would be very productive.