Estonia

A destination popular with birders but one that I hadn't yet visited until now. Views from the airplane window across Northern Europe confirmed the obvious that it was going to be a cold one.

Arrival was interesting as the pilot had to initiate a TO/GA, the first I'd ever experienced but it did provide an opportunity to have a look at the local area and the Baltic beyond.

Picking up the hire car, I began the journey toward Kussamarre. It was as I imagined, bitterly cold and full of snow. Picking a spot halfway toward my hotel destination, I jumped out for five minutes and connected with a lovely male northern bullfinch. There was however very little around.

Despite the cold and the snowy scenes, it was sparkling. The sun made a huge difference and I was full of anticipation as to what the next few days would bring.

Arriving at Virtsu for the car ferry, a short wait and I embarked on the 30 minute sail across the straight. It was a real treat being on board and experiencing a frozen journey while the vessel made its' way across a narrow channel that had been cut through the ice.

The ferry itself was really modern and very comfortable equipped with a restaurant and viewing deck.

It was still light on arrival at Kuivastu and I was keen to get to the hotel before sunset. The drive was really pleasant, there was plenty of snow but the weather remained calm and clear.

The hotel was lovely, located along a quiet street near the centre of Kurresarre. This was my base for a couple of nights.

The following day started a little overcast. A hawfinch was perched up in a tree as viewed from my large hotel room window. I headed north to Undva for my target species. It was bitterly cold registering -12C at the start of the drive, dropping down to -17C en route. This was all very disconcerting as I wasn't sure how I'd cope with such frigid temperatures. After a couple of hours drive, it was reassuring that the temperature had risen to a balmy -1C.

It was quite eerie being alone in this part of Estonia but even without scanning the sea, it was obvious that there was a decent aggregation of waterbirds. White-tailed eagle were relatively numerous with at least 15 individual birds present in the area.

Another northern bullfinch flew into vegetation along the track but heading to a suitable vantage point, I set up the scope and scanned. There were thousands upon thousands of seaduck. The highest congregation of tufted duck I'd ever witnessed. Thousands. A few hundred greater scaup were present along this section of the Baltic Sea, long-tailed duck, goosander, whooper swan and goldeneye were numerous. Then for my target species, Stellar's eider, approximately 40 birds mixed into the abundant wildfowl assemblage bobbing about on the waves but settled and looking rather dapper.

Other than the waterbirds, it was generally very quiet and after a fruitless search for other species amongst the dense snow, it was time to return to the hotel for a dip in the pool and dinner at the brilliant Castello Pizzeria next door.

The rest of the trip birdwise was rather eventful, spending a night at Pärnu for a day trip to Soomaa Rahvuspark. It was quiet here too with only black woodpecker and crested tit providing any interest. It was very still, very quiet, bleak and cold, but curiously magical.