Estonia birding trip 1- a trip to the northern Baltic state

On Easter Sunday 31 March, I travelled to Estonia with Rob H and Johnny from Norwich for a much needed holiday my first since the Covid pandemic. We travelled from London Stansted and the airport experience is very much an endurance. After we took off,2 hours 20 minutes later we were landing at Tallin airport in Estonia, the northernmost Baltic state. The airport there was so much better. We walked to the car hire place, just 10 minutes walk away and collected the car. While we were waiting for someone to arrive to greet us, there was a lot of viz mig or visual migration with 2 majestic Cranes flying over, a Hooded Crow flew by. A Jackdaw also flew past. As did Geese first a skein of 15 Barnacle Geese, then White-fronted Geese, 2 then another 2 and finally 8. 4 Tundra Bean Geese then flew by. Not to be outdone, passerines put in a good showing with flybys including 3 Fieldfare, a Greenfinch, 15 Stock Dove and a Sky Lark. We observed saw a large nearby lake nearby, with 3 Goosander (2 males and a female), seen. This was very good and we were still at Tallin! On the journey, we saw several Hooded Crows and several Cranes in the fileds 2, 1, 2 + incredible flocks of 300 and 100. Whilst travelling along the main road, we saw a White Stork on top of its nest on the left side of the road plus a flock of Tundra Bean Geese c30 and a flock of c30 White- fronted Geese, also c30. At our first stop Marimetsa Soo (bog) we were greeted with hazy sunshine and a balmy 14 degrees celsius this was a wooded area and bog area. As we parked up, we saw a northern race Willow Tit fly past the car park. I was following in the wake of Johnny and Rob but I stopped as we got into the woods because I could hear a Woodpecker tapping, it sounded like a GSW and sure enough this was confirmed when I saw it perched tapping away a tree trunk. I then joined johnny and Rob into a more open boggy area and following the footpath along the right side of the field bordered by a dyke with reeds we heard and then saw the white- headed vision of northern race Long- tailed Tit, a fabulous bird but both it and a wheezing Northern race Bullfinch, a male both eluded our cameras sadly. A Tortoiseshell type butterfly had me perplexed. was it Large or Yellow- legged? Intriguing, more on this later. We were back into a wooded area and we could hear Crested Tit and one seen very briefly at the top of a Pine tree. Walking back we another 2 Tortoiseshell species but they wouldn't settle long enough, but we suspected they were Large. c8 Brimstones all seen singularly flew by. A walk back over the wood, a Sparrowhawk flew by. On the journey to the Ferry, we saw a Black Redstart, a female type that flew in front of the car left over the road. We stopped along a wooded roadside road and a much more obliging Tortoiseshell which posed well for the camera finally revealed itself as a much sought after Large Tortoiseshell. A Brimstone was seen here also. We then waited for the ferry to the island we needed to get to to try for the Steller's. As we waited a fine White-tailed Eagle flew over and several 5 Goosanders (3 males & 2 females) seen in the harbour with one very close male seen and photographed. Several Long- tailed Ducks were seen, 1 resplendant male complete with long tail and 3 female Long-tailed Ducks and on the ferry ride over to Saaremma island, we saw a flock of over 300 Long- tailed Ducks in flight which was quite a sight! Also a raft of around 100 Common Scoter and a fine Black- throated Diver which flew left around 100 metres in front of the bow of the ship.