Latvia Day 9

We did our survey on the Dvietes Floodplain but we had very few birds, a few distant singing Golden Orioles and Icterine Warblers were about the best but we saw neither of them. Afterwards we did more birding around and had really nice views of White-winged Black Tern over one of the floodplain lakes, and Wigeon was a new bird for trip. We called off at a few more sites along our drive back but we were unable to find anything different at them.

When we got back to Daugavpils we called in at the local rubbish dump which was quite the experience but filtering through the large gulls found us several Caspian Gulls of various ages, as well as a number of extremely confusing birds that I would presume to be hybrids. Then the rain set in and we called our days birding to an end. Instead we went to a small zoo in the city, with a pretty nice collection of reptiles and amphibians.

-Caspian Gull

Species List:

Dvietes Floodplain: Mute Swan, Mallard, Garganey, Teal, Gadwall, Wigeon, Shoveler, Woodpigeon, Cuckoo, Lapwing, Wood Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Black-headed Gull, Grey Heron, Great White Egret, White Stork, Black Tern, White-winged Black Tern, Marsh Harrier, Osprey, Common Buzzard, European Honey Buzzard, Grey-headed Woodpecker, Hooded Crow, Jackdaw, Golden Oriole, Wood Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Grasshopper Warbler, Savi’s Warbler, Icterine Warbler, Nuthatch, Song Thrush, Common Starling, Yellow Wagtail, Chaffinch, Yellowhammer,

Daugavpils Tip: Caspian Gull, Herring Gull, Black-headed Gull, Jackdaw, Northern Raven, Hooded Crow, Starling, Tree Sparrow, White Stork, Wood Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper,