It’s time of „every kind of weather“. One day it can be plus 12 degrees, during the next night the thermometer can show minus 12 degrees. One day we have spring, the next day the winter can be back and the thick snow covers the ground. The days are already long. Our children wake up already before 6 am and start to jump in our bed because „it’s white outside and we have to wake up!“
Spring at Matsalu Photo Olev Mihkelmaa
Spring at Matsalu Photo Olev Mihkelmaa
Although the calendar shows spring we can only dream about spring. If you go out with warm weather you have to be very careful and put on warm clothes. Weather of spring can be insidious. The sun shines and it seems to be warm, but the ground is still cold and one can get cold very easily.
Snowdrops at Matsalu Photo Olev Mihkelmaa
Spring at Matsalu Photo Olev Mihkelmaa
Some spring flowers are already blooming and the trees are also making preparations for blooming time. Many birds of prey have eggs in their nest. Estonian summer is not that long that is why they have to start very early so the young birds could fly to south in the autumn. Smaller birds still have time, but they are also making preparations for nesting time. The male birds arrive little bit earlier and start to look for the nesting place. There are not so many good nesting places and the birds have to protect their home.
Birds at Matsalu Photo Olev Mihkelmaa
Many birds have arrived to Matsalu. Although the Matsalu Bay is still covered with ice there are many places without ice on Kasari river estuary where birds can stay. The silence of cold winter has passed and you can hear swans from the sea. I found a sound recording that is done in the April. There is not so many species here yet, but you can enjoy the same kind of concert in the evening at Matsalu Bay. Listen http://www.loodusheli.ee/ET/keskkonnad/mererannik-meresaared/lid=18
Bevy of birds at Matsalu Photo Olev Mihkelmaa
The first bevy of geese is here as well. I met one bevy with 500 birds that I could not see through a thick snowstorm. It is a very small bevy for Matsalu. You can see all together 5000 birds on the high season of migratory time. If this huge bevy starts to fly you can feel how the air starts to shake as the birds are flapping their wings. You can hear and feel the sound.
Thatch at Matsalu Photo Olev Mihkelmaa
Thatch cutting machine at Matsalu Photo Olev Mihkelmaa
Until the ice is thick and carries the machinery the men can collect thatch. For that they use thatch cutting machines. Thatch can crow as high as four meters. From thatch one can make thatched roof, thatch can be used also for heating material.