Vilnius

I arrived early morning at Liverpool John Lennon airport to be greeted by an apprentice airport announcer who perhaps needs to work on his pronunciation a bit. I guess it wouldn’t be too much of a problem with Vilnius. The flight was about half an hour late and we were spared the fanfare that usually sounds when a Ryanair plane lands boasting of their 90%+ flights that do arrive on time. I checked in at my hotel and the girl at the desk looked a bit worried when I told her who I was after an earlier error with the booking, but no problems.

I managed a 3 hour bird watching stint before dusk. The temperature was about -6 and the main paths were mainly clear but some of the minor ones were like toboggan runs.   I went to Vingis park, alongside the River Neris that runs through Vilnius. Here I saw great spotted woodpecker, nuthatch, marsh, great, blue and long tailed tits. Also goldcrest, siskin and greenfinch. The corvids were plentiful with hooded crows, rooks and jackdaws about. The park covers over 400 acres and inside is a huge amphitheatre, and masses of tall trees. There was lots of floating chunks of ice flowing with the river current, and managed to see goosanders, goldeneyes and mallards. One drake goldeneye was displaying in that cold water, but the white eyed female wasn’t interested.

At breakfast next day I was greeted by a bored looking and unsmiling breakfast waitress. Breakfast was, well, not an English one. Later I went to Kaunas, about 90 kilometres west of Vilnius, and was thrilled to see two black redstarts from the train window, without binoculars, just as we were pulling out of a station. These trains were NOT HS2 or equivalent. I only did a couple of hours birding, but did see 6 species of corvid, siskin, hawfinch, greenfinch and lots of bullfinch. Also great and blue tits in masses, great spotted woodpeckers drumming away and the lighter coloured nuthatches. I spent the afternoon at Kaunas market and the whole town and surrounding areas must have turned up because there were thousands there. There were rows of markets, four a breast stretching for over a mile down the main street. There was dancing, singing and plenty of ale flowing. I enjoyed a Lithuanian version of the birdie song. I spotted a painting of a tern and fell in love with it, and at 65 litas, about sixteen pounds, I thought was a bargain. I was faced with a dilemma of how to get past Ryanair’s weight restriction on the flight home.

At breakfast next day a guest at the hotel decided to fill up his flask from the coffee dispenser, which judging from the face of miserable Miriam I don’t think was allowed. I didn’t know the Lithuanian translation to tell him the coffee was cold anyway. I went into Vilnius for a morning's birding and the overnight temperature had plummeted to about -10 and with a wind chill factor of -20, it was cold, cold and cold. I had trouble staying on my feet and felt a bit like Emile Heskey in a derby match. I saw much of the woodland birds of the first day, and again saw lots of bullfinches and right in the centre of Vilnius. The highlight was a lesser spotted woodpecker.

On the last day my flight was at midday and had a couple of hours in Vingis Park. In heavy snow I wondered whether I would see anything at all, but it did lighten a little. I was surprised by how quiet it was and the roads were deserted. I saw in the park, marsh, willow, blue, great and, the best of all, crested tits on the feeders. I seem to get the best at the end. I was informed by nervous Nerys as I checked out that it was a day of celebration, when 23 years earlier Lithuania became free from their big brother.

I went back to the airport having solved my weight problem by carrying my binoculars in my multi pocketed coat, with deep pockets. (Some say I have short arms).  I needn’t have worried about the weight because the case wasn’t weighed. I arrived back in Liverpool with the fanfare.