Estonia

A Hanseatic Capital

Tallinn's old town, with its city walls, red roofs and the spire of St. Olaf's Church, is one of the best-preserved medieval centres in northern Europe and a UNESCO site. Ferries cross from its harbour to Helsinki, just 80 kilometres north.

Nests in the Forest

Forests cover about half the country, and Estonia's nature cameras watch them closely. Golden eagles nest in Soomaa, the national park of bogs that flood every spring in what Estonians call the fifth season; black storks raise their young in Karula National Park and in Jõgeva County; and a lesser spotted eagle returns each spring to its nest in Harju County. On Saaremaa, a camera watches the entrance of a badger sett, and under the water of the Pudisoo river another follows freshwater pearl mussels, a species that survives in only a handful of Estonian rivers.

Bears and White Nights

At Elistvere Animal Park, brown bears can be watched in their forest enclosure. At this latitude, June evenings barely darken, and the cameras follow the swing from endless summer light to snow and early dusk.