I need a long holiday 29.6.2012

I had boring night at work and when i was driving to my next round i saw this little guy sitting on a fence.

Common Sandpiper.

Better stuff next time.
Goood Night, im tired.


-Tomppa- 

Work, work and something between work.. 26.6.2012

Recently i have been most of my time at work... It´s funny when you live with your girlfriend in a same apartment, but you saw her like 2times in a week...
You can probably guess how much time i have to watch birds..
Today i decided to go to the Maari bird-watching tower. I end my shift at 6am and i drove straight to the tower.
Weather was nice, little wind and sun was shining. There was no one else in the tower so i had my own peace once again.
Water was super high and only few point was above it. Still there was good numbers of shorebirds!
Spotted Redshanks, Redshanks, Ruffs, Wood Sandpipers, Green Sandpipers, Lapwings, Little Ringed Plovers and Ringed Plovers.
I counted something like 37 Ruffs and that was most numerous specie. There was also good numbers of waterbirds and especially Anas-ducks were present. Eurasian Teals was most common specie, then came Mallards and Eurasian Wigeons. Few Shovelers, Gadwalls and Garganeys were also there.
Most of the Male ducks were moulting so it gives always chance to learn something new. I hate to watch those... :)

Me watching ducks.

Some lapwings.

Male Eurasian Teal.

As you can see, i did not have my camera with me, so these photos are taken by my phone trough the telescope.
It was nice to have even this little moment with birds. This week i have 72 hours working so next post will be next week.
Im a little bit jealous of my good friend Yoav Perlman. He was in Turkey and saw one of my dream birds.. Brown Fish Owl. I highly recommend to check he´s blog http://nubijar.blogspot.fi/
Some day i will visit there and then :)

Best

-Tomppa-

Iceland Gull twitch.. 17.6.2012

Hannu Koskinen found Finland´s 27th Iceland Gull few days a go at Koukkujärvi dump. I was working when the bird was found but i thought that at weekend i must have time to see this lifer.
Same time there was Glaucous Gull and Caspian Gull at the dump!
Friday we make plans with my uncle Jände and we agreed to get us there on Sunday. I called also to Roni but he had class reunion at Saturday so he couldn´t join us at Sunday morning.
We start from Helsinki at 11am and distance to destination was about 200km. First bad signs was starting rain.. But after 100km rain stopped and we started to be more hopeful. We arrived about at 1pm there and then the reality slapped us on the face... Dump was f****ng closed!!

SU - SULJETTU means Saturday, closed...

We continued little bit and soon two guys were standing side of the road with telescopes and there was nice open area where you can see the dump.
I parked our car and we also started to look the pile.
There was many Herring Gulls, Black-headed Gulls, Common Gulls and few Lesser and Greater black-backed Gulls but no these interesting birds... Some times little rain shower tried to wet..
There was one interesting bird witch had some Caspian Gull features but those are over my level...
After an hour the rain started again but harder and we had to quit... So no lifers.
We went to eat something but the weather stayed wet..

Gulls.

Dump.

There was few major points witch take us down.

1) We should know that the dump is closed at Sundays.
2) Either did not look the weather forecast, at least not good enough...
3) Birds were gone...

Maybe next time if i have energy to go there again.. I must thank Jände for company and we always keep our minds positive. Next time we might laugh for this.
And at the end, i want to try put some video from one club gig where i was at Saturday.
Here is mr. Calvin Harris. It was fun but no magnificent. 

Best.

-Tomppa-

Summer and youngsters, 12.6.2012

The summer is here and breeding season is over soon. Many common and boring species have their young already and it´s nice to watch those little guys and their mothers taking care of them.
I was today at Finnå water treatment plant and that is good place to watch waterbirds.
When i arrived at 07:00, first birds what i saw after Black headed Gulls was this nice looking female Common Pochard with 7 young.

One of the youngsters with the mother Common Pochard.

I walked my normal route and here is some numbers of waterbirds and some other species.

Gadwall: 13 adults and 34 yougsters. ( Biggest number what i have ever seen)
Common Pochard: 36
Shoveler: 15 (9males and 6females)
Tufted Duck: 45 (43males and 2females)
Pintail 1male.
Slavonian Grebe: 7 (6Adults and one young)
Common Rosefinch 7 (6males and one female)
Thrush Nightingale 4
Common Redstart: 3
and so on... Golden Eye was most numerous waterbird, maybe over a hundred birds and most of the birds were youngsters.

Nice looking Pintail male.

Gadwall, Shoveler and Mallard males.

Gadwall family, female with little boys and girls.

Golden Eye playschool. 

One of my favourites, Slavonian Grebe family, notice the chick !

After Finnå i went to the Maari bird watching-tower. Only normal birds there including Spotted Redshanks, Wood Sandpipers, Green Sandpipers, Little Gull and so on. Here is a photo of Sedge Warbler from there.

Sedge Warbler sang like a madman. 

Nice day, especially in Finnå. It does not take long at all when firs autumn migrants are here.
Hope i have something to tell soon. And by the way, i quit smoking after many years of smoking and im feeling more healthy every day. After a week no problems so hope it stays like that.

Best.

-Tomppa-

Shorebirds at Maari Bird-watching tower. 7.6.2012

Yesterday some guy saw Marsh Sandpiper at Maari birding-tower.
There was no updates of bird and i thought that bird must be gone. I arrived about at 1pm and there was two birders in the tower. I said hi to both of them but no one said anything and silence lasted half an hour when other dude left. Same time i found good looking bird from the meadow and i mentioned that for the guy who was standing there like a rock.
He saw also the bird and together we thought that it was Marsh Sandpiper! I put update in Finish alarm-system  and same time this dude left from the tower.
This was actually nice situation.

Reed Bunting male was singing quite close.

Common Snipe sat in the tree.

 I start to check again and again the meadow and after 30min i saw Sandpiper again. I followed it with my telescope and then somewhere came up a second bird! I put update again in the system and same time Tuula Granroth came to the tower.
She didn´t know about the second Marsh Sandpiper so it was nice surprise for her.
Few twitchers came to the tower, including my old friend Leo Wallinmaa. Later also Roni Väisänen came and we had again some plans. Hopefully those can be carried out.
It was a nice situation when you have these nice birds and few other nice species like Red-necked Phalarope and Spotted Redshank and of course good company most of the time. I think that must be best part of this hobby.

Marsh Sandpiper and Redshank.

Marsh Sandpiper alone.

Redshan, Spotted Redshank and Marsh Sandpiper.

Red-necked Phalarope.

This was one of my beset 2hours in the tower ever. Hope next time some little bit "rarer" came up.
This little guy was quite near my car.

Hi there!! Great Spotted Woodpecker.

More stuff coming soon i hope. Good summer for all of you.

best

-Tomppa-

Just normal, 4.6.2012

Today i had time visit Maari birding-tower again. 

I´ve never been an early riser.. Mornings are killing most of the time. Today i woke up like 10am..

It´s not best time to watch birds but at least it´s something. When i arrived in the area, i parked my car first and then started to walk to the tower. I had walked just few minutes when i heard familiar voice. Penduline Tit! what a nice start!

I knew that there has been some birds in the area but it was still nice.  

There was also other birders in the tower but mostly they were old farts with telescopes. Only guy i know there was Jani Ceder and it was nice to see again. 

For a long time Osprey has been avoiding me but now i got some almost good photos of it.

Osprey with Bream. 

I was in tower something like hour and a half, there was normal common birds but some are worth mentioning.

Spotted Redshank, Little Gull, 3 male Garganeys, few Sparrowhawks, Hobby, 12 Common Cranes and some other common stuff... 

Common stuff like Wigeon males. 

After Maari tower i went to Seurasaari after a long time. 

I had no expectations because it´s summer but there is always possibility to see some late migrants.

It was nice to see that Great Tits and Blue Tits had cub in the bushes and young people was quite curious too. One Blue Tit youngster sat on my hand! I carefully put it back in the bush after i gave it one seed from the ground. 

Best observation was Greenish Warbler witch was singing SE-side of the island. I saw it few times but no chance to get photos... My second from the island. 

Here is photos of some common birds:

This Oystercatcher had something in the bill. 

Great Spotted Woodpecker is breeding in the island.

This Robin was singing all the time and some times little weird sound.

Tufted Duck couple.

Barnacle Goose is garbage  these days. Nice looking anyway.

I just counted my year-ticks and now i finally have 200! Finland top is something like 260 so i do not compete with them..

Nice day with nice birds. More stuff hopefully soon. 

Best.

-Tomppa-