Finally some ringing action. 28.6.2013

Finally i had time to go ringing with Jari. Most of the times i have been at work or i had to go work or something about work... Frustrating!
Today i woke up at 3am packed my bag and we had plan to meet with Jari at 3.30am. After little delay we met just before 4am and we immediately start to put some nets on.
There was super wet and muddy everywhere! I got some water inside my boot after 4 minutes!
Ok, that was little problem, biggest worry was big flock of mosquito and later some galling horseflies.
We got nice number of juvenile birds and some older too. Most of the birds were juvenile Robins, Great Tits and Blue Tits. Also one 2cy Robin, few Greater White-throats, Sedge Warbles, Pied Flycatchers, Redwings, Willow Warbler, Garden Warbler and Thrush Nightingales.

Always so lovely Blue Tit. Juvenile bird. 

Greater White-throat. 

2cy Male Pied Flycatcher.

First Redwing.

Also lots of birds around the area. Great-spotted Woodpeckers, Marsh Warblers, Common Rose Finches and our biggest miss, Black Kite. Jani Ceder and some other guys saw it from opposite side of the bay. Thank god i saw one earlier this month :) not that i have any pressure!

Our base.

Garden Warbler.

Juvenile Thrush Nightingale.

Our nightingale had very handsome back.

Second Redwing. 

After all we had nice day with lots of birds and lots of water and humidity. Thanks for the company Jari, this was fun.

-Tomppa-

Midsummer weekend with family. 22-23.6.2013

I had really nice weekend with my family. We have summerhouse in Hartola and yesterday morning me and Sarina went there.
The real cause to go there was not birding but having good time with close people.
However we have many birdhouses there and near two lakes, there is always some birds around.
Best bird for the weekend was nice male Golden Oriole. What a bird. Sadly i did not get any pics of it..
Crested Tits, Willow Tits, Ospreys, Green Sandpipers and other common species also around the area.
But the most interesting project i had was to watch how two Pied Flycatchers fed their cubs.
I spend few hours near the birdhouse and i got some nice pics.

Male with food.

Male guarding the nest.

Female with food.

Female guarding the nest.

These two birds were super effective! About every four minute either male of female came with food.
There was 6 birds around our yard in three birdhouses.
Here is some other pics also.

Always nice to make some barbecue! 

Large-leaved Lupines in full flower. 

Cute Crested Tit.

Like you see, i had nice weekend. I hope you all had too!
Tomorrow i had to go back to work, but lets see if i have some time to post something later next week.

-Tomppa-

Nice summer day. 19.6.2013

It is really summer now. Temperatures are almost 20 degrees and today was nice and sunny.
Many species have their cubs around and adults have much work to feed them all.
I met Jari today at Vanhankaupunginlahti where we had nice few hours photographing everything.
Many species in relatively small area and today some birds were nicely cooperative.
Here is some photos.

Urban Sedge Warbler. 

Common Rosefinch is handsome bird. 

First Thrush Nightingale. 

And Second one here with some bug. 

Fieldfare resting.

We had also very friendly Yellow Wagtail witch followed us. Red-backed Shrike was totally different, it ran away every time.

Yellow Wagtail.

Red-backed Shrike. 

Best bird today were Blyth´s Reed Warbler. Other birds were more normal or more like crap :)
Later almost at the evening i went to Kirkkonummi with Jände. We had few stops in different places but nothing special today. There was Common Quail quite near but we did not have energy to check it.

Grey Heron.

White-tailed Eagle. maybe 3cy bird.

Nice day with good company. Thanks Jände and Jari.
Next weekend is midsummer fest here in Finland, so we are going to our summer house. Lets hope i have some good birds there.

-Tomppa-

Gulling 14.6.2013

Today i went to Ämmässuo dump with Roni Väisänen. Roni had some work earlier there and i arrived at 9:30. After we drove in we saw several hundreds of gulls around the area. Mostly there was Black headed Gulls and Herring Gulls.
After driving around some time we had many Greater Black-backed Gulls, Lesser Black-backed Gulls, some Mew Gulls along the Black headed Gulls and Herrings. Also some Northern Wheatears, Meadow Pipits, Starlings and few Skylarks.

Adult Baltic Gull.

Juvenile Skylark.

Ugly Herring Gull! 

Earlier we had some talking about other Lesser Black-backed Gulls like "graelsii, heuglini and intermedius" races and soon Roni found nice looking bird standing on a slope. It had clearly Greyish back and it was Lesser BB gull. We had to get some pics of it!
We drove little bit closer and i got nice series of pics. Unfortunately this is specie witch you can´t id from the pics... Mostly birds with rings can be identify.

Gull.

Again.

Open wing.

Adult tail.

Both wings.

So, nice trip to dump today. Thank you Roni for company and taking me with you! Later summer there will be more juvenile birds, and then we must go back to check those.
More story next week, after my weekend in work.

-Tomppa-

Lazy birding and one twitch 6.6-8.6.2013

Yeah, like i wrote in the topic, i have been lazy as any person can be..

Earlier i went to Seurasaari with Sarina and there was super quiet.. One Great-spotted Woodpecker, one Black Woodpecker and that was mainly all birds.. Normal Canada Geese, Barnacle Geese, Oystercatchers, Mallards and other common birds were present of course.

Canada Goose and cubs.

This Mallard is handsome gentleman. 

Oystercatcher.

One Black-headed Gull had rings. 

Yesterday i had weird feeling that i had to twitch something. I checked our systems and there was sighting of Common Quail day before yesterday in Kirkkonummi. I decide to go there and after 1,5 hour waiting bird gave me one short series of calls.. Not really worth of waiting that long. After i call these first calls i decided to wait if the bird continues later, but it did not... At least i had nice view and lots of warm sun.

Kirkkonummi.

Next week i must be at work most of the time, but i try to make some quick visits to somewhere..
My year ticks in Finland are now 230 and it is same number what i got last year, so new record here i come! Only 12 behind.



-Tomppa

Late spring birding. 31.5-1.6.2013

Not much birding lately. I had some raptor watch in Maari bird tower both days but that was almost all..
Yesterday i had about 2 hour watch and best bird was Red Knot, year-tick for me. Few Hobbys, some Spotted Redshanks already making their Autumn migration, Canada Geese with six cubs and that was mostly all.

Hobby in flight. 

Today i went to the tower at half 11. Already much people there with some familiar faces. Not much birds today ether.. Some Red Crossbill migration (50 birds), quick appearance by Black-tailed Godwit far away and at least eleven Spotted Reshanks today.
Bird watching turned to chatting and when more known guys came to tower, more chatting!
At some point Jani noticed alarm of Lesser-spotted Eagle flying East from Ämmässuo dump and we were almost on its rote. Lots of speculation about the birds route and finally after 47 minutes Petteri found the bird quite close. I had some huge troubles to find the bird and it was further when i finally found it! Nice, quite small eagle made some turnings and we saw nice contrast on its upper wing and uppertail coverts. Of course you always hope to see these closer but this was very nice. Finish tick for me, finally!
After eagle we had nice conversations about all kid of birding.

Fox had some meal and did not care about Lapwings ideas. 

Male Teal, great looking bird. 

Later after i leave the tower i went to check Black-tailed Godwits in Villa Elfvik tower.
Thanks Jani, Mika, Petteri, Ville and others for company.

More stuff next week when i have more time for birds.

-Tomppa-