Desert Wheatear in Helsinki 30.11.2013

It has been very slow recently, but finally yesterday something happened. Jari Kuhlman found Desert Wheatear while he was walking with hes dog in Kivikko. First alarm came just after 3 pm and i was still at work. Today i woke up early to check my phone and only 2 minutes earlier new update came and bird was still in Kivikko.
I took my camera and binoculars, went to my car and drove to Kivikko in record time. Just kidding, i always drive with patience and no hurry.
There was big group of people when i arrived and bird was hiding at the time. Gladly it took just 5 minutes to find the bird sitting quite far away. I borrowed one telescope to get some record shots of the bird but it was too far..

Part of the people. 

First pic of the bird. Notice good camouflage. 

Slowly bird moved closer to us and finally i had change to use my 300mm lens.

On a fence. 

Hiding in the bush. 

Sitting on a rock. 

Flying. 

Great bird. 

Bird was super beauty 1cy male and only 21st for Finland.. It was quite shy but i think that it just did not like the huge group watching it. Would you like? :)
After 40minutes bird took of and flies about 300m. It was little bit cold (-5c) and i decided to leave. Nice start for the weekend and this was new Finish-tick for me. Still got some changes to get 260 year ticks, this was number 257.
After this weekend i don´t have car anymore.. So it seems that i´m going to post less but maybe better quality. That means rarer birds,  more Estonia and other countries i hope :)

Hear you soon.

-Tomppa-

Hawk Owl part two. 18.11.2013

When i woke up today i realized that there is super nice sunny weather. I took my camera and because there is not much to see these days, i went to Töölö again to check if the Hawk Owl is still there.
I walked around the park about 25 minutes and i met some guy who was had same business there. Together we found the bird very quickly.

Staring contest with the Owl. 

Soon the bird flew a little bit and i got one crappy flight photo of it. It is super hard when the bird flies between the trees, my camera focus is too slow or i must be bad photographer.

Fly!

Rest of the time Owl just sat on a small branch. I got quite good photos in very good light conditions.
Owl also threw up one small ball which is normal for Owls when they eat whole mouse or mole. Bones must get out of their system. In the photo you can see little brown ball after it came out from the Owl.

Brown ball in the lower edge of the photo, under the owl. 

"Much better now"

Nice day and i think these were the last pics i going to take of Hawk Owl, at least for some time.

Pose.

Not much other birds in park.. One flock of Greenfinches tried to tease the Owl.

The owl was just under these guys.

Hope you all had nice start for the week.

-Tomppa-

Hawk Owl. 15.11.2013

I had huge problems to go out today and i don´t even know why... Anyway i went to Töölö where long staying Hawk Owl has been. I have already about 150 photos of this same owl but i think its still super cool bird. First i got some problems to find it but after it flew quite near me i just followed it. There was also one other guy photographer in the park and we had nice time with the Owl.

Hawk Owl.

First photo of the bird today. 

Like you can see the light conditions were hard and it was real challenge to get any photo of the bird. Thank god i bring my tripod.
This bird has been almost two months in Töölö and it must be on the most photographed bird in whole Finland this year.
Other birds in the park were Crows, two Starlings and Tits.

My 300mm lens is way too short.. Need to get 500mm.

And the bird saw it also. "Haha, what is that" It must say here. 

Nice two hours in park. Tomorrow i met many friends in our meeting which i mentioned in my last post.
Have a good weekend with lots of birds where ever you are.

-Tomppa-

Finally some action. 14.11.2013

Finally i had some time to go out. I talked with Petteri Mäkelä yesterday and he was hoping to see Common Moorhen tomorrow when he is coming to Helsinki. He is counting some month-ticks and Moorhen is missing on hes November list.
I checked Suomenoja today where is maybe largest Moorhen population in whole Finland?
Place was super quiet.. Few flocks of Crossbills, one flock of Goldfinches and so on.. Not sure about the Crossbills but if i must guess, i would say Common ones.
When i was walking around the pools there was few flocks of ducks. Most of the birds were Mallards but i counted also 15 Gadwalls, one Teal and few Goldeneyes.
South side of the pools i saw Robin and Skylark. Those were the best birds today.
So, no Moorhen today and i think Petteri need to wait until next year. :)
There is also some plans for the next year, maybe Georgia or Israel,  but who knows.
Here is some bad photos from Suomenoja today.

Flock of Gadwalls.

Two headed Mallard.

Teal.

Tomorrow i will try to get up early and go out. I just don´t know where i should go... Not much birds out there.

-Tomppa-

Autumn is not over yet. 11.11.2013

Finally i managed to write something here.. I don´t have any new about my birding ,but when you have break like this i just wanted to write something. 

The topic is there because all the good birds came late this autumn and went straight to Sweden. Those lucky ducks got two Black-throated Accentors, Siberian Rubythroat, two Desert Wheatears, and of course Black-faced Bunting. Bunting is in top 5 in my wishlist. 

Also Estonia got some good birds recent days. Second Pied Wheatear in Sörve B.O and only few days after that, first Crag Martin in same place. Nice work Mati. Wheatear pics here Pied Wheatear and Martin here. 

Finland has been quite empty.. Two Hume´s Leafwarblers in Utö and one in Jurmo. Glossy Ibis in Parikkala and Greater Short-toed Lark in Säppi island. (first for säppi)

All of these sightings are from November and it seems that November is new The Month. 

I have 6 days of after these three evening shifts and then im out all the time. 

We have also autumn meeting of Finlands twitching society next weekend, so lots of action coming. 

Its good to see some friends. 

Lets hope i have some pics next time and more text about my sightings. Maybe i should move to Sweden?

 

-Tomppa