Quick walk in Seurasaari before gym. 30.1.2015

Today we had some twitching plans with my uncle Jände, but those plans were ruined because hes work. So i had to manage something by my self and i decided to check Seurasaari again, because it is so close and easy target for me with my bicycle.
This time i wanted to count all Tits and other semi interesting birds. In 1,5 hours i had 52 Great Tits, 34 Blue Tits, 8 Coal Tits and 2 Crested Tits.
Nice numbers and this time i even got decent photos of Crested Tit with dramatic dark background.

Crested Tit.

Semi stagnant Crested Tit.

Also "lots" of Great-spotted Woodpeckers in island and i counted 5 today.

This G-S Woodpecker male looking individual.

Black Woodpecker has been very hard bird to photograph for me, but today i managed to find one and i got almost what i wanted, but bird was little too high.

Female Black Woodpecker.

Later i was walking already away from the island i saw flying Eagle Owl near the islands restaurant but i could not find it with little search.
Near the bridge is little feeding and there was lost of birds. Three Goldcrests, one Robin and lots of Tits. People were hand feeding the birds and took lots of photos.

Robin.

Female Goldcrest.

Also Red Squirrel is one of the main characters in Seurasaari and i counted 27 of these nest robbing mammals. Here is one.

"I ate too much peanuts" 

Day was not over yet and when i was walking along the bridge i noticed distant Common Buzzard flying over Munkkiniemi! After few rounds bird continued and disappeared towards North.
Nice bird!
Unfortunately i have to work whole weekend and few days after that, but more birding next week.

-Tom-

Helsinki birding with new friend. 26.1.2015

A while ago Tyron Francis contacted me and asked if i´m available to do some bird watching with him. Yesterday i finally had time and i met him at the Seurasaari bridge and we had nice but not so birdy walk around the island.
Normal birds were around including Great-spotted Woodpecker, Great and Blue Tit, Jay, Black Woodpecker (call), Sparrow Hawk, Goldcrest and of course plenty of Black Birds.
I was supposed to show Owls but we had no luck this time. Even Crows were against us! After noticing that the island is quite empty, we decided to go to Lapinlahti and find Northern Hawk Owl for Tyron.
After two trams and little walk i spotted the Owl sitting on a branch little higher that i hoped. Second time i had to take poor document photos of this bird. But i was glad that bird was still there and Tyron got lifer.

This fellow got evil face.

Sadly no sunlight. 

Tyron doing binoscouping of the owl.

After the Owl we quickly checked the area and little pool where two Coots spend time little earlier, but today birds were gone. This was our last birdings for the day and we walked to Ruoholahti metro station. After Tyron left i missed my tram and remembered that long staying Coot spend time near by in Ruoholahti canal. I went to check there and found the bird standing on ice.
Bird looked very bad with injured wing. Hope it survives.

Coot with Mallards.

Smart looking Herring Gull also with Mallard flock.

Thanks for the great company Tyron! Hope we can make another trip soon.
More birding hopefully soon.

Tom

Weekend in Hanko S-Finland 17-18.1.2015

Last weekend i went to Hanko with Petteri Mäkelä and Markus Lampinen for some birding and our annual Finnish twitching society board meeting. We started very early from Helsinki and arrived before sun rice to Hanko.
First stop was Crested Grebe and we nailed it quickly.

Early morning in Hanko.

Next stop was Wood Lark and it took little longer to see, but we were successful also here. Nice winter tick for me.
Later we tried to find Woodpigeon near by but it was too hard for us and we did not find it..
Our next place was famous "neljäntuulentupa" and there we meet more of our board members Janne Aalto, Ina-Sabrina Tirri and Heikki Vasamies.
Black-headed Gull, flock of Red-breasted Mergansers, Red-throated Diver, Greater Scaup and Robin were best sightings.
Me, Petteri and Markus continued to Långören where we had distant Kestrel and flock of Tufted Ducks.

Mute Swans

Tufted Ducks.

Last place before dinner was Vedagrundet where we tried to find local Steller´s Eider.
Lost of birds flying around and finally after 45minutes somebody yelled "There it is"! Closest islet was about 400m away and bird was swimming very near to it.
Very nice species in my home county and actually also in Finland. I guess this species is rarer and rarer every year. Other nice birds in Vedagrundet were Grey Heron, Common Scooter and Whooper Swan.

Steller´s Eider!

Markus and Petteri.

At 11.30 we arrived to Tvärminne and after dinner we had great meeting and later evening sauna.

Next morning we woke up for some birding. Went to Svanvik where i found wintering Mistle Thrush and lots of Whooper and Mute Swans. Next target was Högholmen where we had nice sea-watch and i got Velvet Scoter on my year list. Yesterdays Common Eider was not there anymore.

Janne Aalto at Högholmen.

Later we went to search Woodpigeons from city area but then alarm of Redkite came from Sauvo, near Turku and we decided to try it.
No luck with the Redkite after whole day searching. Of course next day it was nicely twitchable in same place :) Well, you can´t see everything is my motto..

I wat to thank Petteri, Markus, Olavi, Janne, Ina, Juha, Visa, Matias, Heikki and Jörgen for great company and awesome meeting again. Great fun!

Next weekend more birding.

Tom

First birds for the year 2015

Yesterday was first time when i actually had time to do some bird watching. I woke up late.. (Nice start) and went to Seurasaari. On my way i checked my local little lake which is still open and i think it will be open all winter. One interesting bird was little leucistic Mallard.

Leucistic bird upper right.

In seurasaari i checked normal feeding places and places where normally Eagle Owl and Pygmy Owl were seen. Not luck with the Owls that time, but Nuthatch, two Crested Tits, Black Woodpecker, Sparrow Hawk and Robin were nice. Crested Tit is actually rarest of the "normal" tits in Seurasaari.

Very poor record shot of Sparrow Hawk.

Wintering Robin.

Crested Tit.

Little later i met my girlfriend Sanni and together we twitched Northern Hawk Owl from Lapinlahti and we had also Shore Lark and flock of Twites in Jätkäsaari. Very nice species here!

Hawk Owl.

Today i met Olavi Kemppainen and Mari Pihlajaniemi at the Hotel President and we checked some conference rooms for our Annual spring meeting and also amazing looking function room for same nights evening party.
When i left and i was waiting my tram, i saw Goshawk hunting Feral Pigeons in city-center.

More birding later.

Tom