Recent bird watching around Southern Finland.

I have been lazy.. No energy for this blog and few times it was quite close that i just quit writing here. Anyway, here comes new post after what, six weeks? wow.

Spring is already here. I visited Vanhankaupunginlahti twice, Suomenoja twice and Laajalahti twice.
My latest trip was Salo where i twitched Red Kite to my Finnish list. That was amazing. More of that later.

Here is few pics from early April from Viikki and Vanhankaupunginlahti.

Garganey is my favorite duck in Finland. Here is couple with Common Teals.

Little flock of Common Cranes.

Here is Gadwall couple from Suomenoja where i showed some birds to my colleagues daughter. We had nice trip with Slavonian Grebes, Common Moorhens etc.

Distant photo of Gadwalls. Also Common Pochard and Tufted Ducks around.

 Later April i was in Viikki again, trying to twitch Black Redstart with out any luck.. First Redshanks there with Lesser Ringed Plovers and Common Curlews.

Very common Northern Lapwing.

And other very common White Wagtail.

23th of April i went to check Glaucous Gull very near our house in Pikkuhuopalahti. Twitching without binos and camera is not so fun but here is photo taken with
my mobile phone.

White gull center of the photo is Glaucous Gull. 3cy bird. 

Second of May i visited Raasepori and tried to twitch two Black-necked Grebes, but no luck. Other common spring birds though.
Next day i went to Maari bird tower in Laajalahti and had very nice 2,5 hours there. We had male Citrine Wagtail and Black Kite from the tower and when i was arriving there i heard Penduline tit calling about 300m from the tower. Good company in the tower and back home.

Male Citrine Wagtail.

When i arrived back home we had to prepare our selves for Sannis niece birthday party. Same time an alarm of Mediterranean Gull in Espoo just 8km from our house came to my phone. Little fight and i left to twitch. I saw the bird very nicely and made back home just in time. Lifer for me and it always deserves at least four pictures!

From here you can see some black in the wings so birds age is "second summer"

Hood is very black when comparing to Black-headed Gulls.

Also bill is thicker and more red than Black-headed gulls bill.

Last photo. 

Seventh of May we made horrible dipping trip with my uncle and i don´t want to talk about it, but next day was amazing, despite the dipped Red-rumped Swallow....

I took my mothers car and after that bloody Swallow i drove to Salo. At least i saw one Great White Egret before i leave.

Great-white Egret. 

I was about 1km away of the original place where the Red Kite was spending time when i noticed few cars next to the road. There was some bird watchers and i stopped to ask what they are looking for. Guys told me that Red Kite is flying there above the near forest. I rise my binoculars and there it was!! Mighty Red Kite. I ran to take my telescope but bird disappeared behind the woods.
Guys told me that go to the original place, it will show there. I drove like a maniac, according the speed limits of course and when i arrived the bird was flying above distant forest area.
Took few pics and watched it with the telescope about 2 minutes.
What a feeling!

Red Kite.

I drove back to the places where others still waited and they had the birds just minute earlier i arrived. I took my stuff and joined them when some body yelled Black Kite flying quite near. I got some bad photos of this one too.

Black Kite.

It seems that Red Kite and Black Kite are nesting together now in Finland and both birds were seen carrying nesting material. Later Red Kite disappeared so my guess is that it sits in the nest and Black Kite is male who carries all the food for the Red one. Maybe in few weeks we know more.
Med Gull was my Finnish tick number 307 and Red Kite was number 308. Slowly but surely i get these species.
Starting next Sunday me and Sanni spend time in Marmaris Turkey and i hope i get some Western Palearctic ticks from there. One week trip, so after that i will write something here. I hope!

-Tom-