Weekend at work. 23.3-24.3.2019

I spent the whole weekend at work, but luckily I had time to look around there and after all I had very pleasant time and lots of birds.

Migration is in full swing and last weekend loads of Bean Geese and Greater White-fronted Geese were going North over the Helsinki area. I counted over 500 Geese from a spot which is not a hot spot for migration, and I had species like White Wagtail, Velvet Scoter, Black Guillemot, Long-tailed Duck, Smew, Common Buzzard, many White-tailed Eagles, Grey Herons, Common Cranes, and almost one hundred Woodpigeons in one flock.

Here is some photos of distant birds.

Mixed flock of Greater White-fronted and Tundra Bean Geese.

Two of three Common Cranes I saw during the weekend. 

One of five White-tailed Eagles.

Bean Goose flock.

Distant Black-headed Gull. 

Flock of Whooper Swans in first light. 

-Tom

Short visit to Viikki fields. 20.3.2019

Today I had short moment with Julius, my younger kid to visit Viikki fields near by. Cause we had plans to pick up Vilma from daycare we went with the car, which is stupid in normal circumstances, but now it was only way to do it.

Lots of Canada Geese on the fields, some Skylarks, around twenty Lapwings, Few Barnacle- and Greylag Geese. No sign of Ringed Plover or Carrion Crow this time.

Around 300 geese in the area.

Wind was hard and soon some snow started to come from the sky. You can imagine one degrees with hard wind and some snow, that is not the best weather for anything.
I had 12 Tundra Bean Geese migrating in one flock, Lapland Longspur vocal flyby and three Stock Doves.. Not much, but something.
Julius was cranky and we left the party pretty soon. I hope I still have time to go there again this week. More and more birds arriving every day. Maybe without kids next time?

Julius in a stroller in Viikki.

Bean Goose flock. 12 birds. 

Not much snow on the fields, but not too many passerines around. Mainly Geese and Corviade. 

More later..

-Tom 

Carrion Crow. 18.3.2019

I was doing something with my kids this morning when I noticed an alarm message of Carrion Crow near by our house. I had some grocery plans anyway, so I took Vilma with me and together we twitched the Crow.

Carrion Crow does not have full species status here in Finland, but it might have it later, so it was important to see this bird. Vilma was more into playing and swimming in mud, but she is three years old, so I let her do it..
We have some Carrion Crows annually in Finland, but it has been very rare in the Capital area.

Viikki was full of birds, over a hundred Canada Geese, few Barnacles, some Greylag Geese and lots of other migrants. Some birds worth to mention were Wood Lark, White-tailed Eagle, Goshawk and Rough-legged Buzzard. Tens of Skylarks, Lapwings etc made this morning feel like spring, even thought it was raining almost constantly.

Carrion Crow.

Carrion Crow.

In Flight. 

Poor record shot of Lapwing.

It was nice to go out again and it seems that I have to go there more often now, cause spring birds are arriving in big numbers. Tomorrow rains but let´s see later this week.

-Tom

Local birding after moving to Viikki 4.3-10.3.2019

So, we moved to Viikki, Helsinki. All stuff we moved on 1st and now all things are on right places after a week. I also put on a feeder for birds, cause now I finally have my on little yard.

Sunflower seeds etc. 

On 4th I tried to twitch Great-grey Owl from Malmi with Vilma, but no luck this time.. Bird was seen early that morning, but not after that.

Vilma played with snow, while I looked around.. Bloody Owl.

Most of my birding is now watching my own feeder and hoping to get more species to visit there. So far I had Great- and Blue Tits, Blackbirds, Jackdaw and lots of Domestic Sparrows.

First winter male Blackbird. 

Female Sparrow.

Yesterday (10th) we visited a near by stream, which is open all year and full of Mallards. While I was counting the birds and watching that Vilma wont drop in to the water I noticed a Male Eurasian Teal hanging with the Mallards. Cool bird and always nice to see during the winter.

Male Mallard is very smart looking bird 

Eurasian Teal. 

Eurasian Teal, male. 

It is so small! 

Vilma gave some bread for the birds. 

Spring is coming soon and lots of birds migrating back to Finland. Now we are living near the area which gathers a lot of birds in small area, including some rarities annually. I´m super excited about the location and upcoming spring.

Tom