Recently my birding has been slow, because I have been bit sick and it has been raining most of the days. Only short times outside before today and I have visited Kivikko field and Kaisaniemi Arboretum shortly after or before my work.
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| One of two Goshawks in Kivikko. |
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| Dunnock in Kivikko. |
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| Siskins in Kaisaniemi. |
Today I was working when I noticed an alarm message of European Roller in Espoo!! I was hoping and hoping that the bird will stay and checked my watch all the time. Finally I was released before 2pm and I went to pick my family and my binoculars from home.
We arrived to Tali, which is nearest area of the bird in Helsinki side. After little walking we found to the area where the bird was supposed to be. Some twitchers around and I met Ville Vepsäläinen when we arrived. Together we found the right place but the bird was lost, and we just had to look around.
The founder of the bird Hannu Palojärvi and loads of others were looking the bird. I was so happy that Hannu was the man who found the it. There is a real kind person who has helped me in the past few times.
At some point I was talking with Matias Castren when we noticed a group moving fast towards something. They were in higher grounds so we had to walk a bit the finally, there was the bird I was looking for. I checked it properly and then I went to pick my kids to get that stroller tick! It was easy. Bird was sitting on a branch and gave us little distant but good looks. I think it was 1cy bird because all the brown color and not so shiny blue like adult birds. Though I am not an expert of any kind of bid ID stuff. Here is few pictures of the bird and the place where it was.
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| European Roller. |
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| What a great looking bird. |
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| This photo was taken from Helsinki side of the area. |
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| Twitchers. |
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| Stroller tick in the bag. Julius started to be little tired at this point. |
What a twitch. Thanks to my family for the company and support. Dream come true bird. If I´m right, this was first bird after last Roller seen in Helsinki back in 1966, but not sure. Not too many records anyway.
-Tom
