Happy July folks. Time is running and tomorrow I will start last week of my vacation, unfortunately..
Yesterday I got alarm message of real MEGA species from Eurajoki, Western Finland when Kalle Haapala found third Pied Bush Chat for Finland! I told it about Sanni and I mentioned that I am eager to go and twitch the bird next morning. Permission granted and I started to check what I need to pack.
At some point at the evening I noticed Kari Lindblom´s Facebook post that he would like to go there, but no car. I sent Kari a message and we agreed to pick him from Maunula after 3:00 at the morning.
I arrived there at 03:40 and we started our long drive. Distance between the bird and Maunula was about 250km, it was very easy drive cause there was no traffic and company was good.
At Eura we saw Black Grouse from the car and many different mammals during the drive. At least six Red Foxes, one Mountain Hare, several Roe Deer and quite a many European Hares.
When we arrived to the site the situation was not good. Bird was seen about 15 minutes before we came and it was moving in distance and showed only few times. More people came and it was nice to see my friend Pasi Alanko from Pori after long time. He came there with bicycle and distance from home was about 50km. Great job!
We had to wait about 45 minutes when somebody spotted the bird from some vegetation not too far from the place we were standing. Bird was feeding actively and moved slowly towards us. Finally after 15 minutes it was close enough to get any photos and see the feature much better. Here is few phone scoped pictures of the bird.
Soon the bird was feeding in small piles of rotten sugar beets and dirt with Wagtails and some other common birds.
We watched the bird about an hour and then we decided to start our journey back to Helsinki. At some point I got an idea to visit Karkkila river, cause I knew that there was records of Grey Wagtail from same week. We checked the place, but nothing in hour, so we were back on the road and pretty soon we were in Maunula. I dropped Kari and rove back home.
Thanks for the company Kari, it was a pleasure!
Pied Bush Chat is very very rare bird in Europe. This was only fifth record and surprisingly three of the records are from Finland. First was 2010, second 2017 and now this bird.
Other records in Europe are from Sweden 2018 and Italy 2017. From Israel there is nine records, three records from Kuwait,two from Cyprus and one record from Egypt. So totally 20 records from Western Palearctic area! I missed last two in Finland and especially last one because I saw one bird in Israel back in 2014. Great memories.
Pied Bush Chat was my lifer number 341 in Finland and I´m one step closer to reach 350. Maybe in two years? Who knows.
Next week more birding if the weather is good enough. Fingers crossed.
-Tom
Yesterday I got alarm message of real MEGA species from Eurajoki, Western Finland when Kalle Haapala found third Pied Bush Chat for Finland! I told it about Sanni and I mentioned that I am eager to go and twitch the bird next morning. Permission granted and I started to check what I need to pack.
At some point at the evening I noticed Kari Lindblom´s Facebook post that he would like to go there, but no car. I sent Kari a message and we agreed to pick him from Maunula after 3:00 at the morning.
I arrived there at 03:40 and we started our long drive. Distance between the bird and Maunula was about 250km, it was very easy drive cause there was no traffic and company was good.
At Eura we saw Black Grouse from the car and many different mammals during the drive. At least six Red Foxes, one Mountain Hare, several Roe Deer and quite a many European Hares.
When we arrived to the site the situation was not good. Bird was seen about 15 minutes before we came and it was moving in distance and showed only few times. More people came and it was nice to see my friend Pasi Alanko from Pori after long time. He came there with bicycle and distance from home was about 50km. Great job!
We had to wait about 45 minutes when somebody spotted the bird from some vegetation not too far from the place we were standing. Bird was feeding actively and moved slowly towards us. Finally after 15 minutes it was close enough to get any photos and see the feature much better. Here is few phone scoped pictures of the bird.
 |
| Long waited Pied Bush Chat. |
 |
| Shame that my phone is not ideal for scoping, because of the large camera module. |
Soon the bird was feeding in small piles of rotten sugar beets and dirt with Wagtails and some other common birds.
 |
| My opinion is that the bird is second calendar year male. Wing feathers were more brownish than black. |
 |
| Bad picture, but you can see the wing bar from here. |
 |
| Place where the bird was. |
We watched the bird about an hour and then we decided to start our journey back to Helsinki. At some point I got an idea to visit Karkkila river, cause I knew that there was records of Grey Wagtail from same week. We checked the place, but nothing in hour, so we were back on the road and pretty soon we were in Maunula. I dropped Kari and rove back home.
 |
| Grey Wagtail place, but it was empty. |
Thanks for the company Kari, it was a pleasure!
Pied Bush Chat is very very rare bird in Europe. This was only fifth record and surprisingly three of the records are from Finland. First was 2010, second 2017 and now this bird.
Other records in Europe are from Sweden 2018 and Italy 2017. From Israel there is nine records, three records from Kuwait,two from Cyprus and one record from Egypt. So totally 20 records from Western Palearctic area! I missed last two in Finland and especially last one because I saw one bird in Israel back in 2014. Great memories.
Pied Bush Chat was my lifer number 341 in Finland and I´m one step closer to reach 350. Maybe in two years? Who knows.
Next week more birding if the weather is good enough. Fingers crossed.
-Tom
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