I need a long holiday 29.6.2012

I had boring night at work and when i was driving to my next round i saw this little guy sitting on a fence.

Common Sandpiper.

Better stuff next time.
Goood Night, im tired.


-Tomppa- 

Work, work and something between work.. 26.6.2012

Recently i have been most of my time at work... It´s funny when you live with your girlfriend in a same apartment, but you saw her like 2times in a week...
You can probably guess how much time i have to watch birds..
Today i decided to go to the Maari bird-watching tower. I end my shift at 6am and i drove straight to the tower.
Weather was nice, little wind and sun was shining. There was no one else in the tower so i had my own peace once again.
Water was super high and only few point was above it. Still there was good numbers of shorebirds!
Spotted Redshanks, Redshanks, Ruffs, Wood Sandpipers, Green Sandpipers, Lapwings, Little Ringed Plovers and Ringed Plovers.
I counted something like 37 Ruffs and that was most numerous specie. There was also good numbers of waterbirds and especially Anas-ducks were present. Eurasian Teals was most common specie, then came Mallards and Eurasian Wigeons. Few Shovelers, Gadwalls and Garganeys were also there.
Most of the Male ducks were moulting so it gives always chance to learn something new. I hate to watch those... :)

Me watching ducks.

Some lapwings.

Male Eurasian Teal.

As you can see, i did not have my camera with me, so these photos are taken by my phone trough the telescope.
It was nice to have even this little moment with birds. This week i have 72 hours working so next post will be next week.
Im a little bit jealous of my good friend Yoav Perlman. He was in Turkey and saw one of my dream birds.. Brown Fish Owl. I highly recommend to check he´s blog http://nubijar.blogspot.fi/
Some day i will visit there and then :)

Best

-Tomppa-

Iceland Gull twitch.. 17.6.2012

Hannu Koskinen found Finland´s 27th Iceland Gull few days a go at Koukkujärvi dump. I was working when the bird was found but i thought that at weekend i must have time to see this lifer.
Same time there was Glaucous Gull and Caspian Gull at the dump!
Friday we make plans with my uncle Jände and we agreed to get us there on Sunday. I called also to Roni but he had class reunion at Saturday so he couldn´t join us at Sunday morning.
We start from Helsinki at 11am and distance to destination was about 200km. First bad signs was starting rain.. But after 100km rain stopped and we started to be more hopeful. We arrived about at 1pm there and then the reality slapped us on the face... Dump was f****ng closed!!

SU - SULJETTU means Saturday, closed...

We continued little bit and soon two guys were standing side of the road with telescopes and there was nice open area where you can see the dump.
I parked our car and we also started to look the pile.
There was many Herring Gulls, Black-headed Gulls, Common Gulls and few Lesser and Greater black-backed Gulls but no these interesting birds... Some times little rain shower tried to wet..
There was one interesting bird witch had some Caspian Gull features but those are over my level...
After an hour the rain started again but harder and we had to quit... So no lifers.
We went to eat something but the weather stayed wet..

Gulls.

Dump.

There was few major points witch take us down.

1) We should know that the dump is closed at Sundays.
2) Either did not look the weather forecast, at least not good enough...
3) Birds were gone...

Maybe next time if i have energy to go there again.. I must thank Jände for company and we always keep our minds positive. Next time we might laugh for this.
And at the end, i want to try put some video from one club gig where i was at Saturday.
Here is mr. Calvin Harris. It was fun but no magnificent. 

Best.

-Tomppa-

Summer and youngsters, 12.6.2012

The summer is here and breeding season is over soon. Many common and boring species have their young already and it´s nice to watch those little guys and their mothers taking care of them.
I was today at Finnå water treatment plant and that is good place to watch waterbirds.
When i arrived at 07:00, first birds what i saw after Black headed Gulls was this nice looking female Common Pochard with 7 young.

One of the youngsters with the mother Common Pochard.

I walked my normal route and here is some numbers of waterbirds and some other species.

Gadwall: 13 adults and 34 yougsters. ( Biggest number what i have ever seen)
Common Pochard: 36
Shoveler: 15 (9males and 6females)
Tufted Duck: 45 (43males and 2females)
Pintail 1male.
Slavonian Grebe: 7 (6Adults and one young)
Common Rosefinch 7 (6males and one female)
Thrush Nightingale 4
Common Redstart: 3
and so on... Golden Eye was most numerous waterbird, maybe over a hundred birds and most of the birds were youngsters.

Nice looking Pintail male.

Gadwall, Shoveler and Mallard males.

Gadwall family, female with little boys and girls.

Golden Eye playschool. 

One of my favourites, Slavonian Grebe family, notice the chick !

After Finnå i went to the Maari bird watching-tower. Only normal birds there including Spotted Redshanks, Wood Sandpipers, Green Sandpipers, Little Gull and so on. Here is a photo of Sedge Warbler from there.

Sedge Warbler sang like a madman. 

Nice day, especially in Finnå. It does not take long at all when firs autumn migrants are here.
Hope i have something to tell soon. And by the way, i quit smoking after many years of smoking and im feeling more healthy every day. After a week no problems so hope it stays like that.

Best.

-Tomppa-