Last day of July. 31.7.2013

Today i went to oldest zoo in Finland with Sarina and her sister. Korkeasaari is one of those zoos witch raise endangered animals very successfully. For example, over one hundred Snow Leopard have born here.
Today we had nice few hours there watching Asian Lions, Snow Leopards, Siberian Tiger, Bactrian Camels and many other animals. Also some wild animals around, mostly birds. I had two White-winged Crosbills, fourteen Great-spotted Woodpecker, 180 Barnacle Goose and 17 Lesser-black backed Gull.

Logo.

Snow Leopard.

Peacock male.

Snowy Owl.

Asian Lion.

Steller´s Sea Eagle.

Eagle Owl.

Siberian Tiger.

Baltic Gull. This is wild bird :)

After we get back home i had some lunch and then i went to Maari birdtower to check Little Stint to my year-list.
Bird showed well but in distance.. There was many species of waders around the meadow.

Little Stint 1
Temminck´s Stint 4
Dunlin 2
Spotted Redshank 4
Wood Sandpiper 44
Redshank 1
Greenshank 2
Bar-tailed Godwit 2
Ringed Plover 18
Common Sandpiper 4
Ruff 18
Common Snipe 10
Caspian Tern 26
Grey Heron 8
Spotted Crake 1

Temminck´s Stint

Red-backed Shrike.

Bar-tailed Godwit.

Grey Heron and Caspian Terns.

Nice day and nice to have even one tick once in a while. Year-list is now 240.
Lets hope more ticks next month.

-Tomppa-

Summertime at Ruokolahti again. 20-22.7.2013

Me and Sarina went to Ruokolahti again this weekend. Its always nice to spend some time in quiet place without thought of work.
We arrived Saturday afternoon and after we had settled in we start to make some food. Soon rest of the group came and we had nice evening with delicious food and some drinks.
This was not trip for the birds, but whenever we go there i always have my lifetime project to have even decent photos of Black-throated Divers.
Only some Swan photos, not Divers today.

Whooper Swans.

Dinner!

Sunday we had better weather and i had some time to walk around with my camera. Not much but Red-breasted Flycatcher was nice. Other birds were Hazel Grouse, Great-spotted Woodpecker, Goshawk, and some Divers.
Later afternoon i tried some fishing and we just had super time.

Me fishing. 

Where is rare birds?

Great-spotted Woodpecker.

Black-throated Diver.

Goshawk. 

Next morning we had to leave because im sitting at work at the moment... Unfortunately.
But we had great time and i hope we have time to go back this summer.

We. 

Next post maybe Wednesday.

-Tomppa-

Midsummer is boring. 16-17.7.2013

Wow, that was long break while writing here. I have been at work quite much and i must say, this midsummer is semi boring time to watch birds.. 

Yesterday i went to Viikki with my colleagues from work. Not much to tell about birds but we had nice few hours and i guess there was some lifers for the guys. Grey Herons, Coots, Green Sandpipers, lots of Geese and so on. 

Thanks for the company guys. 

Later i went to Maari bird tower where i saw two Curlew Sandpipers, four Dunlins and other waders. 

Curlew sand was year tick number 239.

Vanhankaupunginlahti is near to Viikki.

Juvenile Spotted Flycatcher. 

Photographing flying Redwings is very hard.

Today Sarina told me about some ship event near our house. So after we both took some gym time we went to shore witch is very near us. 

Lots of Sailing ships, big and small. We walked around, sun was shining and we had a nice time. 

Ship.

Bigger ship.

Lots of flags. 

Later Sarina had to go to work so i went to Suomenoja.

Lots of vegetation around the lakes but i managed to see some ducks and many juvenile Black-headed Gulls.

Only one Slavonian Grebe this time. Many ducks had clearly their second brood. 

Suomenoja. 

Grass Snake. 

Hobby.

Juvenile Common Moorhen.

Juvenile Black-headed Gull is great looking bird. Lots of colors.

Again one with family of Common Pochards.

Mallard mother and babies. 

Nice sunny day. Can´t wait the autumn migration. :)

-Tomppa-

Weekend in summer house. 5-7.7.2013

Yeah, what a nice weekend we had in Ruokolahti. We arrived Friday evening and after nice late dinner and few drinks we went to bed.
Saturday was partly cloudy and i tried to watch some birds at afternoon. At the morning i heard nice birds like Red-breasted Flycatcher and Greenish Warbler and local Black-throated Divers, Common Tern family and Common Sandpipers kept me busy with my camera. About at three o´clock i noticed some raptor migration from Northeast i had one Common Buzzard, 12 Honey Buzzards and few Sparrow Hawks.
At 3:45pm i noticed weird looking bird with two Honey Buzzards. It was just gliding long time without any wing strokes. My telescope were other side of the building so i ran there and i had to find the bird again.
I found it quite quickly and it made few rounds when i was able to id it, Greater-spotted Eagle!
Oh man that was great feeling! Sadly it was so far that my camera did not find it anymore.
Later evening European Nightjars started their concert. At least 7 birds were singing!

One of many Honey Buzzards. 

Flock of Black-throated Divers. 

Sarina took shes first bird pics :)

Common Sandpiper.

My version of Terns.

Evening view from our shore. 

What a great weekend. I really hope that local RC will accept this record of the Eagle.
Hear you soon.

-Tomppa-

One missed MEGA and good birds 4.7.2013

Like the postscript tells, i missed on MEGA rarity..second of July Pekka Eriksson found second Stilt Sandpiper for Finland. Very shortly after first twitchers saw the bird, it took off and that delayed our start. After one and a half hours bird was again in the same spot and then we decide to go.
We drove about 40km when bird took off second time and that was enough for us. We turned around.
Next morning there was over hundred people but bird was not there.
This was first record since the 20th of June 1983! So i hope i don´t have to wait another 30 years :)
Congratulations for all who saw the bird and of course for the finder.
Same day before this rarity came up i twitched Red-necked Phalarope because it was missing from my year-list. Nice looking female was at Maari bird-tower meadow having some late dinner.

Red-necked Phalarope, photo taken by my mobile trough my telescope.

Today i slept quite late and when i woke up i checked our alarm system. Ruddy Shelduck in same place where the Phalarope was!
Quickly some clothes on and i drove to the tower. Luckily the bird was still there and i met some friends there also. Thanks for the company Pasi, Pekka and others!
Here´s a photo if the bird.

Nice looking bird! Again photo with my mobile trough the telescope. 

This was also Finnish tick for me! After this my year-tick number is 236, so im only six behind my old record 242 and there is long and waited autumn still coming!
Next weekend we are going to Sarinas summer house in Ruokolahti. I hope i found some nice birds around that area.
More story about the Stilt Sandpiper in Petteris Blog http://himopointsaaja.blogspot.fi/

-Tomppa