28. joulukuuta 2017

Eastern Black Redstart. 28.12.2017

Something happened after Estonian Open bird race. I had troubles to go out and do any kind of bird watching. Few mega rarities were quite near, but soon I noticed that I had no energy to go.. I diagnosed  that I was going trough some kind of burnout. Birdwatching was not fun or interesting anymore. For example 20th of October Puff-bellied Pipit was introduced from Western Norrskär island. All I did was hoping that I don´t have to go there and twitch. It was first for Finland!

Anyway, today I took my binoculars (first time since August) with me to work and I had plans to go and twitch an interesting bird from Viikki. Two days a go some guy found putative Eastern Black Redstart from there. It was seen by many yesterday and idea of seeing this interesting bird would be  enough for me to go there.

I released from work at 2pm and I cycled straight to Viikki. I met few old buds there and together we waited the bird. This time it took about 30 minutes to see it. Amazing looking bird. It was already little dusky and my camera was in trouble. I set all in with ISO numbers and hoped for the best.
Results were something between bad and very bad.

Possibly the worst set of pictures of Eastern Black Redstart.

Eastern Black Redstart.

Eastern Black Redstart.

Very interesting bird and clearly it belongs to Phoenicuroides-group, if it is not an hybrid between Black Redstart and Common Redstart.

Anyway I had great time and maybe this was a new start for me. Still hoping that I have energy to write here. Actually writing here feels good again.
One thing I have to mention. It was so great to see Olavi Kemppainen again. So warm and kind personality, thanks for the company! And others, it was good to see you.

-Tom