Too normal... 11.8.2012

My yesterdays birding was actually in two parts.
First i was at the Maari bird-tower watching some shorebirds and Great White Egret.
I end my shift at 6am and i quickly drove to home because my gear was there. I was at the tower about 7am and f**k, there was breezing cold... I had way too little clothes on.
There was only one before me in the tower and he started at 4.30am, crazy people... He said that Great White Egret flew in the reeds about hour before i came so no chance to see it...
There was still some waders left and we counted 6 Little Stints, 5 Temminck´s Stints, Curlew Sandpiper, 60-80 Dunlins, Wood Sandpipers and Bar-tailed Godvit.
Little by little my hands came colder and sense began to disappear so i had to go home and get some well deserved sleep.

Taken by my phone. There is atleast Little Stint and Dunlins.

Next part of my birding were almost at the evening. Sarinas fried had housewarming party and i had no interest to go there, i went to Finnå :)
I walked to the Southern Birdwatching-tower and along the way i saw many Willow Warblers, few Garden Warblers, Sedge Warblers, Goldfinches, one Great-spotted Woodpecker, one Red-backed Shrike and so on.
The lake was actually almost empty this time, Mallards, few Teals, Shovelers, Gadwall was most numerous duck there. Also few Tufted Ducks, Pockhards and so on.. Soon i heard weird sound and huge, about flock of 400 Starlings jumped in the air from the reeds. I was thinking what i was and then i noticed that one Pockhard was dead in the water. It probably crashed into electric lines above the lake...  Sad.

Mallards.

Starlings.

Willow Warbler.

Overall i had nice day again. Mornings could be little bit warmer, but maybe i should move to Israel, there i quite hot i guess.
Next post will be next weekend because we had annual bird-race in Estonia. Wish luck to our team, Roni, Jarkko, Petteri and myself.

Best.

-Tomppa-

Pigeons in Haltiala, 8.8.2012

Today, or actually yesterday i had some time before i have to go to work.
I went to Haltiala where is nice big fields and it´s average place to watch raptors i guess.
First 20minutes i had to talk with some strange old guy who told me about he´s journeys in Ukraine and how he saw some Egrets and Swifts and how raptors hunt rabbits... Thank god he have to continue he´s walk...
First raptor what i saw was Kestrel, so i thought that this could be nice day for raptors.
Windy and cloudy so conditions were good.
Soon i noticed that there is no raptors and only birds were Woodpigeons and there was almost 500 of those. Flock were eating something from the field and i got some nice looking flock photos.

Flock of Woodpigeons.

And again.

Two Northern Goshawks were very interested about these Pigeons and one even got prey!
Both Goshawks were this years chicks so 1cy.
That was actually almost all what i saw... Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler were jumping in the trees and some Fieldfares had movement.
Now working and next post maybe next weekend.

Best.

-Tomppa-

Pacific Golden Plover twitch and else. 2.7.2012

My uncle called me yesterday when i was still sleeping. "There is Pacific Golden Plover still present at Pyhtää" I jumped up and after 10minutes i was waiting at the bus stop a ride.
I was actually too quick, and i had waited 13 minutes when Jände arrived.. In the car was also my grandpa and he´s friend Helena. We gave them a ride to our summerhouse witch was about half a way to Pyhtää.
We arrived to the Plover place about 1 hour later and bird was gone... There was few people watching the area but nothing... We met Jändes old friend Seppo Sarvanne there and most of the time we just talked about birds and other things.. After an hour i put negative update to the alarm system "Pacific Golden Plover, pyhtää, nothing after morning" This was my second failure about this specie..

Place where the bird was found..

Soon Jände had to go to work so i got ride to home and i decided to go Finnå again.
I took only binoculars and camera and i stated to walk the area. I walked to the East-side tower and when i looked to the lake i was sure that im watching Little Grebe! It´s nice specie here and i was happy. I knew that there was some sightings about the Little Grebe earlier, so maybe that helped me to ID it.
Other birds were normal boring as usual but one weird thing was that Tufted Duck female had still 4 very little nestlings. Maybe it´s second brood for the year.

Female Wigeon had also few youngsters.

Northern Shoveler.

Tufted Duck female.

After Finnå i went to the Maari bird-tower. There was few people and some older guy shoved me a nice flock of 13 Red Knots! Most of my Red Knot sightings are migrating birds but it´s nice to see flock like this, standing on the meadow.

Red Knots.

There was also good numbers of other Calidris-waders. Dunlin 98, Little stint 1 and Curlew Sandpiper 3.

This Hobby mixed the meadow totally. Every wader jumped in to the air.

When i was leaving, i mentioned about the Little Grebe to the older guy, and he immediately said that it´s Slavonian Grebe and there was many twitchers who watched Slavonian as a Little.. I was quite sure what i saw earlier and i did not even know that you can mixed up with those two species..
The suspicion grew and i had to go back and check this bird again.
I took now only my telescope and binoculars. I checked the whole lake and i saw only one Slavonian...
Maybe it is possible to mix up these two different looking birds...
I could stop thinking that how many twitcher haves this Slavonian in their year or lifer list as a Little Grebe :)
I got nice lesson about Grebes now and maybe next time i know what specie it is..
How sad.... hah. Next time better birds please!


Best

-Tomppa-

Ruokolahti Summer house 27-29.7.2012

We had very nice weekend at Sarinas mother´s summer house.
Ruokolahti is in South-East Finland and there was about 3,5 hour drive. On the road i saw few Kestrels, one Hobby and other common birds of course.
Most of the weekend i tried to have some photos of Black-throated Divers but all the time those magnificent birds were too far away... I had couple shots of flying bird and some distance shots but that´s all..

Black-throated Diver.

Flock of 5 Divers.

There were no many birds but many was unexpected.
I had one Three-toed Woodpecker near the summer house, few Hazel Grouses, two Honey Buzzards, at least two Greenish Warblers, 3 European Nightjahrs and one Ural Owl when i was driving back home. Owl was actually sitting quite open, but Sarina was little bit pissed about something what i said, so i did not have the courage to stop the car... :)
Here is some photos of from the summer house.

Some bug.

Sunset at the lake.

Lesser Black-bagged Gull.

Mallard steps.

As you can see, there wasn´t many birds showing well, so photos are from common birds... Sarina said later that i could have stop the car when i saw the Owl, but how i can know... Next time maybe.
Sorry for a late post... Now i have rest of the week off work, so i have time to watch some birds.


Best.

-Tomppa-