Birding around. 4-8.5.2013

Quite much birding lately. Some twitching and some trips around my normal places.
4th of May i had nice walk in Suomenoja with many Ducks and other common birds. Surprisingly i found Jack Snipe from there. It took off just before i get my camera ready. Nice tick for me.
Later i had raptor watch in Haltiala but sadly there were no raptors.. Okay, one Common Buzzard and one Sparrow Hawk. Better birds were two White Storks wit i found about 5km distance. I even got one photo trough my telescope!

Female Pochard this time. 

Male Goldeneye.

Here is my great photo of White Stork.

Black dot in the middle is stork! 

Next birding was at 6th when i twitched Lesser White-fronted Goose from Hyvinkää. Not much fun and it was quick visit. I also had first Thrush Nightingale for the year.

On 7th i went twice in Maari bird tower where i had lot´s of Waders. First Temminck´s Stint for the year.
Lot´s of Spotted Redshanks, Ruffs, and other birds. Also Water Rail and Sedge Warbler there.

Spotted Redshank. 

Wood Warbler. 

Today i went firs to Lauttasaari where i twitched Collared Dove witch is very nice specie here. Only voice this time, but i maybe try to get some photos later.
After Dove i went to Vanhankaupunginlahti where i check Lammassaari bird tower. Massive invasion of Thrush Nightingales! At least 6 different birds were singing. Yesterdays Black Tern was gone (later somebody found it) but i heard some Spotted Crakes when i walked to the tower. Also Great Bittern blew into the bottle somewhere in the reeds.

Male Reed Bunting.

After tower i met Jari and we had nice visit to Pornaistenniemi hide where i saw Citrine Wagtail! Nice male bird. There was great light and perfectly calm water so we had some camera action there.

Inside of the hide. 

Common Tern. 

Double-headed Coot.

After Hide we checked Penduline Tits nest and it looks quite ready. Two birds collected nest materials around the area. I hope they managed to breed and get some cubs.

Nest. 

Penduline Tit

Later i quickly visited Maari bird tower again, but nothing new there.. Nice day anyway.
Now i had to be two days in work and weekend i try to visit Viikki and Vanhankaupunginlahti again.

Sorry about so many photos and hear you soon.

P.S.
Later afternoon fter i put my blogpost here, i went to Viikki again and i saw that Black Tern :)

-Tomppa-

Terek Sandpiper and others. 3.5.2013

Today i visited quickly in Vanhankaupunginlahti and Maari bird-watching tower. Later me and Jände twitched Tereks Sandpiper in Riihimäki witch is about 70km north of Helsinki.
In Vanhankaupunginlahti i had Penduline Tit male witch had much work with hes new bag. Hope he will find some company :) I also heard nice Wood Warbler witch was also a tick for me.
After those nice birds i went to Maari bird-tower where i had nice flock of nine Spotted Redshanks, four Ruffs, eleven Wood Sandpipers and other nice, but common stuff..
I was very lazy with my camera and only photos i took was Great-spotted Woodpecker pics..

Great-spotted Woodpecker. 

Later i called Jände who was interested about Terek Sandpiper witch was in Riihimäki. After an hour drive and after some problems with google maps, we found right place.
There was some people already so finding the bird was not so hard.
First the bird was quite close but hiding all the time. Later it jumped in the air and flew across the water area little bit farther.

Trough my telescope. 

And with my camera, too far... 

The place. Nice spot by the way. 

Anyway, nice new specie on my Finish list. and of course important year tick.
Thanks Jände for company.
Next few days i had to work, so let´s see when i have time to write here.

-Tomppa-

Different locations. 2.5.2013

Today i went around Espoo and later evening i met my friend Simo. We had nice walk in Seurasaari with evening lights.
I started from Suomenoja where i had nice walk around. Common Moorhen was new tick for the year.
Lot´s of Black-headed Gulls there. I believe about 4000 birds there and something alarmed the whole flock in the air! What a sight!
My 300mm lens was way too much to take whole flock in the photo! Also 6 Slavonian Grebes, many Common Pochards, lots of Gadwalls and other stuff.

Black-headed Gulls. 

Common Pochard. 

Slavonian Grebe. 

Gadwall and Mallard.

After Suomenoja i had to go to work for a meeting. On my way i stopped in gas station where i saw Peregrine Falcon flying over the station. Always nice specie! After work i quickly visited to Maari bird-tower. One Spotted Redshank, some Redshanks, Ringed Plovers, Little Ringed Plovers, Caspian Terns and so on.
Spotted Redshank was new tick for me. Also 2cy male Pied Flycather, Redwings and one Great-spotted Woodpecker.

Woodpecker.

Like i mentioned, i had nice evening walk with Simo. Oystercatchers and lots of other common stuff in the island.

Oystercatcher.

Mew Gulls.

Barnacle Goose. 

Nice day. Few New ticks. More tomorrow.

-Tomppa-

Super ending for great weekend. 28.4.2013

Very poor morning in bird observatory. Fog was freaking dogged! Anyway we had to make some watching from the bunker and Jari put some nets on.
Some Chaffinches flied around, first Wryneck for the year passed bunker after 1,5 hour watch. Nice year tick for me.
Later me and Jari were standing in the bunker when Aki called about Ring Ouzel. Quickly we found the bird sitting on a tree in south-side forest. Guys called to Aatu who´s collecting eco year-ticks. Later all of us saw the bird and it seemed that bird was stayed in small area. Petteri proposed that we could catch the bird.
So we make some efforts to chase it in the net. After 40minutes it finally succeeded!
And what a beauty it was! 2cy Female.

Pepe and Aki with the bird.

What a bird ! 

This nice Greenfinch was also in the net. 

Later we cleaned the house and when people did something, Pepe found two White Storks flying very close to station. Nice station ticks for Jari and Pepe and lifer for Hanna.
We left about at 2 pm and our first stop was in Hanko where we twitched nice male Collared Flycatcher!
Second lifer for Hanna and great yer-tick for me.

Collared Flycatcher.

This is always nice specie. 

Some couple found male Subalpine Warbler yesterday from Espoo and that was my biggest target for the day. I drove quite fast from Hanko and when we arrive to the Lukupuro in Espoo, there was many people checking the bird.
We found it quickly and i got some photos of it.

Subalpine Warbler, male. 

Little bit closer. 

What a great bird. It get some food from the undergrowth and it looked very healthy.
This was only 32th record from Finland, so it´s true rarity here.
Great end for the weekend i think!
Thank you Jari, Pepe, Aatu, Aki, Hanna, Dick, and others who had great time with me this weekend.

See you soon.

-Tomppa-