Hel Hath No Birdies

2017 was a great year, chocabloc full of highlights, almost too many to detail, but will go through a few anyway. Wedding Under our written contract I must, of course, point out that marrying the most beautiful woman in the world was, naturally the biggest highlight of the year. We even managed some birding whilst doing so. A few self found rarities We managed to find a few good birds during the year, including a county first Red Crested Pochard, a county second Woodchat Shrike, and a spring Red Footed Falcon. A dream bird   The convenient choice of Hamburg as my brother's stag venue, meant connection with Black Browed Albatross, a life long dream bird. Costa Rica Our honeymoon choice of Costa Rica meant we encountered hundreds of new lifers, but I was particularly taken with the Toucans and Hummingbirds. Resplendent Quetzal Fiery Billed Aracari Chestnut Mandibled Toucan Emer...

I found myself back in Viiki today, half hoping to find that Tengmalm's Owl in daylight.  An arctic redpoll was my best find, however the Eastern Black Redstart was finally showing during the day, much to the delight of the camera jockeys. Much better viewing today. What a stunner! A superb bit of colour in mid Winter!

An interesting redstart was found a few days ago in Viiki. I had attempted to see it previously, but this bird is only being seen leaving roost early in the morning or returning in late evening, often being twitched under streetlights. I didn't fancy seeing it like that, and today was the only day I was able to go late afternoon and coinciding with good weather. I showed up around 3 p.m and after half an hour wait it showed well to the masses, approaching the waiting birders to within 5 meters. Low light levels meant any digiscoping was of generally poor quality...well...worse than I usually produce anyway. Seeing this cracking little chat reminded me of re-locating the Tacumshin Bluethroat, many years ago, and forcing birders to wade across the forgotten corner at speed before dusk fell. Eastern Black Redstart - I don't think my shots will be solving any wing formula equations. The Finns seem pretty happy with it. I'll be sure to do some r...

The weather forecast had been unpleasant for today, however as the sun rose we could see that the predicted sleet and dampness had not materialized, so we scrambled to do a bit of birding near the cabin. A roving flock of Redpolls first thing outside the cabin door had all 3 varieties, Lesser, Mealy and Arctic, to start us off. From here we moved via the back roads towards nummi-pusula seeing plenty of Great Grey Shrikes as we went. Our usual Dipper site had water levels which were too high to accommodate any dippers so we moved on around the fields. Great Grey Shrikes were again on the menu and it was another one of those days where any bit of suitable habitat seemed to hold one. Reaching saukkola with not much other than a billion Shrikes to show for it, I decided to make for Savijärvi bird tower. It would be unlikely that the lake would hold anything this time of year, but what the hell, it's a nice area all the same. As we rounded a corner and saw the t...

Like many, I imagine, the weekend before Christmas was devoted mainly to preparations for next weekend, however I did manage to nab a few hours birding on Sunday. I opted for a nearby Hawk Owl, just up the road. I had tried for this bird before with no success, but this time I had the assistance of a gang of cranky Jay's, giving the birds presence away in a line of spruce.    Those eyes! Hawk Owl - Best Bird in the Universe A juv. male Goshawk did a fly by also, and a distant Great Grey Shrike was on the other side of the fields. On the way back I stumbled across a garden with feeders, and was surprised to find a flock of some 20 Brambling here, as well as a few Chaffinch. The, so far, mild winter has allowed these species to overwinter in more appreciable numbers than most years. Brambling are always a joy to watch. 

At this time of year, as we close in towards the solstice, daylight hours become short and your choice of where to go birding becomes important. You don't always get the choice to cover a lot of ground, and this can become exacerbated by increased cloud cover. This weekend was warm and dry, but heavily overcast, so I wasn't prepared to drive too far for birding. Saturday I spent on patch strolling around the woods at Villa Elfvik. Almost immediately into my walk I spotted a familiar shape on a branch, my first on patch Pygmy Owl of the Winter (mostly because I haven't spent too much time here of late). This bird was annoyingly brief. It gave good, close, bins views for a couple of minutes, but as I slung my scope off my back for some digiscoping, it left it's perch, flying right by my face and off through the woods. Despite a good search I didn't pick it up again. The usual suspects where mooching around the woods, with Black Woodpecker, Crested, Will...

Saturday was a beautiful day, but due to Christmas party festivities the previous evening I was a little on the late side getting out to enjoy it. No real agenda in place, I intended to mooch through north Espoo, across the north of the city and into Viiki. Snow the previous evening meant the countryside was looking well and had good light for birding. A convenient roadside Goshawk at the start made for a good stop. This 2nd CY+ male was sat in the middle of a small, flooded swamp being mobbed frequently by a less than happy Great Grey Shrike. Goshawk - 2nd CY+ Male Great Grey Shrike - Balls of steel As perched and settled Goshawk is a statistically rare occurrence, I spent a good bit of time with this bird. Good thing too, as I then managed to pick up a fly by Hawk Owl which went through the marsh and off towards the forest on the other side, just one of many Hawkies in the city this winter. The Gos, a fairly small male as they...

Hawk Owl. The Best Bird in the Universe. Hawkies are simply the business. No argument can be produced or countenanced to the contrary. Like with Pygmy Owl, their diurnal habits make them a lot more attainable than the nocturnal species, but their size and tendency to sit prominently on wires, treetops etc make them even more obvious than the aforementioned Pygmies. This in no way, however, reduces their desirability or awesomeness. They are simply stunning birds.   Hawk Owl has a range of facial expressions, varying between quizzical and outright menace. It's hard to feel anything, whist watching them, other than that they have utter disdain for you. It's part of their overwhelming charm.  Hawk Owl is often exceptionally tame around the city, at times completely ignoring members of the public who walk up to them and stick even a camera phone directly in their face, as I and visiting friends...