Ruskaretki

Finns love their autumn colours, and in Finland they are, in fairness, something to behold, so with the first "free" weekend with zero plans or social engagements in memory, we took the opportunity to head out to mökki for the first time in months.

We arrived late Friday evening to the sound of at least 4 Black Woodpeckers calling around the lake, one of which did a close flyby, close enough to hear it's wings. Demonic monsters.

Saturday morning we set off for Turku, visiting Hanna's brother for the day.

Before heading to Turku itself we stopped off at Topinoja dump. I had seen pics over the years of various gulls and always seemed worth a visit.



You know that fella that always watches you birding, wondering what the hell you're doing?

This pristine juv Baltic gull (1 of several) was the best on offer. Crisp.

After this we picked up Hanna's brother and went walking on ruissalo. 

Ruissalo is known as the best site for Hawfinch in Finland, a superb, large tract of deciduous woodland. A short walk into the woods and we saw some flicking around the treetops.

Hawfinch - this one is from my garden. Hawfinch is reasonably scarce, but increasing nicely. Somewhere in the region of 1500 pairs in southern Finland up from a little over 100 in the 80s. 

Plenty of the typical forest species also present in these woods, with good views of both Crested and Willow tit. 

Sunday morning was spent around the cabin. The likely last views of the lake's Black Throated Divers this year and the first Goosander flock was in situ.

In the local countryside, Grey Headed Woodpecker and Jays were in abundance as were flocks of Long Tailed Tits.

This is the best time of year to come across these white headed fluff balls.

Caudatus Long Tailed Tit. How stunning are these things?

It's also a good time of year to see Hazel Grouse with a few males singing in the area. The song is pretty unique, sounding more like some small mammal off in the woods.

Hazel Grouse - Male

In my humble opinion, Hazel Grouse is the best looking gamebird species in Europe. Such an intricate and ornate plumage. Absolute stunners.

From the cabin we tipped our way back east towards Helsinki, taking in myrans on the way.

An adult male Rough Legged Buzzard was hovering around the fields, which were chocabloc full of migrating finches including good numbers of Brambling.

A brief walk around Suomenoja late afternoon finished off the day. A long tailed duck on the pools themselves was as unusual as it got, with just a few Chiffchaff in the scrub.

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