A Grey Weekend

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, Willow and Long Tailed tits all making an appearance.

From elfvik tower a few distant Goosander, Smew and cormorants were seen as was a single soaring White Tailed Eagle.


Woodpeckers were few and far between, unfortunately, with neither White Backed or Three-toed making an appearance.
Sunday I headed out west through Kirkkonummi. It was one of those days where every Great Grey Shrike you could fit into the available habitat was present, with some giving amazing roadside views.


Of course, they are horrifically shy, so getting out of the car for scoping usually results in said Shrike heading for the far side of a field, but one did give some good phonescoping time.


Great Grey Shrike - Hardy wee beasts.

Great Grey Shrikes, though pretty common around the city and surrounding countryside in winter, remain a special treat, often shining white on treetops on even the bleakest days.



A few more Black Woodpeckers, kurkakurka-ing around the place and similar behaving Grey Headed Woodpecker added themselves to the list, as did common Buzzard and more White Tailed Eagles.

Best birds of the day actually avoided being seen, when I picked up some tooting Two Barred Crossbills somewhere above the moose field woods, but despite a good scoping of the trees, I couldn't pick them up.

A pretty decent bit of birding despite poor light levels. 

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