Christmas Crackers

I've always enjoyed Christmas day birding.

In Ireland this used to involve a few hours mooching around north Dublin, a good way to work up an appetite for the crimbo dindins, but only rarely with birds of note.

In Finland, Christmas day is still a birding staple for me, but with the dinner and family stuff mostly done on Christmas Eve, we have the full day to enjoy birds that would send a dub into a rabid twitching frenzy.

It was a beautiful morning and the sunrise was stunning.

We took off for our regular Nutcracker spot, but a roadside Hawk Owl stopped us in our tracks. 

The bird seemed settled and we had to come back by this spot later, so we carried on to the Nutcrackers. 

There was no waiting as we pulled up, with plenty of birds feeding up in Sub-Zero temperatures.

Nutcrackers - Stunning birds.

The usual suspects were also present, Willow Tit, Crested Tit and Great Spotted and Black Woodpeckers.

Crested Tit - I adore these little guys, but they're hoors to phonescope. Both these and Willow tit are exceptionally shy at the feeder, rarely staying longer than a second to grab a peanut, then gone. 

Great Spotted Woodpecker

From here it was on to Myrans, taking a quick peek at the Hawk Owl, but saving it for last.

Yep, still there. See ya later.

We pulled up at Myrans where a flock of distant Redpoll were present. Even across the field you could see there was one or two Arctic types in with them. 

Spot the Arctics. Dodgy barely presentable phone scopage.

Arctics are not exactly rare down south, any decent sized flock often has one or two, with some years being better than others, but they're not a "species" I can bring myself to chase after. 

A Great Grey Shrike was sitting watching us from the other side of the field, and a White Tailed Eagle was hunting around the area also.

We then came across a small flock of Linnet, and chased em down, as a Twite had been here recently. The birds landed close to us and sure enough, there was indeed a nice Twite with them. They sadly perched against bad light for photos.

It was then back to the Hawk Owl, which performed beautifully for us. 

Hawk Owl - The best bird in the universe, but this one was particularly stunning, actively perch hunting along a tree line and giving amazing flight views as it moved up and down. 

A superb Christmas Cracker day's birding.