Hel Hath No Birdies

It was time to visit the Hämeenkyrö mökki, north of Tampere. This would mean a weekend of singing Curlews and Corncrake in the grasslands and gulls on the dump. I set out early on Saturday morning for the dump east of Tampere, stopping off at my beloved Sarkkila on the way. It was pretty quiet here, surprisingly, with just a singing Thrush Nightengale below the main tower and no water birds of note on the lake. This showy Common Crane with it's glaring pale eye was nice though, seemingly oblivious to me on the tower, and a single Corncrake sang from the fields behind the tower. On to the dump, where I found a line of cars waiting to get in. Clearly the lads had had a heavy Friday night, so I mooched around the scrub and settling ponds whilst I waited. Rakes of Common Rosefinch were singing along the fence and a couple of pairs of Little Ringed Plover eyed me from the ponds, as did a single Temmincks stint.  When the dump opened I drove in, starting at the main buildings, lots of gu...

It was a busy weekend of socializing, meaning any birding I managed had to be snatched here and there. With most of Saturday booked up with indulgent barbeque (the weather is too good not to partake in the Finnish obsession with grilled meat), I set out early for Porkkala. My targets were Red Breasted Flycatcher and Greenish warbler, both of which are now in (though Greenish are not in full strength yet). I was successful with a few Red Breasted singing along the road at "moose meadow" but failed to find any singing Greenish (yet). This beautiful male Red Breasted Flycatcher gave a wonderful performance, singing from stumps relatively low down for them, in an area of flooded forest. Absolutely stunning bird. Red Breasted Flycatcher is one of those birds that I still cannot believe I get to see on such a regular basis, and is one of my favorite species here, especially when they look like this. Red Breasted Flycatcher - not the most red breasted you can get, but still a little...

It was kind of a 3 day weekend, with Thursday off for Ascension day. Lots of birds had over the course of the 3 days, especially in terms of inbound Passerines, but with the heat involved, up at 28 degrees in some places (Helsinki was the hottest location in Europe over the past few days), things got very hazy, very quickly, making phonescoping difficult.  So hot out!! Milk was a bad choice! Pure blue skies made viz migging very tough and I encountered virtually zero soaring species the whole time. Thursday I made a morning trip to Laajalahti. I was in the mood for some waders and was rewarded with nice views of my first Temmincks stint of the year, Little Ringed Plovers, Ruff, Wood Sandpiper, Bar Tailed Godwit, and Spotted Redshank. Barwits - decent scarce wader here Of course, the old reliable monsters, Caspian terns, were in situ. Always incredible. My first Common Rosefinch of the year was singing away near Maarintorni, and a Penduline tit flicked through briefly. Spotted Crake...