Hotting up

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 Crakes whipped away beneath the tower and my first swifts of the year passed along the far side of the bay.

The weekend continued in similar fashion, mostly encountering freshly arrived night singers such as Blyth's Reed Warbler and Icterine warbler, both of which even popped on to the garden list. Thrush became the 100th species we've had from the garden, and the list now stands at 106 species, not at all bad after just a couple of months, and with plenty of obvious gaps to tick off yet. 

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