A Return To Mökki

We haven't really spent any time at mökki since Lyra was born, save for one brief evening BBQ visit, so we decided to head out there for the weekend.

The weather forecast was dismal for Saturday, but we chanced it anyway, and aside from a couple of showers the rain held off pretty well.

We started Saturday out at Lohja dump, hoping to build on the success of my previous Caspian Gull, as well as maybe digging a Yellow Browed Warbler out of the scrub.
The bushes were empty save for a few dunnocks.

The small band of gulls on the waste buildings held nothing of note, so we moved on down to the trash pile.

15 minutes looking through the gulls here was looking like a bust, until just as we were about to move on, a striking juv Caspian gull appeared from the ether below us.
A few snaps by Hanna and then the bird was gone, back into the abyss from which it came.

Spot the difference

A yet fresh, young looking bird, just a few moulted mantle/scapular feathers, though things are quite worn in that respect.

It gave us quite the start when it suddenly appeared, as neither of us had seen it fly in. It was just there, in the middle of the concrete we had scanned over a dozen times at that point. Goes to show you have to just keep working. Scan and scan and scan until you hit gold.

From the dump we moved north towards savijärvi where we chanced upon a flock of Great White Egrets. These had apparently had news put out on Tiira as 3 birds, but we hadn't checked. 

In actuality we had 4 individuals, though we suspected there were more hiding in there. It later transpired there were 6.

Great White Egrets - GWE will always be a classic rarity for me, though I suspect by the time Lyra is able to hold binoculars of her own they will be a routine breeder here. Even in Ireland they've come a long way from when my Brother and I found Ireland's 6th at Kilcoole.

Sunday started out misty but warm with sunshine. A family dog walk turned rare when a flyover juv Peregrine (rare in Finland) made an appearance with a flock of Cranes. It appeared to be a calidus type too, so a real treat.

We then made our way south through Siuntio and Inkoo hunting after a few Pallid Harriers which had been in place, but failed to produce.

Plenty of Common Buzzard, Marsh Harrier and Osprey on the move though.

We then stopped into Saltfjarden, where a gorgeous Golden Eagle was doing the rounds.

Golden Eagle 2CY+

A spectacular bird, but a real sign of impending winter, along with several Rough Legged Buzzards seen on site that day, it had a very October feel to things.

Raptors were really moving, with lots of Marsh Harriers, Buzzards, Kestrels, Hobby, Sparrowhawk etc in the air.

We then had 2 ring tail harriers in the air but distant, one was an obvious Hen, however the second was clearly a Pallid/Monty's type. Alas, it never made a close approach, and eventually dropped behind trees, never to be seen again.

We tried the far side from the Gunnarsby viewpoint, where we had a juv Hen and an adult male Hen on view, and that was our lot for the weekend.

An excellent weekend of rarity finding and good raptor viewing.