Baltic Gulls And Other Tales Of Woe

I was reduced to more dump birding this weekend. Awful, awful stuff. 

A trip up to Hämeenkyrö, to harvest the orchard, meant I would again get to pop into Tampere dump.

There had been a few Caspian gulls over the past couple of weeks, and it's prime season for birds on the move, so I was hopeful of seeing or finding a few of my own

I failed miserably of course, simply down to the sheer numbers of birds present. 

I've never managed to visit this dump in September before, so had no idea of the scale of numbers present.

Just one bird had been seen over the past week, so was a needle in a haystack, but also I failed to note any new individuals, so unlucky all round. 

I did rather enjoy the pristine juv Baltic Gulls present in numbers. Crisp, monochrome little things. It probably didn't help that these were here to distract me.

They have a lot of character at this age. Petite and elegant.

Adults were also abundant, attractive as ever.

It always surpises me how few sub-adult Baltic gulls you see here. Where do these birds spend their summer? This was one of just 2 I noted.

Plenty of good old yellow legged Omissus Herring gulls were also present.

These are the real deal. Not the occasional off-pink, yellow tinged herrings that sometimes pop up in Ireland. These have zero ambiguity to them. Corn-yellow leggage.

There was also the odd monstrosity present. Look at the undertail and coverts on this beast. Could cause a mild heart attack on the west coast of Ireland this winter.

The rest of the weekend was spent hunting raptors around the Sarkkila area. Plenty of Common Buzzard on the move, with the odd juv Honey moving too, rakes of Kestrel and Sparrowhawk and a couple of White Tailed Eagle and Osprey. 

Harriers were in good numbers also, though amazingly all Hen Harriers. I don't think I've ever encountered such a number of Hen Harriers, localized in one area, and not produced any Pallid with them. 

Distant female Hen Harrier

The best of the rest was rescuing this baby Common Toad. Trapped in the bathroom drain, he was facing a slow death through starvation. 

The clever men at Oxford, know all that there is to be knowed, but they none of them know half as much as intelligent Mr. Toad. - this one was perhaps not so clever. 

Freedom

Common Toad is, as the name suggests, quite common here, however I don't see many of them. We have yet to encounter one in the garden, and my experience of them is mostly limited to avoiding squishing the odd big one whilst driving in Spring. This was a treat to examine one up close. The texture of that skin is absolutely beautiful. Indeed, a beautiful creature all round, just requires a little appreciation, but that's easy when dealing with a creature we don't get in Ireland whatsoever.