The Surge

Saturday was an atrocious day not even worth talking about. Persistent heavy showers meant it wasn't worth venturing out.

Sunday was a different matter however, with beautiful sunshine and a real sense of energy and movement to birding.

An early morning walk with Kuura produced a juv Redstart, the first I've seen in weeks, and a good number of Blackcap, a sign the rain had an effect.

We set out for Saltfjarden where migration was in full swing. Cranes were moving over in droves as were a variety of Raptors.

The sense of motion that comes with migration here is something truly incredible, lacking in the migration season in Ireland, with the possible exception of seabird movement.




There's something amazing about how Cranes simply hang in the air like that. The graceful sight of a flock of thermal riding Cranes is one of the best things about this time of year.

Notable among the birds moving were a good number of juv Honey Buzzards, spectacular looking beasts.

Lots of Sparrowhawk and the odd Goshawk, White Tailed Eagles and Marsh Harriers, and a single Osprey also made an appearance.

I then picked up an adult Peregrine which hung around giving excellent views. This bird showed what seemed to be a distinctly hooked rear hood and a generally pale appearance, perhaps suggesting calidus.






I subsequently picked up a juvenile Peregrine headed west, a pretty decent haul for Saltfjarden.

As I was leaving for lunch, a magnificent full adult male Pallid Harrier buzzed over the car and made a beeline south. A dream of a bird. You can't beat adult male Pallid Harriers. One of the greatest looking birds on the planet.

After lunch in the local cafe, we made for Bole. A brief 15-20 watch here was excellent, producing a gorgeous make Rough Legged Buzzard, another juv Pallid Harrier, several Honey Buzzards, a dozen or so Marsh Harrier and a single Black Woodpecker.

It was then off to the in laws, where an evening walk around Suomenoja allotments produced a late Red Backed Shrike, Tree Pipit and the usual migrant chiffs.
A very enjoyable few hours of crammed birding.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Finnish Focus On...Taiga And Tundra Bean Geese

Image
Have been meaning to write a post on Tundra and Taiga Bean Goose identification for a while now. Wildfowl are my guilty pleasure. I've always enjoyed looking for them. The escape issue turns a lot of people off them. Grey geese can turn people off further still. Since moving to Finland, being able to spend long hours in the field watching both types of Bean Goose has been a joy, especially considering how rare they are in Ireland.  Tundra Bean Geese are the far commoner species to occur here, making them the easier to photograph and so a good place to start. Tundra Bean Goose Tundra Bean Goose - careful assessment of structure is most important when identifying bean geese. Whilst there are size differences between the smaller Tundra and larger Taiga, this plays out most obviously in their structure and shape. Both species, rear on, can be extremely difficult to pick apart without the structural clues visible. The head and bill structure are crucial in Bean Goose identification. Thi...
Read more

How To Be A Rarity Finder

Image
A recent statistic popped up in my various social media memories.  To date I've been birding on 4 continents, Europe, Asia, Africa and North America, and found rare birds on each of them. Pretty happy with that. 😎 So thought a post on how to go about finding rarities and importantly, how to BE a rarity finder was worth throwing up. They may sound like the same thing, but I have different views on both. One is methodology. The other is an outlook. Combine the best of both and you will achieve your goals. First up, the Methodology . 1. KNOW YOUR BIRDS This is an obvious one (though people may have different perceptions on what this takes.)  It stands to reason though, that to find a Lesser Yellowlegs as a vagrant, you're going to have to know what a Redshank looks like (in all plumages)...and Greenshank ...and Wood Sandpiper ...and then...just to be really fecking sure... Greater Yellowlegs, Stilt Sandpiper and Marsh Sandpiper too. Lesser Yellowlegs - I've found 6 Lesser...
Read more

Racism and Bigotry in Birding

Image
It's hard to pick up a newspaper these days and not read about something the new moniker "alt-right" are up to. The rise of racism to more mainstream levels is undeniable. Do we, as birders, need to have this discussion though? Do we know it's out there, among us? I'm pretty sure we do. It's tempting to believe the best about yourself, and this extrapolates to ourselves as a group; as birders. It's tempting to believe that the hobby of birding, taking place in nature, with a holistic, interconnected view of nature, would not harbour backwards, ignorant, scumbag neanderthals, that would discriminate on the basis of colour, creed, ethnicity, sex or sexual preference...over the past two years I've learned, sadly, that this temptation would lead you to the wrong conclusion. Birding, like any other microcosm of humanity, has it's share of these regrettable people. When I say over the past two years, I mean, perhaps, I have been just as ...
Read more