Father's Day Surprise

This weekend, Father's day fell here in Finland. 

With it being my first Father's day, we had planned a family weekend down in Turku and it wasn't looking like there would be much time for birding, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing considering the drizzly weather.

On Saturday I managed a couple of hours around Topinoja dump, but being closed, I was forced to watch from a pathway on the outside.

There was a couple of interesting looking birds, including a 2nd Winter Caspian Gull candidate, and a very late juv Baltic Gull.

Baltic Gull - a tiny and very distinctive individual

There was also your usual "unusual" birds.

This bird had me scratching my head. The head and bill profile was incredible looking.

This too was an interesting individual. Tail pattern was very Caspian looking.

On Sunday, a Lesser Whitefronted Goose was fortuitously found close to Turku and it was time to twitch. This is a species which I really should have made more of an effort for over the years. I had never bother to head north and get them during the breeding season, or headed to eastern Europe in winter. A couple of visits to Estonia in migration season had failed to connect (not easy to predict there), and so being close by to a bird like this was too big an opportunity to miss.

And what a bird! As readers of this blog will now be aware, I do like geese, and this is an Iconic species for an Irish birder. If you were to read the Wexford Wildfowl Reserve website Here you would be heavily mislead. Ireland has only ever had one, nearly half a century ago.

With the poor level of continental goose occurrence (Bean, Euro White Fronted etc) it is probably quite unlikely there will ever be another carried over either, though one can dream. And so in many ways this bird was a dream come true for me.

It was delightfully easy too, present in a small roadside flock of Whooper Swan, with just a single European Whitefront for company. Simples. No scanning through hordes of Pink billed greaters. No driving round masses of fields hoping to locate flocks.

 

Head and bill shape and upper parts pattern comparison with Euro Whitefront.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Absolutely stunning! 

 

Incredible bird - Look at that eyering! Just look at it!

 

After about an hour absorbing the bird, I made my way back to Topinoja dump. There were still plenty of gulls around, despite it being a Sunday, but I did not get much time with them here before they were flushed by a big juv female Goshawk, who made a play for a juv Herring gull.

It was amazing to watch an aerial dogfight ensue as the Gos simply would not give up on it's intended lunch, and the Herring gull showed surprising agility in the air, weaving and cartwheeling expertly, before eventually being forced to the ground. Once both were on the deck it was a stalemate and the Gos left hungry.

The gos had had a devastating effect, however, as I could see the hundreds of gulls making their way to Åvik reservoir for a wash/drink, so I made my way there. This worked out well, as the birds were a bit more viewable here, and I was able to pull out a few Caspian Gulls from the flock.

All in all an excellent weekend, despite the dull drizzle. 

Having kids pays off I guess!