Hel Hath No Birdies

It's been a pretty good winter for Woodpeckers. As with all things, you see cycles and ups and downs, and whilst nothing along the lines of the mega influx a few years back, where hundreds were recorded in southern Finland, a dozen or more White-Backed Woodpeckers around the capital is nothing to be sniffed at. There have been two at my old patch of Laajalahti, both of which I've seen over the past few weeks, however these have often been very high up in the old growth trees.  A couple more present at Laurinlahti were present, closer to home, in a smaller section of woodland with lower trees for guaranteed better viewing, so I spent a bit of time here. It didn't take me long to connect with this charming female, as she booted a Great Spotted off the feeder and dominated the area for several minutes. White-Backed Woodpecker - female - My favourite Woodpecker species. A beautiful combination of black, white and a more subdued red than Great Spotted.   ...

I always like this time of year. It's usually more time off as I take unused holidays in the prep for Christmas and often there's some nice winter birding to be had. This year looks like it's lining up to be a "musta joulu", a black Christmas, what the Finns call wet, miserable "Irish" Christmases as opposed to the crisp, sunny white one like last year. Nonetheless I seem to have chanced upon some of the better days of weather. I headed to the Nutcracker feeder the other day both for the sheer enjoyment of them and more testing of the new phone camera.  Nutcracker - taken with the OnePlus 7T Pro' 48 megapixel camera. When birds are close enough you can just use the full size sensor. Pretty good.  I adore Nutcrackers. I have to say they're definitely up high on the list of my favourite birds here. Truly exotic to an Irish birder, striking and attractive and full of character. Some may be tempted to write ...