Hel Hath No Birdies

I was delighted to hear of the endeavour of Steve Wing to write and publish a new book on the natural history of Cape Clear. Cape Clear – Holy Ground The Chief Author, Steve Wing – Doing his thing. Receiving a mass email from Steve looking to promote the book, I asked if I could review it in advance, publishing the review to the Irish Rare and Scarce Birding Group as I had done for various other publications over the past couple of years. Steve kindly obliged, providing me with an electronic draft. I delved straight in. Like most Irish birders, I love Cape. I have done ever since my very first visit in 1999, when myself and my old friend Ciarán Smyth stayed on the island for a week of August seawatching, in what seems now to have been an opportune period in the last heydays of Cape seawatching from the legendary Blannan.   80’s vibe on Blannan The book begins with an introduction and guide to the island, specifically for birders, invaluable for any new...

Back up to the Hämeenkyrö mökki for a long weekend, and I took the chance to nip down to Tarastenjärvi today. Lots of gulls in situ, as you would expect for this time of year, with plenty of pristine juv Baltic Gull around. Amazing how white and contrasting some of these beauties can be. And at the same time, how dark some can be.  Plenty of adults also, obviously, and one or two sub-adults. Elegant  A bit grottier Whilst sorting through the various gulls, I twigged an interesting head at the back of the group. Hello there...move please. Thank you. That will do. It was a rather striking and beautiful Caspian gull. I've realized, after putting in many hours at Lohja, that we were perhaps a bit spoiled for numbers of Casps last year, this year being a poorer showing. Consequently I spent plenty of time with this one (and rainy weather meant raptors were off the cards). Well.. except for a Goshawk which caused some trouble for a few minutes, though not as much trouble as this recent J...