A County First

I've been continuing to search for Pallid Harriers now that we are in season but without massive success...except from my very own garden it seems.

Pallid Harrier.

Returning home from the morning kindergarten run, I decided to scan over the lake and was lucky enough to pick up a soaring juvenile Pallid Harrier quite close.

Pallid Harrier - nice and slim

I ran back to the car to grab my scope, but upon my return to the lake, the bird had moved to the far side of the lake. Nonetheless, I had good prolonged views as it made it's way East.

I've been birding Siuntio and Inkoo in my search for Pallids, but limited to short trips, I haven't been able to put in any long stake outs of the usual sites. Nonetheless, I'm surprised I haven't connected with more birds, as usually this route will have several Pallids at this time of year. 

Arriving at Myrans on Friday evening, several birders already in situ informed me that they had little luck with any interesting raptors.

Noting a tractor ploughing one of the fields, with a large flock of gulls feeding, I made my way over to these.

This paid off massively, finding the first county record of Caspian Gull for Siuntio. 

Caspian Gull - Juvenile

The bird showed reasonably well, though heat haze was playing havoc with getting images, at times however, passing cloud cover damped the haze down enough for me to see finer details. The bird soon lifted, moving to the back of the field, down behind a rise, and I didn't see it again.

Maybe 10/15 minutes viewing time in total.

Underwing - these videograbs don't give the true impression. Whilst the underwing was beginning to pale up nicely, it was still quite beautifully barred. The tail was perfectly classic.

The following day, I was back down at Myrans, again hoping to see some Pallids. This was not to be, though a cracking Juv Calidus Peregrine gave good views as it hunted the area.

I then carried on south towards Inkoo, checking suitable harrier habitat and gull flocks on fields as I went.

As I turned down to the Sunnanvik spruce, I saw another gull flock on a road adjacent field and so stopped to check them.

Imagine my surprise when confronted with the same Caspian Gull as the previous evening! The viewing now, however, was far superior.

Caspian Gull - Juvenile - a classic bird in most respects, but with an interesting bill shape, making it instantly recognisable as the same individual from Myrans. Just look at those coverts and tertials. Delicious. Yes. I'm calling a juv gull delicious.

This is only the second "non refuse related" Caspian Gull I've found here.

Siuntio is, for all intents and purposes, a land-locked, agricultural county, save for the tiniest strip that meets the sea in the south. Not that this matters in terms of finding gulls, as being coastal just isn't a factor in finding gulls here (I've had as much success up in Tampere as anywhere else). 

And so the big factor is food. That said, I'm amazed a Caspian hasn't been found in the county before now, the late season ploughing being an annual attraction for gulls. 

It really speaks to the lack of a gull culture here (at least relative to Ireland). 

On the first evening, at Myrans, of the 3-4 raptor watchers at the usual watchpoint, only one made a move down to where I was to attempt to connect with the gull.

On the second day, despite many birders having visited the famous Sunnanvik spruce (a well known raptor spot), it would seem the gulls were not checked (at least one birder mentioned they didn't bother with them anyway). 

Regardless, I'm delighted with my first county record, which allows me to catch up with my wife's first county record of Red-Crested Pochard in Lohja a few years back (not that we are competitive or anything...)

Migration has been excellent all in all, with big numbers of Tree Pipits and Yellow Wagtails moving, and good numbers of Red-Throated Pipit, including a few over the garden.

The garden star addition was a low flying Rustic Bunting which came tic-ing over. 

A family outing to Saltfjarden was pretty decent for migrants too, with a minimum of 3 Bluethroat on the track.

Bluethroat - migrant quality. In Lapland, you kick them out of the way, but down south, they tend to go over. This is the best time of year to come across them 

Red-Backed Shrike has also been moving in good numbers.

Red-Backed Shrike - Juvenile - always classy, even if extremely common here.

A good scarcity in the form of Lapland Bunting, 3 birds, over the tower was also a nice find.

Lapland Bunting

A pretty damn decent weekend of Birding.