Festive Season

The transition into December is, as usual, full of social committments, even in the age of Corona.

A family get-together down in Turku at the end of November allowed me to get a few hours birding at the local dump.

This proved to be excellent, blundering into a well timed, flushed Eagle Owl as I made my way up to the gull watching spot. 

A Caspian Gull, my latest ever in Finland, was my main target however, and this showed reasonably well as it lazed on a concrete wall.



Caspian Gull, a reasonably nice comparison with same age Herring gull in front.

Nice tertials.






As is often the case, Santa brought me a chance a December Hawk Owls.

A handy bird on Lauttasaari, albeit in -18°C , gave excellent views on a recent visit. 


That look. 






Seriously?





The Pain of taking the gloves off for this video. Absolutely excruciating.

Looking forward to the holidays at this point, and a bit of Christmas birding.

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