Being Sociable

It's been a long hot Summer, one which recently saw overlapping visits from friends and family.

A bit of equipment upgrade, switching to my new Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra has been consuming my birding of late, especially as I have (finally) after years of phonescoping hand-held, switched to using a custom Phoneskope case for my Swarovski ATX. 



Professional

Time to practice with it has been limited, though taking the aforementioned guests out for a spot of Finnish birding allowed for good testing conditions. 




My initial test was handheld with distant Black-Throated Divers at full 70x zoom on the scope. Despite being a new device and software with all the associated quirks, I was amazed at the level of detail the camera could bring out. 



Some time later I got to test it with the new adapter on my local Red-Backed Shrike family. Again the level of detail was absolutely superb, and the images required very little editing. The video functions are also excellent.



Taking my old friend, Ciarán Smyth, out for a bit of Finnish birding was great fun and allowed for more practice. July is not exactly the best time of year to go after Finnish woodland specialties, but nonetheless we enjoyed birds like Hazel Grouse and Black Woodpecker.



Birding from the top of Sunds tower

A visit to Laajalahti allowed for some wader and tern Phoneskoping.


Little Ringed Plover - juvs make great test subjects. Lots of subtle fine detail to appreciate.







Temminck's Stint - always a nice species to show visiting Irish birders. A species Ciarán and I ticked together way back when, at Tacumshin, in the company of Pectoral and Buff-Breasted Sandpipers, and a juvenile Dotterel.






Caspian Tern - another iconic species, always appreciated by visitors.

Ciarán was then sent on his way north to watch Bears, Wolves and Wolverine (hopefully we will see mouth watering photos in due course) as well as Lapland speciality birds we provided sites for.



Siberian Jay - That's how it's done.

The parental units then arrived and time was spent up at Hämeenkyrö. A birding trip to the dump produced Goshawk and Baltic Gulls, but little else of note.

Common Cranes on the grasslands did provide for some good test subjects however.



Back down south, myself and the old man made a morning trip to Laajalahti to take in the various migrating waders and Caspian Terns.

Thundery showers had dropped a plethora of Wood Sandpipers and Ruff, as well as other waders.



Temminck's Stint



Spotted Redshank - adult and juvenile


Green Sandpiper 


Caspian Tern - Adult and juvenile 





Things then turned rare (for an Irish birder at least) when I found an amazing Great Snipe among the gang of commons! 😯



Great Snipe - my initial views were much like this, distant and head on in the rain. I was instantly struck by that beautiful Chevron pattern on the breast, extending down to the belly.



The bird then, gradually, began to wander towards us (between all the showers). 


Great Snipe (left) - comparison with Common Snipe. Note the shorter, less attenuated body. Rounder belly/body. An incredibly different structure to common overall.





Great Snipe - note the level of marking on the flanks and vent relative to Common Snipe.



Great Snipe - the bird crossed the stream and continued towards us.








Simply gorgeous






Great Snipe - showing white tail side


White tail side










What a bird. 





Stunning - I've never seen one as well as this before. Apart from the first one I ticked (at the same location a day later in 2014 amazingly enough), most of the birds I've seen (usually annually) have been flushed from grass somewhere.


A comparison of Phoneskoped photos from 2022 and 2014. Same species, almost the same date (6th and 7th respectively) 8 years apart.









Birds like this, showing well, out in the open are always desirable and thus this sparked off a pretty big twitch. 


And of course the old man was well happy with this, and the general feast of birds.



A fantastic morning birding, and a bird I won't be forgetting any time soon. 

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