Hel Hath No Birdies

White Backed Woodpecker. My favorite European species of woodpecker, though I do often wonder if that is solely down to it having been a bogey bird of mine for so long (missed them in Turkey and Hungary). However, every encounter with them reminds me it's not just that. They truly are beautiful birds in and of themselves. They are a bird on the increase here in Finland, which can only be a good thing, and like most Woodpecker species, are prone to influxes at times. A couple of years back, we experienced an influx of hundreds of birds, estimated I believe, to have involved 800 individuals at a minimum. I was amazed this didn't really hit the Birding headlines in Europe. It was certainly on the agenda here. The unique combination of plumage features make White Backed an easy enough species to ID. The problem with finding them stems more from their shy nature and their habit of often feeding on fallen trees on the ground. Getting to see birds in the hand, like this on

This weekend was taken up with various social comittments,but did have some birding highlights. The first easily accessible Hawk Owl in the city limits popped up close to where we had to be on Saturday, so we made a predictable stop. A typical time of year for these birds to start turning up, as the long nights, which are dark and full of terrors, draw in, they make a welcome treat for the shortening days. An incredibly confiding individual, this bird was sat in the middle of an apartment complex, happily hunting mice in between the various twitchers. Hopefully it stays faithful to the area, making it a convenient stop off over the winter. Hawk Owl remains and will always remain the best bird in the universe. Magical creature. Pretty decent individual for Lyra's first owl.       This bird was hunting pretty successfully, engaging in the typical behaviour of stashing a catch for later consumption.   An absolutely pr

This weekend, Father's day fell here in Finland.  With it being my first Father's day, we had planned a family weekend down in Turku and it wasn't looking like there would be much time for birding, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing considering the drizzly weather. On Saturday I managed a couple of hours around Topinoja dump, but being closed, I was forced to watch from a pathway on the outside. There was a couple of interesting looking birds, including a 2nd Winter Caspian Gull candidate, and a very late juv Baltic Gull. Baltic Gull - a tiny and very distinctive individual There was also your usual "unusual" birds. This bird had me scratching my head. The head and bill profile was incredible looking. This too was an interesting individual. Tail pattern was very Caspian looking. On Sunday, a Lesser Whitefronted Goose was fortuitously found close to Turku and it was time to twitch. This is a species whic