Covid Catch Up

It's been a busy time in quarantine.
Working from home arguably gives you less time, especially when you have a 2 year old destroying the place.

After my last posting, we continued at the cabin for a few days.

A nearby waterfowl site was productive, where we stumbled on 4 Bewick's Swans and a Pink Footed goose. We hadn't known these where present, and only checking Tiira subsequently did we learn there had been a Pink Foot days previously, and only two Bewick's, so decent birds to trip over, both being scarce.


Bewick's/Whooper comparison


Pink Footed Goose - with Bewick's in the background.


Bewick's Swan


Not quite mirror image.


Bewick's Swan - always smiley



Pink Footed Goose


Pink Footed Goose



Whooper Swan


Tundra Bean Geese, as always, were very obliging.









We have been actively pursuing our covid/lockdown list over the past month, now having over 90 species just from the garden.


Birds like Green Sandpiper are always special for an Irish birder who never considered them garden fodder.


However, as we're not locked down, I can still nip out to good migration sites.


Merlin is a decent scarce species here. This one was present at Pitkajärvi, along with booming Bittern and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker


Towards mid April the Grebes make their comeback. I picked up my first Red Necked Grebes on the sea down at Porkkala, where a female King Eider was also present.

The Slavonian Grebes, spectacular as always, were back in Suomenoja.



While three pairs of Great Crested Grebe are now on territory in our bay.



The first Caspian Tern of the year showed up over the garden too, but as always I took the time to appreciate them at Laajalahti. Monsters. 




Caspian Tern - Hail to the king



There were also impressive numbers of Smew present, as well as my first Little Ringed Plovers of the year.


I've been enjoying the Kalvik area for views of waterbirds over the past couple of weeks.


The marina is particularly good for views of sinensis cormorants







Goosander too can be particularly obliging here.


Hard to beat a striking male Goosander


Find migrants has been a bit on the slow side, hampered by extended period northerly winds. They have been slowly trickling through though.

A quick stop for Ring Ouzel, only my second in Finland, produced reasonable, if slightly distant views of a cracking male.

Whilst watching the rouzel, I was treated to an adult Goshawk seeing off a 2nd cal bird from their territory.






Good ID comparison



Goshawks - Choose the form of the destructor.

A decent uptick in migration was noted at the weekend, where I spent an enjoyable morning at Sundsin tower.

Divers were moving in small numbers, with Black-Throated, Red-Throated, and the real surprise, a migrating White-Billed Diver.

Raptors were also in reasonable numbers, with Kestrel, Sparrowhawk, Goshawk, White-Tailed Eagle, Common Buzzard, Rough-Legged Buzzard and Osprey all seen.

A distant kite had my pulse going, but was too distant for me to ID personally. I had to let it go, however it turns out it went by Saltfjarden, being identified as a Red Kite, so pretty decent result. 

Hopefully we will get some southerly or easterly winds soon.

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