2020 Review

What a strange year. Not a bad year, I have to say, the whole Corona thing and being at home the whole year has, from my point of view been pretty incredible (though I'm privileged to be able to say that), but it's been strange nonetheless.

The year started out with some excellent birds around Helsinki such as Hawk Owl, Three-Toed Woodpecker and White-Billed Diver. See more here.


Hawk Owl


White-Billed Diver



This was followed up in February with a Finnish tick Red Kite not far from our home here.

March saw the arrival of Spring and a sneaky twitch east for a pair of Azure Tits here . With bonus White-Backed and Lesser-Spotted Woodpeckers on the trip too.



Azure Tit - an ice cold dream.


This was then followed with another visit to our garden by a beautiful Lynx here.



Lynx - absolutely stunning.

As the virus hit, the world changed. Plans for a big family meet up in Cyprus were cancelled (luckily everyone fully refunded) and we retreated to the work from home status quo we have become familiar with today. 

Unrestricted here, it allowed us to choose where we liked to work from, often taking advantage of our cabins for working getaways.

We started off in this manner, taking advantage of a ridiculously tame Capercaillie near our Lohja cabin here.




Capercaillie - old man of the forest. The only male I've seen and what a beauty. 

April saw full on migration hit, with huge flocks of wildfowl and returning Caspian Terns and grebes, before May produced some real goodies such as Lesser White-Fronted Goose and Isabelline wheatear here.





Lesser White-Fronted Goose



Isabelline Wheatear

We then competed in Pihojen Taisto coming joint 11th out of thousands of gardens in Finland here , and also finding several on territory Red-Breasted Flycatcher in the neighborhood.



Red Breasted Flycatcher - gorgeous.




Into late May and June we spent a lot of time enjoying the summer heat at our more northerly cabin.

The number of singing Wryneck in the area was exceptional this year. 



Wryneck



It was also a fantastic year for Marsh Warblers.






Back home on the Saltfjarden patch a vagrant Lesser Grey Shrike was the twitch of the summer.





Lesser Grey Shrike



In July we made for the east of Finland to finally try out a bit of large predator watching. 

This was an amazing experience with Wolves and Bears entertaining us for an entire night, including several bouts of the Wolf Pack howling here.









Howling Wolf - easily one of the best wildlife experiences of my life.

Into August, I had to work hard to produce Caspian Gulls compared to the bumper previous year, but nonetheless managed a few.


 
Caspian Gull - this juv at Tarastenjärvi was probably my favourite individual. Just so distinct.

However, one of my rarest finds of the year came in the form of a Kingfisher of all things, seen from our garden.

September brought the first 2nd cal autumn Caspian Gull I've found, which I was quite pleased with here.



Caspian Gull - 2nd Cal autumn

September also produced Yellow-Browed Warblers in both our Hameenkyrö garden and our garden at home, a real benefit of being home all the time.

October produced my only lifer of the year in the form of Olive Backed Pipit here as well as one of the best Autumn Goshawk migrations I've encountered here. 



Into November, and my long term target of getting Nutcracker to visit the garden was achieved, as a flock 7 strong took up residence around the Smorgasbord here.





Spotted Nutcracker - dream birds.

The year went full circle with another Hawk Owl turning up just a few minutes from the house and giving excellent views by the road.


Hawk Owl - The best bird in the universe.

Amazingly, on Christmas Day, seeing photos of a 2nd cal Caspian Gull in Lahti, I realized it was the same 2nd cal I had in Lohja in September. Note the patterns of P7 and P6 and P4 and P3.


Caspian Gull comparison

Like many people, over the course of the lockdown, I kept a lockdown list. Unlike others, however, I didn't put any kind of distance limit on it, such as a 2 or 5 km radius, as this never applied here. Instead I stuck with birds seen and heard from the garden only. This list is currently at 139 species since March and includes a fair few species which were entirely new for the garden. Highlights for the lockdown list include Red Breasted Flycatcher, Yellow Browed Warbler, Kingfisher, Long Tailed Duck, Greenish Warbler, Icterine Warbler, Great Grey Shrike, Nutcracker, Parrot Crossbill, Tengmalm´s owl, Red-Throated Pipit and Wryneck.

Going forward, as it seems the being home situation will continue for the foreseeable, I will both continue with this list to cover the entire lockdown period and start a new one for 2021.



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