2024 Round Up

2024 has come to an end. 

Since September there have been some good birds on offer. 

A nearby Red-Breasted Goose gave good views at Haapajärvi in October. Always an excellent treat in late autumn.






Red-Breasted Goose




A Hoopoe present at Inkoo made for a good family twitching outing. As they so often do, the bird performed well once I refound it.








Hoopoe - Inkoo






 The Tsuchinshan–ATLAS comet was also nice to see.

A wintering Barred Warbler in Espoo was a real treat. I haven't seen Barred Warbler in ten years, when I saw several Juveniles on Jurmo island.

Barred Warbler was once (before my time in Finland) a regular breeding species in Finland. It is somewhat sad these days to visit birding sites and see them depicted in old notice boards as breeding there. They are still regular as a migrant, and they often turn up in city parks etc, this is just the first one I bothered to go for.





Barred Warbler

It's easy imagine that the decline in Barred Warbler numbers here and elsewhere in Europe directly relates to their decline in occurrence in Ireland in autumn. There was a time this species was easy to find on Irish headlands, indeed in the mid-noughties I often found or encountered several each autumn. That has very much changed. 


It has been a very mild winter this far, meaning that bays such as Laajalahti have remained open to duck, allowing for good viewing of species such as Smew.



Smew




Goshawk - Sunny days were perfect for finding these brutes out sunning themselves. 




It's been a pretty good year all in all. 

Getting to visit Ireland during the Summer was great, finding an Avocet for my Irish Self Found List ( a rare event for me these days), and seeing Ireland's first Yellow-Crowned Night Heron , along with Irish Ticks with Least and Elegant Terms was good too.

Keeping tabs and assessing the various imaged Scopoli's Shearwater claims was good too. 


It was one of my best years for finding Caspian Gulls, finding over 10 individuals. 

I also managed to find several Pallid Harriers in both Spring and Autumn.

Best bird of the year was Sociable Plover in Porvoo. 





Here's to an excellent 2025!


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