Siuntio Second Score

A very enjoyable weekend of birding produced a notable find.

We have been enjoying a warm dry spring, where snow and ice are melting away quite rapidly, so fast in fact that the usual slippery paths phase seems to have been skipped over entirely, and spring migrants are pouring in.

My intent on Saturday was to see as many of these as I could, connecting with species such as Lapwing, Skylark, Woodcock, Wood Pigeon, Stock Dove, Bewick's Swan (good scarce) and various other early wildfowl.

Having mooched around Inkoo and Siuntio for many of these, I stopped in to Störsvik as I headed back towards Kirkkonummi.

The river flowing into the bay here often opens up the ice earlier than other places and is usually the site I would score my first few Smew of the year. 

There was indeed a section of open water and this was hosting birds such as Tufted Duck, Teal Goosander, Goldeneye, Cormorant and Grey Heron. Year ticks all.

There were also 10 Gulls, consisting of 4 Great Black-Backed, 4 adult Herring...and 2 others...a 3CY and a 2CY. 

The 2CY was clearly a Caspian!! 😱

The 3CY... amazingly looked very much like a Caspian too, with a lovely black tail band and what looked like a p10 mirror, however this bird, after a brief flight, took to swimming in the open water at the furthest point away from me, meaning I got virtually nothing more on it.

So instead I focused on the 2CY bird, which was relatively close on my side of the ice. 

It was indeed looking very classic. Relatively smooth, unmarked coverts, perfect mantle and scraps, nice thumbnailed terts, the bill still looked mostly uniform dark but that's ok.

Just as I popped my phone onto my eyepiece to get some record shots and focused it the gulls lifted. I could see a perfect tail pattern on the phone screen and just started snapping and tracking the bird in flight, hoping some of the pics would come out well. 

Amazingly, even though the bird was moving past trees in the foreground, many of these did come out nicely, before the bird settled down on the ice a bit further away, where I got more phonescoped pics.

 One replaced Greater Covert

Caspian Gull - 2CY - Störsvik

Having put the news out, and with the birds a tad distant and into the sun. I decided to run to a nearby shop and grab some bread.

Generally, I find chucking bread doesn't work in Finland, strangely. But worth a shot. 

In the fifteen minutes round trip it took, when I came back to the local beach (which I figured might now offer better views and with the sun behind me) I found an assembled mass of twitchers. Unfortunately most of them had missed the bird and those that had seen it where only able to say that there had been a pair of sub adult types out there.

This constitutes the 2nd record for Siuntio, the first of which I found some five years ago here.

Once again brings up the topic of just what constitutes a rarity. Siuntio is a small county, almost entirely landlocked and agricultural save for the tiniest bit of coastline in the south.

The first record was well inland at Myrans and Sunnanvik, and now this individual on the coast.

Amazingly this bird was seen 2 days later in the bay that borders Kirkkonummi and Espoo, some 25 kilometers further east again, and this bird looks suspiciously like one which was in Turku up until the 12th (though not 100% on that). So again, just how rare are Casps here.

For sure we get decent numbers in Autumn...but that said, even with a smaller number of gull watchers here, there seems to be a reasonable amount of duplication, even between sites hundreds of kilometers apart.

So difficult to say. Inkoo county, further west again, awaits it's first Caspian...so I think I will focus some time there this year.

White Tailed Eagle - Störsvik is a top site to see multiples of these beasts

My garden has been performing well since my last blog post, with Nutcrackers still in situ and seemingly settling down to breed. 

Nutcracker - these days they sit out watching us. Their song and other vocalizations are pretty incredible, including various bill clicks worked in to things, which you only hear up close.

Grey-Headed Woodpecker - these have been few and far between this winter. This female took up residence for a few weeks, but then disappeared. Hopefully they reappear as the breeding season rolls in.

Black-Bellied Dipper - up to five of these were on our stream when temperatures were at their lowest. Some tally.

Pygmy Owl - a bird has taken up residence in the garden, singing every morning and evening.

Three-Toed Woodpecker - it's been a good showing of these around the city this winter

Crested Lark - it had to be done, stopping off quickly in Espoo for a classy year ticks.

Lynx - another garden visit from one of these amazing beasts! It never ceases to amaze me that something like this can just wander onto my property. Look at that!