Spring Roll Out

May 19, 2026

Spring Roll Out

An interesting Spring underway, with unusual weather patterns affecting what birds were seen and where.

We took a weekend down in Ruissalo, Turku for a family catch up, and this allowed my to stop off at Turku dump for a bit of gulling. It was quite successful, finding my second Caspian Gull of the Spring with another 2CY.

Caspian Gull - 2CY - the dump wasn't open on my visit, so scoping from the outside was more challenging. I picked up this bird, with the silvery quality of the mantle and scapulars standing out a country mile. Indeed I think this silvery quality stands out better in the video.

A Lesser Black Backed type was also a nice find.

Ruissalo itself, with it's ubiquitous oak woodlands, even in early Spring was joyous to be around, with Nuthatch being seen and numerous Lesser Spotted Woodpecker drumming, as well as plenty of early spring migrants.

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker drumming - it's a delightful little Uzi machine gun.

White-Tailed Eagle is pretty much guaranteed at the dump.

Birding around Inkoo and Siuntio produced the first Great White Egrets of the year as well as a pair of surprise, singing Parrot Crossbill.

Great White Egret - Rapidly colonizing Finland

Parrot Crossbills - very, very chunky. This species, though widespread and resident can be a bit scarce and difficult to encounter.

Driving along a back road near Inkoo, I picked up a large finch on top of a birch tree of all things. I pulled over and got out of the car, expecting to raise my bins to a Hawfinch (which also would have been good) but was pleasantly surprised to see a honker of a Crossbill instead. A male, it moved around the area, singing to a female which also presented itself for decent views. A rare treat for me, as usually, if you do encounter this species, they tend to push on rapidly through the woods.

With snow having melted away very rapidly and not much rain, goose migration was a bit on the lax side, but I did eventually connect with reasonable numbers of White-Fronted and Tundra Bean Geese at Vanjärvi.

White-Fronted Geese - occasionally you come across these dinky, demure, eye ringed birds which give you a mild heart attack for Lesser White-Fronted...and for all I know have some genes from that species.

Tundra Bean Geese - A variety of structures to absorb and enjoy.

Two full fat Finnish ticks presented themselves over the past few weeks, the first a Firecrest in nearby Espoo (a species I could have made the tiniest bit of effort over the past 12 years and seen one with ease, but I finally got round to it now. This species is definitively increasing/colonizing, so only a matter of time before I find one I reckon.

The second, a Ferruginous Duck, has been returning to a lake in Salo for several years now. Again, I just hadn't bothered, but I was feeling like seeing this species again, so made the one hour drive west for it, and found a Pink-Footed Goose for my trouble.

Pink-Footed Goose - always a decent scarcity here.

At the coast, now ice free, migration started to pick up, and seeing things like whole flocks of Red-Necked Grebe was a bit special.

Red-Necked Grebe

The garden began to come alive as warblers galore, Chiffchaff, Wood Warbler, Blackcap, Garden Warbler, Willow Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat and Icterine Warbler all made appearances, along with Pied Flycatcher and daily flocks of White-Tailed Eagles and Ospreys.

White-Tailed Eagles

Pied Flycatcher

Whinchat

Icterine Warbler - a seriously class bird for a garden list.

We also pulled off our first trip to the Summer house of 2026, which meant I got some time at Tarastenjärvi dump.

This was an excellent visit this time around. Finding no less than 3 Caspian Gulls.

Caspian Gulls - I was delighted when arriving at the dump, it turned out there was a very active trash pile at the back of the site. Instantly I saw at least two LBB types, a sub adult and a 3CY.

And then, on the trash itself, a distinctly Casp structured bird facing me half way up the "hill". This bird soon turned into profile, confirming my initial impression. A fantastic 2CY Caspian.

This was followed up by 2 other 2CY over the course of the morning, but the gulls were constantly being put up by what I estimated to be at least 2 Black Kite (it later emerged over the weekend at least 3 are present.