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Finland \ Norway 2013 Pt 3: Lapland - A cafe, deep snow and a Bluethroat

10:22 AM | Posted by Unknown | | Edit Post

Neljan Tuulen Tupa - Pine Grosbeak Heaven so good I visited Twice.

A hostel, Café, Bird Paradise.

It has a reputation with Lapland bird travellers for getting close to Pine Grosbeak. It is true, but add Common Redpoll, Arctic Redpoll, Brambling, Waxwing, Siberian Jay and Red Squirrel. Other well seasoned travellers have used the café window feeders to get close views and to thaw out. No need for me as we arrived in warm un-seasonal weather.

Just before we arrived we stopped at a lake a few kilometres south to get stunning views of a male Smew.

please click on the images to enlarge them

meanwhile just down the road at Tuulen Tupa we didn't take long to locate the main target species.... male - Pine Grosbeak.

and the female

and some more ...... just because!

Not much snow about but enough to tempt them down to eat it

taking cover

ah sunshine

a return to the mound of snow

this time the female finds time for a preen

On the second visit there were good numbers of Brambling in superb summer plumage, too many and too active to count the numbers here. The males were very skittish and the females in small numbers.

Certainly one of the target birds of this trip was the Siberian Jay but one that I hadn't thought would cause us any sighting problems on this trip.

Well after day 6 it had risen to the top of the "wanted" list. Plenty of locations where these fellas should have been but weren't were visited, with a few locations revisited to try and connect with it. Plenty of other locations were they could have been were visited alas we still didn't connect..... until now. I had given myself an hours time-out here before having to set off on the road south again. With 15 minutes of this dedicated stop left, silently if not a little clumsily it appeared right in front of me. I was startled for a second then took it in for a moment and then remembered I had a camera so managed a few shots before it was gone, so with that in mind I am happy with these record portraits.

Maybe, just maybe the possible huge disappointment turned out to be the highlight of the trip......

what a stunner!

certainly one of my highlights of this trip not only for the run-around it gave but also as it really is a lovely looking species.

I`m here ...... Siberian Jay

what you looking at?

simply gorgeous!

Redpolls galore

Hornemanns Arctic Redpoll (Carduelis hornemanni hornemanni)

Mealy Common Redpoll (Carduelis flammea)

This is Tuulen Tupa

A brilliant place and well deserving of a post to itself.

All was not quite done in this area though as just a few miles up the road we pulled into a layby when we discovered this Bluethroat skulking around a stream, it didn't play ball for 5 minutes as it snook in and out of bushes on the rocky margins only a few feet away but then sat out just long enough to get a single shot, a chance find and a brilliant addition to my life list and the trip list.

Throw in a wee bit of snow that ensured I could not get to the summit of Mt Kilopaan for Ptarmigan and Dotterel.... believe me I did try, probably too hard

it started off ok - honestly! the board walk looked navigable

however once the boardwalk ran out the snow got deeper....

and only once it reached my waist did I know I was beaten, I am sure Jeff has some images of me waist deep that may or may not find it onto these pages *** update***

not a problem from here .....

Yours truly heading for a dry patch

and then knee deep in the white stuff (with a polite two fingered salute)

Plenty of water from Jeff's Wellies after the aborted walk

only 5 minutes later did someone Ski down to the bottom of the mountain and wonder what idiots had made the prints in the snow..... he shook his head in disbelief and probably had a laugh at our expense over his diner.

Part 4 we cover Varangafjord in North Eastern Norway

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Finland \ Norway 2013 Pt 2: Kuusamo Area

5:25 AM | Posted by Unknown | | Edit Post

After the early meet for the Owl tour and a full days birding we now had to travel on further east to Kuusamo.

We headed straight for our hotel (which is certainly worth a mention! Very comfortable, clean and which provided the best food of the week - Hotel Kuusamon Portti - Link to hotel). The hotel is located about 8 miles south of Kuusamo on the western banks of lake Lijarvi.

Over looking Lake Lijarvi from our balcony whilst sipping Malt.... life could be worse!

A quick sip of malt on the balcony over looking the lake allowed us to enjoy the good numbers of Sand martins. House martins and Swallows feeding over the boat house, while Wood sandpiper and Common Sandpiper enjoyed the lakes fringes right in front of us. On the lake itself were Widgeon, Whooper Swans and a pair of very territorial Goldeneye that chased anything of that came within striking distance. The weather was still warm (Tomorrows weather would change!) which allowed us some time to explore our new environment, we walked the forest track across the road from the hotel. Although quiet, we did pick up Capercaillie sat on the track and our first Reindeer of the trip. A long day today and a full day birding tomorrow the sensible thing was for a fairly early night...... we woke to torrential rain and freezing sleet!

It really was pointless taking the camera out, rain soaked binoculars, freezing cold hailstone, bitterly cold driving rain and sleet..... off we trudged into the forest. It was hard work but we did find birds.

40+ Golden Plover feeding in a farm yard whilst Yellow Wagtails and a very large flock of Brambling fed in the fields along with some other passerines that got away as we tried to focus through the driving rain, oodles of Redwing and Fieldfare made up the numbers. We decided breakfast would be a good excuse to get warm and dry, on the way back down the track a Garden Warbler sung in the rain but no sign of last evenings Capercaillie.

Over breakfast our host gave us the good news "Sunshine by Lunch time"..... yeah right!

Fair play to him, although he got his timings slightly wrong the sunshine came out ahead of schedule at 11.00am, by this time we would be well onto one of our missed bird from the Owl Trip .....

We headed straight off to Valtavaara and Kontainman, along the way we started to pick up top quality water birds, Red Necked Grebes stood on the frozen lakes, I managed to pick up my first ever Black Throated Diver as it flew past us and out of sight

in the woods and lagoons bird song had started and for good measure the rain relented, Reed Buntings, Willow Warblers were abundant. Valtavaara is renowned for a set of feeders that tempt down Siberian Jays, supposedly all you have to do is lay out some hot dogs and bingo.... this didn't work, not to worry for now as we were soon onto some good stuff and with the potential of a couple of mega`s on the cards a promising day lay ahead.

Loud prolonged drumming soon caught our attention, across from the layby we located a single dead tree close to the edge of the forest and there it was, a Three-Toed Woodpecker.

It spent quite a while in that location, through the forest mist a few record shots were all I got, but after the failure to see this bird yesterday we were more than happy with this.
Other species seen were Eurasian Jay (no other sightings all week), Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Common Buzzard (only 2 sightings all week) and Siskin were seen from the layby.

A walk around the foothills loop (Birdwatchers Trail) we had a few possible Greenish Warblers, call confirmed that they weren't Arctic Warblers, unfortunately as we progressed around the loop they didn't follow us but Common Redstarts did. Towards the end of the loop walk we added a pair of Mistle Thrush before we encountered one of our target birds. A pair of Siberian Tits flew across the open valley in front of us and landed on the top of the tallest trees on the forests edge.... not to be satisfied with that in the next tree bang on cue landed a Nutcracker. The day was getting better.

Still on the days list was a bird that if we were to have any chance of seeing today in this area we would be needing to climb a small hill though shallow snow, needless to say we climbed.. As we climbed half way a chat like silhouette sang from one of the tree tops... sure enough our target bird Red Flanked Bluetail. We were able to manoeuvre ourselves to have the sun to our backs and there we have it, a stunning male.

Back down the hill we set off to a nearby small lake in hope of Velvet Scoter. We found the lake but only a pair of Smew.

I know this is not too shabby in itself but Velvet Scoter would have been another life bird for the day, and as it happened I never did catch up with this species for the rest of the trip, hence the little disappointment at this lake. Along the track to the lake we encountered 3 very close Waxwings, a Black Woodpecker and Jeff got a quick sighting of a fully winter plumaged Ptarmigan as it crossed our path, We decided to go searching for this fella however we first had to remove the car from some very soft muddy verges that had submersed the car halfway up the wheels, some rocking, pushing and wheel spinning later we were out and looking for the Ptarmigan.

Back at Kuusamo we did a lap of Lake Toranki. Like most of the lakes in Finland this is vast, however it does have a bird tower at either end, we had better luck just stopping at opportune points whilst driving around it. Plenty of Little Gulls in stunning summer plumage

Arctic Tern

Arctic Terns, Common Terns, Red Necked Grebes (estimated 50+ across the lake), Black Throated Diver and the usual Goldeneye etc also very close views of Beavers, probably the best views I got on this trip.

Meanwhile a White Tailed Eagle spooked everything on the lake adjacent to Toranki which held good numbers of Red Necked Grebes, Snipe, Goosander, I counted a flock of 30ish all playing follow the leader whilst they headed past in line. Gulls galore for those that can be bothered to scan through them would possibly get the Heuglins.

A couple of stops at known sites of Little Bunting failed, we revisited and failed again, maybe too early for this species, a little bonus as we got more stunning views of a pair of Hazel Grouse along the tracks between the 2 lakes.

Wood Sandpiper were certainly the default wader in most locations

We had plenty of Willow Warblers all over the Kuusamo area but again no sightings or sounds of any other Warblers apart from a quick rendition from a Sedge Warbler, it wouldn't be until the last day until we saw even this common species.

Whooper on the part frozen lake at the hotel

Hotel Lake around Midnight

Scenes around Kuusamo, some lakes still frozen

and some well on the way to a complete thaw

The Reindeer seemed to be mostly farmed in this area, but wild(er) as we moved further north

From here we travel north!

Watch out for the Moose!

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Finland \ Norway May 2013 - Pt 1 Oulu Region

3:26 PM | Posted by Unknown | | Edit Post

A whistle stop visit to Northern Finland and North Eastern Norway.

3 main areas would be visited during our stay, Oulu Region of Northern Ostrobothnia, Kuusamo region of Lapland and the Vadso \ Varda region of Varangafjord, all of which involved some long drives fitted in-between early starts and late nights. It is well documented by others of the vast distances between sites, the longer lighter days and the arctic weather. However I didn't learn too much about the Arctic weather as for the majority of the time T- Shirts were the order of the day.

My companion (Jeff) and I flew from Manchester to Helsinki, and then onto Oulu in Northern Finland. We stayed in a small coastal town called Li about an hours drive north from Oulu. The Li area was fairly uninspiring in both location and for local birding, although in the accommodation grounds we had Common Redstart, Woodcock flying over, Fieldfare nesting in the garden, Common Tern on the river across the road and Pied Flycatchers in the town and new to me was the sight and sound of Greater Spotted Woodpeckers drumming on tin street light covers..... OK all in all it is more than a little inspiring I have to agree. I also had my first ever Common Cranes when a pair flew over the town while we were doing our first birding walk in the area so giving me my first life bird of the trip.
Not only were some birds going to be new to us but what about bird songs and calls. I hadn't ever heard this almost warbler style song that was constant around the town, so our investigation persued, we were somewhat surprised to find it was the song of the Redwing, of course we don't get the breeding and territorial songs of these wintering birds in the UK.

Common Crane (click on images to enlarge them)

Of course this was only a base, the real reason for staying in the Oulu region was for a Finnature Owling trip in a few days time.

The following morning we made our way to Liminganlahti Wetlands in Liminka Bay for a full days birding, we were to visit 5 bird towers that overlooked this bay from varying angles.

Wetlands birding

We arrived before the Visitors Centre had opened but the area is still fully accessible.

The car park held Pied flycatchers and Treesparrows, while the fields behind had singing Yellowhammer and Whinchats

The short walk towards the first bird tower produced a male Hen Harrier over the reed beds. From the new and impressive bird tower we were immediately onto 3 White Tailed Eagles, they were distant and fairly inactive for a while.

Immediately in front of the tower were Ruffs galore, 3 or 4 males in stunning breeding plumage, some had white headdresses while others had Black and tanned.

Of the expected other shorebirds there were Spotted Redshanks, Black Tailed Godwits and I am sure if I had scanned the area enough I would have picked up some Broad Billed Sandpipers in with the Dunlin. Marsh Harriers circled the area but we didn't pick up the male Hen Harrier again.

A quick coffee in the very impressive visitors centre and we were off to explore the other bird towers dotted around the bay. All need to be accessed by car as they are all a minimum of a few kilometres from each location.

Yellow Wagtails were in good numbers at a few sites, particularly the Blue headed race.

Nothing out of the ordinary was seen during the afternoon apart from a Caspian Tern a female of one of the Grouse species (Probably Willow) coming over the bay towards us an Osprey taking fish from close to the shore.

Tomorrow would be the guided Owl trip with a 3am meet.

We had a very very early start. On the road for 01.40hrs heading to Liminganlahti Wetlands to meet our guide. A few kilometres from the site we were fortunate to have an Eagle Owl fly straight over the car, we watched as it flew into a nearby wood, what a surprise and a piece of luck. At the centre we were 10 minutes early but still long enough to wonder if we were indeed at the correct meeting point, as the minutes ticked towards 3am and without sign of anyone arriving we were a little apprehensive. On cue at 3am two cars arrived, the first with two other birders for the Owl trip and not far behind came our guide.

The guide explained that he hadn't located any Great Grey or Hawk Owls in the favoured areas so the best we were hoping for were Pygmy, Tengmalms and Ural Owls, all three were to be seen as the day progressed, albeit with varying quality of the sightings.

A few failed attempts to attract Owls at localish locations were probably a guise to ensure we lost our bearings for when the real sites were visited. Locations of these sites are secret for obvious reasons but confuse the customer just to be on the safe side! maybe I am a little too cynical but the early start and wasted first hour didn't help.

What turned out to be a 10 hour tour did get off and running when a Short Eared Owl was located hunting nearby, it climbed to the edge of a copse and then it attacked! we first thought a Perched Marsh Harrier, however when they came towards us it was actually a Rough Legged Buzzard. A further drive to a known site for Pygmy Owl also brought the damp weather. However it didnt deter the Owl who after a short while came to the edge of the forest and perched almost out in the open.

Record shots only, but a great sighting.

Also in the same area I saw my first Hazel Grouse. Despite seeing this species regularly over the next 5 days I would be unable to get an image.... this despite some stunning close views.

A coffee break brought us Ortolan Bunting sat on wires, fields full of Common Cranes and Whooper Swans and a distant Black Grouse Lek.

The next location was for a few Woodpecker species. Wryneck, Short-toed and Black were all on the list, with 3 Wrynecks being first to co-operate. After dynamic passes of our car they eventually settled down on the edge of a clearing giving us stunning views.

We were to move into a nearby wood for Three-toed Woodpecker but a call overhead came from a Rustic Bunting... a pair were in the area

The next 90 minutes looking for the Three-Toed were to be in vein, although we picked up Goshawk, Spotted Flycatcher, Common Crossbill, Treecreeper and a wonderful pair of Wood Warblers. A short drive further and my first ever Capercaillies were flushed from the road side as we drove slowly along woodland dirt tracks, we came very close to driving over a Woodcock that refused to move, however this female Black Grouse was happy to potter about a short distance away.

Next on the menu was Black Woodpecker, and sure enough one came into a wooded area, while close by was a Red Backed Shrike. But still we were a few owls missing.....

First off to a secluded site through some bogland to a stumpy looking tree..... somewhere in there is a Ural Owl.