Woke up early in the morning to go to participate in annual birdwatching tower competition. Absolutely horrible weather (cold spell turned to rain and sleet, eugh), combined with only two participants and me still having a cold resulted in us quitting after a miserly 5 hours. Managed to get 68 species, though, which indicated a good birding day. If only we had had more guts (and waterproof clothing, and something warm to drink, and more visitors)... 174 Little Gulls Hydrocoloeus minutus, Lesser Spotted (Dendrocopus minor) and White-Backed (D. leucotos) Woodpeckers, spring's first Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava) and late Rough-legged Buzzard (Buteo lagopus) were probably the best.
Took a train to Helsinki and went twitching (me, Vilppu, Johannes and Jenni). Our target was Finland's 4th Lesser Short-Toed Lark (Calandrella rufescens), present at Loviisa, only less than 100 kilometers east from Helsinki. The bird was first found on Friday evening, and the identification was suitably long and convoluted. Previous records were from 1962, 1975 (present for a bit over two weeks) and 2004 (present for two days), so this was a chance not to miss. Suffice to say, we saw the bird magnificently. Bird itself wasn't anything to behold, but we got to see the long primary projection, streaked breast, smallish bill and overall very diminutive size (for a lark). Johannes sagely said that it was "one of those birds that don't evoke any feeling when you see them, but not twitching them might make you regret the decision later, so you better twitch". I agree with him. It was, by the way, 327th species for me.
On our way to Loviisa we had seen a nice flooded field, and on our return trip we decided to check it out. It was a good idea. 73 Little Gulls, 56 Greenshanks Tringa nebularia, 79 Ruffs Philomachus pugnax, 61 Spotted Redshanks Tringa erythropus (should really be Black Redshank to make it justice!) and 142 Wood Sandpipers Tringa glareola. We also found a nice female Capercailie (Tetrao urogallus), so overall: one krys! and several yearticks.
No pictures in this update!
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