Scouts have arrived

Weekend, finally! Last night was a bit cold and there is lot's of snow everywhere, so only the first scouts have arrived to do some reconnaissance. So, no big flocks yet, but still I managed to find several new species for 2008.

During early morning, I drove about 100 km around Southern Pirkanmaa, checked many square kilometers of fields and open water locations. Here's some small highlights of the day:
in Viidennumero, there was one Northern Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus) resting on ice and Merlin (Falco columbarius) flew around looking for something to hunt. Merlin did not catch anything, but managed to scare the Northern Lapwing away, probably because Merlin has very similar silhuette like Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) has. A bit later I saw a migrating flock of 5 Common Woodpigeons (Columba palumbus) and 1 migrating Stock Dove (Columba oenas), which in this county is always a nice observation. At Konhonvuolle I saw also 9 Canada Geese (Branta canadensis). Two Common Buzzards (Buteo buteo) were also nice to see. So, not much yet, but still I'm happy at these observations - the spring migration has really started!










Common Goldeneyes (Bucephala clangula) can be found already everywhere.