Hybrid Crow, Lapland Longspurs and busy weekend

Last weekend was busy - spring and summer is coming, had to fix all our bikes, store all winter things (skis, sleds etc), wash winter clothes and get summer clothes out of closet and air them etc. Well, I found some time for birding with my kids though. No big surprises, but something nice like two Lapland Longspurs (Calcarius lapponicus) in Vanhakylä fields on Saturday. There was also a probable hybrid Hooded x Carrion Crow (Corvus corone cornix x C. c. corone), see the photos below.













On Sunday we saw for example couple of flocks of Taiga Bean Geese (Anser fabalis); 39 in Kylmäkoski and 23 in Urjala, first Common Linnet (Carduelis cannabina) for this year, big numbers of Common and Black-headed Gulls (Larus canus & L. ridibundus) feeding in the fields (for example 300 Common Gulls and 500 Black-headed Gulls in Uusi-Annila), a flock of 38 Common Snipes (Gallinago gallinago) in Kuurilannotko. So, basically a lot of birds out there, but still I'm missing something - where are all the birds of prey. Did they arrive this year one by one and flew straight to their territories? I also missed masses of Common Cranes, they seem to have slipped north from west while I was in Helsinki last week... So no mass migration in my birding area during this spring ??







Taiga Bean Geese (Anser fabalis) in Urjala