In search of the woodpeckers, part 4 / 4

Last Sunday was the last day of my winter vacation. Yet another perfect day for outdoor activities, like birding with snow shoes. Weather was excellent like it had been already for several days. This time my older son Petro joined me and we headed to Rauttunniemi nature reserve and it's surroundings.

The first bird worth to mention was the Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis), which flew over the fields in Vedentaka village while we were still driving to Rauttunniemi. In and near the nature reserve we saw and heard quite a lot of birds, like 5 Long-tailed Tits (Aegithalos caudatus) - a new species for this year, about 10 European Siskins (Carduelis spinus), 1 Black Woodpecker (Dryocopus martius), at least 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers (Dendrocopos major), two unidentified medium size woodpeckers i.e. either Great Spotted Woodpeckers or White-backed Woodpeckers and much more (tits, greenfiches, crows etc.) White-backed Woodpecker is very rare and endangered species here, but still possible to meet, so you have to always consider that when you are trying identify woodpeckers here.



This area is one of my favorite areas around here and I will come birding here later in the spring again.


In photos: Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) above and Willow Tit (Poecile montanus) below.