Eurasian Eagle Owl and Hazel Grouse

 

Taiga forest near my home

Short walk, couple of kilometers, in nearby coniferous forests in perfect spring-winter weather; clear sky, temperature about -2° C. The forests are still rather quiet, most birds are still in towns and villages.
And no Crosbills, they are somewhere else this winter... Only Eurasian Bullfinches were calling every now and then, otherwise the forest was silent. Actually, why I decided to have a walk in this forest today was not just because of fine weather, but because Jote Ahola saw there Grey-headed Woodpecker and Three-toed Woodpecker yesterday. Grey-headed is still missing from my year list, so it would be nice to see it.

This time I chose a new track, that I had not walked ever before. And it was a good choice, as after couple of hundred meters walk, I saw an Eurasian Eagle Owl taking off from the spruce, flying between trees and disappearing. It all happened so fast, that I didn't get a photo of it, shame... Still it was really cool to see that owl, and it became #50 in my year list 2016!

Eurasian Bullfinches, the most common birds in forests today

I stomped around the forests, no woodpeckers, just Bullfinches... Suddenly I saw a small grouse flying across the track. Here in the forests of southern Finland a small grouse is always Hazel Grouse, nowadays.
Some forty / fifty years ago we had still Willow Grouse in these latitudes, but nowadays it lives much further north. I tried to get a photo of the Hazel Grouse (or Hazelhen - somehow I prefer this old name better), but it resisted to show himself to me even though it replied to me all the time when I whistled to it. They are all individuals, some of them come very close to see who is whistling, some stay in hide, some fly far away.

So, no Grey-headed Woodpecker yet, but Eurasian Eagle Owl was a pleasure to see. What next, who knows, maybe I'm going some evening to an owl trip, or going to watch the White-tailed Eagles...

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Author

Olli Haukkovaara

email: olli.haukkovaara @ proton.me

Valkeakoski, Finland

Birding in -25° C, looking for woodpeckers

New year, time to start the year list from zero, once again. And that's a good reason to go for a walk in taiga forests, or actually, in last remaining pieces of them. We have lot's of forests here, but majority of them are so called "tree fields" i.e. commercial forests or clear cuttings which are far from original taiga forests.

Heikkilämetsä nature reserve, notice the fallen trees which makes it difficult to walk outside trails

On 8th of January, I thought it was a last freezing day for a while... Temperature was about -25° C i.e. -4° F. I walked to Heikkilänmetsä nature reserve, it's on old taiga forest, only couple of kilometers from my home. I was looking for woodpeckers, weather was perfect for this, no wind at all. Only noise came from cars that drove by at the distance of some 500 meters. Oh, and cold weather caused snaps, cracks and bangs in trees all the time. I was walking slowly in the forest, stopping every 20 meters and listened. Soon I heard repeating snaps - a woodpecker. But... in old taiga forest it's not easy to walk outside trails, as there are so many fallen trees. It took about 10 minutes to walk about 100 metres... And then I saw the male Three-toed Woodpecker, gorgeous male with yellow crown. And right after that another woodpecker in same spruce; White-backed Woodpecker, female! Cool, two new species to my year list! Also Eurasian Treecreeper in the same tree. Not a bad walk... even though the forest was so dark that I could not get good photos, as you can see below...

Three-toed Woodpecker in Heikkilänmetsä

Female White-backed Woodpecker in Heikkilänmetsä

The freezing weather continued whole weekend... Tomorrow the temperature will raise but so will the wind and the result of windchill will make the weather about as cold as it's now, -20° C aka -4° F.

Today I made a short walk to another small remaining piece of taiga forests, the Kaskelankorpi. My plan was to find Hazelhen aka Hazel Grouse to my year list. But soon when I was inside the forest, I heard a soft "kick - kick" and knocking. Definitely not a Great Spotted Woodpecker but something better... And soon I found it, White-backed Woodpecker female! Cool!

     

White-backed Woodpecker, female in Kaskelankorpi

 

 

 

 

I continued my walk and soon I found the Hazelhen, a gorgeous male, but it was too fast, could not get a photo of it. Shame. After I walked some 150 - 200 meters, I heard intense knocking and saw another woodpecker - what the heck, White-backed Woodpecker again! I really wonder how many White-backed Woodpeckers we have here in Finland now?? During last autumn we had a big influx of White-backed Woodpeckers from Russia, most of these birds must be from there as the Finnish population is only about 150 pairs.

Great Spotted Woodpecker in my backyard

While walking back to home, I found a Fieldfare, which is rather scarce here this winter due to lack of berries. Great Spotted Woodpecker was in our backyard, like it's every day, and so were the Bullfinches. One of the Bullfinches surprised me positively, the male was enjoying the rays of sun and started singing, this was the first sign of the spring 2016!

The first sign of the spring 2016, male Bullfinch was singing in maple tree

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Author

Olli Haukkovaara

email: olli.haukkovaara @ proton.me

Valkeakoski, Finland

.

Nice afternoon birding walk

 

                                                                Goldeneyes

Today I was birding for the first time since couple of weeks due to influenza and pneumonia. No hardcore birding, just a slow 8 km hike in and around downtown Valkeakoski, as I'm still convalescent and eating antibiotics. My younger son Roni was with me, we both enjoyed the walk in sunny and warm spring-winter afternoon. Warm indeed, as the temperature was +33°C higher than week ago; 0°C. No doubt, there was spring in the air!

                                                                    Bullfinch

Great Tits, Blue Tits and Green Finches were all singing, as well as Bullfinches and Hooded Crows. In the channel of Valkeakoski we saw 4 Goosanders and 4 Goldeneyes, the first ones arrived already two weeks ago.

Eurasian Jackdaws were playing in the sky and flock of 35 Bohemian Waxwings were eating last Chokeberries. So, nothing new for this year, but anyway a nice afternoon birding walk!

                                                           Eurasian Jackdaws

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Author

Olli Haukkovaara

email: olli.haukkovaara @ proton.me

Valkeakoski, Finland