High Latitude Birder: Coot

06 April, 2008

Taiga Bean Geese, White-tailed Eagles, Eurasian Bitterns and a lot more

Birding with my kids today - we spent the whole afternoon watching birds and enjoying the good weather. Our first target was the bird observation tower of lake Kortejärvi in Urjala. It's very nice place with good facilities; parking place, toilets, information canopy and a perfect large tower itself.

I could have spent there all day, but when you go birding with kids, they set the time limits per location - here it was 45 minutes. During that time we saw a lots of interesting birds; for example 123 Taiga Bean Geese (Anser fabalis), 2 White-tailed Eagles (Haliaetus albicilla), 10 Smews (Mergus albellus), 2 Northern Pintails (Anas acuta), 8 Eurasian Cranes (Grus grus), 2 Reed Buntings (Emberiza schoeniclus), 4 Common Teals (Anas crecca), Western Marsh Harrier (Circus aeruginosus), Eurasian Bittern (Botaurus stellaris) and many others.

After Kortejärvi we drove to Kylmäkoski and Viiala. In Kylmäkoski we saw a Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) - a very handsome male. In Viiala, after boys ate their snacks, we decided to check the waterfowls of Sitonsaari. It was a good choice, there were lots of birds around; about 250 Eurasian Coots (Fulica atra), 8 Smews (Mergus albellus), about 25 Eurasian Wigeons (Anas penelope), Eurasian Bittern (Botaurus stellaris) again and 24 Common Pochards (Aythya ferina) - just to mention few of them.

The most visible bird today was the Whooper Swan (Gygnus cygnus) - in total we saw at least 155 of them in 10 places.

So, 8 new species for 2008 today and many nice experiences. Compared to yesterday, this day was almost perfect!

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Author

Olli Haukkovaara

email: olli.haukkovaara @ proton.me

Valkeakoski, Finland

01 April, 2008

Commute birding

My commute to work takes about from 30 minutes to 1 hour, depending on what combination I choose. Usually I walk part of the way and then take the bus. But today I took the car, as it needed washing - it was covered with mud and dust, like almost all cars during this time of year. So, naturally the own car gives you a freedom to stop where ever you want - and see more birds compared to what you can see from bus window.

The morning was warm, +5 degrees Celcius, so I expected to see some new species for this year. And so I did; the first one was Mistle Thrush (Turdus viscivorus) in the fields of Vanhakylä. Second one was 2 migrating Geese (Anser sp.) over the highway in Uusi-Eurooppa. More new migrants were found from Viinikanlahti bay near my office; 6 Tufted Ducks (Aythya fuligula), 3 Common Pochards (Aythya ferina), 18 Eurasian Coots (Fulica atra) and 2 Great Crested Grebes (Podiceps cristatus). There was also lot's of other birds in Viinikanlahti, for example 110 Common Goldeneyes (Bucephala clangula), 2 Canada Geese (Branta canadensis), Whooper Swans (Cygnus cygnus) again and many others. Oh, and in addition to these migrants I saw again a male Black Grouse (Tetrao tetrix) near Ideapark - it was there also yesterday.

Altogether, a good start for a work day!