High Latitude Birder: Tufted Duck

31 January, 2010

A better winter birding day

On 24th of January I made an urban birding trip with my younger son Roni. Our first target was Koukkujärvi dump in Nokia. Disgusting smell, especially in the area of organic waste - but lots of birds: 1500 Western Jackdaws (Corvus monedula), 50 Common Magpies (Pica pica), 30 Hooded Crows (Corvus cornix) and 6 Common Ravens (Corvus corax) were the most visible ones.

Also lot's of smaller ones - a very nice mixed flock of 120 European Greenfinches (Carduelis chloris), 20 Common Redpolls (Carduelis flammea), 1 Arctic Redpoll (Carduelis hornemanni), 4 Twites (Carduelis flavirostris) and 4 Eurasian Tree Sparrows (Passer montanus).

Both Twite and Arctic Redpoll were lifers for Roni, so the boy was very happy! In addition to previous, there was also lonely Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris) and Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major).

From Nokia we drove to Tampere and tried to find White-throated Dipper (Cinclus cinclus) from Pärrinkoski rapids, but unfortunately the rapids were totally frozen, no open water at all, so no room for Dippers. Shame... Small hightlight was still the fresh footprints of the European Otter (Lutra lutra), although we did not see the mammal.

After that we drove to city center of Tampere, where the Tammerkoski flows so fast that there's always some open water. Lot's of Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) , two Goosanders (Mergus merganser), 1 female Long-tailed Duck aka Oldsquaw (Clangula hyemalis), 1 male Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula) and 1 elegant male Smew (Mergus albellus).

IMHO, Long-tailed Duck is a very dull name for that beautiful arctic duck, I prefer much more the old American name Oldsquaw!

At this point it was already afternoon, so it was time get back to home. Roni was very happy and so was daddy!

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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!