Finland May 2009

Just had a few days in Finland on an organised owl tour with Birdfinders. The scenery was stunning. A beautiful country. The birds were plentiful but always distant so photography was very difficult. We had 127 species, with 12 of these being new. The areas we visited were Oula and Kuusamo in the north. We had an excellant Finature guide, Toni.

Green Hairstreak

Willow Grouse

Saw quite a few of these early morning. But again, they were very flighty and just seemed to blend into the undergrowth and disappear

Capercaillie

Very distant shot. As soon as we saw them, they were gone

Northern Bullfinch

Difficult to capture through all the trees. My camera focused on everything apart from the bird, but the birds are much bigger than ours and have much more colour. One of Karen's favourites of the trip

Pintail

Arctic Tern

Plentiful on the lakes

Siberian Tit box

Had two sightings of this stunning little bird, but alas, no pics. Anyway, there is a bird inside this box !!

Pied fly and wryneck

Always distant, nothing was easy to photograph and because of the timescale, we were always rushed along to the next sight.

Great Grey Owl

Stunning views but again, a sensative sight so we had to keep our distance

Tengmalm's Owl

Felt honoured to see this, although it didn't venture out any further. Due to the sensative area we couldn't stay long but found pigmy owl singing from a neighbouring tree. An excellent morning

Cranes

Had many sightings of these but always distant

Whoppers

Beautiful birds in a beautiful setting

Red Flanked Bluetail

A very distant shot which just kept its distance. Very difficult to capture in a thick forest. We only had one sighting of this bird

Red squirrel

Quite tame as the locals fed them

Moose

We only saw this one moose. Hard to get a clear photo as we didn't want to frighten it.

Arctic Hares

These were in our hotel grounds and were quite numerous around residential areas

Reindeer

Lots of reindeer as we drove further north. Didn't see one with a red nose though!!

Birders in Finland

An excellent few days in Finland. Good birds, good weather and good company. Above at the Great Grey Owl site and searching for the elusive Hawk Owl, which sadly, didn't show itself. We saw 6 out of the 7 though.

Wood ants and reindeer moss

Finland

Magical forest

This forest was the best place I have ever been to. These pictures do not do it justice. Saw Red Flanked Blue Tail in there aswell.

More Finland views

There was still snow on the tops. As you can see, the roads are deserted. We came across many reindeer once we ventured further north.

Finland views

A beautiful country. Would definately recommend it. 85% is covered in forest and there are 22,000 inland lakes. Houses are few and far between and the roads are hardly used, perfect.