Sure enough this is about twitching an Azure Tit. There was a small influx of them to Finland this winter, six individuals have been reported. That is a lot, they have been rare for at least 15 years now. The older generation of finnish birders remember that they weren't this rare in the 70's when they were seen nearly every winter. There was at least one breeding pair, I think it was unsuccesful and also a hybrid-pair with Blue Tit. But that was all "back in the day." All in all about 30 individuals have been seen in Finland before this winter.

We had four guys in the car, Petteri, Jari, Janne, who was driving and me. Our target bird was at Uurainen, a bit over 300 km from Helsinki, all the other Azure Tits were further north and too far away for me anyway. To make a ahort story short, the saturday was sunny, we drove to the site (didn't get lost on the way - unusual), joined the crowd, waited for a while, the bird showed nicely, we were satisfied and after about an hour on the site we headed home. The bird itself was very pretty indeed, no complaints. But still, 600 kilometers for one bird. Booooring! I don't know, I just couldn't do this every weekend.

Wanna see photos of the bird? I thought you might. There are pictures at the Surfbirds gallery of the same individual. Go check them out.

Thanks to Jari, Janne and Petteri for the company!