... another slow one.
Saturday was a fine day ... with the exception of a few isolated showers and one spell of "freezing rain", it was generally sunny with light winds. The unpredicatability of the weather here is very reminiscent of back home!!
I spent a few hours walking the Jälä fields - a farming area just north of the city which attracts a variety of passerines this time of year. I spent most of my time trying to turn some of the many Meadow Pipits (Nittykirvinen) into something a bit more interesting, but without any luck. One Skylark (Kiuru) and a handful of Northern Wheatears (Kivitasku) was as close as I got ...
The most exciting bird was a Rustic Bunting (Pohjansirkku), which made a brief appearance near a small patch of forest at the far end of the fields. It was a bit of a "coup" for me, as it was one of the few species I had missed in my trips up north earlier this summer!! Also of interest was my first Jack Snipe (Jänkäkurppa) which flushed up from a wet field, along with a few Common Snipe (Taivaanvuohi).
I tried to round out my Snipe list on Sunday, trudging through the wet fields of Haminalahti in search of Great Snipe. Alas, not a stir.
Sunday was a much cooler, windy day ... and my trip to Siilimasuo was pretty much a bust. With the birds keeping to the thick vegetation, scaring up the Chaffinch (Peippo) was the best I could do. I decided to try some Newfoundland-style alder-bashing (well, "willow"-bashing in this case!), but my "pishing" only attracted a few Willow Warblers (Pajulintu), European Robins (Punarinta) and Dunnocks (Rautiainen).
I'll have to try and sneak off again some early morning later in the week ...
Posted by jaredclarke at September 19, 2005 12:03 PM