Last weekend there was a backyard birdwatching –event arranged by the Birdlife Finland. The idea of the event is to watch birds in one place for an hour, identify the different species and calculate what´s the maximum amount of individuals of the same species you can see at the same time. Then you deliver the info to the organization and you can win a prize, simple as that! 19 000 people participated last year so besides drawing attention to birdwatching, a lifetime ticket to the theater of nature, Birdlife gets some valuable information about the varying population dynamics and the wintering species at different parts of Finland.

I decided to join and I spent an hour watching birds on Sunday afternoon in the Hossa area and I saw magpies, common ravens, some great tits, a great spotted woodpecker and a Siberian jay, all very typical birds of the Taiga forest so no surprises this time. The weather was a bit crispy but I had some hot chocolate in a thermal bottle so sitting quiet and thoughtless on a stump of a tree for an hour, in the middle of the forest and just observing, was very enjoyable.

This bird watching event is a really nice way to get to know and explore the surrounding natural environment near you and connect with nature. They say best things are cheap and they are found close!

Inspired by the backyard birdwatching, here´s some information about local birds and a few pictures taken during the last few weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

In the first picture you can see a golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), one of the best-known birds of prey in the Northern Hemisphere. A reindeer calf doesn´t weight anything as this bird grabs it from its neck! Second picture shows a snow-shelter that many birds use to cope with the cold and be safe from predators, here a black grouse (Tetrao tetrix) had dived under the snow straight from the air. A great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) and a great tit (Parus major) on the right. These tits thrive in the vicinity of settlements and they are common birds you see daily during this time of year.

 

 

 

 

Here you can see a common raven (Corvus corax), known to be a very smart and creative bird, flying over me on snowshoe hike. On the second picture there´s a Siberian jay (Perisoreus infaustus), the provincial bird and a symbol of the Kainuu region where Hossa is located. What´s special about these birds is that they are extremely curious and a bird joining you while you´re having a picnic lunch in the wild is not unheard of, they might come as close as eating from your hand. They are mostly found in the spruce-dominated old forests but they are regular visitors near houses also.

The silhouette in one of the pictures is made by a willow grouse (Lagopus lagopus) and on the right there´s one true speciality of this area, the white throated dipper (Cinclus cinclus). These small ”water priests”, as the Estonians have named it, arrive here mainly from northern Norway in November to reach open running water and to winter here. -20 degrees celsius is no problem for them as they dive under the surface after insects and small fish. In fact, they are the only passerine bird that dives. During daylights time they are very busy with this task as keeping warm requires a whole lot of energy. Different animals´ adaptation to their surroundings and the interactions between species is always fascinating but the dipper never ceases to amaze me, when you see them you just need to stop and observe their doings for a while.

In the last picture you see a wood owl, extremely rare and hardly ever seen. There´s two of these in Hossa and they´re keeping watch at the Hossa Travel´s traditional accommodation! 🙂