Last morning

Following an excellent breakfast with a wide choice, including several cereals, eggs, bacon, sausages and pancakes with jam and cream plus breads and croissants we negotiated the secure parking area, loaded up the car and headed out to look for a small nature reserve where we hoped to find Slavonian Grebe.

We followed the instruction in the Gosney Southern Finland book and found the place to park. The reserve is situated beside a large power station complex with a walk along a river and all round the two ponds. We had Great Reed Warbler

Heading Home

We got up and sorted out a cup of tea and breakfast, settled up and loaded the car, but spent some time in the car watching the feeding areas. The northern Bullfinches were stunning, a small flock of Siskin and Greenfinch with a couple of Yellowhammers, hopped about,







and at least 4 Red Squirrels gave a really entertaining time.




Eventually we decided we had to get going so we hit the road for the 8 hour drive back to Helsinki, with a couple of short stops to stretch our legs and change drivers. We saw a Gooseander and WhooperSwan as well as the expected Goldneye and some lovely flowers along the roadside.








After driving round Helsinki looking for hotels we found one just outside and booked in for a nice early night and a good night's sleep.

Looking for Elk

We settled into Sabrina's house, checking out the feeders and nest boxes, where we saw Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Siskin, Blue and Great Tit and Northern Bullfinch with Pied Flycatcher in one of the nest boxes and then spent the afternoon catching up on some sleep before a lovely 'Finnish' meal of tomato soup, grated potato and ham with lettuce and a beet root salad and a special desert of warmed feta-like cheese and cloudberry jam which was very nice.
As the weather forecast for the area with the flying squirrels was so dire we decided not to try but to have a drive round to see Elk and anything else that was about. The first thing we did was to walk 100yds into the edge of the forest with a short ladder which Sabrina setup against a tree with an owl box on it. Climbing the ladder and peering in we could see 3 nearly fledged Tengmalm's Owls. There had been 5 eggs and 4 chicks hatched but only 3 survived and One of the owlets had a deformed beak so hopefully it will be Ok.


We spent a little time trying to see the adults but no luck so we set off towards Kajanni driving some forest tracks and stopping and listening every now and then. We had 6 Elk with one mother and calf and 3 Mountain hares.








One place we visited was a private reserve of a flooded peat bog which had a tower hide
Which we climbed giving great views across the lake. There were a pair of Cranes and a pair of Whooper Swans as well as several Mallard, Teal, Tufted Duck and Goldeneye, one other with 2 ducklings which she shepherded across the track and back, at one point with them both in her back.








A possible owl sound had us trekking through the moss and fallen branches but no sound again so we made our way back to the car, finding a small patch of Violets along with the Chickweed Wintergreen, Bog Rosemary and Labrador Tea that seem to grow everywhere in the wet forests.
Returning to the house at around midnight there was a very unexpected Hedgehog feeding on the seeds and a lot of alarming near the owl nest box but still no sign of the adults. So we turned in for a relatively early night before our long drive south.
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Hide 12

A night in hide 12 was much more comfortable as the window was a little lower and I could see out although the cabin was a little snugger. It is placed a little bit away from the pool looking across the wet meadows towards the rock outcrop and the woods. The weather started out grey and cloudy but cleared towards late evening after threatening a storm and giving us a rainbow. The advantages of hide 12 is that as the temperature dropped the mist rose over the lake and drifted along the back but our view remained clear.

We had some long waits and not much to look at as most of the gulls and crows stayed around the lake but we did have 2 sightings of fox and a young bear with a pale, sandy 'shawl' marking across it's back came down the rocks but went off to the west fairly quickly and a young, pale coloured bear came and went several times through the evening.

Around 1 o'clock another, larger, darker bear came down the rocks and started to amble across the meadow. It explored the area and went off to the east but soon came back, appearing through the bushes about 15yds away, too close for the cameras!! It stood and stared in our direction before crossing in front of the hide and feeding at various places across the meadow for about the next hour while the younger bear moved around behind but keeping a respectful distance.
Brilliant.

We walked back to the center at 7.00am and, although there had been no Wolverine, the bears had been amazing.

After breakfast we pottered around sorting out our packing and we walked down to the feeder hide but there wasn't a lot of activity so we decided to move on as we had arranged to be at Sabrina's at around 1 o'clock. The weather deteriorated and a real storm broke over us as we were driving out from Liinterra with lightneing and thunder crashing in seconds overhead, making the car vibrate so we called it a day and went back to sit in the parking space outside Sabrina's until it virtually stopped before dashing to the door and booking in.

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Wolverines at last!

After our 4 o'clock dinner of meatball soup, chicken with curry sauce and rice and ice cream we kitted up and set off for the bear hides. The walk through the woods is about a 20 minute trek through pine forest and damp woods, crossing a track part way there, a lot of it on single boards. There were some interesting flowers like Dwarf Cornell and May Lily but not much in the way of birds.
Settling into the hide we started scanning round and soon found some gulls to look at, Black-headed, Common, Baltic and a probable Heuglin's,as well as Hooded Crows who were very entertaining flying onto the trunk of some trees and 'hovering' and flapping like mad. The trees had been baited with food for the Wolverine and the birds were taking full advantage. We also had a female Goldeneye which swam right in front of us, almost too close for the cameras. Just below the hide we watched a very nervous water vole.









At about 6.30 I found a Wolverine heading towards the feeding trees on the other side of the small lake. It bounded across the grass and shinned up a tree where it fed on the scraps before dropping down and going for another tree. Over the rest of the night we saw at least 3, probably 4 more, with a mother and 2 cubs, with some brilliant views although not always photographable. We also saw 3 brown bears before 7 am when you can leave the hide, all found by David, who stayed awake most of the night.









After breakfast and an hour in a hide for Red Squirrels we spent a leisurely day looking for dragonflies, plants and birds, with White-faced Darter, Crane, a Wintergreen and mountain Everlasting among the things we saw. Our last stop was for 2 Black-throated Divers fishing in a lake by he road, before heading back for a second early dinner of Chicken Soup, baked sausage and mashed potato with a pepper sauce and a Cinnamon whirl before getting ready for our second night in the hides.


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Finland - Day1

The flight to Helsinki left at just before 8 getting us there at around 12.30 in torrential rain. I was the longest walk ever to get to the car hire and the pick up directions left us wandering around a multi-storey before finally finding our car.

We drove round the ring road and found a lovely reserve with wet woodland, pools and reed beds. The view from one of the tower hides was great and a walk along a boardwalk brought us to a hide which was very welcome shelter from the rain. There were mallard and coot pottering around the lake, blue tit, sedge warbler, grasshopper warbler, reed and great reed warbler singing in the reeds and several singing thrush nightingales, with one hopping around on the end of the boardwalk. Several gulls were flying around and Common tern and Caspian tern gave very good views as the hawked over the pool and a Lesser-spotted woodpecker flew out into the reeds.
The walk back was through the wet woodland were we heard chaffinch,garden warbler and several wood warbler calling and feeding in the leaves. Back at the carpark we enjoyed the sight of house sparrows and some cute barnacle geese goslings before setting off for our long drive north.
It took time to get out of Helsinki with several very slow traffic jams before we were travelling more freely. The stands of various coloured lupins were a really lovely feature of the journey north.
Around 7.00 we started to look for accommodation,the first couple of places were full and we found a place that stated they were open but clearly weren't. We called into a campsite which seemed to have cabins, also full but they called the last hotel and we returned to meet the owners who sorted out beds for the night.
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A Geysir and Icelandic Twitching

We decided to make an early start as we had to make our way back to Reykjavik for an early flight home tomorrow. We had breakfast, packed the van and were away by 7.00 for the long drive to Geysir. On the way we had some really lovely views with the sun rising over the hills. There were lots of Fulmars flying along the cliffs and sitting on, presumably, potential nest sites.  As we turned inland there was much more snow and Lake Pingvallavatn was mostly frozen.
We stopped on a road running along Lake Laugervatn where we found a couple of pairs of Barrow's Goldeneye as well as some Red-breasted Mergansers enjoying the slightly warmer water kept ice free from the geo-thermal outflows.
We stopped a few times as we crossed the East/West divide but didn't see much until we headed into the car park at Geyser. This geyser gives it's name to all hot water spouts around the world but rarely erupts now. Luckily there is Strokkur which performs regularly about every 8 minutes.
Our route took us back south towards Reykjavik and we were lucky to find another ice free river with Mallard, Whooper swan and some Barrow's Goldeneye, giving much better views.
As we drove we saw several geo-thermal units steaming away.
Our next goal was a return to the Pol garden centre for the Lincoln's Sparrow. We arrived armed with some Trill to encourage it. A we waited we heard and saw a Crossbill, several Redwing, Blackbirds, Redpolls of them dark, Icelandic race and after a half an hour or so the sparrow turned up hopping among the lower branches and this time I managed to see it.
Next stop was to the docks and oil tanks at Orfirisey. We drove up and down and eventually found the right way to the coast. Parking up in the car park of a book shop, walked across the gravelly spaces and made our way behind the wire fence to a gap in the coastal rock. Defences and there, in front of us, was the American White-winged Scoter.
Our last goal was a Hooded Merganser at Hrauntunstjorn just outside Reykjavik. This was a lovely place with pools, bushes and a small river that broadened out into pools and eventually a large, frozen lake. There was also some frozen reservoir areas with small bits of open water. As we parked up a couple of lads made their way out of the undergrowth, explaining that the bird had probably just flown away and it would probably be best to go round to the other side. When we got round there we scanned across the lake and checked all the Tufted ducks but no sign. We drove back and forth a couple of times and Wez, Chris and Tony checked out different bits of the river but no sign. As the sun set we drove towards the hotel near the International Airport at Keflavik. It wasn't quite where we expected but we found it eventually. It was B&B only so we went round to a nearby grill for our evening meal. We then decided to drive out to clear, dark spot in the hope of aurora. We sat in a picnic spot for about an hour with no luck and with an early start decided to give up, fill up the van and go to bed. Turning round to return to the garage I spotted some very possible green glows in the sky so we filled up the van and then headed out towards Sandgeroi until we could see them clearly and there above us where some, admittedly low level aurora which we watched and tried to photograph before turning in for a few hours sleep and an early start for the flight home.