Stake out

A nervous bear steps out of the forest

The sole Wolf that we saw

The Wolf again

A bear retreating

'Paleface' the dominate male

Just got back from an amazing trip to Finland. I'm absolutely shattered after spending some 28 hours in the last 48 in a hide watching for bear, wolves and wolverines. 

I will break down the details of this part of the trip tomorrow - I'm sooo knackered!

The above and below are a selection of things I saw.

Female Three-toed Woodpecker

Juvenile Fieldfare

Greenshank

A gorgeous Brown Bear

TUB in the morning after the night before

Hidden gems

A White Wagtail in the Helsinki Sunshine

Due to traveling to the Taiga Forest I had to do without the luxury of internet whilst staying in a hotel completely on my own. There were no guests, no staff and no night as the sun didn't ever set. More about that in a second.

On my third morning in Helsinki (Wednesday) I broke with the crepuscular tradition and slept from around 1am until 7am. As it was my last morning, I decided last minute to walk 15 minutes, through a nearby park, to catch a boat to an island called Harakka that was described on the tourist map as a 'nature island'. On the way I picked up a male Pied Flycatcher in the park.

The island was literally minutes away by boat and it really was a little nature reserve. In reality, it was in the hands of the military until as recently as 1988. It's now managed by the city council and boasted a fairly large breeding colony of Common Gull. It had plenty of stunted bushes, clumps of trees and one side of it faced the Gulf of Helsinki. A classic migrant island. The visitor centre staff although being friendly, didn't have a clue as to the birds to be found on their own island. I found singing Lesser Whitethroat, Willow Warbler, a Northern Wheatear brood and off shore Eider.

Later, I was on another plane heading north to the Taiga for the bear spotted part of this trip. My first staging post was to stay in a really nice hotel some 80km from where I eventually needed to be. I went for a bike ride at midnight in broad daylight around the immediate vicinity. Picked up more hares and a roding Woodcock. Got back to the hotel at 1am, still in day light and after fannying around for about an hour, I decided to get my head down and this time have a reasonable sleep. That I did and I arose at 8am (late for me these days) and after breakfast met my guide who took me to meet my bear guide - via restaurants (got a female Rustic Bunting in the grounds of one), a husky centre and a carnivore museum.

I will let you know how I got on with the bears in a couple of days.

 

Flying the flag

Lance Armstrong

My little Finnish mate

Last night's Eagle Owl stakeout was a little weird. I was standing on the 13th floor of a packed hotel terrace pressed up against a rather tall plate glass wall with a bunch of drunken Finnish revelers. I must have cut a sad figure to the guys singing joyously at their tables: a guy on his own with an orange juice in one hand, binoculars in the other peering over the side of the hotel intently staring at the rooftops below. They must have thought that I was contemplating suicide!

I lasted about 90 minutes before giving up the ghost. It probably wasn't there anyway! I rode back to the nearby hotel on the free bike they supplied. Now let me tell you about this bike. Imagine a girls bike from the 50's made of wrought iron and weighing more than a small Bison. To cycle on this machine meant that you had to peddle furiously, even on a level road. The moment you stopped cycling the bike would quickly cruise to a standstill. The bike also had no brakes (which took some getting used to) and you had to cycle backwards to stop.

Despite all that, at 2.30am after no sleep, I borrowed the bike and did the c14km round trip to Seurasaari, a forested 'island' joined onto the mainland by a thin strip of land. It's essentially a tourist trap with some interesting examples of ancient architecture dotted around. The interesting thing about the place was that some of the animals seem exceedingly curious. I was wielding my loaned Nikon D90 when I noticed an adult Great Tit feeding an eager juvenile. When it got close enough I slowly raised my camera to start taking some shoots. As I did this the adult noticed me. Instead of moving away it momentarily abandoned its hungry youngster and approached me to look at me. It came so close that I thought it would walk onto my head.

Shortly after, I flushed a Red Squirrel. It ran down the road, stopped, had a think then ran back towards me. It stopped literally 3 feet away from me, had a good look then scampered off. I was beginning think that I had left my flies undone or something!

An immature Long-eared Owl

Moments later, an owl swept into a clearing to land on a branch. Sods law, there was a spray of leaves obscuring its face but judging from the buffy patches on its primaries I guessed that it was a Long-eared Owl. It then leaped onto the woodland floor and was obscured by the long grass for short while. Finally, it re-emerged to land on the branch that I attempted to photograph it on.

What a result!

The journey back to the hotel wasn't as tortuous as I had thought it would have been. No Lance Armstrong moments were called for. I got back in time for breakfast and to nurse my knackered thigh muscles and saddle sores!

Normal service is resumed

Surely this is a 'fuscus' Lesser Black-back?

Phew, it's been a hectic few days what with Mickey J popping his moccasins, me working my nuts off to finish my debut article for BBC Wildlife magazine plus preparing for and travelling to Helsinki - from where I write this blog. Oh, and I had the worst football game in history on Saturday. We lost something like 10-1!

I arrived in Finland yesterday afternoon and immediately holed myself up in my hotel room until 3am when I finally finished my article on my favourite sites in London. I then had to meet with my guide Hannu Tammelin from Birdlife International Finland who whisked me off to our first urban destination, Hotel Torni just down the road from where I was staying. The idea was not get breakfast, but to stake out a breeding pair of Eagle Owl that can sometimes be seen leaving their rooftop nest site. 

We had no luck, so for the next 10 hours we scooted from site to site picking up mosquito bites, hearing several singing Blyth's Reed Warblers, a couple River Warblers and Marsh Warblers. We also saw a family party of up to 4 Citrine Wagtails at their breeding area, plenty of Common Rosefinch, singing Icterine Warbler, Caspian Terns, Ruff still in near enough summer plumage, Wood Sandpipers and a distant unidentified eagle sp, that was being mobbed by a gull.

Speaking of which, the Larid of choice around here is definitely Common Gull. There are in the parks and patiently waiting by al fresco tables for tossed morsels. They haven't quite learnt the evil thieving ways of their larger cousins yet. The Lesser Black-backs here are darker backed with longer wing projection when at rest. They also hold their bodies in a downward slant - almost as if their wings are too heavy for them. Got to be a Baltic Gull, surely?

When I got back to my hotel, hot and knackered, I received an email from BBC Wildlife Magazine saying that they thought my article was great! Yay!

TUB in Helsinki

There was a lot of response to the Swift entry (my last entry). Let's get out and count those Swifts and help to get them and the House Martins back on their feet (so to speak!).

I'm off for another night time vigil. Firstly, I'm going to stake out that Eagle Owl, then I'm going to cycle around the western outskirts of the city in the wee daylight hours (sunrise is at around 2.45am) to see what I can find. 

Here's to being crepuscular!

Swifts

Eurasian Swift (J. Sanz)

I'm really into Swifts and I'm quite alarmed about their demise in numbers over the years - down by 47% according to figures released by the RSPB. Over the years, I have actually noticed a slump in numbers. Far less birds are to be found swooping low over the grassland at Wormwood Scrubs than in previous years. I remember tons more Swifts flying around on hot summer days when I was a teenager at school.

And the reason for the decline? A lack of nest sites. We are building structures without the crevices that these birds so love. I just hope that the architects who design new buildings wake up to the opportunity that they have to help hole nesters survive and prosper.

They have enough dangers to face on their long migrations. Let's get out there and make some holes!

Swift decline

Picture by Kim Dixon

I haven't been in tip-top condition since the weekend, as I have been suffering from one of my 'headache-less' migranes that has rendered me quite hard of hearing. Most sounds I hear grate inside my head. Not pleasant I can assure you.

This morning I arose early and made my way to my patch. It was a beautiful morning and quite hot. Just before 8am I gave a telephone interview for BBC Radio Hereford & Worcester about the demise of the Swift. There was something cool about sitting on a park bench in the sunshine watching and talking about Swifts.

The rest of my day was spent either in a torpor or typing on the computer. I received the itinerary for my Finland trip next week. The first three days will be spent in Helsinki urban birding and then the rest of the week until Sunday will be further north, hopefully spying on Wolverines and Brown Bear.

I can hardly wait.

Beddington surprise

I've been off the radar recently industriously working away here at The Urban Birder Factory. I was working on the usual things including TV programme treatments, checking out The Scrubs and general plotting and planning. Throw in a bit of football and a tad of socialising and that's the sum total of what I've been up to.

On Sunday, I continued to visit some of the locations that I plan to write about in my forthcoming BBC Wildlife piece. In the morning, after a brief visit to The Scrubs to film the first of a new series of video blogs that I plan to put on the net, I headed over to relatively nearby Yeading Brook Meadows, some 3 miles up the A40. This area of scrub and woodland is part of a collection of nature reserves along the Hillingdon Trail. This whole area is totally underwatched but quite interesting with breeding Little Owl to its credit.

Later in the afternoon I met with Roger Browne and Peter Alfrey at Beddington (Sewage) Farm for a guided tour. 

Beddington Farm looking north east 

The Croydon skyline as seen from Beddington Farm

Beddington Birders: Roger Browne, Peter Alfrey & TUB

It had changed beyond all recognition to the place I used to bird for a few years during the '80's. The guys explained the complicated conservation issues that were at hand - issues that I will raise more comprehensively in my forthcoming article and on my website. 

But in short, there has been some amazing birds found here and the site boasts perhaps the largest Tree Sparrow colony in Britain. Although the owners of the land have good intentions on paper, it seems as though the conservation measures are not being implemented as proposed and instead, the site is being slowly eroded away by construction.

Standing on top of the watch point mound (known by the local birders as Mt Beddington) I could clearly see that this site - which is practically 4 times larger than the London Wetland Centre - was a sleeping colossus. With proper management it would be the best birding site in London by far, in my opinion.

I will keep you updated on this potentially amazing urban paradise.