Comments about our travel situation

Some exceptions to my strategy for upcoming entries may crop up, but my next posts will focus on a single species.  If there are stories to accompany the photos, I'll weave them in. 

I include the two photos below to bridge the narrative part of this blog entry and because there is no where else to put them.

Above and below:  What the heck is this?

When taking the photo above I committed an unintentional, but significant, faux pax on a birding trip.  This is, I accidentally bumped into the photographer on the trip just as he was lining up for his shot. Yikes, the look!  It certainly did not win me a new friend.  

They look like black and white photos.  I don't know why.  It was not a black and white bird.  The ground was not black and white.  I don't even recall that it was a gray morning. We saw this bird in Kuusamo-Lakkisaari in Northern Ostrobothnia.This is Rustic Bunting (Emberiza rustica) and my photos of it go to the heart of one of my assertions below.  I almost deleted them but decided against it because they are the only two I have and this is a hard bird to see in Finland.  We also saw the Little Bunting (Emberiza pusilla), another difficult bunting see in Finland, but I did not get photos of it.  Aside from the already discussed Ortolan Bunting, the other buntings we saw, (Common) Reed Bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus), Lapland Bunting (Calcarius lapponicus), our Lapland Longspur, and Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis) also went without photos, the later two because I was on the wrong side of the van.  Read on. 

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This entry is about our travel.  For this trip there was a lot of travel in [technically] two 9 passenger vehicles.  It was primarily a listing trip. There were plenty of photo opportunities, but these were often not conducive to good or careful photos. (If anyone reads my blog with any regularity, by now I must be famous for my poor photos - examples above and elsewhere.  Nevertheless, I am always trying to improve).  

If I have a single complaint about the trip, it would be the cramped vehicles in which we spent so much time.  The cumbersome loading and unloading often tested my patience.  A couple of trip participants had significant mobility issues.  I always seemed to end up behind them.  Traveling in over-crowded vehicles does not lend itself to good trip stories, only to trip complaints and, worse, conflict.  When it's obvious that the trip is good, who wants to be the person in the back seat complaining?  Unfortunately, on two occasions, I had to complain.  I'm glad I did.  It was the right thing to do.  But it's still unpleasant. After the first few days we all became, more or less, accommodated to our traveling situation, but my ears were attuned to the occasional complaint that was mumbled or whispered.  These mumblings were not meant for my ears but they confirmed my insights. Considering the vehicles that were used, by my calculation the trip was oversold by three persons.  About half way through one trip participant left  for personal reasons.  This offered a glimmer of that reality.  In one seat, in one vehicle, it was easy to experience how it would have been had there only been ten people on the trip instead of thirteen.  There were also a couple of other negative externalities, i.e unavoidable situations that affected everyone, the specifics of which are not necessary here, and these complicated the situation.  

My blog is obscure to say the least.  I get quite a few monthly visitors, but this is secondary to having - as I celebrated earlier - 600 posts.  No one on the trip, or elsewhere for that matter, knows that I keep this blog.  For this reason, other than naming the tour company and the guides, I do not include the names of the other participants.  I think of blogs as I think of podcasts.  They are a dime a dozen.  As nearly as I can tell the topics of politics, cooking, gardening and nature and birding, with photography being the focus, are the main topics.  A blog with so much writing, such as mine is, is not tops on anyone's list.  On the one in a million chance that someone connected to this trip would find this blog I think they would read the truth in what I have written.  

I keep this blog as a fun hobby.  Why is it important to write about travel discomfort at all?  I write about it for my own memories, but also to inform others - should they bother to read any of this.  Next time you are considering a booking, ask the questions about things that are important to you.  It may not involve travel comfort at all, but might be something else you care about.  

The other reason I share this information is one of my other hobbies.  I use this blog to practice my narrative writing.       

Bottom line, this was a great trip with great guides, great birds, great scenery, great hotels, great food (all these greats are not exaggerated) with the side effect of uncomfortable travel.  Would I go on this trip again?  Unequivocally, yes.  But now I have more information to inform myself better.

Grouse

It's becoming more difficult to tell which day it is which even though we are still in the early days of the trip.  We have left the Finlandia Airport Hotel and are now staying at the Hotel Club Kuusamon Tropikki near Kuusamo.  This is very nice and new resort-style hotel.   It has a golf course, a couple of lakes and indoor pool as well as kids things.  The dining room was large and the buffet meals were excellent.  

Side note:  I have noticed on other trips that involve time-zone changes that the events I have in my smart phone calendar also change to the current time-zone.  Everything on our phones is synced to the satellites monitoring our presence and keeping time for us.  To me, this seems like a failure of smart phones, but it's not just smart phones.  It was also true for my camera.  When I downloaded my photos none of the times recorded for each photo are accurate.  I had never noticed this before.  Early on I had to sit down and go through my camera menu to find a solution for a problem that had arisen.  I think everyone knows what a pain this is.  I intentionally do not have my camera synced with my smart phone.  But somewhere along the way I have a feature turned on that probably should not be.  Now that I am home, something to solve later.

All this past winter I noticed that my Belle Isle photos frequently downloaded out-of-order to my computer.  I didn't bother paying attention to it then.  But, now that I am writing this blog and trying to follow chronologically I am having trouble remembering what came first.  The time stamp on each photo is of no help to me and I may not be able to trust the dates either.  I changed sim cards half way through the trip to avoid any catastrophic mishaps.  It's time to consult the trustworthy trip checklist.

Back to the trip:  It was near Kuusamo that we began our grouse searches.

Willow Ptarmigan.  

I have unidentifiable photos of the female Willow Ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus) as well but not worth including here.  We saw the bird in this plumage only in this location.  We saw it many times in its tundra habitat with its red-brown head and neck and the rest of the plumage completely white.  This Willow Ptarmigan was seen on the morning of 5/26 when we were on a search for Western Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus).  After about an hour we gave up this search and were loading back into the vans when a big male Capercaillie flew across the road about fifty feet in front of our parked vans.  Only a few of us saw it.       

The following five photos were taken on an after dinner grouse search the evening of Tuesday, the 27th - our final night in this location.  We left around 9:00 pm and drove several unpaved rural road.  We did indeed find grouse.   

But first we saw Mountain Hare.  This is a big and charming rabbit which we saw every day, everywhere.

Above and below:  Finally, a Black Grouse landed in a field just adjacent to our vehicles,  It startled and  flew up to the spuce tree for a silhouetted image.  Both photos were taken through filthy van windows.

And then grouse seemed to show up everywhere along the road.  We saw both female black grouse and female Western Capercaillies.

 

Above:  Believe it or not, this is a female Capercaillie.

Startled male Black Grouse flying off.

Our final male Black Grouse landed in a field just ahead of our cars.  We opened the van door in hopes of getting unobstructed views.  But, the van in front of us startled it when its door was opened and I caught this horrible inflight photo.   Can still tell what it is.

The next morning, in a different location, we saw Black Grouse distantly on their lek. 

Finally, you'll remember Bernard Raynaud of Red-flanked Bluetail fame.  It seems fitting to end this post with his email sign-off image of the male Western Capercaillie.

Wow!

The feeders at Red-flanked Bluetail stop

I have spoken with many birders who don't like taking bird photos at feeders.  This is also true for me and I try to avoid photos at feeders as well as photos of birds on the ground.  But sometimes it's not avoidable.  The Bullfinches and the Bramblings were frequently perched away from the feeders so I looked for those opportunities. Siskins, being siskins, often favor ground feeding.  The Great-spotted Woodpecker and the Siberian Jay; neither ever gave a clear photo op away from the feeders.   

Fuzzy Bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) with Brambling in the background

Sadly, my only photo where the eye is visible.

Female Bullfinch

Above and below:  (Eurasian) Siskin (Carduelis spinus) 

Great-spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major)

Above and below:  Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla)

Above and below:  On the ground and at the feeder, Siberian Jay (Perisoreus infaustus) .

The Bullfinch and the Siberian Jay were the big attractions here.  With the exception of the Siberian Jay - this is the only time we would see one - we saw the others on numerous occasions.   Despite its relative commonness, the Bullfinch was named on several top five lists.  I didn't list is amongst my top five, but it is one of my favorite European birds. Unique, colorful, charming are all descriptors I attach to it.     

A little bird perched up high

On the third full day of our trip, Monday, May 26th, we traveled to a beautiful hiking and outdoor park (kind of like a State Park here) to see one bird in particular.  Of course, we saw more than just one bird, but the focus was on finding Red-flanked Bluetail (Tarsiger cyanurus).  Of course, we saw it.

The trails were a little muddy and slick secondary to a running event that had taken place the day before.  Any running event on such trails clearly demanded sure-footedness. 

These photos are tightly cropped.  We saw this bird well in the spotting scope and he was cooperative on a couple of high perches like this.  I included three similar photos because the bird's eye is visible in each.

How the Red-flanked Bluetail appeared through my camera viewfinder at maximum zoom.  

Later while standing around in the parking lot, I met up with a French birder/photographer, Bernard Raynaud, who was touring Finland and sleeping in his small van.  He had set-up really nice digs.  His bed was even made.  He showed me his photos of the Red-flanked Bluetail and was generous enough to share via email.  Wait for it!

It pays to talk with people in parking lots.  A true beauty!

Bernard had found the bird in good light and on a low perch. I emailed Bernard to request use of his photos here and sent him the link to this post.  I put the © on each photo and signed it as he did on another photo which I'll use elsewhere. My rule of thumb: never allow good photos to go unseen and unappreciated.  The deal was that I would send him a couple of my "good" photos.  I will, of course, but I don't have anything to match his.

This whole exchange reminds me of another topic which I may write about at the very end of all of this.

A grebe and two owls

It is still Sunday and fresh from seeing the Ortolan Bunting the rain had become heavy.  After seeing Horned Grebes all April on the Detroit River and Belle Isle ponds in various stages of developing their alternate plumage; here, in Finland, a Horned Grebe (Podiceps auritus) is in full breeding plumage.  Raining cats and dogs - the rain can be seen on the surface of the water - this little grebe paddled along unperturbed. It's not clear if the bird had reached the end of its migration or if it had a mate on a nest.  I recalled that it was in Alaska on a pond such as this where I saw my first full breeding plumaged male Horned Grebe.  So I hope it had a mate somewhere.  Of note, in the 2009 second edition of the Birds of Europe, this is the Slavonian Grebe with (Horned Grebe) in parenthesis (pages 64-65).  If I squint at the photos I can see, sort of, the bird's red eye.

The Horned Grebe was much admired, but this was not a special stop for the grebe.  We came here to a Finnature building to pick up rubber boots for everyone so that we could tromp through a boggy forest for our next bird.   Remarkably, we were all able to select suitable boots from a metal storage bin on the porch. 

Above and below:  the habitat - wet and boggy.

Above and two below:  (Eurasian) Pygmy Owl (Glaucidium passerinum)

The forest was dark, gloomy and wet.  Without the boots this endeavor would not have been possible.  I felt like I was on a Lord of the Rings movie set.  Of all the walks this trip offered, this was hands down my favorite.

We had another target bird in this forest which gave us a chase.  We did finally get very good looks at a perched in the open Grey-headed Woodpecker (Picus canes) (pages 242-243).  He didn't stay long.  

This trip took us through many different habitats that were not comparable (like apples and oranges) but this forest tromp was my most memorable.  When we got our boots removed and ourselves put back together, we drove what I recall to be a short distance to our next owl.       

Above and below:  Ural Owl (Strix uralensis) on nest.  In the photo below, raindrops can be seen in the air in front of the nest box opening. Very clever nest box design.  Finnature placed and monitors these nest boxes, so this bird was essentially a drive-up.  We saw this view from the road.  

The Ural Owl is described in 2nd edition Birds of Europe this way:  "Resident of old boreal forests interspersed with bogs, often also open water, clearfellings and small fields.  Food voles, frogs and insects (taken after watch from low perch), but it is strongly built and also takes a variety of birds (including other owls!)  Nests in tree trunk ("chimney"), nestbox or abandoned raptor's nest.  Caution:  Very aggressive when young about to leave nest and can attack intruder fiercely; keep your eyes fixed on the parents if you stumble on an inhabited nest, and leave area quickly!" (page 224).  

We walked a little way into the woods to get a frontal view of the owl and nest.  We were perhaps thirty to forty feet away (I'm a poor judge of distance).  She never took her eyes off us.  At one point I stepped a foot or two closer to the nest to get out of the way of others. Immediately I was cautioned by Nigel - "come back here."  Later, I was speaking with Anttu about this experience and he said to me, "you have to remember that there are always two owls," meaning the mate is also nearby and watching.  Anttu knew of several instances of people having lost an eye from a Ural Owl attack.  Often the person was unaware of an owl being nearby, but simply got too close.  This has also happened to children giving the Ural Owl a bad reputation.  That evening during dinner at our second hotel, there was another Finnature birding group also staying at the hotel.  Just a week earlier, the leader of that group was attacked by a Ural Owl.  Anttu admitted, "He shouldn't have been doing what he was doing, but he was lucky."  I snuck a look at the guide's face and the left side did seem slightly swollen.       

Back on the road and ready to squeeze into the vans again, a silhouetted (common) Snipe (Gallinago gallinago) flew in for treetop viewing.

Back home now, it's also Sunday when I am writing these posts.  My goal is to publish one per day, but today - being Sunday - I published three.