Finland.. without the aid of a safety net!
Exactly a year ago I was in Shetland battling a birdless North wind, and finding very little out of the norm. This year I was determined that Spring would prove a more fruitful season, and so far, the birding, mainly along the Hampshire coast has been pretty good. Certainly as good as Shetland! And so, on a spur of the moment decision, I looked into heading to Finland to try and find Red-Flanked Bluetail, a species I have always wanted to see. Cheap flight routes weren’t easy to come across, but I eventually settled on Ryanair from Stansted to Tampere, then a hire car for the 5 days. Simple! My original plan was to head up to Vaaltavaara, and wait there until I saw a Bluetail! However, the 10 hour drive put me off, and I stumbled on some other good Bluetail sites about 6 hours from Tampere in the North Karelia region of finland. This together with reports from Siikalahti, “the best bird lake in Finland” and my itinerary was pretty much made up. The weather was quite windy when I touche