A very short post which I’m writing in Helsinki Airport. Here, birdsong is played as background noise in the lavatories. What a
wonderful innovation, and good for testing your knowledge, too. I did pooly, it
must be said, recognizing only a Robin
(Erithacus rubecula) and failing utterly to have any sense of
what the other two species I heard were. Both were passerines, but beyond that I'm clueless.
This was such a short and intense visit (only the morning
and lunch) that I hadn’t bothered bringing my binoculars, and I particularly
love it when recognizable unexpected species pitch up in these circumstances.
On the drive to the airport there was a small flock of Barnacle Geese (Branta leucopsis) by a stretch of water near the harbor
and a pair of Fieldfares (Turdus pilaris) in some trees. Both of
these (remarkably, in the latter case) were my first for the year. Nice.
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| Helsinki in the sun today at lunchtime. |
