It wouldn’t be Autumn without a yank, and a Pectoral Sandpiper appearing on Laajalahti, one of my regular sites, fit the bill nicely.

Pectoral Sandpiper - significantly rarer in Finland than Ireland

With the ski holidays upon us, we decided to do a family trip to Latvia, as a change from Estonia.

A child bourne plague descended upon me at the outset of the trip, and I spent the entire drive from Tallinn to Riga shivering and unable to control my body temperature.

The other family members wanted nothing to do with me and my contagion, so I was often dumped on the beach for the first few days. Suits me!

The Beaches of Riga bay were beautiful

I spent my time watching Gulls, seeing my first Mediterranean Gull (a first winter) for years, and enjoying Caspian Gulls in far better numbers than Finland.

Caspian Gull - First Winter - I think these may be the most beautiful Caspian Gull Photos I have ever taken, of what I must say is a stunning individual.

Caspian Gull - 2CY - This bird hung around the beach for several days and was exceptionally tame and vocal. A real joy to get to grips with.

Caspian Gull - 2CY - Video grabs of that spectacular tail and primary pattern

Little Gull - big numbers of these moving through.

I also got to visit Getlini Dump in Riga. Unfortunately there is no longer access into the dump, and indeed security can be a bit of a nuisance actually.

Nonetheless I managed good numbers of Caspian Gulls viewing from the outside, with some 20+ individuals of various ages classes.

Caspian Gulls - 1st Winters

Some other ages of Casp

A real shame on no access. Would have sold a kidney to get in amongst all these birds.

The other targets on the trip were woodpeckers.

And we saw many. Middle-Spotted Woodpecker were everywhere, including in the garden where we were staying. White-backed was encountered in swampy areas and a couple of well known parks in the area. Lesser Spotted and Black Woodpecker were also easy and I even managed a single Three-Toed Woodpecker and Green Woodpecker (I reckon it’s at least 15 years since I encountered Green Woodpecker).

These didn’t really play ball for digiscoping unfortunately, but we’re brilliant birds nonetheless.

Other birds which did pose for the scope included Nuthatch and Pygmy Owl.

Nuthatch

Pygmy Owl - 2 birds singing off against each other in flooded forest made for excellent viewing

We saw loads of good birds in Latvia, including various seaduck such as Velvet Scoter and Long Tailed Duck, but stand outs were things like numerous Great White Egret, Red-Crested Pochard and Marsh Tit.

Great White Egret - not sure I have ever seen them so tame.

Red-Crested Pochard - they’re a nice duck when you don’t have to worry about fence hoppers.

Great Grey Shrike - very good numbers of these this autumn

On the way back, I took in another dump, east of Tallinn. Again, no access here (a shame because there were hundreds of gulls). I did manage to pick up one Caspian before security moved me on.

Caspian Gull - 1st Winter

Back on the Finnish side of the water, my garden Nutcracker have been performing very well, present all day every day.

Nutcracker

We also managed to find a day roosting Tawny Owl in the garden which gave sublime views.

Tawny Owl

A Desert Wheatear was too good to pass up in Helsinki, providing a nice Finnish tick.

Desert Wheatear

We have been experiencing some notable influxes, particularly Hume’s Warbler and Oriental Turtle Dove, both species I managed to connect with.

I twitched a Hume’s Warbler at Lauttasaari, but managed to find my own individual in Helsinki city whilst trying to see a Pallas’s Warbler.

Sadly both birds were skulkers, but this Goshawk was nice and showy.

Goshawk

A meena Oriental Turtle Dove on the Eastern side of Helsinki was a relatively easy twitch and brought back good memories of the one on Cape Clear. 😎

Oriental Turtle Dove - a really distinctive bird, but that said, I wonder how many meena like this have gone unnoticed in Ireland. Not quite as obvious as orientalis.

A Great Grey Shrike kept watch on the twitch the whole time.

On the way home I stopped off to get my first Hawk Owl of the season. You gotta make time for the best bird in the universe.

Hawk Owl - what a bird!