Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Azure Tit





News of an Azure Tit appearing at Oulu, northern Finland, plus showy Great Grey, Hawk and Ural Owls tempted Kev DuRose, David Jenkins and myself into a mid-winter trip to the frozen north; Unfortunately the week before out departure the owls did the same but the Azure Tit was hanging one and new birds appeared at three other sites; we arrived on Friday 2nd and drove the 320 miles north from Tampere to Oulu in increasingly poor weather. By the morning of the 3rd we were in Oulu but the Azure Tit had not been seen for two days! After a day which produced some other goodies we gave up on the tit but fortunately another bird appeared at a feeder at Uurainen on our way back to Tampere. A horrendous drive south on the night of 5th in driving snow eventually saw us on site on the morning of the 6th having amazing views of this once in a lifetime pallid tit form the east.

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