Spring and Summer in Finland

[Olga]

continues


1st June

at 11:24, the second visit on preches

[Olga]

1st May the same minute 11:24 continues

[Olga]

in the midday of the 1st June.. new construction accepted by squirrels too!

The small gray squirrel.. I just wonder is this the same gray squirrel I saw on the ither day..He seemed to be all alone while some other Squirrels come as if they were pair,one after the other, in order, two and two together..





And the woodpecker visited each time when there was no squirrels..

[Olga]

afternoon of 1st June

The spotted Squirrel checked carefully the new construction..

[Olga]

afternoon 1st June

She (!) accepted the change and begun the nut luch..now I see that this squirrel is female!

[Olga]

1st Juneafternoon

continues, the same visit of the 'spotted' Squirrel..

hm.. one can't say the she is too thin...

[Olga]

1st June afternoon

The next visitor was Silk ear, soon after the spotted one.. I have thought that that Silk ear is female, but now that the spotted squirrel is female, it may be that Silk ear is male.. but I am not sure. Any wat these two come at same time, one after the other..

[Olga]

I have no idea who was there when I watched fort he last time on the 1st June, late afternoon

[Olga]

2nd June

I was shocked that my camera, a pocket canon camera was broken! Photos were very unsharp.. I don't say that my photos are usually so hight quality 'sharp', no,thay are not, but this time they were almost unacceptable..and the camera systems didn't work as earlier..scary!

Oh, I loosed some moments, but at last the camera begun to work again! The photos of today has to be edited first.. so.. I'll be back later..

[macdoum]

in the midday of the 1st June.. new construction accepted by squirrels too!

The small gray squirrel.. I just wonder is this the same gray squirrel I saw on the ither day..He seemed to be all alone while some other Squirrels come as if they were pair,one after the other, in order, two and two together..



And the woodpecker visited each time when there was no squirrels..

]

Olga,this squirrel seems very young,even his feet are different. He is small.
As ever we are enthralled with your photos.
(Does your camera need new batteries maybe ?)

[alice44]

I have had lots of focusing trouble with my little camera.
After thinking about it
I think I push partway, the camera focuses and then I move and click and so the image is out of focus. I don't know why I have terrible trouble some days and not so much trouble other days.

But Olga, you have had so many fantastic pictures I do not see you can have that problem, but it might get worse if the battery were weak

[unp]

Hello, Olga, it's always a pleasure to see your photos of sqirrels and other visitors. But from what I read, there must be two great spotted woodpeckers - a couple? - rather than one lesser spotted woodpecker that visit your feeder. They do look similar but it's easy to see the difference from the pictures below. Pictures and the quotation are from Wikipedia.

In the Great Spotted Woodpecker, "Males have a crimson spot on the nape, which is absent in females and juvenile birds. In the latter, the top of the head is crimson between the bill and the center of the crown instead."


Lesser Spotted Woodpecker ----- Middle Spotted Woodpecker -------- Great Spotted Woodpecker

[Olga]

Hello, Olga, it's always a pleasure to see your photos of sqirrels and other visitors. But from what I read, there must be two great spotted woodpeckers - a couple? - rather than one lesser spotted woodpecker that visit your feeder. They do look similar but it's easy to see the difference from the pictures below. Pictures and the quotation are from Wikipedia.

In the Great Spotted Woodpecker, "Males have a crimson spot on the nape, which is absent in females and juvenile birds. In the latter, the top of the head is crimson between the bill and the center of the crown instead."


Lesser Spotted Woodpecker ----- Middle Spotted Woodpecker -------- Great Spotted Woodpecker

OMG I have been so busy that I had no time to think about the main thing: What have I seen exactly, which birds!

When I saw for the first time this Woodpecker (thumbnail below), I thought, oh yes, it's a 'big bird' (compared to the small birds I saw each day on that time), so it has to be 'Käpytikka', the Great Spotted Woodpecker, December 14th 2009. It visited very seldom then the feeder behind my window..

This summer when the Woodpecker invaded the feeder and the garden I just thought, oh, hello, there you are again, and 'this is not as big than the first one earlier which I saw for more than one year ago! (It was a great experience for me to see it so close)...

Now that I'm more used to see it each day, I just didn't think anymore that it is a 'big' bird, but actually not very big at all, but rather 'small'!

It's so beautiful, so lively and talkative. It makes calls when it comes to take a nut, and it is singing aloud when it leaves with her nut -only one nut at time. Then I can hear her calling from the pines close by, about 50-100 m far.. Yes they are two, but I'm not sure if they both visit the feeder. I suppose they have nest somewhere there..(I do not listen to the radio anymore during daytime, because the sounds from the nature are something real, and make so good for my old heart..) I'm not going to try to find the nest, no -let them be in all peace..

I made such a mistake! The each day Woodpecker just can't be the 'Lesser Spotted Woodpecker'. Thank you unp, so much for being exact, reasonable and thoughtfull!


My first photo of the Greater Woodpecker, 2009, 14th December:





I'll post some photos from last summer next.. The woodpecker didn't visit the feeder that time, and I had no feeder just behind my window..On summer morning I saw three Woodpeckers at same time..

[Olga]

These were the Woodpeckers I happened to see one July morning last summer, the 14th. On that time I didn't have feeder on my window sill. I thought that they are Woodpecker chicks who had left their nest some days before..

14th July 2009.. They were searching something from the lawn there, maybe there were some nuts which the squirrels had hided there in winter and in the spring time - the feeder was there on the stone terrace ..

It would be great to see this kind of view in this summer too.. we have to wait..

[unp]

... Yes they are two, but I'm not sure if they both visit the feeder...

Yes, you can be sure they both, at the least, do. On the same day, June 1, one was with a crimson spot on the nape (viewtopic.php?p=72910#p72910 - male) and one without (viewtopic.php?p=72918#p72918 - female).

[Olga]

Yes, you can be sure they both, at the least, do. On the same day, June 1, one was with a crimson spot on the nape (viewtopic.php?p=72910#p72910 - male) and one without (viewtopic.php?p=72918#p72918 - female).

Yes, the difference is very clear! Maybe I have watched too much and it's making me some how like blind! Thank you unp!

There is one of them for the moment.. calling.. they are very quick. They are watching all the time I guess, sitting on some close by pine trunk, and come at once when they see that there is no squirrels.

I'm happy that there are no more squirrels than those usual 3-4 main guests.. Maybe I would do best and decrease the daily nuts.. there is overwhelming good food in the forest for squirrels and woodpeckers, they had better to not get used to this kind eating.. it's difficult to stop! They are so funny to watch, all of them..

[Olga]

One week has gone! Some few squirrels have been visiting daily but not so often because there has not been nuts lately, only the resting storage of Sun flower seed from last year.. Silk ear 1. and Silk ear the 2. are most devoted visitors, and the Great Spotted Woodpecker too.

Who is she/he? A 'spotted' Squirrel.. the only one seen there today..

[macdoum]

Thank you Olga and ump for the news about Woodpeckers.
Now I know that the one/s we see in our garden is a junior too.
Nice photos,thank you Olga. Nice to see the squirrels are still there.

[Olga]

There are quite a lot photos from the 2nd to 12th June which are waiting to be put here. I have been a bit busy but despite of that I have followed those squirrels who seems to live here around the small forest around our hill. And there are some other small hills close by. A neighbor down the hill told that there is a squirrel nest on a spruce in their yard. Yes, I have seen squirrels jump on our terrace on the other side of our house..from behind the stone wall..

They come and visit the feeder even though there has not been nuts anymore.. a few times I have put a fat ball on the roof as a test how soon the Wood pecker comes - she/ he comes in 1-3 minutes with loud noise always. They go to sleep about at 20:30, as well as the squirrels too.

No-one of my animal 'friends' is tame. They are wild and shy. They have noticed that no-one is after them nor want to disturb them by free will. Dogs are something very nasty, but they have no other means but barking, and my dogs are not interested on them for long time. If squirrels or A Wood pecker notices me behind the curtain and the black cartoon, they escape, they are scared even of my moving finger and the camera lens. When i'm in the yeard, squirrels do not come, but the Wood pecker is flying there around from tree to tree, with the familiar noise.

But first of all: It is real summer here in Finland now!

Today is the 13th June. Yesterday evenign there was a strong storm here in Souther FInland, el was broken for seven hours. The garden looked a bit messy in the morning:

[Olga]

Ine the morning of 2nd June:

I'm not sure about the visitors who is who..the fur color has changed more or less, and the ear fur seems to have decreased also - in winter all had some fur on the ears..but actually I do not know for sure..

testing the new perches..