Our last chance for this bird, so 5am saw just the two of us and Pekka braving the grim conditions. As we gained in altitude, so the rain became more persistent, then became snow and then became the full-blown white-out conditions of a blizzard – and we were in search of a white bird! Turning our collars up against the wind, we followed the trail out of the car park and up onto the open moorland, plodding uphill through deepening snow and straight into the teeth of the biting wind. Stopping intermittently, we peered through the snowstorm, hoping to see an elusive white Ptarmigan shuffling amongst the rocks, but alas the birds had more sense than us. Not a single Ptarmigan showed itself, though we were amazed to see a Wheatear struggling to survive in these conditions, and more appropriately, a Snow Bunting hopped onto the trail. As time ran out, we returned to the hotel to collect the rest of the group and head south to Rovaniemi to catch a flight to Helsinki, and then back to Manchester. Our thanks go to Pekka Saikko of Earlybird Tours, who’s guided us throughout this trip and who’s incredibly eyesight and expert local knowledge has found us the amazing birds we were seeking, and also to the rest of the group for putting up with us – Judith, Maureen and Morris, Beryl and Alan, Marion and John, Jan and Jeff, Rosetta, Byron, Jonathan, Mike - and of course to Owen Roberts, who organised the whole trip, with just a little help from Hannu Jannes!We’ll be seeing rather too much of airports over the next 48 hours, as we start our marathon journey to Campo Grande in Brazil tomorrow, via Manchester, London Heathrow, Madrid and Sao Paolo. But with some fantastic birds waiting for us in the Pantanal, where we’ll be staying at the Caiman Lodge, it’ll all be worth it when we finally get there!
Bird species list: still 2286
Posted 12th June, Helsinki Airport