On my last visit to Finland eight years ago I was thrilled to see common cranes (Grus grus). Back then their global population was estimated to be half a million strong — and increasing — with “by far the largest breeding populations in Russia, Finland and Sweden.” Considering their preference for Finland, it shouldn’t be hard to find some on this visit.
If you want to see common cranes outside the breeding season, visit them in the brown areas on this map. {The other colors are breeding (purple), wintering (brown) and year-round(green).} Interestingly, eBird’s map shows them year-round in Germany and Poland but, due to lack of eBirders in Africa, the Nile valley wintering grounds are not listed.
Eurasian eagle owls (Bubo bubo) span the continent from Norway and Spain to the Russian Far East, the Koreas, and China. Because they have been persecuted by people they are very sensitive to human disturbance in Sweden and will abandon eggs and even nestlings.
In some places they nest in parks, such as this owl family in southern Germany.
(video from Wikimedia Commons)
But the most amazing were the city owls who moved into Helsinki about 20 years ago when the rabbit population grew large. One of them became famous by “crashing” a soccer playoff at Helsinki Olympic Stadium(*).
Another pair nested above a city street in 2011. One of their youngsters miscalculated a short airborne hop and his mistake became an adventure. He had his first city tour complete with a fire department rescue from the top of the “Southern Fried Chicken” sign.
Eurasian eagle owls are not reported anymore in Helsinki’s city center. I suspect that they left when the rabbit population returned to normal.
p.s. More about the celebrity owl at the stadium: On 6 June 2007 the Euro 2008 Finland-vs-Belgium qualifying match was being held at the stadium when an eagle owl landed on the field and flew to the goal posts. The game was suspended during the owl’s visit while the crowd cheered “Huuhkaja!” (Finnish common name for the owl). Finland won the game 2-0, the owl was nicknamed Bubi and “Helsinki Citizen of the Year,” and Finland’s soccer team was nicknamed the “Eurasian Eagle Owls.” See a video of Bubi’s game-time visit here.
Barnacle geese with nearly full grown goslings at Töölönlahti park, Helsinki, 6 July 2017 (photo by Kate St. John)
15 July 2025
When I visited Finland eight years ago I saw barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis) from the train on our way to Helsinki. I was very excited — Life Bird! — but when I mentioned them to our Finnish friends they said the geese were problem birds in Finland and outside their normal range.
As you can see from this Wikipedia map, the mapmaker considers resident barnacle geese in Finland, Sweden and Estonia to be “feral” descendants of domesticated birds. However, these locations are on the birds’ migratory route; some may be stopover visitors who decided to stay.
Apparently that’s what happened in the Baltic Sea area. Birds of the World explains how barnacle geese expanded their range.
Prior to 1971, the Barnacle Goose’s breeding range was limited to the Arctic, but during that year a pair bred in Gotland, Sweden, along the shores of the Baltic Sea. Soon, there was a colony established on Gotland as well as colonies elsewhere along the Baltic Sea coast and adjacent waters in Sweden, southern Finland, western Estonia, and the Danish Island of Saltholm. In the early 1980s, additional breeding colonies were established in the southwestern Netherlands and in Germany during the late 1980s. Most of the colonies in Europe’s temperate zone grew rapidly, with a population of 42,000–55,000 birds in 2006, and 52,000 birds in the Netherlands alone in 2012.
…Birds from the Barents Sea population [which was growing 7% per year] were demonstrated to have founded the first breeding colonies in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, as well as being the source of colonies in the Netherlands. However, free-flying birds of captive origin have been found in many temperate European colonies, and the role that they may have played is unclear.
Last March some Pittsburgh area birders wondered if this barnacle goose was feral. He was not because he lacked the tags / markings that indicate human ownership.
Barnacle goose at Creighton, PA 30 March 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
Last night we flew from Pittsburgh to Reykjavik on the first leg of our journey to Finland. We could have changed planes at 6:30am GMT (2:30am EDT) and flown right away to Helsinki but we decided to take a break for jet lag and stay one night in Reykjavik, Iceland (bottom left of this map).
“Night” is not dark here. Reykjavik is so far north that the sun rose today at 3:38a GMT and sets at 11:26pm for 19hr 47m of daylight. Our internal clocks think this is just a very very long day.
We are staying in the heart of downtown near the city’s oldest square, very close to the art museum and a 10 minute walk to eBird hotspot Tjörnin pond(*), pictured below.
Today my husband and I are flying to Finland with a one night stopover in the 3rd happiest country, Iceland. This is our third visit to Finnish friends whom we’ve known since Erkki was a foreign exchange student at our high school. I’m looking forward to lots of happiness.
The map below shows our locations: Pittsburgh (P), Iceland (orange) and Finland (red). On Icelandair we only have to change planes once, in Reykjavik.
Even from afar we will be able to see Helsinki Lutheran Cathedral, one of the most famous buildings in Finland. The steps to its plaza look like a wall in this photo.
After a couple of days in the city we will visit the countryside at Erkki and Helena’s summer cottage at Lake Rikkavesi and their son’s cottage on a peninsula near the Baltic Sea. Lake Rikkavesi is pictured at the top of this article, the guest cottage below. In 2017 it glowed at 3:30am, just after sunrise on 2 July.
The guest cottage (mökki) after sunrise, 2 July 2017, 3:34am, Rikavesia lake, Finland (photo by Kate St. John)
Summer cottage life is one of the things that makes Finland such a happy place.
The Nordic lifestyle is closely linked to nature and the highly anticipated but short lived summer season. The most popular and ideal way to spend the summer months in Finland is in a lakeside cottage surrounded by nature. This tradition is grounded in traditional culture and lifestyle and forms an important part of the Finnish national landscape. Many Finns consider the cottage to balance out city life.
The average cottage is 91 kilometers (56 miles) from home and 70 square meters in size. (753 sq ft, about the size of a one bedroom apartment.)
75% of cottages are connected to the electricity grid.
Solar panels are in use at 19% of cottages and heat pumps at 34%.
Fixed broadband is installed in 12%. (Cell coverage is so good in Finland that I never needed WiFi at the cottage.)
55% of owners bring their drinking water to their cottage.
Most cottages are owned by older people. 55% of owners are retired.
Shared ownership has increased. This is the case, for example, with cottages owned by heirs.
Even though it sounds like a lot of cottages, the lakes seem remote. Buildings do not crowd the edges of lakes as they do in the U.S. and the lights of other cottages do not shine across the water at night.
On walks in the area with my husband Rick, Erkki, and his wife Helena in 2017 we saw lots of trees …
Hiking around the peninsula, 2 July 2017, Rikkavesi lake, Finland (photo by Kate St. John)
… and cows at this dairy farm, but we did not encounter other people.
A dairy farm in Tuusniemi, Finland, July 2017 (photo by Kate St. John)
I’ve marked this map of Finland with blue “X”s at the four places we will visit.
Ripe wineberry and berry-is-gone stems, Frick Park, 9 July 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
12 July 2025
This week we found berries and bugs in the city parks.
Wineberries (Rubus phoenicolasius) are very prickly invasive plants with bright red berries sticky to the touch. Good luck plucking the berries. The entire plant, including sepals, is covered in needle-like thorns that make it difficult for birds and animals to get at the fruit. The only thornless spots are the yellow-orange stubs left behind where berries came off (above).
Ripe wineberry, Frick Park, 9 July 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
July is definitely bug season.
Every year I’m amazed at how many aphids cling to the false sunflowers (Heliopsis helianthoides) in Schenley Park. Sometimes I find ants guarding the aphids though not yet. However …
Aphids on false sunflower in Schenley Park, 11 July 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
… this closeup of the flower reveals two insects and a yellow critter. A spider?
Closeup of false sunflower, insects and maybe a yellow spider, Schenley Park, 11 July 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
This week I saw a lot of red nymph spotted lanternflies (Lycorma delicatula), the last stage before they become adults. I expect the adults to start flying next week. I’ll miss seeing the first ones while I’m away on vacation, but they’re sure to “greet” me when I return.
Spotted lanterfly last-stage nymph on stiltgrass, Frick Park, 9 July 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
It’s that time of year again when Canada geese are on road. For about a month the adults are flightless as they molt their wing feathers and their goslings cannot fly either so the families walk everywhere, even on the road.
In Shaler Township 100 Canada geese have been paying no attention to traffic when they cross Route 8, as shown in this 8 July 2025 video from KDKA
Flightless geese need two important things within walking distance during their month of ground operations: a safe place to sleep on water and food during the day.
As the video points out, people are feeding the geese so that need is covered. As for water notice how Pine Creek(*) is just a short step away from the parking lots. They sleep at Pine Creek, eat at the shopping centers.
(*) p.s. I corrected the Pine Creek map at 5:30pm per Scott G’s comment. Google Maps plain view shows a loop in Pine Creek that was removed 25 years ago. I altered the image to match Google’s Satellite map.
Birdsong is coming to an end as the breeding season wraps up but birds are still making contact and warning calls. In a recent walk in Frick Park Charity Kheshgi pointed out a robin saying “Danger from the air!” a sound so high-pitched that I no longer hear it.
Upper frequency sounds are hard to pinpoint so a robin saying “Danger! Hawk!” should be hard for the hawk to find … except that robins making this warning call usually stand out in the open, as the shown above.
Learn to identify robin and starling warning calls in this vintage article. Unlike birdsong these sounds happen all year long.
Tiger swallowtails are one of the few butterflies I can identify so I’m always happy to see them in the city parks. I thought they were just plain “tiger swallowtails” until I learned there are not just two species (as I first wrote) but three in Pennsylvania. My thimble full of butterfly knowledge overflowed so I’m passing it along.
The eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) is the only species we have in Allegheny County because the Canadian tiger swallowtail (Papilio canadensis) requires a cooler climate.
In Pennsylvania P. canadensis is limited to the upper elevations so you’ll find them an hour east of us in the Laurel Highlands. However, P. glaucus is probably there too and where their ranges overlap they produce hybrids. The Appalachian tiger swallowtail (Papilio appalachiensis), the third species in PA, was originally a hybrid of those two found in the Appalachian Mountains.(*)
Range maps of eastern (left) and Canadian (right) tiger swallowtails (maps from Wikimedia Commons)
Adult: inner margin of P. canadensis hindwing has wide black stripe (whereas the otherwise similar – though larger – Eastern Tiger Swallowtail has a thin black stripe in that area).
Larva: mature larvae os P. canadensis are dark green, with two spots that look like eyes on the swollen section of the body behind the head; this creates a snake-like profile. Immature larvae are brown and white, resembling bird droppings (CBIF)
You can see the hindwing difference in this side-by-side comparison if you look closely. This ID tip relies on the butterfly holding still, eh? If it’s hard to see in the photos, click on the image for a marked up copy outlining it.
Eastern and Canadian tiger swallowtails side-by-side (photos from Wikimedia)
Their larvae have slightly different food preferences may help identify them (listed below from Wikipedia).
Birches (Betula sp)
Poplars, aspens, and cottonwoods (Populus sp)
Apple trees (Malus sp.)
Black cherry (Prunus serotina)
The tiger swallowtails’ range overlap and hybridization in Pennsylvania are similar to our chickadee species overlap. See Pittsburgh’s Puzzling Chickadees for the story.
(*) UPDATE on 7/9 at 3:20pm: I originally said two species but Bob Machesney pointed out there are three. See his comment about the Appalachian tiger swallowtail (Papilio appalachiensis).
Some of my friends in the Pittsburgh area have noticed a disturbing lack of ruby-throated hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) at their feeders this year. “I haven’t seen one since April. They should be here by now.”
Meanwhile other friends aren’t worried at all. Their hummingbird feeder activity is normal. What’s going on?
I pulled ruby-throated hummingbird eBird sightings January-to-June for 2020 through 2025 (inclusive) and put them into the slideshow below. Pick a spot to watch on the map and see it change — or not — as the years pass.
Is your home on or near this map? Are you missing hummingbirds this year? Or not? Leave a comment with your answer.
