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Big trees were a bit scarce in this area, so we made do with what we could find. An album of lots of photos from Northern Europe is online.
We have seen Ruffs many times, even in California, but always in non-breeding plumage. The same can be said of many of the species we have observed in Africa, where they winter. This trip was arranged with an eye to correcting that.
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We flew to Helsinki, Finland, then hopped a short connection to Tallinn, Estonia, a nice place to start a tour. We arrived a day before we were scheduled to meet our leader, Antero Topp, from Finnature, and the other two members of our group, Elaine Nye from England, and Kathleen "Sully" Sullivan, from Boulder, CO.
With a day to spend in Tallinn, we took a tour of the old city. We opted for a free tour with a local guide working for tips. This proved to be a great choice. We were treated to a series of jokes, information about the sites, and interesting queries such as "How many times has Estonia been invaded?" The answer is "8½. One time they took only half of the country."
Our accomodations in Tallinn turned out to be in a gourmet enclave with many excellent restaurants to choose from. Nok Nok, a Thai restaurant next door agreed that we could come without a reservation at the absurdly early hour of 6:00pm. The meal was superb, and the walk home nice and short. In fact, we later learned that we could return to our rooms by a back way that connected to our. building. We crashed. The next morning, somewhat recovered from jet lag, we met up with everyone and set off to see what Estonia had to offer.
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Our itinerary involved a few days in Estonia and neighboring Latvia before returning to Helsinki and visiting several areas in Finland. We gradually worked our way north, to the town of Vardø, Norway, on the edge of the Arctic ocean. There, a short boat trip deposited us on Hornøya Island, home to thousands of breeding seabirds. Elaine spotted this interesting leucistic Murre in a large flock. Note the dark eyes, which show that it is not albino, despite the file name.
For years, Linda has wanted to see a Capercaillie, the largest grouse in the world, famous for its display. Antero was up to the task and located a male displaying. Jim took video of the display, which is in the album along with still photos. He played the video back to make sure he had recorded enough. The bird heard the voice on the recording and charged the van. "Damn! Where is the off button!"
This was easily the highlight of a great trip.
Serious birders can see lists of the birds we saw on the trip: