Summer season brings an array of specialties to Helsinki, including broad-billed sandpiper and common rosefinch in Viikki, red-breasted flycatcher in Haltiala and stakeouts of Blyth’s reed warbler and river warbler.

What started as a joke ended up as a quest. Through living between Finland and Spain and travelling across Africa and Asia, I managed to find 1,000 bird species in 2024.

My last days in Helsinki are coincident with the arrival of thousands of migrant birds and the vegetation green-up. Scenic walks with friends result in European otter, red-breasted flycatcher, corn crake, and much more.

I finally managed to spot all nine owl species in Helsinki after two years: long-eared, short-eared, tawny, Ural, great gray, boreal, Eurasian pygmy-owl, Eurasian eagle-owl and northern hawk-owl