A rare red-footed hawk in Finland sat in front of the Fotografaja’s lens by chance.
The first recorded sighting of a red-footed hawk in Vilppula this fall is from Wednesday, September 11. Reccu Lehtola
A kestrel sat on an electric wire above Kulmalanniitu in Vilppula. Reijo Reccu Lehtonen stopped his motorcycle at the edge of the meadow and dug out the camera. Before Lehtonen got the camera ready, the kestrel took off: Another bird chased it away and sat on the wire.
This was also a bird of prey, but this hawk had red legs.
– I didn’t know when I was filming what I was filming. I knew that he was a special looking guy.
Lehtonen says that he verified from the bird association that the bird he photographed was a red-footed hawk The evening hawk.
– It’s young, this summer’s chick, Lehtonen says.
– This happens so damn rarely. I would almost compare it to a kingfisher, I’ve had that happen to me once here inland.
A rare guest
The red-footed hawk is a bird of Asia and Eastern Europe. Red-footed hawks sometimes visit Finland during their migrations. This year, observations have been recorded in Tiira observations in May–June and August–September. There are 60 entries in total.
Two years ago, a particularly large number of red-footed hawks got lost in Finland during the autumn migration. In this case, hundreds of observations were accumulated.
Sometimes the bird can also nest in Finland, but according to the Finnish Species Information Center, the last confirmed nesting is from 2003. Globally, the species is classified as something to watch out for.
Lehtonen recorded his own observation in Tiira on Thursday 12 September. After this, one previous sighting of the same bird was recorded there. Now many bird watchers have spotted the red-footed hawk in Vilppula.
– It got the bongars going. Yesterday there were several on duty there, Lehtonen says.
He does not consider himself an actual bird watcher, as his real interest is photography. He especially looks for photography subjects in nature.
– One of the most important is the world of birds. You get hooked on those birds.
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