SIBERIAN SNIPE SORTED

Theres a Moose loose aboot this hoose! as a Jock would say in Finland.Yes I'm back again to the land of Lakes ,Trees and Megas.Having arranged to twitch the SWINHOE'S SNIPE with Knobski he goes and lets me down at the last minute(typical) so Friday night I'm snookered.Usual way to Finland is Ryanair Stansted to Tampere,well it would have been except we never booked and now the cunning greedy Leprecauns have whapped the cost upto £300 bigones...feckers!! All is not lost though as Ebookers come to the rescue - theres a flight with Finnair from Manchester to Helsinki (Sat 7.30am return Sun 8.30pm) bloody ideal and I can rent a car and still have change from £300...sorted.

A long time lateron (5+hours drive 470km)having checked a site for White backed Woodpecker (top secret) and getting stunning views of a White tailed Eagle being mobbed by a male Marsh Harrier I join the gathered throng of Finns plus three Brits at Niirala a small village 1km from the Ruski border(you can smell the vodka) and wait for the show.

Two hours later and hes been up twice very briefly so the Brits move in (as one Vulture said to the other ''patience my arse,I'm gonna kill somethin'') I wait by the road but not for long cos Bernie 'Clifton' is frantically waving at me...run...headless chicken time!!!

''Its just there in the grass you can just see the top of its head,well nearly''...bugger this...''anyone mind if I play a tape?''...''no go on give it a blast''..........zap out pops one horny Snipe and flys straight towards us over our heads by inches then zoom up into the stratosphere.What follows is one of the best performances I've ever witnessed from a bird (Simon Cowell would of given it 10 out of 10).Hurtling down to earth our 'skulking' wader produces the sound of a helicopter taking off mixed with a police siren it then pulls out of its dive and does a 180' upward turn while making a weeeeeeeee!!! noise.I think its actually the bird its self going weeeeeeee cos its enjoying its self.The throng of birders soon join in and theres a chorus of weeeeeeeees as the boy performs,even the reserved Finns are laping it up...magic stuff.

Whap one SWINHOE'S SNIPE OML a 2nd for the WesternPal noless.