1 - silkkiuikku
That's Finnish for the great crested grebe . I've hardly ever seen these birds, in my whole lifetime, but a few days ago I saw this pair only a short distance from my house. You see, I've taken to doing a short daily walk, just for a breath of fresh air really, because I realised I was spending too many days hardly going outside at all. Until I get back into a proper cycling habit, this is unhealthy. This walk couldn't be more local. Just a few metres outside my house, there's a route going up through my nearest new housing estate (a lot of these in my area), which used to be fairly wild but also scraggy and not very attractive to be honest, so I don't really mind these new houses. Especially when a few metres further on, they've preserved another shady and quite pretty path up through the trees next to a stream. The only downside of that is that it's muddy after rain. At the top of the hill, next to a few new industrial buildings and a service area whic