I flew out of the Pullman-Moscow airport at 6:40 on Sunday, given a bon voyage by Deb and Niklaas. Landed in Seattle under perfect conditions, with Mt. Rainier looking glorious. After a 4 hour layover, my boarding pass turned out to be invalid... only because I had been upgraded to first class. Yee-haw. It's a 10-hour flight to Amsterdam, and then it seems like it takes about as long to go through "passport control". Fortunately, I had plenty of lay-over (but not too long). Then it was another 2.5 hours to Helsinki and another hour on Finnair to Kuopio, the nearest airport to Suonenjoki. I landed about 17:30; the weather was perfect. Marja Poteri from METLA (that's the Finnish abbreviation for Finnish Forest Research Institute, the folks sponsoring my trip) met me at the airport and after an hour or so, we arrived at the Suonenjoki Research Station. The station is in the small town of Suonenjoki (about 8000 residents), about 300 km north northeast of Helsinki. I'm in the flat, room #2. Marja was thoughtful and provided me a sack full of groceries to tied me over. After a long walk and a bit of birding, I hit the sauna. Felt like I was re-visiting my Midwestern roots... Then, early to bed to see if I could ward off the jet-lag.Birds of the day: Mallard, Black-billed Magpie, Eurasian Jackdaw, Barn Swallow, Eurasian Wigeon, Common Goldeneye, Little Ringed Plover (lifer), Common Cuckoo, Spotted Flycatcher, Common Chaffinch, Winter Wren.
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