Vanhankaupunginlahti (bay of the old town) and Vanhankaupunginkoski (rapids in the old town)

I’ve spent the past two days (May 21 and 22nd) exploring the Vanhankaupunginlahti area. This is a large nature preserve located a few kilometers northeast of Helsinki’s city center. The reserve is an important protected wetland with extensive marshes marked by tall reed habitats with small areas of open water. The rapids have both eastern and western sections. The eastern section of the Vantaanjoki (Vantaa) river has a short staircase of rapids while the western section has a spillway that was releasing spring water runoff.

The marshland has an extensive set of hiking trails including short sections with duckboards that allow exploring the reeds. Helsinki has built several elevated viewing platforms and hides to facilitate wildlife observations. It’s a popular place to birdwatch and each day was marked by encountering individuals carrying their spotting scopes and cameras resulting in considerable telephoto lens envy on my part!

I captured a few images of bird species that I had not encountered earlier in my travels. These included oystercatchers, coots, mute swans, and grey herons along with a multitude of shrikes, tits, and other songbirds. The grey herons are related to, but a different species, from the Great blue herons found in the United States.

I caught images of several bird species that have become quite familiar to the blog readers including the seemingly ever present wigeons. I especially enjoy hearing their “whistle” in the mornings.

Like most parks in Finland the area was extensively used by fishermen, boaters, cyclists, hikers, dog walkers and others enjoying a beautiful Spring day in Helsinki.

Off to Tallinn tomorrow.