Guides

Harri Taavetti

Principal tour leader

I was born in 1976 and have been birdwatching for more than ten years. I consider myself lucky because my hobby has become my work. to me, birdwatching is no longer just a hobby, but a way of life.

I attended an eight-month training programme arranged by Finnature in 1997. The themes were bird identification and the guidance of birdwatching groups. Working, mainly guidance, for Finnature has been my full-time job ever since.

As a birder, I like to watch birds in many ways: migration watching, looking for rarities, twitching, etc. In addition, by keeping ticklists (not too seriously), I can make sure that birdwatching is always great fun! I also try to study bird identification all the time on the field. I am also a member of the local rarity committee.

In addition to Finland and Northern Norway, I have been birding in England, Israel, Hungary, Belgium and the Netherlands. In these countries I have learned a lot about birds and, of course, guiding.

Toni Eskelin

Tour leader

I am a geographer, born in 1960, whose birdwatching started as a hobby over 25 years ago in Southern Finland, only to become a profession after moving to Oulu. Migration watching and local bird paths were early forms of the hobby. Later my desire to improve my identification skills led to the ringing of birds, and consequently also many Finnish bird observatories became familiar.

In addition to active birdwatching, I have participated in different organisations. Memberships in the executive board of Birdlife Finland and its local society in Northern Ostrobothnia, together with an editorship in the local bird magazine, are good examples of this. I have also acted as chairman of the local rarity committee for over 10 years on account of my interest in rare birds.

Today birdwatching has become more like work to me, and besides acting as a bird guide, the coordination of a bird atlas for Oulu and membership in the Finnish Lesser White-fronted Goose group take most of my time. Most of my birdwatching trips abroad have been to Europe, the farthermost places being Israel, Central Asia and Australia. In the last few years, most of the trips abroad have involved different parts of Russia and Kazakhstan where I have been studying the Lesser White-fronted Goose.

Ari Latja

Tour leader

I was born in Tampere in 1954, where I also started watching birds. In those days I enjoyed migration watching above all, and for several years I made two-week stays to the southern headland of Porkkala to see the 'arktika' - the mass migration of Arctic waders and waterfowl through the Baltic. In 1978 I moved to Joensuu to study geography and biology, and have stayed in Northern Karelia since then. For fifteen years now my birdwatching time has concentrated on ringing, mostly at the bird observatory at Höytiäinen canal. I was chairman of the Northern Karelia Birdwatching Society for a number of years, and am still a member of the board.

Tour guiding came into the picture in 1997, when I attended Finnature's eight month International Bird Guide course. I have travelled in search of birds to Kenya, Georgia (Caucasus), Israel, France, the United States, and elsewhere. In August-September 2000 I spent two months in England as a voluntary worker at two bird reserves, where I got acquainted with both British bird conservation work as well as the country's birdwatchers themselves.

My wife is a librarian; we have four children, the eldest already heading out into the world. In addition to tour leading, I also act as a consultant in other areas requiring ornithological expertise. These include bird inventories for local environmental officials, and lecturing in zoology at the University of Joensuu.

Antero Topp

Tour leader

I am a graduate engineer, born in 1952. I have been a bird enthusiast ever since I was 10 years old. After traditional bird trips in the school years, I developed an interest in ringing and acting in organisations, in bird observatory work in particular. After spending long periods at Lågskär, I consequently began to run a bird observatory at Hanko. I ringed birds at Laajalahti for more than 10 years and acted as the secretary and editor-in-chief of Tringa, the Ornithological Association of the Helsinki Region, and as a member of the Finnish ringing committee.

I have made birding trips with my friends to Greece, Spain, Israel, Ireland, India, Scotland, UAE, Madeira and the Antarctica. I am a Naval architecture by profession but nowadays I am a self -employed person. I am involved in three companies, Topp-Cons Oy, Alula Oy and Alula Press Oy. The main businesses in these companies are project management consultancy, birding trips, publishing Alula magazine and bird books. I have got a wife and three daughters.

Markku Hukkanen

Tour leader

Birds have had a place in my heart since I encountered my very first ones in early childhood. My first guide to the world of birds was my father, who often read me birdbooks and took me into nature with him. The greatest memories from that time were the birds of prey I observed and sometimes even identified! My interest in nature and birds remained during my school years and turned to active birdwatching, when I accidentally found my first owl nest and looked Long-eared Owl nestlings face to face. That was 1988, at the age of 14 years.

Today, years after the first encounters, owls are still my favourite birds. My great interest into these birds of personality (in my opinion) has prompted me to place hundreds of nestboxes in Northern forests and also check them year after year. Ringing has been my hobby since 1993. Since 1992 I have taken part in studies of The Museum of Natural History of Helsinki, which monitors the numbers of birds of prey in Finland (the so called raptor grid). Censuses of other Northern forest birds have also been part of my hobby.

I have studied biology, geography and pedagogies at the University of Oulu. After graduating in the near future, I will work as a teacher in a secondary school. In the work of teacher, as well as a guide, it is my privilege to share my experiences of Northern nature with other people!

Matti Komulainen

Tour leader

I was born 1952 in Espoo in Southern Finland next to our capital Helsinki. As a young boy my father took us often to the sea in a rowing boat for fishing and other activities in nature. That´s how I actually started birdwatching, which was to become an important part of my life.

I´ve spent several months at birdobservatories in southern Finland studying and ringing birds. During my years with UN-Forces in the 1970s I had an opportunity to study birds in the Middle-East and Egypt. I´ve also made several trips to various countries in Europe and the US specifically to watch birds, including a few weeks tour to the Faroe Islands where we counted the breeding landbirds together with Danish, Swedish and Norwegian birdwatchers.

Nowadays birdwatching is still my main hobby. I have also started to work for Finnature as a guide, mainly for German-speaking groups.

I have a lovely adult daughter Raisa who has just moved in to her own apartment. I live in Tapiola, Espoo. I graduated from school in 1971 and after that worked in a number of different places; e.g. the hotel trade for 12 years and in maintenance and reconstruction for 15 years and will probably continue until I am old enough to retire.