SS15 wildlife watching: Finland named world’s happiest country for 5th year running

Finland has been named the world’s happiest country for the 5th year in a row in an annual UN-sponsored World Happiness Report.

The UK is ranked at just 17th, no surprise given our "world-beating" performance in Covid-19 related deaths and economic collapse associated with both the health pandemic and the self-inflicted isolation created by Brexit.

As well as a personal sense of well-being, based on Gallup polls in each country, the happiness score takes account of GDP, social support, personal freedom and levels of corruption. This year the authors also used data from social media to compare people’s emotions before and after the Covid-19 pandemic. They found “strong increases in anxiety and sadness” in 18 countries but a fall in feelings of anger.

There will be numerous reasons why Finland is ranked so highly above the UK but one of them must be that Sanna Marin, a 35 year old female Social Democrat, is their Prime Minister, rather than a right-wing populist, incompetent clown.

I have visited Finland on 6 occasions.

My first visit was in the late 1970s .... when I was young! …. and as part of a 3 week Interrail backpacking trip around Europe.

This was followed by a combined Finland and Norway wildlife watching trip in May/June 2009 and another in April 2010, the latter requiring a lengthy land and sea return journey through Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Belgium and France due to the Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption in Iceland which closed off European airspace!

I visited Finland again (briefly from Norway to see the Northern Lights) in March 2012 and in May 2016 when I combined it with my first trip to Estonia and a short trip to the city of Saint Petersburg in Russia.

My most visit to Finland was in June and July 2019 when I combined it with a trip to the far north of Norway (my trip report is still being written!).

Finland is without any doubt at all one of my favourite countries in Europe.

It is simply beautiful with its extensive coniferous taiga forests, tundra bogs and numerous lakes, ponds and rivers. Forest covers 72% of the land area compared with just 12% in the UK.

Finland is a peninsula country with the Gulf of Finland to the south and the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and land borders with Sweden to the north west, Norway to the north and Russia to the east. Estonia is to the south across the Gulf of Finland. Lying approximately between latitudes 60°N and 70°N and longitudes 20° E and 32°E, Finland is one of the world's northernmost countries. Of the world's capital cities, only Reykjavík in Iceland lies further north than Helsinki. The distance from the southernmost point in the country (Hanko) to the northernmost point in the country (Nuorgam) is 720 miles.

Finland's population is around 5.5 million (compared with almost 68 million in the UK despite Finland being significantly larger in geographical area) with the majority concentrated in the southern region. In terms of area, Finland is the 8th largest country in Europe but the most sparsely populated country in the European Union.

Finland has a diverse and extensive range of fauna. There are at least 60 native mammal species and around 250 breeding bird species.

Mammals include the Brown Bear (the national animal), Wolf, Wolverine, Elk (Moose) and Siberian Flying Squirrel. The Saimaa Ringed Seal is among the most endangered seals in the world, having a total population of only about 320 individuals.

As the easternmost country in Europe, Finland has many species of birds that are not easy to see elsewhere. In addition, the fact that Finland is located in the coniferous taiga forest zone means that there are good chances of seeing many of the northern forest species including most of Europe's owl and woodpecker species, Pine Grosbeak, Parrot Crossbill, Siberian Jay, Siberian Tit and Red-flanked Bluetail.

Waders that nest on the bogs are also of interest since many of them are seen in other parts of Europe only in the course of their spring or autumn migration or in their winter plumage (e.g. Broad-billed Sandpiper, Red-necked Phalarope, Jack Snipe, Wood Sandpiper, Temminck's Stint and Ruff) whilst lakes and bogs also provide habitats for Crane and Whooper Swan (the national bird).

Diurnal birds of prey include Gyrfalcon, Golden Eagle, White-tailed Eagle and Rough-legged Buzzard.

Many birds of open habitats have become rarer in other parts of Europe but are still relatively common in Finland.

Finland is also well known for its dramatic mass migration of wildfowl, waders and passerines to and from the Arctic in spring and autumn.

Here are some of my hundreds of photos from my trips to Finland ....