In the beginning of December a traditional winter bird-rally started in South-Karelia. I decided to try for one week how many species I could find. First of December I drove to Lappeenranta, where we birded for whole day with Harry Nyström. We found some Chaffinches, Herring Gulls, Goshawk, Black Grouses, Great Grey Shrike, Common Gull and Fieldfares so the beginning was quite promising.

After we had checked all the places near Lappeenranta I started my way back to Parikkala. Sun was setting but I tried to see a Hawk Owl which had stayed in Suomaankorpi for a while. I had luck the owl was sitting so close to the road that I found it easily even though it was already dark. And I had even better luck, I found also a Long-eared Owl!

Next day I drove to Rautjärvi Lake-Torsa to twitch Red-throated Divers that Jari Kontiokorpi had seen day before. I found one easily and also lots of Whooper Swans. But there was also a surprise – a Little Grebe was swimming with swans. After I had seen a Pygmy Owl too, I continued to Imatra and river Vuoksi. There were lots of Goldeneyes and Goosanders but also a couple of Smews and some Cormorants.

On the third of December I started a longer trip to lake-Saimaa. I had planned to visit my grandmother and do birding in two mornings. So I drove first to Taipalsaari Sarviniemi, where I saw a Great Black-backed Gull but disappointedly nothing else but a flock of Waxwings. In Savitaipale and Suomenniemi I saw a couple of Dippers.

After staying night in Mikkeli I drove to Ruokolahti Utula, where were Chaffinches, a Brambling and a Reed Bunting in a huge flock of Yellowhammers. But Kyläniemi had nothing. So the lake-Saimaa had no ducks or any other winter rally ticks for me.

On the fifth of December I drove again to Imatra where I had only a couple of hour time to do birding before my rinkball match. Anyway I managed to find some Blackbirds, 6 Hawfinches and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers.

6th of December is an Independence Day in Finland. It is also a traditional day for bird-rallies all around the country. We also had a rally in South-Karelia. Now I had been birding so much that the plans were easy to do. Our team was me, Hanna and Ilkka Jarva. Before the sunrise we picked up Ilkka we went to see Cormorants which were easy to see even it was still dark and continued to Ruokolahti Utula. There we saw a Brambling, Chaffinches, a Reed Bunting and a Great Grey Shrike. Next we checked the Vuoksi quickly and continued to Meltola where we saw a Hawfinch, a Blackbird, Arctic Redpoll, Dipper and a Herring Gull.

At midday we continued to Simpele where we luckily saw a family of Whooper Swans migrating and a Goshawk passing by. Also Goldcrests and Coal Tit were found easily, so we could continue to Parikkala.

At Parikkala we found finally House Sparrows but also a Pheasant! It was already getting dark when we managed to get to Siikalahti. But again we were lucky – we saw a White-backed Woodpecker, Long-tailed Tits and a Treecreeper. So we still had time to drive to Suomaankorpi to see the Hawk Owl which was our last, 41st species. And with that result ee won the rally.

On couple of next days I went to see the Siberian Jays were ok. I also twitched a good winter-tick, Jack Snipe.

had been birding a lot in a beginning of months, so it was time to relax a little. Next bird trip was made on 16th day. I drove again to Vuoksi. Now I found the first Tufted Duck for this winter and twitched a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers that Harry and Pekka Punnonen had found. .

Before the Christmas I still saw a Goshawk and a Sparrowhawk from our window. I also saw a couple of White-backed and Grey-headed Woodpeckers. At Christmas we drove to Kirkkonummi to my parents.

The Christmas was like always: we ate a lot and had a good time. So on 26th day we had to go to do some birding. We went to Porkkala, but just 100 meters before the sea I felt down because of the slippery ice and broke my telescope! So that was the end for that trip.

Luckily the wonderful crew of M-Optics gave me again a new telescope for that time that my scope is in Checks where it is repaired. Thanks again! So I still could do birding.

29th of December I did a winter bird counting again. I walked 15 kilometres around the Siikalahti. The best birds were the same Pheasant, 22 Black Grouses, 2 White-backed Woodpeckers and a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.

On the last day of the year we went with Hanna to Tyrjä forests were we saw a Dipper, and near Siikalahti a White-backed Woodpecker and a flock of Long-tailed Tits. Happy New Year 2005!

The couple of first weeks of November I was again working in a Health Centre. The birds were gone, so there was not much sense to go birding a lot. Also Siikalahti had frozen in the last days of October.

During the 2nd day of November I did a winter bird counting in Siikalahti. I walked 15 kilometres and counted all the birds I saw or heard on the way. Only a few days earlier there had been couple of hundreds ducks with some Common Scoters, Scaups and so on, but now there was only one poor Mallard in a small area which wasn’t frozen yet. Also a family of Whooper Swans was still standing on ice in the middle of completely frozen bay. I saw an Arctic Redpoll, 3 Black Grouses and a Goshawk and I heard a Hazel Hen. I also watched to the lake Simpele which wasn’t yet frozen and I saw Common and Herring Gulls, 2 Black-headed Gulls, Goosanders and Mallards.

Rest of the month I was working with all the 25000 pictures I have taken during last 1.5 years. I was also playing rink bandy (after lazy 1.5 years) and as a coach of ice-hockey juniors.

One day I decided to go to digiscope a Hawk Owl which has been found from Simpele. It was absolutely beautiful winter morning with some -12 Celsius degrees. I was digiscoping from a small barn and the owl was very co-operative. I managed to get couple of nice shots.

On the 28th of November we went to twitch Siberian Jays with Pekka Punnonen. Pekka got a South-Karelia tick. We had to wait for the birds for an hour because there were some Jays messing around, and they are not the closest friends of Siberian cousins. After all Siberian Jays came to get their snacks. Also Willow and Crested Tits were trying to get their part of cheese and nuts.

We continued to Simpele where our best observations were Chaffinch and Brambling on Rainer Rajakallio’s feeding place. Otherwise it was pretty quiet which wasn’t promising for Independence Day bird rally which is on 6th of December.

First half of the October I was in island of Östra Norrskär which lies some 25 kilometres west from the westernmost coast near the city of Vaasa.

I started my way to Vaasa at 1st of October with Hanna. We drove first to Lappeenranta where we twitched a Marsh Tit which had stayed there some weeks already. We tried also the Mandarin Duck as a month-tick but it had decided to move on.

I left Hanna to Lahti from where she continued to Helsinki to teach a bird-lesson. I continued to Vaasa where I managed to get about 10 p.m. In Vaasa I went to Antti Vierimaa who had been a guide in Siikalahti with us for last 2 summers.

We did do some birding in Vaasa area, but mostly we did shopping for the next two weeks. We had to buy lots of food for us but also some for Jari Helstola, Mauri Jalonen and Aarne Lahti who were already in the island. They had been there already for one week.

On 3rd of October we jumped to a boat in Klobbskat-harbour and started our journey to Östra Norrskär. In a boat there were also several other birders who were going to the Västra Norrskär which next island west from the Eastern Norrskär where we were going to.

After one hour we landed to Västra where other birders left but we continued a little backwards where there was a smaller boat waiting for us. Aarne and Mauri helped us to jump to the smaller boat and soon we landed to our home island.

Almost directly we all (Aarne, Mauri, Jari, Antti and I) walked around the island together. This was the best way for us to get familiar with the island and with its birdlife. The best observations of the 2.5 hours walk were 2 Peregrine Falcons, 4 Knots, 1 Tengmalm’s Owl and Tree-toed Woodpecker.

After few days we had learned how to work in the island. First two hours from the sunrise we watched to the sea from the easternmost point of the island. We didn’t see lots of migration but of course it was nice to see Black Guillemots, Razorbills and other Finnish seabirds. Better observations for the island were a Grey Heron, 4 White-fronted Geese and a Pink-footed Goose.

After 10 a.m. we started to seek birds from the forests. We did succeed: Several Pallas’s Leaf Warblers were found!

During afternoon we were walking around the island and trying to find birds from the meadows, reed beds and rocky coasts. We did find a late Whinchat and a late Turnstone, several Purple Sandpipers, Little Stints, Arctic Redpolls, Shore Lark and lot more.

After one week the days went with routine. We did every day search the island for whole daylight and we probably found all the birds of the whole island in most days! We did find every day some new species, but mostly the birds seemed to be the same every day. The weather was too windy and night too clear so there was not too many birds in the island.

On second week Jari “Hessu” Helstola moved to the Västra where the team changed, and we got a new birder – Timo Wegelius.

The second week didn’t start very well. The migration was really bad in the morning and the days weren’t good either. Anyway we managed to see our 100th trip tick with Antti. We still had couple of Pallas’s Leaf Warblers in the island and the total of them was 8-10 birds. Other nice birds were 3 Tengmalm’s Owls, a flock of 31 Pine Grosbeaks, Rock Pipit, Snow Buntings and the finest of all a great White-billed Diver that migrated on 12th of October.

In a couple of days we visited Västra and did some birding there and had sauna! After the sunset we always kept the list of the birds we had seen during the day. About 9 p.m. we were already so tired that we were asleep.

We had a couple of extremely poor days but on 15th of October when we had an island-rally with all the other island that where there were birders, the weather changed. At night the wind stopped and it was a little bit cloudy, so we finally got some birds to our island! We saw 71 species including 2 Pallas’s Leaf Warblers, Peregrine Falcon, Ring Ouzel, Purple Sandpiper and almost all the birds which were still possible to find. But some of the other islands had even better days: more southern islands Signilskär had 83 species, Säppi 81 and Lågskär 79. Our neighbours had 67 and the nothernmost island Tankar 59 species.

On 16th day we went again to Västra and there we got our last two trip-ticks: Brent Goose and Tree Sparrow. So the total of our trip list had 109 bird species which is a lot in a small island in October!

Next day we were in Vaasa again and on 18th of October I drove back to Parikkala.

After a couple of days resting we drove to Kirkkonummi to my parents. The main reason was to take some Hanna’s paintings to Inkoo. There is a bird-art gallery in Galleria Karaija on November.

I had been thinking to continue to Hanko Halias bird station, but my plans changed because someone stole Hanna’s wallet in Helsinki. So we both drove back to Parikkala while there was one of the rarest birds ever in Finland in Kokkola – Phylloscopus coronatus.

Of course on next day there was the first ever Pallid Swift in Finland in Halias! Luckily I had been planning to get there day later, so I wasn’t that disappointed. Anyway I have a strange feeling that I have been always in wrong place in wrong time this year.

25th of October there were still hundreds of ducks in Siikalahti. Even a Pochard was still present. 29th day we birded the whole day with Hanna and Ilkka Jarva. We started from Punkaharju Hirvikoski where we saw only some migrants. In Saari we didn’t see much more but a migrating flock of 100 Brent Geese and 10 bigger unidentified Anser/Branta geese was a surprise. In Tarvaspohja we saw a Pine Grospeak and in Siikalahti we still saw a very late Moorhen. Also Hazel Hen, Smews, Whooper Swans, Snow Buntings, Merlins, Scaups and Lesser-spotted Woodpecker were seen amongst more common birds.

Soon there won’t be lots of birds anymore. The winter is coming and the birding will really get boring. Anyway I hope there will be some surprises to come. At least I will keep on birding!

On the last day of month we went again to say hello to Siberian Jays. We had just seen a film about just these Siberian Jays which Hannu Siitonen had done. It is always nice to see these beautiful, brave and clever birds.

If the summer was rainy, in the autumn it seemed to be even worse! The first day of September we went to Siikalahti to see if the Red-crested Pochards were still there. But they weren’t. Only better observation was a calling Moorhen.

3rd of September I set up the mist-net to Tarvaslampi because I was going to try to catch Owls again. I managed to catch a Tengmalm’s Owl in first night but it was the only bird I caught in whole month even I tried 6 nights. Those were the only night at weekends that it wasn’t raining.

On the 4th of September Hanna had gone to the weekend meeting of bird-painters, so I drove alone to Mikkeli to our friend and former Siikalahti guide Kristjan’s weddings. I decided to visit Lappeenranta, because there was a local Mandarin Duck. This beautiful duck was still there and it was my second Mandarin Duck ever. The first was more than 15 years ago.

Rest of the early September was pretty boring. But then came the biggest surprise of my life! My grandmother called me and told she had saved money for me, so I could buy a car! I spend one whole day on internet and tried to find good old, but not too old, cars. And I found perfect Citroen Berlingo from Helsinki. So I had to go to Helsinki by train as soon as possible.

On the 10th of September me and my dad went to buy the Berlingo, which was even better I had thought. Ant the best thing was that it was big enough for us.

The first car-ticks were seen in Kirkkonummi where I saw Merlin, Hen Harriers and an early Rough-legged Buzzard and so on in Saltfjärden.

I drove back to Parikkala through Kotka, because I had thought to go to do some raptor watching to Virolahti Kurkela. But the weather was horrible so I ended up to Savitaipale, where I tried to twitch a Red-flanked Bluetail, which had been found there evening before. But we saw only a Blackcap. In Lappeenranta Askola I saw one Grey Plover with a flock of Lapwings and the Mandarin Duck was even more beautiful than before.

On the 16th of September Konza called me that he had found a late Booted Warbler at Siikalahti. I used all my lunchtime trying to find the bird but I couldn’t find it. The place was so difficult for twitchers because of the farmhouse, so we decided to keep this bird as a secret. Because I had all the permits to walk in Siikalahti protected area and also on the farm, I decided to try the bird again after my work. I did manage to hear the bird calling and saw it shortly moving inside a dense bush before it just disappeared.

Other birders were seeing pretty good wader and water bird migration, but I wasn’t able to see migration at all because of work and rains – or maybe I was just too lazy?

On the 23rd of September I got a message that there was a Buff-breasted Sandpiper in Luumäki. I stopped working a little bit earlier so we could start our way there. We were a little bit worried because we couldn’t get any more messages about the bird even though we arrived at Luumäki 3,5 hours after the first message. When we finally reached the place, we met several other twitchers. And even the bird was still present! The bird was in a muddy field with a flock of Golden Plovers and Ruffs. Good Lifer!

On the way back we twitched the Mandarin Duck again so Hanna got the second lifer for the day! At Kaukaa pools we twitched a late Red-necked Phalarope, but Sanderling wasn’t there anymore. Also the Marsh Tit which had been there for several days wasn’t found.

On the 24th of September I started a crazy journey to Hailuoto! I had decided to join a birdrally there. Luckily I wasn’t the only crazy birder, so I managed to get company. Johannes Hänninen (Punkaharju) and Miika Suojarinne (Mikkeli) came to share the bills. The driving was hard, but we managed to get to Hailuoto Ailasto where we had rent a cottage for four person at 10 p.m. Mikko Ala-Kojola (Liminka), who was the fourth birder of our rally team, was already waiting for us.

We decided to start the rally from the N-W-coast of Hailuoto. We drove there at 6 a.m. and walk as long south as it was 7 a.m. Then the rally started! We had planned to walk even further to Keskiniemi, but we couldn’t manage it, because too wet places. So we decided to start walking back to the car. Our first better species were Red-necked Grebe, Golden Plover, Common Scoter, Bluethroat, Dunlin, Northern Wheatear, Willow Warbler, Merlin, Grey Plover, Little Stint, Sanderling and Peregrine Falcon. Before we reached the car we saw Long-tailed Duck, Dunnock, Sparrowhawk, Cormorant, Velvet Scoter and the best one, Swift. We had already spent 3 hours of rally time!

Next we drove to Marjaniemi where we found for example Scaup and a flock of Bean Geese. We were still identifying the geese when we got a message that there was a Lesser Short-toed Lark in Keskiniemi! Peltomäki, Sjöholm and Uusimäki had found the 3rd Lesser Short-toed Lark even in Finland from the place where we had been going earlier! Of course we had to go to twitch it!

We tried to drive as far as possible this time, but I managed to get my car stuck! So also those twitchers that were driving behind us had to stop because we were on their way! Luckily we managed to pull my car from the mud pretty easily. We all decided to leave the cars there and continue by feet. Only Juha Markkola and his team were trying to get further by his Lada.

Soon we met Peltsi’s team that was continuing their rally. So there was no-one seeing the bird! Only 15 minutes later we reached the place where the bird had been. Mikko’s GPS told that we had turned only 500 metres too early in the morning!

We waited for the rest of rally teams and soon we started to seek the bird from the meadow. We walked only a couple of tens of meters when we saw a small lark-like bird flying on the coastline above the dynes. It was calling like a Sand Martin, there it was! The bird landed pretty soon but rose again and flew far towards the Marjaniemi. Luckily it turned and flew really close to us calling all the time. Soon it landed behind the dynes again and we decided to continue our rally again.

When we all finally reached my car we had spent already 5,5 hours in almost same place! It was exactly the half of the whole rally time. Anyway we had got some new species, of course Lesser Short-toed Lark but also Black Grouse, Lapland Bunting, Raven, Common Crossbill and Goldcrest.

We continued to Pöllä, which was almost empty. Luckily I found a Siberian Tit when all others were trying to find Willow Grouses from the willow bushes. I had to shout the others and they managed to hear the tit calling still. We also saw a big female Goshawk before we had to move on.

Next we continued to Patelanselkä, but we couldn’t first find the place at all! We managed to get lost! Anyway we found some sign to bird tower and followed that. We never found that tower; we also managed to fail 3 new species, because only 1 or 2 of us saw them.

Finally we found Patelanselkä, and even new species! There was a Sand Martin with Swallows. At Kirkkosalmi we found easily some Gadwalls and White-tailed Eagle, but nothing else. From the village area we found still some easy birds which were still missing. It started to get better again! Anyway we were running out of time! So we had to skip couple of places and continue towards Pökönnokka.

From Pökönnokka we found easily Jack Snipe, Grey Heron and Ruff. Jurtsi’s team saw also a Snow Bunting, but we couldn’t find it. So when the rally ended at 6 p.m., we had found 82 species.

In the results we were 6th, but the quality in this rally had been really good! There were 5 teams with 90 or more species! Siberian Tit and Sand Martin were the only species that any of other teams hadn’t seen. In total there had been amazing 127 bird species seen in a rally! The best team, Lampila, Keskitalo and Taavetti, had seen 93 species.

Later we drove to Siikajoki Tauvo ringing station for the night. There was no ringer in the station but everything we needed was some sleep. When we woke up in the morning we saw heard some Rustic Buntings and I saw a Redstart. Later we walked around the whole Ulkonokka and counted all the shorebirds. The water lever was amazing high! So we all managed to get water to our boots. There weren’t lots of birds either but for example 10 Spotted Redshanks, 27 Ruffs, 6 Little Stints, 2 Sanderlings, 2 Hen Harriers, Merlin, Snow Bunting, Black Woodpecker and 2 Shovelers were seen.

In the afternoon we visited Kaasa and Haikarannokka before we had to start our way back to SE-Finland. I managed to get to Parikkala at 10 p.m. I was extremely tired but happy anyway!

On the 28th of September I went to Siikalahti in afternoon. There were nice flocks of Whooper Swans and Cranes on the fields. In total of 160 Cranes and 70 Swans were feeding on a field and I managed to get pretty close to photograph them. I also saw a family of Cranes. The young birds had rings on their legs! The birds that we had ringed with Pirkka were still there! I also saw a flock of 130 Barnacle Geese and some Bean Geese.

On the last day of the month I was working. When I was driving to the Health Centre I saw a flock of migrating Brent Geese. It was frustrating to go to work. In Kitee there was a good geese migration during the morning. So I decided to spend my lunch hour in our backyard on the coast of Lake Simpele. I managed to see more than 700 Barnacle Geese and one bigger surprise – young Red-footed Falcon was migrating over me! Konza counted more than 10 000 geese in Simpele so I wasn’t very happy to go back work, but I was pretty happy because of the Red-footed Falcon!

On the first of August we started our trip to Norway Lofoten by Ilkka Jarvas parents caravan, which he had managed to loan. Other participants were Ilkka’s girlfriend Marisanna and our friends from Oulu Paulus Tulppo and Juha Heimovirta. (For example Leach’s and European Storm Petrels- first ones also in hand, Great Skuas, Gannets, Puffins, Kittiwakes, having fun and of course some digiscoping…) Lofoten VIII 2004 (The whole trip)

Back to work

After the trip to Lofoten I stayed couple of days in Oulu with my brother’s family. I also had one bird trip with Antti Pesola. We went to Oulunsalo Nenännokka and we did find some Broad-billed Sandpipers, Turnstones and Grey Heron and so on. We were just going to move on, when we got the messages that there was a Great White Egret in Raahe Yrjänänlahti. So we picked up Mikko Ala-Kojola on the way from Liminka and soon we were having a look at big white egret, which was with 9 Grey Herons.

During the mid August I was working in Health Centre again. So I hadn’t time to do birding at all. Also the Olympic Games took time. During the end of month Jari Kontiokorpi found two female Red-crested Pochards at Siikalahti, so I had to twitch a Siikalahti tick! At next day we twitched a young Long-tailed Skua at Joutseno Konnunsuo, and birding was fun again!

July was quite awful! Weather was really bad, it was raining almost all the time, but it was OK for me. I was working in Health Centre, so at least I could manage inside, it wasn’t too hot.

I hadn’t enough energy to do birding a lot. After the 4,5 months trip and 2,5 months working with birds, it was good to relax little bit. So I birded only if I knew I can get some results. Timo Kauppinen told me a nesting place of Nightjar, so I tried couple of times to get pictures of this amazing bird. The nest was in pretty difficult place, but I managed to get some kind of pictures. Biggest problem was that the nest was too close to that place where it was visible.

During one night we birded in Saari area with Antti. We tried to find birds for the Saari bird rally. Anyway we stopped couple of times also in Parikkala while driving to Saari. At Rautalahti we heard 2 Spotted Crakes and River Warbler. Next we decided to go to Koukkuinnurmet where I had been only ones before. Before we reached the fields, I said to Antti, that: “There is just that kind of fields that we could hear a Quail”. When we reached the fields we heard after couple of seconds listening this rare bird!

We birded a couple of hours in Saari, but we couldn’t find anything special. Just some Corn Crakes and Blyth’s Reed Warblers and one Marsh Warbler. On yhe way back we visited Parikkala Tyrjänkoski, where we heard a Greenish Warbler singing. In Siikalahti we still saw a Black Tern flying. We were little bit disappointed because the Rally would be in Saari not in Parikkala.

I visited the Nightjars nest once again, now with Antti. We were walking towards the nest when a Wiper-snake and something else escaped just under my foot. The another small thing was a chicken of Hazel Hen. Actually there were plenty of chickens and also mother Hazel Hen running just in front of us. At least I managed to get pictures of one small chicken.

Antti did couple of times birding in Saari, but I wasn’t able to join him more than ones. On the 7th of July, only 2 days before the rally, we tried to find good forests from Saari. We had no idea where we could find forest birds, so we were really in hurry. I had found out by checking maps that near Römppee might be some kind of forests. So we went to check these places. We managed to find 2 Wrens, Wood Warblers, Chiffchaffs, Dunnocks, Goldcrests, Crested Tits and Hazel Hen, so we were more than happy.

On the 9th of July the rally begun at 10 p.m. There was even 6 teams joining the rally, and we were a team with Hanna. We decided to start from Leitvaaranmäki where was a good view to Lake Simpele. Also Antti and Matti started there, so we had interesting one hour there, because we managed to see couple of species that another team didn’t. Anyway we couldn’t find anything better than Red-necked Grebe, Teal and Black-throated Diver before it came too dark.

At 11 p.m. we were driving along small forest roads at Kirjavala, but we found only some Nightjars. At Pitkänpohjankangas we weren’t the only team that tried to hear a calling Ural Owl which had been calling there whole summer, but we were the only team that heard it! So when Jari Kontiokorpi called us that their team had found a displaying Great Snipe we were free to go there to twitch this rarity. The bird was just on the route that we had planned to continue, so after listening it we continued to Kanavalampi where we heard some Spotted Crakes and one Water Rail.

At Mikkolanniemi we heard first Corn Crakes and Grasshopper Warblers which were both common also later. We also heard Thrush Nightingale, Blyth’s Reed Warbler and Marsh Warbler which we had prepared. Also Long-eared Owl was heard. Rest of the night we just tried to find something, mostly River Warbler, but we couldn’t find any new species.

The morning started in Naattikumpu where we heard Redstart, Coal Tit and Chiffchaff. Next we continued to Römppee where we heard easily all the species we had found couple of days ago: Dunnock, Goldcrest, Crested Tit and Wren were heard in Heinävaara like a big surprise Nutcracker too! When we found a family of Grey-headed Woodpeckers, our rally was going really well!

In Pohjansuo we made a quickly stop and we found Meadow Pipits and an Ortolan Bunting, so we didn’t have to go to Tetrisuo at all because of these species.

Next we started to check lakes. Lahdenpohja wasn’t very good, but Akonpohja offered good species like Grey Heron, Reed Warbler, Blackcaps,River Warbler and Goldfinches. From the pine forest we found easily Mistle Trush but also Red-backed Shrike, from Pohjanranta we found Lesser White-throat and from Naattikumpu Wood Warbler and Black Woodpecker. In Kanavalampi there was still an Icterine Warbler on its territory. In Pien Rautjärvi Lake we saw a flock of Ruffs and another Grey Heron. In Tarassiinlahti was an Osprey and Honey Buzzard but also a flock of Greenshanks and a Shoveler were seen.

The end was close, so we decided to go again to Leitvaaranmäki. While driving there, we accidently stopped to one really small lake, where surprisingly was a Slavonian Grebe. Leitvaaranmäki still offered us new species: Little Gull and Sparrowhawk. We still tried to find Hazel Hens but we had no luck.

The rally results were solved out in Mikkolanniemi where six teams of tired birders were telling their results in traditional way. Even thought couple of teams had prepared the rally much more than us, we won the rally pretty clearly. We had found altogether 113 bird species in 14 hours.

13th of July our friends found a Great Spotted Eagle from Siikalahti. I escaped from my work to twitch this beautiful eagle. The eagle was sitting for one week in same spruces in South-Western part of bay before it continued to West. Great Spotted Eagle is so rare species in July that several friends from Southern Finland came to twitch it as a month tick.

16th of July I went by train to Kirkkonummi to my parents because I had good possibilities to twitch several lifers during the weekend. In same evening I already managed to twitch a Long-legged Buzzard which had stayed for one week in Espoo Ämmässuo. It was the first twitchable ever in Finland. During the night I twitched Lanceolated Warbler from Tuusula Seitteli as a year tick. During the early morning I drove with Jari Nummelin and Mika I Koskinen to Tampere Tarastejärvi where we met Visa Rauste and tried to find some interesting gulls. We had a possibility to both Caspian Gull and Yellow-legged Gull. We managed to find almost directly 2nd year Caspian Gull but even if I stayed with Visa on the rubbish tip for whole day we couldn’t find the Yellow-legged Gull. It was good I had Visa with me because there were far too many gulls for me, and they all weren’t easy at all! More than 20 Heuglin’s Gulls in different ages and plumages, thousands and thousands of Herring Gulls, coupe of Great Black-backed Gulls and so on. And all they were changing places all the time especially when a Goshawk was passing by.

The best bird we found was not the Caspian Gull, because at least a leucistic adult Herring Gull was far more interesting looking! It was also rarer, even though not countable as a lifer.

During the evening I tried for 5 hours to see a Mediterranian Gull in Ylöjärvi, but it didn’t come to its favourite small island. I was really tired and bored when I drove back to Kirkkonummi. In the morning I was still too tired to go to Hanko as I had planned. And of course there were Sandwiched Terns seen.

In the end of moth we had the traditional “Finnish darts” championships of Eastern birders. This time we weren’t the last ones! We also had family parties in Ristiina and after that my parents and both brothers with their families stayed several days in Parikkala. With Pirkka we managed to do also birding in Siikalahti, but we couldn’t find anything special. I was already in hurry to work when we noticed there was a family of Cranes in one field. I said to Pirkka: “Do you think those young bird can fly?” and Pirkka answered: ”I have rings with me!”. I didn’t need more and soon I had caught another of the young birds from the wet field. Pirkka was waiting for me near the place where another bird had disappeared, and soon we found the bird hiding on the bottom of a ditch. So we managed to ring all the young Cranes of Siikalahti!

June begun and continued in bad weather. We had again lots of work with counts but there was also lots of visitors in Siikalahti. So we hadn’t time to sleep a lot, we were working around the clock.

On the 4th of June I could join to Siikalahti bird rally. We hadn’t had time to prepare to rally anywhere else than in Siikalahti and of course it wasn’t aloud to go in protected area in rally. Hanna had BirLife’s bird course and one of us had to be at work, so I was the only guide who managed to join.

Luckily I had a good team because Matti Lötjönen and Harry Nyström were other team mates.

18 hours Siikalahtirally 2004 in South Karelia

I had again finished a working day and I had even had time to sleep couple of hours before Matti Lötjönen and Harry Nyström arrived at Siikalahti parking place. Matti had driven from Helsinki and he had pick up Harry from Lappenranta. Now whole our team was ready to rock and roll.

We had prepared to the rally pretty traditionally. I had been working in Siikalahti with Hanna and Antti Vierimaa, so we did knew well what kind of birds were there but it didn’t help us at all. Siikalahti is a protected area’s o it is not aloud to move there in other places than in marked tracks. Otherwise we hadn’t got time to do birding almost at all. We did have made couple of trips for night singers, so we had at least some easy species.

We decided not to go to the beginning happening, but we started our way to Saari (Northern part of South-Karelia), where we had thought to start our rally.

First we drove to Pohjanranta, which is one of the best places in the area to find better waders. I had also seen both Garganeys and Pintail there couple of days before. It was also one of the only places where Yellow Wagtail breeds. We also had heard there had been Grey Heron, so we decided it might be the best place to start the rally.

Finally we got information that the rally was supposed to begin 8 p.m. so we had to begin almost directly.

Pohjanranta was really empty! We had to begin with Great Crested Grebe and it didn’t continue lot better. Only better observation was a flock of Jackdaws, which is quite rare in Saari.

After 30 minutes we had seen almost nothing! So I decided to walk a little, but I managed to walk only 50 meters from the tower when I stepped to too deep water and my boots were full of water! In same time Yellow Wagtail passed us, so we decide to change place as soon as possible. We really had thought to get much more species from this place.

Our next stop we ha in Kuposenmäki, which had great views to big area. Only better species was Green Sandpiper which we found flying really far over one lake. In spring this place might be really good for watching arctic migration?

Saari was really poor this time! It was good we were beginning our rally there, so we didn’t have to panic. We had to try to find all the common species from other places. We just needed to find something better, but we couldn’t find anything.

Tarassiinlahti was also extremely empty of birds, we did saw female Garganey flying and Greenshank was hiding inside dense vegetation.

Saari sightseeing continue to the fields of Jyrkilä. There we met a group of birders which were trying to find Short-eared Owls. We didn’t know if anyone had seen any of them there this year, but normally the species was possibly there. While talking with the birders we heard Spotted Crake calling. And again the traditional thing happened: the group continued their way and after one minute we found Short-eared Owl flying over the field. Good for us, but a pity for them.

Night started to get dark (it’s dark only for couple of hours this time) when we started to drive our traditional way near the border towards South. At Kanavalampi we heard from moving car Grasshopper Warbler singing. And of course we didn’t stop, because we saw another team standing couple of hundreds metres from the place. We didn’t wasn’t to show the bird for them.

Rainer Rajakallio and Petri Pelttari had already heard the Grasshopper Warbler and they told they had had pretty good start. They had started from Parikkala which seemed to be much better place this time than Saari where we had started. While changing some words with another team we heard Water Rail calling before we continued our way.

Tyrjä area was again as good as we had hoped, even much better! Near the border we heard many Nightjars. More than I had ever heard there! In half an hour we heard totally 12 Nightjars. On the border of Saari and Parikkala we heard two Ural Owls calling for each others. Also first Blyth’s Reed Warblers and Corn Crakes were of course found.

When the day changed to next we drove to Siikalahti where we got in couple of minutes River Warbler and Marsh Warbler. Also Grasshopper Warbler was in same place than before.

Rest of the night (couple of hours) we drove around the good fields and tried to find Long-eared Owl. Finally we found even two of them. While driving along the road Southern side of Siikalahti Harry heard some high calling through the car window. We stopped and surprisingly found out that Harry had identified the caller directly: Hobby which was calling continuously flight over us and it was at 1.30 a.m.

At 3 a.m. first Golden Oriols started to sing and soon after also Icterine Warbler and several common mourning singers were added to our list. Soon w decided to continue to Tyrjänkoski hoping to find some better species.

At Tyrjänkoski we met some friends. Antti and Johannes (which was learning to be a guide) were having their shadow-rally. They had decided not to pay the rally price because they had to be working 6 hours from the rally time. So they weren’t taking part to the shorter 8 hours rally, but having their own rally. (After all they got 95 species and they would have won the short rally!)

On the forest we heard several good species like Chiffchaff and Dunnock but Antti and Johannes told us about something better. And after couple of hundreds meters run we heard Red-breasted Flycatcher singing! Now everything had started to get better! And it just turned better: Black Woodpecker was drumming, Hazel Hen was whistling, Raven passed us and Black-throated Divers and Red-necked Grebes were swimming on the lake.

Quick visit to Siikalahti dam road offered us familiar Reed Warbler and Spotted Redshank. We knew it was not worthy to go to the main tower because there was nothing to offer for us.

Next we had a look to the Lake of Simpele and we got one good species: Common Scoter. Also Red-breasted Merganser was a tick.

About 7 o’clock we drove to the deep forests to get some good forest species. Our main goal was Siberian Jay. There is only couple of pairs in whole Parikkala, but we knew that while trying these birds we might find many other birds too.

When we arrived at the Siberian Jay place we heard a flying flock of Common Crossbills. But we couldn’t find these Siberian Jays even we tried hard. We decided to make another try in another place and while driving there I heard unfamiliar sing from the car window. We stopped and then we identified this song – Greenish Warbler was really good species for us!

While driving we did find still Mistle Thrush and female Black Grouse, but we couldn’t find Siberian Jays. We spent more than an hour while trying to find them but luckily we had found some really good ones.

Now we had checked all the most important places in Parikkala too, so we started our way towards the Southern places of South Karelia. We stopped shortly in Ruokolahti where we managed to find Canada Geese easily.

At Imatra we had a few stops. In Immalanjärvi Great Reed Warbler didn’t want to sing for us, but in Neitsytniemi we heard a flock of Long-tailed Tits – also an Ortolan Bunting was heard somewhere.

At Joutseno Konnunsuo we found only the most important species: Honey Buzzard, Red-backed Shrike and Meadow Pipit. Kotasaari was much better, we saw several good waders like Temminck’s Stints, Little Ringed and Ringed Plovers, Greenshanks and Spotted Redshanks. A Couple of Linnets were sitting on a wire in Kivisaari, so a quick tour in Joutseno had been excellent.

In Lappeenranta we drove directly to Askola. Goldfinches were singing already before the parking place, but better species was Great Heron which was flying over the pools. So we could find this bird which we had tried very hard already in Pohjanranta. Also Oystercatchers were seen, so our target species had been found easily, and even something else too.

At Hanhijärvi we found Bean Goose which had stayed there already several weeks. It was really far but we managed to identify it when it climbed to a rock and it was clearly visible even it was in the middle of flock of ducks.

We had thought Kaislanen would have been our last place, because we knew there had been several ducks which we hadn’t seen yet. But it took only couple of minutes to find Gadwalls, Smew and female Pintail, so we still had time to our last desperate try.

Matti’s car had some serious problems but we had still 7 minutes when we arrived at Lappenranta harbour. We tried to find a Mandarin Duck which had been there in spring, but some people (not birders) had told that the bird would still be there. We ran and tried to check all water places but we couldn’t find the bird.

After all we counted that we had seen in 18 hours 128 bird species, which wasn’t that good number, but this year had been so poor that we knew we had done well. Actually we were really hapy how our rally had gone! We just thought we would have found ore species.

The results were told at Parikkala Harjulinna and finally our Ja-Ma-Ha Racing Teams 128 species was quite clearly the best result. But the victory was just a small thing if compare how fun we had had! Thanks again Matti and Harry!

Back to routines and again rally

After the rally and after finishing the results I still had power to twitch Black Tern in Siikalahti.

At next day when I had finished duck counts I went to pick up Hanna from Kägöne where she had finished her course, then I got a message that there was Booted Warbler in Simpele, only 20 kilometres from us. Of course we went to twitch this good WP-year tick. We also went to see a nest of Three-toed Woodpecker which two other teams had found in rally.

In mid June we had almost no time for real birding because we were all the time working with counts. Watching migration or checking different places are much better ways to find rarities than staying all the time in one place.

Our free time we spent mostly sleeping. Once we went to ring some Sand Martins and once again we had to go to Lappeenranta because there was a first ever adult male Pied Wheatear in Finland. We all guides (and Johannes Hänninen which was studying guiding) drove there by Anttis’ car and we managed to see this amazing beautiful bird. Hanna even got her 300th lifer!

To Kuusamo

Luckily I had some free time between counts and I managed to join to Kuusamo bird rally, where I got invited to Jyrki Mäkelä’s, local birdwatchers team. So after the last count 14th of June at 6 a.m. I took a bus and after changing the bus in Joensuu and Kajaani I arrived at Kuusamo at afternoon.

I had slept far too little but anyway I was excited to start birding in new places. So we started to prepare to the rally in same evening (Of course Jyrki had started earlier).

Next few days we birded really hard, even 18 hours a day! Some days we had team mates in two different cars trying to find good species for the rally. Other team mates Mika Hämäläinen and Heikki Suoraniemi and also their friend Janne Moilanen were also working hard. For a while I was extremely tired but anyway we managed to see for example: couple of Booted Warblers, Icterine Warbler, Grasshopper Warbler, nesting Hawk Owl, Tengmalm’s Owl, Rustic and Little Buntings, Spotted Crake and possibly Moorhen. The best experience for me was ringing a nestling of Golden Eagle!

It was good we slept the last night before the rally well. Also Sami Timonen, the fifth team mate, came, and our rental 4-wheel drive car was ready, so everything seemed to be really well!

We started the rally in Oulanka, and next 24 hours we drove 600 kilometres around the Kuusamo! The rally plan was made really well, so we didn’t drive almost at all for nothing. Of course our goal was to see as many species as possibly, but unfortunately this time the rallying went far too serious. Luckily we found all the time new species so we all tried our best.

At Oulanka we started our rally when we saw Honey Buzzard and after that we found: Golden Eagles, Sparrow Hawk, Hazel Hen, Common Buzzard, Shoveler, Merlin, Tengmalm’s Owl from the nest, Coal Tit, Three-toed Woodpecker which nest we found accidentally, Siberian Jays, Goldcrests, Siberian Tits, Parrot Crossbills and Rustic Bunting.

We continued to other places which were near the city and we got new species: Hawk Owl, Common Scoters, Marsh Harrier, Red-throated Diver, White-tailed Eagles, Black-backed Gull etc. At night we begun with Spotted Crake and continued to get Grasshopper Warbler, Golden Plover and Short-eared Owl. Then we made a hard work in Antinperä which gave us our price because Broad-billed Sandpiper, Jack Snipe and Willow Grouse were added to our list. Next we drove a longer way to Kuratti where we found Bean Goose, but unfortunately we just spent time while trying to find Coot, which didn’t want to show us. But we heard several Little Buntings so we weren’t there for nothing.

We drove next to get many species which we had prepared well: Wood Warbler, Blackbird, Chiffchaff, Icterine Warbler, Black Grouse, Crane and Dipper were found very quickly! Unfortunately we couldn’t find the Booted Warblers, but we found both Jay and Black Woodpecker from the same place.

We continued to Ruka where we had been three times before the rally without seeing Grey Wagtail. And we couldn’t see it now either but we heard it! The bird was singing somewhere so we just couldn’t see it, even there was several teams trying! But it wasn’t important to see it, hearing is enough. We also found Wren so we managed to survive from Ruka pretty quickly. Next we twitched Bluethroat which we knew to be easy, but this time we really had to wait before it started to sing. It was already late for singers.

Our last hours went perfectly! We still managed to find Great Grey Shrike, Lesser Whitethroat, Whitethroat and our last species and only species that no-one else found Blyth’s Reed Warbler.

After all we came 3rd (from 30 teams) in this so called Finnish Championship rally. We lost the silver only by 1 species and the gold by 3 species. Anyway I wasn’t happy at all because I had never bee in rally which is taken that serious. We really hadn’t fun at all! I have used to get rallies seriously but with humour. It was also strange to see how the best teams were working together before the rally. They were changing their best species, so it is probably impossible for beginners to success in rally!

Anyway I was happy I went to Kuusamo, because now I know what kind of rally there is. Of course I was also happy I got several good year ticks and even 2 PPLY (Northern Bothnia Birdwatchers Association) ticks (290 now).

Rest of the month went in Siikalahti. We still had the last counts, but we couldn’t find anything special. At the end of month I started again my summer job in heath centre, so I could rest a little from birding.

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1st of May we started our work in Siikalahti again. It was already 6th summer for me and tenth for Hanna when we went to do guiding and, again this year, bird counts there. The beginning was extremely busy! We had a lot of visitors and the counts started directly.

We do the counts in Siikalahti by using couple of different systems. They include duck counts (also waders and gulls which are stopped on their migration will be counted) and mappings which means that we map all the breeding birds in whole area. So we count the ducks several times every week from 10 different points and walk all around (and in) Siikalahti 5 times to find all the birds. Also the night singers will be counted 5 times. So there is lots of work!

Every week we also guide all the visitors which come to Siikalahti from Wednesday to Sunday and always if a group orders a private guiding.

Antti Vierimaa came again to work as a third worker so luckily all the work was not for us.

Of course in Siikalahti we started to see some interesting birds. The weather was amazing warm! It was even 25 degrees!

In the beginning of May we saw White Storks, Peregrine Falcon, Black-tailed Godwits, and Marsh Sandpiper. Some other nice birds in Siikalahti were Jack Snipes, Bluethroats, Ural Owls and the earliest ever Swifts in South Karelia 5.5.

8th of May we joined to traditional bird tower competition. But our competition was quite boring! Even we saw 82 species the sky was extremely empty. There was almost no migration at all! So some really common species were lacking. The best species were White Stork and Feral Pigeon. Latter one is much rarer in Siikalahti.

Luckily other birders were luckier. So after the competition we twitched Black-necked Grebe from Lappeenranta Haapajärvi. On the same lake there was also a flock of 10 Steller’s Eiders.

Some days later we had to go to Lappeenranta again. Now there was one kind of semi-fulvescens Great Spotted Eagle in Kaislanen.

Before the mid of May the weather changed totally. It came really cold! So there were not so many birds around. We waited the arctic migration, but it never came to South Karelia. It was pushed to Russia because of the heavy Western winds. The only birds that were lost to South Karelia went on a horrible weather! It was cold, windy and hard rain, so we were sleeping while some tough birders saw some 20000 Barnacle Geese.

But we didn’t miss all arctic migration. Even almost all birds were already gone we decided to go to Virolahti, South Eastern corner of Finland to see if some Brent Geese should still come. The first day was like a holiday. Sun was singing and it was so nice and calm. Not so many birds but we really enjoyed. Only I managed to see one 2nd year Kittiwake passing us. But we all got several year ticks. At Kurkela we saw a displaying pair of Black Kites. Nice!

Second day was better. At morning we counted about 5000 Brent Geese, but at evening we saw some 20000 more! We also counted some 3000 waders which included nice amounts of Dunlins, Grey Plovers and some Knots. The migration was still going on when we had to begin our way back to Parikkala.

At the end of month we were stressed because of too much work! I was also stressed because I had promised to lead a night singer trip for a group of Italians, and there were no night singers yet. So I really had to work hard to find the first ones! But after all I found everything needed at the last possibly night. So we managed to see River, Grasshopper and Blyth’s Reed Warbler, Thrush Nightingale, Common Rosefinch, Corn Crake and some other common birds like Slavonian Grebes and Red-necked Pochards. Also Water Rails, Spotted Crakes, Icterine Warbler and Nightjar were heard but luckily we didn’t have to try to see all these birds, because some of them are impossible.

First three weeks of April we were still in Israel (The whole trip story). The flight back to Finland we had from Cairo, so we had couple of days raptor watching in Ain Sukhna. 26th of April we finally ended our 4,5 months trip. At Kirkkonummi we had couple of days birding before we had to begin our work in Parikkala Siikalahti.

Whole March we were in Israel (The whole trip story) as a volunteers in International Bird Ringing Centre (IBRCE). Mostly we were ringing birds but of course we were birding as much as possible also otherwise.