December was so cold and snowy that birding wasn’t clever at all. There were absolutely no interesting birds around Parikkala at all. Also price of petrol was so high that I tried to drive as little as possible.

On the 2nd of December I had some studies in Lappeenranta and on the way I saw a Herring Gull and a couple of Cormorants in Imatra Vuoksi. On the next day I saw a Treecreeper and a couple of Crested Tits in Tetrisuo.

On the 4th of December we had a traditional bird-race. We started at 7 a.m. and an hour later had our first bird a Pygmy Owl calling in Melkoniemi. In Tarvaslampi we saw some common feeder birds before we continued to the forests. We walked a kilometre and found the Siberian Jays easily. Also Goldcrests, Crested Tits and a Hazel Hen were found. In Parikkala village we found House Sparrows, Rock Pigeons and Jackdaws easily so we decided to check all the best feeder areas too. A Chaffinch was found in Surumäki and a Nuthatch in Kirkkoranta. Then in Tetrisuo a Treecreeper was found again. Then we drove around Siikalahti but only new species was a White-backed Woodpecker. It was clear that we had used far too much time in Parikkala. We continued to Rautjärvi and saw Dippers in Kokkolanjoki before continued towards Imatra. Along the main road 6 we luckily saw a Capercaillie and a Black Grouse on the top of trees in the middle of the worst storm damages where only some trees were still standing. In Vuoksi we saw first Goldeneyes and Mallards but then found again the Herring Gull, Cormorants and some Goosanders too. In Mellonlahti it was already very late but luckily a flock of Long-tailed tits were found. We had planned to continue much further but we realized it was already too late so we decided to give up. Altogether we had 34 species and came 3rd in the race where winners got 40 species, but it was clear that Imatra and Lappeenranta would have been the best areas. While we were still in Imatra I got a message that there had been a Black-throated Accentor found in Pori. I decided to go twitching! I dropped Hanna to train and started to drive towards south. I picked up Sampsa Cairenius in Lappeenranta and we decided to drive until Pori right away so we could go to see the bird easily early in the morning. We had no plans were to stay overnight but luckily I managed to get us room from my old friends Hannes Tiira’s summer-cottage where we finally were at 11 p.m.

On the 5th of December we woke up early and after a proper breakfast in ABC we continued towards Pihlava Kaunismäki. We were almost there when we got a message that the bird was still there! What a relief! Soon we were there and after some waiting the bird was found again hiding under a thick bush in a snowy garden. My 12th lifer of the year and my 615th WP-tick! The bird was hiding very well so after all I couldn’t get any good pictures of it. After a couple of hours trying we decided to leave to do some more twitching.
In Toukari we found a Marsh tit easily from the feeder so then we decided to go to a crazy twitch to Lapua Alajoki where a Snowy Owl had been found on previous evening. It was a long drive but on the way we saw a Tree-toed Woodpecker, a Goshawk, a Dipper and some Pheasants. In Alajoki we found the bird-tower from where the owl had been seen, but found only a flock of Snow Buntings, a Great Grey Shrike and a Kestrel. We met the man who had found the owl and he told it had been active only in the sunset. Se we waited in cold and windy weather until it was too dark but couldn’t see anything more. Finally we gave up and started a long way back home.

On the 6th of December we did a short walk around Kangaskylä but found only a couple of Coal Tits.

On the 8th day I saw a couple of Dippers and a flock of Waxwings in Simpele. But then the weather changed even more wintery! It was either snowing or far too cold to go out at all! Of course it was also dark all the time

On the 18th of December we went to Lappeenranta to Christmas shopping. On the way we tried to twitch a Marsh Tit in Imatra Teppanala but found only a Coal Tit. In Vuoksi Imatrankoski some Cormorants and a Little Grebe were found easily.

Around the Christmas I was sporting almost too much – more than many years. So I was aloud to eat as much sweets and traditional Christmas food as I wanted. In Christmas eve it was extremely cold, -33.5 degrees! Luckily on the next day the forecast wasn’t that bad as I had planned to do the traditional winter-bird count.

On the 25th of December we started the winter-bird count a little bit late as it was still -24 degrees in the morning. Mikko Ala-Kojola joined me and we skied around Siikalahti and because of there were no skiing tracks at all it took too long. The sun set when we had still a couple of kilometres to go. So I had to count the rest on the next morning.
Altogether only 18 species were seen and there weren’t many birds around. The most numerous species was Yellowhammer – there was a flock of 130 birds in a farm near Siikalahti. Most of the birds seemed to be on feeders and there wasn’t many on our route. The best birds were 1+8 Pine Grosbeaks, one beautiful adult male even, a Hazel Hen and a Black Grouse. Altogether 453 bird individuals were seen which was about the average on my 7 year counts in mid winter.

On the beginning of November it was easy tell that the winter was coming, and a birdless winter. There were absolutely no berries in trees or bushes so all Waxwings and thrushes had gone already a long time ago and most of the other birds were gone too.

On the 1st of November I saw a Nutcracker in our own garden sembra and on the 2nd day I visited Siikalahti where were still 460 Whooper Swans, a Mute Swan, 43 Wigeons, 43 Mallards, 4 Smews, a White-tailed Eagle, a Goshawk and a Great Grey Shrike. In Härskiinmutka I saw a flock of 21 Great Crested Grebes. After the work I went twitching to Kerimäki Jouhenlahti where a Bar-tailed Godwit still was – a new month-tick. Also 2 Common Scoters were seen there.

On the 6th of November I did a winter bird count around Siikalahti and luckily the bay wasn’t frozen yet even though it was minus degrees. 321 Whooper Swans, 5 Wigeons, 10 Mallards, a Long-tailed Duck, 2 Smews, 137 Goosanders, 2 Black Grouses, 25 Common Gulls, 2 Herring Gulls, 9 Rock Pigeons, 2 Grey-headed Woodpeckers, 4 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, 2 Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, 10 Goldcrests, 12 Long-tailed, 2 Crested, 1 Coal, 49 Blue and 220 Great Tits, 1 Treecreeper, 7 Jays, 27 Magpies, 42 Jackdaws, 26 Hooded Crows, 5 Ravens, 36 House Sparrows, 37 Tree Sparrows, 3 Chaffinches, 122 Greenfinches, 2 Siskins, 88 Redpolls, 4 Pine Grosbeaks, 9 Bullfinches, 108 Yellowhammers and a Reed Bunting were seen. I had never seen so many species on the count before.

On the 7th day I found a Black-throated Diver and 5 Tufted Ducks in Joukionsalmi, 2 Smews in Tiviänlampi and 2 Bewick’s Swans in a flock of Whooper Swans in Vartianlahti where on the next day was also a Tufted Duck.

On the 12th day I saw the Nutcracker again and still 128 Whooper Swans and the same 2 Bewick’s Swans, 22 Canada Geese, 5 Mallards and on the next day also a Teal in Vartialahti. Then I saw again the Black-throated Diver and also a Tufted Duck and a White-tailed Eagle in Joukionsalmi.

On the 15th day I saw 7 migrating Velvet Scoters and a Smew in Härskiinmutka and still 130 Whooper Swans, 22 Canada Geese, 9 Mallards and the Teal in Vartialahti. In our own garden there were surprisingly 2 Starlings on the grass. On the 16th day there were still 77 Whooper Swans in Vartialahti, in Härskiinmutka I saw 260 Goosanders, 36 Common and 3 Herring Gulls. On the next day I twitched again in Kerimäki Jouhenlahti where a Wood Lark was now.

On the 19th day I saw 45 Common and 5 Herring Gulls and still 14 Whooper Swans in Härskiinmutka but a drive around Tyrjä produced only some Black Grouses and a flock of Long-tailed Tits.

On the evening of 20th day In Lappeenranta Toikansuo some birders saw a strange bunting that was first thought to be a Little Bunting but later they thought it might have been a Black-faced Bunting. So I had to go there on the next morning like about 100 other twitchers. Together with Karri Kuitunen, Sampsa Cairenius, Totti Toiskallio and Jouko Rantanen we walked around the snowy hillside where the bird had been seen while the rest of the twitchers were waiting but we couldn’t find the bird. Soon all birders were free to start searching for it but it wasn’t found. A Robin and a Wren were found on the ditch nearby, 10 Waxwings migrated over us and 8 Long-tailed Tits were found on the forest nearby but soon we decided to go to birding somewhere else with Pekka Punnonen. In Tyysterniemi we saw just 4 Long-tailed Ducks, in Voisalmi a Black-headed Gull, 7 Long-tailed Ducks, a Great Crested Grebe and a migrating Red-throated Diver, in Joutseno Kivisaari we twitched a Lapland Bunting and a Skylark and in Konnunsuo we saw a Kestrel before we went back to Toikansuo. A Merlin and 4 Teals were seen but no sign of the bunting.

I stayed overnight in Pekka’s home and next morning we were again in Tyysterniemi where we found a Tufted Duck before we went again to Toikansuo. The weather was again more like in winter and soon we gave up, the bunting was either dead or somewhere far. Only a Fieldfare was found. In Luukkaansalmi we saw 4 Common Gulls and a flock of 250 Greenfinches. Soon I started to drive towards Kouvola where I had a rink ball match in the evening. In Luumäki I saw a flock of 18 Pine Grosbeaks. I drove to Iitti Lyöttilä where I twitched 3 Marsh Tits on one feeder. I tried to record and photograph them but the wind was too strong and it was also so cold that my fingers and my camera-batteries didn’t last long. There was also a Great Grey Shrike visiting the feeder which made the bird very shy. Next I drove to Elimäki Mustila arboretum where I twitched a flock of 6 Two-barred Crossbills. I even got a short recording of them even though they were mostly quiet. Luckily I found a flock of 12 Grey Partridges in the very same place where we had seen them 1,5 years earlier on our Yellow-browed Bunting twitching trip. I still twitched a Little Grebe and saw a Dipper in Kuusankoski Keltti before I continued to ice-hall.

On the 22nd of November even Härskiinmutka started to get frozen, still 24 Whooper Swans were there but on the next day I saw only a family of 4 swans, 3 Herring Gulls were migrating. Also Vartialahti was completely frozen, 3 Whooper Swans were standing on the ice.

On the 27th day I was in Rautjärvi Simpele playing inner bandy tournament. Some Whooper Swans seemed to be still on Kokkolanjoki River. On the 28th of November we drove 260 kilometres to twitch the first ever Middle Spotted Woodpecker for Finland. After 4 hours searching in -15 degrees with Hanna and Sampsa Cairenius and maybe 100 other twitchers the bird was finally found. The bird was very active but finally it flew to some big trees where it stayed so I could get some photographs and video of it. Also a Song Thrush, a Black Woodpecker and a Dipper were seen in Asikkala Vääksy. On the way there we had seen an Arctic Redpoll in Iitti Kausala.

The end of the month was very cold! It was about -20 degrees every night and about -15 during the day. It was going to be a long winter!

We were still on our 5 weeks trip with “potu” Suojarinne in Shetland Foula and other parts of Shetland (In October we still saw in Shetland for example Red-breasted Flycatchers, Yellow-browed Warblers, Red-flanked Bluetails, Grey Phalarope, Hornemann’s Arctic Redpoll, Siberian Chiffchaff, Spotted Sandpiper, Bonelli’s Warbler, Radde’s Warbler, Daurian Shrike and Rose-coloured Starling) and thenwe stell went for a week to Catalonia (where we saw Lesser Yellowlegs, thousand of Shearwaters, Black Wheatears, Black-bellied Sandgrouses, Long-billed Dowitcher, Wallcreeper, Pekin Robins and much more.)

We came back to Finland on Sunday evening on the 24th of October and on the next morning I had to go to work. It was already cold and dark in Finland but not snow yet. And surprisingly there were still quite a few birds around. I visited Siikalahti on the 26th day and saw 476 Whooper Swans, 2 Bewick’s Swans and a Mute Swan, 2 White-tailed Eagles, a Meadow Pipit, a Waxwing and 11 Teals and so on.

On 30th and 31st of October we were in Kajaani in BirdLife weekend. I took some free and went to twitch a Marsh Tit that was nearby. It was on a feeder of famous photographer Pekka Helo. Actually there were much more Marsh Tits in Finland than ever – several in Kajaani and much more in North Karelia. So on the way back to home on Sunday we stopped a couple of times in Valtimo where we knew nobody had tried to find Marsh Tits. Already on 2 first stops we found lots of Great Tits but the third stop we made in the village when we found a really good feeder. We played CD, but only Great and Blue Tits with one Willow Tit were found. After some minutes the owner of the house came to talk with us and Hanna had just told him that we were trying to find a Marsh Tit when I found one! A new self-found tick! We continued soon and still managed to find a Hawk Owl in Nurmes before it was too dark.

J.A.

On 5th of September we saw a young Peregrine Siikalahti and after that we left to Saari with Pekka Punnonen. On the way we saw a Capercaillie, Hazel Hens and Black Grouses but later only a Red-throated Pipit, 8 Lapland Buntings, extremely young Red-necked Grebe youngsters and 4 Rustic Buntings. In the afternoon I still saw a flock of 23 Canada Geese in Siikalahti.

On the 6th day I heard a Red-throated Pipit on our garden, on 7th day I had 2 Nutcrackers in Kangaskylä and had a Rustic Bunting on our garden.

On the 8th day I counted 800 Wigeons in Siikalahti and in Imatra Immalanjärvi I saw 2 Scaups and a Red-throated Diver. Also a Crested lark was still in Linnankoski.

On the 9th day I twitched a Greater Spotted Eagle in Siikalahti where also 3 Red-throated Divers, 7 Lapland Buntings, 2 Rustic Buntings and a Grey-headed Woodpecker were seen.

In September I was waiting for my holiday but of course I did some birding while waiting. On the 2nd day I saw a Gadwall in Siikalahti and on 3rd we still had 3 Redstarts on our backyard. On 4th day I saw again a migrating harrier on Lake Simpele and it really looked like a Pallid but there was something wrong with that bird – it might have been a hybrid with Hen Harrier? In Siikalahti a White-fronted Goose was still waiting for its north migrating friends and in Lahdensuo I saw 3 Bluethroats.

On the 10th of September I saw 16 migrating Barnacle Geese, 2 White-tailed Eagles and also this adult Greater Spotted Eagle was still around. 2 Water Rails were still calling and again a couple of Rustic Buntings and a Bluethroat were seen. In Satumäki I saw the first flock of Waxwings.

On the 11th day there were 10 White-fronted Geese, 709 Wigeons and a Gadwall in Siikalahti. I managed to get good pictures of Greater Spotted Eagle in Tetrisuo and later with Hanna we got even better pictures in Kaukola. The bird seemed to stay away from Siikalahti where 2 White-tailed Eagles were staying. I also had a Red-breasted Flycatcher while I was doing duck-count. Also 8 Red-throated Pipits, 7 Rustic Bunting – they seemed to be much more common than normally – and a nice flock of 472 Starlings were seen.

On the 12th day I saw 56 Barnacle Geese and on 13th 44 Bean and 120 Barnacle Geese. On 14th day in Härskiinmutka I saw 3 Scaups and in Kangaskylä now 3 Nutcrackers which one of them was ringed in Punkaharju Metla in summer. In the evening I saw a Scaup, 5 Red-necked Grebes and 80 Barnacle Geese in Immalanjärvi.

On the 16th day I saw a Grey-headed Woodpecker, 2 Red-throated Pipits and a Bluethroat in Siikalahti and on the 17th of September a flock of 80 migrating Brent Goose in Muttelinmäki. Then it was finally my 5 weeks holiday!

After my work I started to drive towards South. In Lappeenranta I picked up Miika “potu” Suojarinne and we continued to Helsinki where we visited Lintuvaruste and FotoFennica shopes, bought some equipments and souvenirs before went to birding.

We headed to Espoo Laajalahti where we met some birders that told that all birds that we hoped to be there were still there. Soon we found a Red-breasted Goose from a huge flock of 6000 Barnacle Geese and pretty soon also a Broad-billed Sandpiper, 2 Little Stints, a Temminck’s Stit and a Green Sandpiper. All very late birds. There were also 2010 Wigeons and more than 100 Gadwalls! After pizza we headed to Helsinki where we stayed at night in potu’s friends right now empty apartment.

On the 18th of September we woke up at 7 but after slowly start we headed again to Laajalahti where weren’t that many birds. 2 Garganets, 8 Moorhens and so on, in Kirkkonummi Saltfjärden we had a Bluethroat. We ate together with my parents and then with my father drove my car to a service and then continued to Helsinki-Vantaa airport.

Together with potu we headed to 5 weeks birding tour to England, Shetland and also again to Foula. (In September we saw for example Wilson’s Phalarope, White-rumped Sandpiper, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Scottish Crossbills, Pectoral Sandpiper, Puff-breasted Sandpiper, Paddyfield Warbler and much more.)

On the 1st of August we started early and drove together with Daniel Burgas to Joutseno where we tried to listen if any Corn Crakes or Quails were still calling but they weren’t. In Kotasaari there was still a thick fog at 6 a.m. but a Dunlin, a Spotted Redshank and some Little Ringed Plovers were seen. Then we continued to Lappeenranta Toikansuo where were already some lifer and month-tick twitchers waiting for a Pallas Sandgrouse to show up. We waited for more than an hour and heard a Grasshopper Warbler, a Thrush Nightingale and saw a family of Blyth’s Reed Warblers and a single Marsh Warbler before the Pallas Sandgrouse finally was found from the dense vegetation on the top of Toikansuo hill. Soon it flew almost straight over us calling and landed somewhere behind the Askola pools. We waited for some time and saw 7 Temmink’s Stints, a Curlew Sandpiper, a Dunlin, 2 Green Sandpipers and 4 Little Ringed Plovers, but continued to Kuusela forests. Soon after that the sandgouse had flew to the closer pools.
In forest we saw 3 Long-tailed Tits and a couple of Woodcocks but not any Greenish Warblers. Then we drove to Reijola where a long-staying Crested Lark was found after some searching.

On the next night we had a huge storm and even in our garden a tree was fallen and flagpole was snapped. But in Rautjärvi there was a huge disaster – almost all trees broke down in many big areas! And a couple of days later we had another storm that also hit to Rautjärvi very hard. It also hit to Siikalahti where many trees were fallen to the path and even small duck-counting towers were fallen.

So the next few days were very quiet. We did visit Siikalahti a couple of times and photographed the disaster. Some Grey Herons were seen. In Joukio there were a couple of families of Barnacle Geese and in Punkaharju we saw a Nutcracker flying over the road when we were going to Savonlinna.

On the 7th of August we drove south. On the way we stopped in Toikansuo where was a Little Stint and some flocks of Common Scoters were migrating. Pallas Sandgouse had left already some days earlier. We continued to Kotka Sapokka harbour where the rest of the participants to a trip to Hamina Koivuluoto Island were already packing the boat. Soon we were on the way to this one of the outermost islands on the south-eastern sea. On the way we saw a Razorbill and right away when we landed to the island we saw the first Rock Pipit.

This day and also the next one we were working as volunteers and worked pretty hard to make this small island’s facilities better. We did 3 campfire places, painted one house and so on. Of course we did some birding too and a couple of Black Guillemots, an Icterine Warbler, a Cuckoo, a couple of more Rock Pipits, a Wren and some other birds were seen. But during the daytime it was absolutely too hot for birds so most of the time we had free we were looking for dragonflies. There were a couple of extremely keen dragonfly experts with us so we managed to see several interesting species. The most interesting one would have been a new species for Finland but we never saw it landing and right then we didn’t have dragonfly net or camera with us. But it was all golden and therefore easy to identify as a Green-eyed Hawker. We also saw some other interesting butterflies like Admirals, Bath Whites, Blue Underwings and some other insects like 4 to 5 Migratory Locusts and I also saw a blue-winged grasshopper but even though I saw it landing-place we never found it again.

On the 9th day we visited Siikalahti together with Mikko Ala-Kojola and we photographed the fallen trees wondered if anyone can somehow make the path open anymore. A Red-breasted Flycatcher was heard calling on the top of the trees that were still up.

But luckily on the 12th day the paths were open and duck-counting towers up so I could do a duck-count again. It was easy to tell that this summer had been extremely bad for breeding ducks as only some small families were seen. Anyway 227 Mallards, 143 Wigeons, 121 Teals were counted so the numbers were good. But diving ducks were missing almost completely. The bird of the day was a Nuthatch that was migrating over me. Another good bird was a Wryneck on the dam-road.

On the 13th day I twitched a Crested Lark in Imatra on the way to pick up our washing machine from the service. On the next night we did a short night-trip to Saari but no Quails were found. Only birds were a couple of Nightjars but we saw lots of Perceides – falling stars! On the 15th day the only interesting bird was a calling Spotted Crake.

On the 17th day I saw a 2 cy White-tailed Eagle, a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, 8 Grey Herons and on 19th I did a duck-count again. There was much less bird now: 155 Wigeons, 90 Mallards and 100 Teals. A Garganey, an adult White-tailed Eagle and a White-fronted Goose were the best birds.

Twitching lifers

I was very bored to Parikkala so I decided to go south on the weekend. Our goal was to get at least one gull lifer as there had been a couple of Mediterranean Gulls around. But anyway my first stop was in Joutseno Myllymäki where had been a local Short-toed Eagle on the previous day. But in a couple of hours only some Buzzards, Honey Buzzards, Ospreys and smaller raptors were seen. It wasn’t windy enough for eagles. Only better birds were a local Waxwing and a family of 5 Wood Larks. In the afternoon I continued my drive until Salo where still a day before had been a Med Gull but even though I searched until the dark I couldn’t find anything else interesting than a calling Collared Dove. It was already late when I parked to Kirkkonummi to my parents.

On the 21st of August I visited Espoo Suomenoja and Laajalahti and saw altogether 66 Gadwalls, 18 Moorhens, 4 Curlew Sandpipers, a Little Stint, 2 Temminck’s Stints, 15 Dunlins, a Spotted Redshank, 227 Lapwings, 2 Caspian Terns and so on.
In the evening I got a message that there had been a Yellow-legged Gull and a Caspian Gull in Ämmässuo rubbish tip. I planned to go there for the next day and asked some information from the local birders, but as I already knew they told that the place was closed and the thought it’d be impossible to see the birds from outside the gates.

So on the 22nd day I slept long and was going to Laajalahti again when I got a message that the gull-counters gad found the Yellow-legged Gull again and there were twitchers going to try to see it from outside. I decided to go there too right away. I was already were close when I got the instructions to a place where the bird was visible, but unfortunately it was right on the other side of the huge rubbish tip. After all I was the 6th car to park to the place where I still had to walk some to the right place. Luckily the bird was still there and I was there early enough to fit to that small area where the bird was visible. It was possible to see the bird from only on small rock!
I studied this Finnish lifer for some time and then left to my parent to eat. I was on the way when I got a message that there had been a Med Gull in Kirkkonummi Lapinjärvi. I had just passed that place! Anyway the bird had left towards the rubbish tip so I decided to wait that the other birders find it and went to eat. The Med Gull wasn’t found but a Caspian Gull was. So I drove soon back to Ämmässuo and managed to see at least one 1 cy Caspian Gull, probably a 2 cy bird was seen too.
After that I still tried to find a Med Gull until the late evening when I had to start my long way back home.

On the 25th of August I got a phone call from Jouko Rantanen that he had found a young Pallid Harrier from Siikalahti. I immediately drove there and managed to find the bird easily. This beautiful harrier was flying together with a couple of young Marsh Harriers. I had to go back to work soon but I went back there after work but the bird wasn’t found anymore.

On the 27th day I still saw a Curlew in Siikalahti. In the afternoon Hanna left to Helsinki by train to BirdLife meeting and I was juts planning what to do on the weekend when I got a message that there was a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper in Espoo Laajalahti! I left immediately!
I picked up Sampsa Cairenius in Lappeenranta and we drove against the sunset towards southwest. The bird had flight to a reed bed soon after finding and it had been missing for hours so the bird-tower was absolutely full and in worst time there had been more than 100m queue! When we were finally there most of the people had already given up so after 15 minutes wait we fit to the tower. It was already too dark so we just checked some of the other birds like 3000 Barnacle Geese. But it meant that we had to stay over night and come to try again at early morning.

Twitching lifers – part II

On the 28th of August at 6 a.m. we were back in Laajalahti. It was already too late as the tower was already full of twitchers. Luckily we managed to fit somehow to the back of the tower where it was possible to see a part of the bay. We found a Red-necked Phalarope, a Curlew Sandpiper, 2 Dunlins, 2 Little Stints and so on before Mika Bruun found the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper on the backside of the bay. It took a long time to see it behind all the twitchers and after all I managed to climb to a bench where I could see the bird over all other twitchers. Soon I made room to other twitchers that were first on the line under the tower. After we had managed to find another place than the tower where it was possible to see the bird, we decided to go somewhere else. We’d come back to try to see the Sharpie better later anyway.
We drove to Helsinki Niskala where had been a Red-breasted Goose but only Barnacles were found. A Red-throated Pipit flew over us calling. Soon we had information that a Yellow-legged gull was again in Ämmässuo suo we drove there so also Sampsa could get a lifer! After some work we managed to find a beautiful pale 1cy Caspian Gull too! In best moment we had both of these rarities in our scope in same time! Many friends came to see these birds after twitching a Sharpie and “potu” got 2 more lifers in a minute!

We checked Lapinkylänjärvi where we saw a Red-throated Diver before we went to eat. In Veikkola we saw a mixed flock of Parrot and Common Crossbills before we continued to Siuntio to try to find a Mediterranean Gull that had been seen there a couple of days before. We had checked almost all the fields around the village when I got a message that it had been found 12 km from us from Pikkala! We drove there and the bird was still there! 2nd lifer to me in same day! But “potu” made it his 4th lifer in very same day! And after just 15 minutes watching the bird left.

We continued to Inkoo Kopparnäs where we saw 3 Wood Larks, 4 Eiders, Caspian Terns, 12 migrating Sparrowhaks and heard a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, before continued to Suomenoja where Gadwalls, Moorhens and 2 Slavonian Grebes were seen easily.
Light was already getting worse when we drove back to Laajalahti where Hanna was also now. She had got a ride from BirdLife meeting to get a WP-tick too. We saw the Sharpie a little bit better than in the morning but still it was too far to photograph. Soon we started out way back home. We still had a short stop in Etu-Viikki where the Red-breasted Goose had been seen, but saw only 130 Ruffs and a Golden Plover. Altogether we had seen 112 species during the day.

On the 29th of August we slept long but then went to Siikalahti to try to see Honey Buzzard migration. But they had probably gone on the previous day as the only migrating raptor we saw was a Black Kite – which is a good bird of course! Also a White-tailed Eagle was seen but we didn’t see a Greater Spotted Eagle that had been seen just before we came. Another good bird was a late Golden Oriole.

On the 30th day I saw another White-tailed Eagle in Siikalahti and on the last day of August I did duck-counts again. 554 Wigeons, 146 Mallards, 111 Teals, a Gadwall, 2 Canada Geese, 128 Coots etc. were seen. Also 10 Bean Geese, 75 Cranes, a Rustic Bunting, a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, a couple of White-backed Woodpeckers and a thousand of Chaffinches were seen.

July started hot and came even hotter. On the 1st of July I twitched a Baillion’s Crake as a month-tick and together with Mika I. Koskinen and Petri Salakka we continued to twitch also Savi’s Warbler that was further in Ruokolahti Utula. There we heard also a young Long-eared Owl. During the day I saw a Red-backed Shrike in Siikalahti, somehow it had been breeding there so that we had missed it on the counts.

To see Wolverines

On the 2nd day we drove north to North Karelia where we went to celebrate our 10th anniversary to a hide where we tried to photograph Wolverines in Lieksa Erä-Eero. In Joensuu Eno we saw a Ural Owl and in the late evening we parked to Patvinsuo Autiovaara where we spent the night while a Red-flanked Bluetail was singing.

On the 3rd day we first walked around Autiovaara track where 3 Red-flanked Bluetails were singing, a couple of Red-breasted Flycatchers were alarming, Greenish Warbler was singing and also plenty of Crested Tits, some Coal Tits and Treecreepers and a Hazel Hen were found.
After a short walk on one big bog we continued to Erä-Eero where we met Eero and a couple that were joining us to the hide. Abut 4 p.m. we drove near the hides and walked to the hide that was closest to the place where animals came to feed. Soon after Eero had hid some meat to the ground and under rocks and trunks the first Ravens came and started to search for food and they did find too many meats too quickly! Also a Common Gull and a Herring Gull were good in stealing food that we really wanted to be left for bigger animals.
Finally at 6.40 p.m. after more than 3 hours wait I saw shortly something running in the forest and soon after Hanna saw a Wolverine coming towards us. Soon it came down from the bigger hide and came straight to feeding place and started to find food. It found first meat soon and dig it to the ground very close to the hide and it also did it to a couple of next meats. The 4th meat it took with her and soon disappeared to the forest.

It was already late and dark when it started to happen again. It was too dark to photograph but it was amazing to follow the Wolverines. There were two of them, a smaller and darker male and bigger female coming to feeding place a couple of times always one in time. At 1:35 a.m. another Brown Bear came slowly and carefully towards us. It was much more careful than the first one and it was trying to find some food and found some after a long search and soon disappeared to the darkness.
Still between 2 and 3 a.m. both Wolverines were still visiting shortly but they couldn’t find any food anymore. After 3 a.m. we heard a couple of splashes of a Beaver and soon it came to swim to the lake nearby.
Soon the sun started to rise and Ravens and gulls came to finish serving that were mostly leftovers from the bears. At 5:30 a.m. I had just felt asleep for a first time when Hanna woke me up and told that the Wolverine was back. Finally we managed to photograph and video the male Wolverine in good light. After this we saw only Ravens and gulls, Wrens were singing and soon it became so hot that after 9 a.m. we decided to leave. We still went to say goodbye to Eero and started our way back home. It had been an amazing night!

On the 5th of July I twitched a White-fronted Goose as a species that I’ve now seen in every month. A Great Reed Warbler was still singing and the first bigger a flock of Wood Sandpipers were flying over Siikalahti. The autumn was coming!

The weather was still hot and it was even getting hotter – hotter than ever! Every day it was more than 30 degrees but nights were even more awful because of it was more than 25 degrees then. It was impossible to sleep even though we had all the doors and windows open all the time!

On the 8th day we drove to Hollola where we collected Hanna’s paintings that had been in an exhibition in Liminka and were soon going to another one to Inkoo Galleria Karaija. On the way we twitched a Corn Bunting that was still in Luumäki and saw a 2nd c-y Heuglin’s Gull in Nastola.

On the 10th day we were joining to a bird race where we tried to get some Bird-Atlas areas better solved. Our area was in Ruokolahti near Akkala where we checked every single place in that 10 times 10 km area for 12 hours. We also tried to find all the divers on the area as they were this year project species. We managed to 16 Black-throated Diver territories, but only one pair had a youngster. Altogether we had 47 Black-throated Divers but we couldn’t find any Red-throated Divers. Other good birds were many Wrens, a Wryneck fledling, Thrush Nightingale family; several Red-backed Shrike families, a House Sparrow couple and altogether we saw 66 species in an area where we would never went to do birding without this race.
After the race we all gathered to Klaus Jernstöms summer cottage that was on the coast of Lake Saimaa and had a good time. Next morning we twitched a family of Red-throated Divers nearby so also this project bird was seen.

New species to South Karelia

On the 14th days night I was unable to sleep because of the heat so I left to do some birding to Lappeenranta. A couple of Grasshopper Warblers were found on the way to Joutseno Kotasaari where a Temminck’s Stint was seen. In Lappeenranta Hyrynmäki I just checked the places where Jarmo Pirhonen had found the first ever Crested Lark for South Karelia. But I knew it was still too early to find it so I continued soon to Toikansuo to check the Askola pools. Only a Golden Plover was seen and at 5 a.m. I decided to drive back to Hyrynmäki. I had still 1.5 kilometres to drive when I noticed a bird on a grass just next to a road and there it was, a Crested Lark that I was going to try to find! After some photographing I started a way back to Parikkala. I just did a short stop in Ruokolahti Laurniemi where an Oystercatcher was seen. At 7.30 a.m. I had to be at work.

To Hanko

On the 16th day we drove south to Inkoo where we dropped Hanna’s paintings to Galleria Karaija. In the evening we enjoyed the weather and did some seawatching in Kopparnäs. Later we continued to Siuntio Purnus where Pirkka’s family was staying on their holiday.

Early on the next morning I drove to Hanko. Hanna had too many projects to do so she went to shopping to Helsinki and continued back home in the evening. On the way I saw a beautiful Tawny Owl in Lohja. In Hanko I stopped first in Svanvik where were some waders, for example 9 Dunlins and a Temminck’s Stint. I also stopped in Vedagrundet and Långören but at 5 a.m. I arrived to Tallholmarna where I had decided to stay as much as possible during the next 2 days and try to see a Sandwiched Tern. There were lots of tern on the sea but they were all Common and Arctic Terns and 4 Caspian Terns. Only migrating species was a Black-headed Gull, some hundreds were seen. In the evening I went back to Tallholmarna where I saw a Razorbill but not a lifer tern.
I slept in a car and in the morning I went to check Svanvik again. A Curlew Sandpiper was the best wader again and soon I was back in Tallholmarna again. The weather was now windy, rainy and much cooler. There were only some terns flying on the sea and I was almost giving up already when I saw flocks of Curlews and Whimblers migrating. Soon I saw some flocks more and altogether I saw 42 Curlews and 32 Whimbrels but also 13 Bar-tailed Godwits, a Knot, 22 Dulins, 10 Grey Herons, a Gadwall and 4 Arctic Skuas. So the morning was good after all. Anyway I decided to leave towards Espoo pretty early. I visited Finno where I counted 69 Gadwalls, 28 Moorhens, 7 Slavonian Grebes and had also 2 Reed, 2 Great Reed and 2 Marsh Warblers. I also stopped in Laajalahti where were good number of waders and 55 Dunlins, 6 Curlew Sandpipers, a Broad-billed Sandpiper, a Grey Plover and so on. In the afternoon I drove back home.

On the 19th day a rain had dropped a couple of Dunlins to Siikalahti but otherwise it was very quiet there.

It had already been too hot, but it came even hotter! It was impossible to sleep in our apartment so I was very tired all the time. Anyway I tried to do some birding every day as I knew there was something rare coming with the weather. But there was absolutely nothing interesting in Siikalahti. On the 22nd of July I had my first Grey Heron in Siikalahti and on the 23rd I heard a young Long-eared Owl in Lahdensuo. On the 24th I did a duck-count but nothing interesting was found – a Smew was the best bird and worst thing was that there were almost no young birds at all!

Next weekend we spent on the shore of Lake Saimaa. First we were on “potu’s” cottage in Anttola and then on my relatives villa in Ristiina where we celebrated my grandmas 90th birthday. 5 Grey Herons were seen there.

The heat brings cosmic mindf***ers

On the 27th of July a Woodchat Shrike was found in Luumäki so after a work I had to drive there. The bird had been missing for 4 hours but when I parked there it was just found! It was a long-waited lifer and the first really rare bird in South-Karelia for ages! I was looking at the bird for some hours and it was almost all the time visible even though sometimes it disappeared to trees or to the field. In the evening we did some spontaneous birding in Luumäki with “potu” and visited one of the worst birdtower I have ever visited. The place Ylä-Hirvas was pretty good but the tower wasn’t. I also stopped in Kotasaari, but nothing better was found.

On the 29th day even bigger bomb was dropped! And it wasn’t the truth that it was the hottest day in Finnish history as 37.2 degrees were measured in Liperi, but a Pallas Sandgrouse was found in Lappeenranta Toikansuo by Matti Vanhapelto! I visited the place immediately but the bird was hiding in a dense vegetation so all I could do was to organize the twitching as well as I could because I knew all the Finnish twitchers were now coming there!
After a work we left back to Lappeenranta with Hanna and we had got good news that the bird was still hiding in exactly same place where it had landed after Matti had found the bird. Only some birders had seen it walking, but most had to still wait.
We had just arrived to the place and the bird had now been hiding for hours so many birders were just going to buy something to drink and rest a little bit because of it was so extremely hot! But then after a minute the decided to fly back to the Askola pools where it had been first found. We saw it extremely well and it seemed to land to the pools, but it landed so that it wasn’t visible. But soon it flew to the closest pools and it stayed there for hours so everybody could see it. Every other bird was chasing it so it managed to get only once some water from the pool. Once the bird flew a long round around the whole area and seemed to be leaving but luckily it turned around and landed back to the pools. In late evening it flew to the further pools and wasn’t visible anymore so we decided to leave. Other bird there were 600 Swifts, Marsh and Blyth’s Reed Warbler, 3 Spotted Redshanks, 4 Little Ringed Plovers, 9 young Little Gulls, 345 Black-headed Gulls and so on.
We then twitched a Crested Lark that had been found again after some weeks, and also visited Kotasaari and Kukkuroinmäki but 3 Spotted Redshanks, 4 Little Ringed Plovers and a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker were the only better birds.

On the 1st of June we were again doing night-singer counts in Siikalahti. 15 Thrush Nightingales, 5 Reed Warblers, 4 Blyth’s Reed Warblers, 2 Golden Orioles, 8 Bitterns, 3 Corn Crakes, 13 Water Rails, 11 Spotted Crakes and after many years a female Little Crake! White-backed Woodpeckers were drumming, adults were teaching the youngsters.

On the 2nd of June we had again counts in marshes and bushes that were full of Reed and Willow Warblers. Only better birds in my area were a Reed Warbler, 2 Great Reed Warblers and 3 Hawfinches that flew over.

On the 3rd of June after work I drove to Kirkkonummi. I twitched a Booted Warbler, a European Serin and a Red-breasted Goose on the way. On the 4th of June I left to Iceland with Kalle and Johanna Larsson. The full trip-report can be read here: Iceland 4th to 9th of June 2010 (for example Harlequin Ducks, Barrow’s Goldeneyes, Blue-winged Teal, Gyr Falcon, Great Northern Divers and amazing places.)

After the Iceland-trip I was a little bit sick and also extremely tired and busy so I didn’t do much birding. On the 10th of June we saw 2 Ringed Plovers on the beach next to our house.

On the 14th day I had counts again but only a Blackcap, a Wren and a Great Reed Warbler were seen. Also a flock of Barnacle Geese were found on the field next to the bay and there were 2 different kinds of hybrid geese too. One was a hybrid between Canada and Barnacle and another some grey goose and Barnacle Goose. At night I heard a Grasshopper Warbler in Sammallampi.

On the 15th of June we ringed our only owl-nestling of the season. A Ural Owl mother was again extremely angry and attacking continuously but we managed to ring the youngster safely in a car.
At night I went to twitch a Baillion’s Crake in Ruokolahti Kotilampi. I met many local birders there as this was the first Baillion’s Crake of the area after the one we found in 2003.

Another lifer

On the 16th of June after work I drove to Varkaus Lehtoniemi where I had to wait for more than 3 hours that a female Black-headed Bunting arrived at one local birders feeder. Together with Harry Nyström we also twitched a Mandarin Duck in Könönpelto.

On the 18th of June at night we counted the night-singers again and found a Long-eared Owl, 4 Reed Warblers, a Great Reed Warbler, 6 Thrush Nightingales, 2 Corn Crakes, 2 Blyth’s Reed Warblers, 5 Golden Orioles, 8 Water Rails, 15 Spotted Crakes and now both male and female Little Crakes that I managed to record very well from the rowing boat.

To south South Karelia

On the 19th day I did a traditional night-trip to southern parts of South Karelia. First I drove to Joutseno where I found Corn Crakes, Blyth’s Reed Warblers and a River Warbler before I arrived at a traditional Turtle Dove place. I tried to find the doves for some hours but couldn’t find any. Only a Tawny Owl was seen. Then I continued to twitch a Booted Warbler that was singing very actively and I could get some good videos and photographs of it. I continued to Luumäki where I twitched a Corn Bunting in Heimala. The bird wasn’t very active so I didn’t get good pictures. Also an Ortolan Bunting was singing on the fields. In Huopainen I twitched the first Greenish Warbler as a year-tick even though the species was more common than ever. I just haven’t got time to go to forests. The rest of the day was spent together with Pekka Punnonen in Luumäki, Savitaipale and Lemi where we visited several places where I hadn’t been before. Nothing very good was found but we had fun. We still twitched a Brent Goose in Lappeenranta Askola before I drove back home.

On the 20th of June we had planned to go to forests but it started to rain too hard. Only good birds were a Reed Warbler in Kukonkanta and 2 Hawfinches in Muttelinmäki.

On the 21st of June at night I did a bike-trip around Siikalahti with some other birders that wanted to twitch Little Crakes. Both crakes were heard very well and also a Long-eared Owl and altogether 7 Blyth’s Reed Warblers were found.

Mid-summer trip

On the 24th day I finally managed to see 2 Nuthatches in Likolampi where they had stayed whole spring and summer again. It seems that these birds are trying to breed but it is possible that they could be different races and maybe that’s why there haven’t been any young birds in these 2 years they have stayed on the area?
After work we started a long way to north to Syöte where we were going to celebrate the mid-summer holiday together with my closest relatives. My brother Riku has a cottage there and we had rent another cottage too next to it so also Pirkka and his family and also my parents were there. But we of course decided to drive up there via Lumijoki where the 1st ever twitchable Gull-billed Tern had been seen during the week.
At 8 p.m. we were in Liminka-bay but because of there wasn’t any message about the tern for more than 10 hours we decided to drive to Liminka Virkkula and start birding there. We were just on the parking place when I got a message that the tern had been seen in Lumijoki Karvonlahti and it had flew towards a pasture where it had been seen on the day before.
After 10 minutes we were walking towards the pasture where were promisingly many Black-headed Gulls catching insects from the air. The air was full of insect and unfortunately they seemed to be the biting ones! After 10 minutes I found a Gull-billed Tern that flew towards us and then it was feeding insects for some 5 minutes over the pasture before it disappeared behind the forest and continued towards Sannanlahti. It was my 350th lifer in Finland! We were extremely lucky to see this bird this easily! There were several twitchers that had been trying to see it for more than 10 hours and some were there already on their third try!
We still waited the bird to come back for a half an hour but mainly because of the insects we soon continued first to Sannanlahti and then to Virkkula. We still saw some Black-tailed Godwits, a White-tailed Eagle, 2 Arctic Skuas, a Spotted Redshank, a Hen Harrier, 260 Greylag Geese and heard 2 Spotted Crakes before we continued out way to north just before the midnight. We were in Syöte at 2 a.m.

The next days were spent in Syöte together with altogether 14 Aalto. The weather was a bit rainy but we did some birding on the early mornings. The best birds were a family of Waxwings that were just o the garden of Riku’s cottage, Siberian Jay in Särkiperä, 3 Greenish Warbler in Vattukuru and 3 more in Aurinkomäki and 1 Red-flanked Bluetail in Maaselkä and 2 more in Taivalkoski Luokanvaara.

On Sunday the 27th of June we drove back south to Parikkala driving the eastern roads. We stopped in Ilomantsi Hattuvaara where a Nightingale started to sing at 11 p.m. This rare visitor was of course recorded – Nightingale – before we continued home to Parikkala where we were again at 2 a.m. On the way we saw a Tegnmalm’s Owl, a Short-eared Owl and a Ural Owl in North Karelia.

On the 29th day we had counts again. Cranes had 2 youngsters; a Wren, 2 Golden Orioles, a Reed Warbler and a White-backed Woodpecker were also observed. Even though there had been lots of migrating Common Crossbills in other parts of the country I had only my second flock in Parikkala.

On the last day of June we did night-singer counts and 6 Reed Warblers, a Great Reed Warbler, 4 Thrush Nightingales, 4 Water Rails and 13 Spotted Crakes were heard. Most of the birds seemed to be already quiet. Also Little Crakes had probably found each others and started to breed?

On the 1st of May I started to check our owl nest-boxes. Around Siikalahti I heard several Willow Warblers and together with Jari Kiljunen we continued to Melkoniemi, on the way we checked that at least one Ural Owl was incubating in a familiar nest-box. While checking some Pygmy Owl nest-boxes we accidentally found a Siberian Jay that we were going to try to find at least a kilometre further in same forest. While “jassi” was giving some food for a Siberian Jay, I recorded a Hazel Hen that was singing. A couple of flock of Waxwings and a Common Sandpiper were also seen. I still did duck-counts in Siikalahti and saw 15 Swallows, a House Martin and a Common Tern. In the afternoon we still checked some nest-boxes with Hanna. In Härskiinmutka we saw a migrating Short-eared Owl and in Särkisalmi a migrating 2nd c-y female Pallid Harrier very well!

On my birthday on the 2nd of May I started at 4 a.m. with counts in Siikalahti. After several years we were again mapping all the bird in the protected area. Jari and Anniina Kontiokorpi were couting the southern side of the bay and me and Hanna had the northern part. A couple of Pied Flycatchers, a Wood Warbler, a Yellow Wagtail, 3 Wrens and so on were found. In the afternoon we still saw 11 Barnacle Geese, a White-tailed Eagle, 2 Rough-legged Buzzards, a Red-throated Diver, and 9 Ruffs. But it was quieter than we expected so in the evening we continued with nest-boxes again.

A couple of next days I was still checking the nest-boxes, but the winter had been awful for owls so there was nothing else to be found. Only year-tick was a Redstart.

On the 6th of May “potu” Suojarinne came to us to do birding for some days. In siikalahti we saw some Sand Martins and in Saari we saw some bigger flocks of Bean and White-fronted Geese, 16 Barnacle Geese, a Whimbrel, rare 2nd c-y Lesser Black-backed Gull, Redshank, Spotted Redshank, Little Ringed Plover and a couple of Cuckoos. At night we did a night-singer count and heard 4 Bitterns, 3 Spotted Crakes, 6 Water Rails and a Jack Snipe.

On the 7th day I heard a couple of Wrynecks in Satumäki and at lunch-hour I was trying to see a Citrine Wagtail that “potu” and Johannes Hänninen had seen in Siikalahti, but I found only a Gadwall and a Bluethroat. In the afternoon we still saw a couple of Swifts but then we had to go to rest because of on the next day we had a traditional bird-tower competition.

Bird-tower competition

At night it was raining all the time and hard and it still continued in the morning. Anyway I went by bike to Siikalahti while Hanna and “potu” came by car. The rest of the team Matti Lötjönen and Ilpo Kuusisalo came also early and at 5 a.m. we were ready to start. We had to be on the second level of the tower because of the rain and it was also freezing cold wind. Not many birds were seen in the beginning but at 6 a.m. the rain stopped for a couple of minutes and some of us climbed up. And right then I heard a familiar call of a Citrine Wagtail and we saw it flying over us! Unfortunately not all of us saw it and soon it started to rain again.
We were all really freezing and one of us had to give up because of he felt sick. Soon after that the wader migration started. Mostly Wood Sandpipers, Spotted Redshanks and Ruffs but also some big flocks of Golden Plovers were migrating. At 9:20 Hanna surprisingly found a Citrine Wagtail again. It was hiding in a tiny reedy island with some Yellow Wagtails. So now we were really in good mood even though the rain was still heavy. Altogether we saw 1250 Wood Sandpipers, 220 Spotted Sandpipers, 400 Ruffs and 300 Golden Plovers but nothing better waders, just 3 Common Sandpipers and a Green Sandipiper – a flock of 14 Whimbrels disappeared behind the horizon before anyone else than I saw them.
Finally at 11 a.m. the rain stopped and we could climb up again. Some better birds were found like a Black Grouse, 2 Red-throated Divers, 2 Cuckoos, 2 Redstarts, a Swift, a Hobby, a Water Rail, 2 Common Terns, 2 Sand Martins, 5 House Martins, a Short-eared Owl, a Tree Pipit, a Wheatear, a Pied Flycatcher, a Gadwall and so on. And altogether we saw 88 species in 8 hours and we were 20th best tower in whole country and finally the best tower inland!
But another really good bird for the day was still to be found. Hanna and “potu” had already driven back home when I came by bike. I was just stopping on our back-yard when I found a Black Redstart jumping on the road just in front of our door! I called to Hanna and all they had to do to see the bird was to open the door! The bird stayed in our back-yard at least for a couple of hours and several birders came to twitch it.

On the 9th day several Sedge Warblers had arrived, already 70 Little Gulls, migrating Short-eared Owl, 2 Temminck’s Stints and an early Spotted Flycatcher were seen in Siikalahti. In the evening I still heard a Lesser Whitethroat and a Grey-headed Woodpecker while jogging in Kirkonkylä. On the 10th day 100 Long-tailed Ducks, 4 Common Scoters and 2 Velvet Scoters were found in Lake Simpele, in Härskiinmutka I found also a Black Tern that was in a flock of Little Gulls. But still better bird was an amazing early River Warbler that Matti found in Kirkonkylä. I really couldn’t believe it before I heard it by myself! There was not green on the trees or bushes at all but a River Warbler was already singing!

On the next day new birds were a Common Whitethroat and a Pallid/Montagu’s Harrier that was migrating too far over Lake Simpele to be identified.

On the 13th of May my brother Pirkka came from Kemijärvi to do some real birding! He arrived at 3 a.m. and as a welcome a Thrush Nightingale was singing on our back-yard. Pirkka went to sleep but an hour later I had to go to do counts to Siikalahti. Several Thrush Nightingales, a couple of Blackcaps, a Common Rosefinch, a Garden Warbler, a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker were the best birds. Even though the forecast had promised awful weather the weather stayed good so I continued with duck-counts. A Gadwall was seen again, a couple of Long-tailed Tits were making their nest, a very early Mars Warbler was singing and moving slowly from bush to bush towards north and a nest of a White-backed Woodpecker was also found.
Pirkka also woke up after good sleep and during the day we still saw a Honey Buzzard, 60 Common Crossbills and a Whimbrel. It was getting really hot and also green! In the evening we got a message that a Red-breasted Goose had been found in Saari Pohjanranta, of course we went to twitch it! At night we did a short night-trip and 2 Nightjars, 6 Water Rails, 2 Spotted Crakes and a strange locustella warbler were heard. Probably it was just a Grasshopper Warbler but it was singing very low. Some flocks of Common Scoters were migrating and we could hear them from the sky.

Short trip to Virolahti

On the 14th of May I had to be at work but before that I managed to see 9 Scaups in Härskiinmutka. After my work we decided to pack tents and other equipments to my car and leave towards Virolahti with Pirkka. An Icterine Warbler was singing on our back-yard when we left. In Rautjärvi Lamminkylä we stopped because of a Wood Lark and in Joutseno Konnunsuo we counted 1134 White-fronted, 340 Barnacle, 100 Bean, 5 Pink-footed and a Greylag Goose. In Lappeenranta Rasala we twitched a 2nd c-y female Red-footed Falcon and then we still had a short stop in Ylämaa Väkevänjärvi where a Greater Spotted Eagle had been seen but without luck.
After some shopping in Virojoki we continued to Virolahti Lakakallio where we found also “potu”. We started to watch for arctic-migration but first a couple of hours were quiet, just some ridiculous year-ticks were seen like Eiders, Caspian Terns, Oystercatchers and Arctic Terns. But soon arctic ducks started to show up in big flocks! About 5000 Velvet Scoters, 3000 Long-tailed Ducks and 2000 Common Scoters, 47 Bewick’s Swans and 20 Scaups were seen. It must have been one of the best Velvet Scoter migrations ever, 1400 birds were counted in one flock! When sun set down the migration was still going on strong and we could hear the calls of the birds in the tent.

On the 15th of May we woke up at 3 a.m. because of some Black Grouses came to display just some metres from our tent! I managed to get a short but amazing Black Grouse recording before they left. At 4 a.m. I started to count migration again. The first hour was quiet but when the other birders came the migration was already pretty strong. At 5.45 a.m. we got an sms that in Hamina Vepsu a Great Northern Diver was coming towards us and at 5:54 “potu” found it flying agains a Kauholmi Iceland, much lower than other divers. Luckily we managed to see it well even though it was pretty far. Only a half an hour later we got an sms about a White-billed Diver and at 6:29 I found it flying similarly against Kauholmi! What a great comparison to Great Northern Diver! Even though only 136 Black-throated and 15 Red-throated Divers were seen during the morning, still one big diver was seen, but it flew against the sky so we couldn’t see anything else than it was huge! It was identified as a Great Northern in one place and as a White-billed Diver in a couple of places but later I saw pictures of this bird and it was another Great Northen Diver! Other migration wasn’t hat good but 175 Bewick’s Swans, 2 Arctic Skuas, a Little Ringed Plover, 508 Barnacle, 70 White-fronted, 23 Bean, 2 Greylag and 645 unidentified geese were counted.
During the day we visited Hurppu and Kurkela but nothing interesting were seen before we drove back to Parikkala.

Again to Laukaa

At home we just packed Pirkka’s car and continued a long drive to Laukaa where we were at 6 p.m. Luckily there were some local birders going to try to catch a Wilson’s Snipe and as it seemed that we were the most experienced ringers there, our help was welcome. We put up the mist-nets and soon the tape was playing. But soon we realized that nothing was going to happen and so we just started to wait that the snipe starts to display so we can locate it. We were waiting and waiting and finally I gave up and went to sleep. When I woke up several hours later at 11 p.m. there was still no observation of the snipe. Most of the locals had given up too and soon the ringer also packed everything and left. Not much after that I heard something calling on the other end of the lake than the snipe had always been found and I started to walk closer. Also other birders followed me and there it was calling! Soon Wilson’s Snipe jumped to the sky and it started to display and we could hear its weird Tengmalm’s Owl sound coming from its tail-feathers. After some minutes it landed again to the wrong end of the lake, called some series and stopped. We were happy to go to sleep to our cars and even though we woke up every hour we could hear the snipe displaying only one more time at 00.30 a.m. And after all it was the last time the bird was ever heard!

At 4 a.m. we continued to Lapinjärvi were we found a male Ring-necked Duck easily. Soon we started our long ways towards homes. When I finally arrived at Parikkala I twitched a White Stork in Rautalahti and managed to get some good pictures too. We still went to Siikalahti with Hanna where a Black Kite, an Icterine Warbler and some flocks of geese were seen before I felt too tired and had to get some sleep. In the evening I made a short trip to Saari where 4 Ortolan Buntings were found in Akanvaara Tetrisuo. With Hanna we still went to listen to displaying Great Snipes to Kullinsuo – at least 2 birds were heard! Common Scoters were calling from the sky all the time!

Rarities

On the 18th of May I got an interesting phone-call, Esa Sojamo and Esko Veijalainen had just seen a White-winged Black Tern flying over them towards Siikalahti bird-tower. I drove there as fast as I could and soon were in the tower where Esa was already. It didn’t look good as there were almost no birds at all flying, but soon Esa found the tern flying high against the sky and catching insects. I watched this rarity for some time and called if Hanna was already at home and she was. So I drove to pick her up and soon we were watching this bird together while a Golden Oriole was singing.

On the next night we did night-singer counts again. After a week or so extremely hot weather and eastern winds we expected to find something better and a female Little Crake was found! Other new birds for the year were a Corn Crake, a Blyth’s Reed Warbler.

On the next days I had to suffer at work as the Barnacle Geese were migrating in a beautiful weather. They migrated very high and in wide area but anyway… Even worse news came when the first Black Vulture for Finland was found and when it was seen again on the next day it seemed clear that it’d follow the southern coast towards east like many big raptors do, and I had to be at work until 6 p.m. On this second day the bird managed to fly until Loviisa, so I still had some hope as the next day was a Friday when I have shorter day.

Amazing twitch and arctica

On the Friday 21st of May I decided to take my overtime work hours and then I was able to end my day at 11 a.m. But the day was again extremely hot so the bird rose up to the sky already at 10.15 in Loviisa and it had only short way left to Russia! After all I managed to leave at 10.30 and started my way towards the south-easternmost place of Finland Virolahti Vaalimaa. I had planned to go there for the weekend anyway so it was really important to manage to get there early – I could never watch the other birders smiling faces whole weekend!
I was in Imatra when the bird was passing Pyhtää and in Lappeenranta when it was already passing Hamina! I almost gave up, but something made me to continue. I called to “potu” who had missed the bird in Ruotsinpyhtää and was also driving towards Vaalimaa and once he was there I called several times more… When I was in Ylämaa and the bird still wasn’t in Virolahti I started to worry if the bird had made a similar circle around Kotka than it had made around Helsinki and it was flying much more north now. Anyway I decided to continue to Vaalimaa because I knew there were plenty of birders and in Ylämaa there were maybe none! 20 more kilometres – no news, only 7 to go and still nothing… Finally I parked to Eastgate in Vaalimaa where about 60 birders were gathered, but only maybe 10 of them were really working and scanning the sky. After a couple of minutes we got wonderful news, the bird was still coming towards us but very high! We checked maps and knew that the bird would pass us from northern side and started to work as hard as we could! Soon some birders behind us seemed to have found something and I tried to find out what but couldn’t find anything. And right after that a birder in front of us found something and shouted that there was now something big extremely high on the sky. I ran next to him and checked the direction where he was looking with his binoculars and found immediately an eagle flying fast towards east. I ran back to my scope and found the bird right away and there it was – a Black Vulture! It was very high and many birders could find it only with binos but not with scope. So after I had watched it for some 20 seconds and it had passed us and was already flying away from us I gave many birders to look at the bird with my scope. The bird was visible about 15 minutes but still at least some never managed to find it before it was lost to Russian sky. Together with “potu” and “mape Lund we went to celebrate this amazing lifer and eat well to Rajahovi like any other birders.
After some hours sleep in cars in Lakakallio we started the evening migration watching. 2 Arctic Skuas, 36 Velvet Scoters, 60 Dunlins, 7 Brent Geese and at least 20 000 Common Scoter and 80 000 Long-tailed Ducks were seen. The migration was getting stronger towards the night and in last 30 minutes when we still had some light we counted 5000 Barnacle Geese, altogether 15 000 were seen. At night we still went to record a Moorhen that was calling desperately in Hurppu before we went to sleep while thousands of Long-tailed Ducks and Common Scoters were still migration over us.

On the 22nd of May I woke up early again and at 3:45 a.m. started to count migration. In next 5 hours 11 887 Barnacle, 1350 unidentified, 15 anser (grey), 2 Brent Geese, 458 Black-throated, 15 Red-throated and 205 unidentified divers were seen but then the migration suddenly stopped. I went to check Vilkkiläntura and Leerviikki and found a Red-breasted Flycatcher, a couple of Great Reed Warblers, a Ringed Plover and a Golden Oriole before we met with “potu” and “mape” in Hamina Kirkkojärvi where we tried to see raptors for some hours but saw only a pale “börringe” Common Buzzard. In Lupinlahti we heard a Reed Warbler and after a short sleep we were watching migration again in Lakakallio. 11 Grey Plovers, 246 Brent Geese, a Short-eared Owl, 3 Grey Herons, 15 000 Long-tailed Ducks and 20 000 Common Scoters were seen.

On the 23rd day we went to Hurppu to see arctic migration. I started already at 4:15 a.m. even though it was raining. But it was worthy because of some flocks of Scaups were seen already then. In 5 hours we counted altogether 729 Scaups and at least 200 similar looking birds were migrating too far to identify. Other birds were a couple of Gadwalls, 62 Brent Geese, 1804 Barnacle Geese, 5 Arctic Skuas and 3 Red-necked Phalaropes. During the day we waited for raptors in Kurkela but only 3 White-tailed Eagles, 2 Arctic Skuas and a Golden Oriole were seen. Pretty early I decided to drive back home. I slept a couple of hours and in the late evening we drove with Hanna north to Tohmajärvi Tammalahti where we recorded Baillion’s Crake. I got really good recordings where on the background are a Black-throated Diver, Bean Geese, Barnacle Geese, a Snipe, a Sedge Warbler and a Blyth’s Reed Warbler. We were back at home at 1:30 a.m.

To Oulu

On the 25th of May I drove to Oulu. On the way I saw a Nutcracker in Punkaharju but nothing else. Next a couple of days I was checking some places near Oulu as we were preparing to PPLY 25 hours bird-race. Only interesting birds were some Little Terns, Gadwalls, Caspian Terns, a couple of Scaups, Dunlins and then twitched Ictrine Warbler and cyanecula (white-spotted) Bluethroat. On the 2nd evening we checked some owl nest-boxes with Pentti Hukkanen and Franz Robiller and got 3 owl-species and also a Goshawk nest. On the 28th day we still checked a couple of places with Antti Vierimaa but couldn’t find anything better. In the evening we planned the routes and schedule with Antti and Harry Nyström and also Pirkka came early enough to check the plan. So everything was ready for the race!

On the 29th of May we started the race in Oulu Pateniemi where we saw good diver migration. About 200 divers, mostly Black-throated were counted but we started the race when a flock of 4 Broad-billed Sandpipers were passing us at 10:55 a.m. Then we looked at some local birds like a Red-necked Grebe, Common Scoter, Velvet Scoters, Long-tailed Ducks, a Lesser Black-backed Gull and heard a Pheasant. Also an Arctic Skua was seen before we continued to Taskila where we saw 2 Turnstones easily and then to Toppila where Black Redtstart was found after some searching. We drove through the city to Oritkari where we surprisingly found 2 Grey Partridges. In Kiviniemi bird-tower we saw a Cormorant, a Common Whitethroat, Little Terns, and a surprise Pink-footed Goose. In Oulunsalo Vihiluoto we saw a Gadwall and in Kempele Teppola heard a Corn Crake and saw Black-tailed Godwits, a Green Sandpiper and Stock Doves but Bluethroat was hiding too well.
In Iinatti we found a Little Ringed Plover and heard a Chiffchaff and in Turkansaari we had a Hen Harrier and a Hazel Hen but then it started to rain. So we decided to continue to check the nests and in next a couple of hours we saw adult or heard youngsters of Ural Owl, Tengmalms Owl, Pygmy Owl, Goshawk and also Treecreeper. But unfortunately no surprises were found even though we drove quite a lot, only some Ortolan Buntings and our only Mistle Thrush.
It was already late evening when we found a Collared Dove in Liminka and continued to Virkkula bird-tower where 2 White-tailed Eagles, a Short-eared Owl, Coots, Garganeys and a Woodcock were found. In Lumijoki Sannanlahti our only new species was a Barnacle Goose, also 2 Arctic Skuas were seen. In Siikajoki Alhonmäki we found Wood Larks easily but then a thick fog came and the visibility was less than 100 metres! We drove to Tauvo Munahieta anyway but the visibility was even much worse! So we walked a lot and couldn’t find anything else than some Broad-billed Sandpipers and only one new species a Shelduck.
So next we decided to drive back to Lumijoki to twitch a River Warbler before we continued to Raahe where we couldn’t find an Eagle Owl from the rubbish tip, but in Aittalahti we heard a Thrush Nightingale, a Spotted Crake and a Bittern. In Saloinen we heard another Corn Crake but otherwise we couldn’t find anything at all. In Pyhäjoki Heinikarinlahti and Hietakarinlahti we heard 3 more Spotted Crakes. Because of the thick fog we decided to give up with morning seawatching and drove to Siikajoki and tried to find some singers and waders. But even though we checked many places we couldn’t find anything new before in Karinkanta where 2 Starlings were seen. In Savilahti a flock of Smews and again 2 Arctic Skuas were found and in Lumijoki Varjakka we had a Sparrowhawk. But even though we really tried we couldn’t find any waders and the last hour we tried desperately to find any raptors in Siikajoki Alhonmäki without success.
After all we managed to see 139 species and we were in the middle positions of the race which is not normal for us. In the afternoon and evening I drove back home to Parikkala.

On the 1st of April I saw some new birds for the year like Reed Bunting, Chaffinch, Meadow Pipit and Mistle Thrush, also 2 White-tailed Eagles and a Golden Eagle, 3 Hawfinches and 70 Snow Bunting were seen in Siikalahti.

On the 2nd day we had the wilderness bird race again. Now our area was really bad and also roads were in so bad shape that we almost gave up right away. Anyway we had some nice birds like Eagle Owl, Ural Owl, Capercaillie, Hazel Hens, Black Grouses, Black Woodpeckers, Grey-headed Woodpeckers, White-backed Woodpecker, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Dippers, Redwings, White Wagtails and a Dunnock. In the evening in Siikalahti we saw a White-tailed Eagle and a Marsh Harrier.

On the 3rd day we visited Lappeenranta Joutseno Konnunsuo with Ilkka Jarva and saw 10 Canada Geese, 4 Black-headed Gulls, 5 Kestrels, a Great Grey Shrike, a Merlin, 2 Cranes and a Stock Dove and so on. In Imatra I saw a Lesser Black-backed Gull and on the next day I twitched a White Stork there.

On the 5th of April we went to try to see a lek of Capercaillies. We did hear some calls but never saw the birds, but 2 Pygmy Owl, a Grey-headed Woodpecker and several Hazel Hens were calling. Also a Woodcock was seen. We continued by bike to Siikalahti where a Robin, a White-tailed Eagle, 2 Merlins, a Hen Harrier, a Crane, 140 Lapwings, a Lesser Black-backed, a Great Black-backed and a Common Gull, 320 Wood Pigeons, 2 Stock Doves, a Linnet, an Arctic Redpoll, 2 Hawfinches, 2 Common Crossbills, 1200 Chaffinches, a Lapland Bunting, thrushes and so one were seen. Even though there was still lot of snow on the ground it was really a spring!

Parikkala-tick

On the next day the bird of the day was a Green Sandpiper, but on the 7th there was something much better! Mikko Pöllänen found a southern Stonechat in Koitsanlahti and we managed to twitch it and get some pictures. It was our first of this race in Finland and my bird-species number 250 in Parikkala! I went to see the Stonechat also on the next morning and managed to get better pictures. In Siikalahti a White-tailed Eagle was migrating and in the evening I went once more to see the Stonechat together with “potu” Suojarinne and Harry Nyström. We continue also to Rautjärvi Änkilä where we managed to twitch a nice male Black Redstart that Jouko Poutanen had found.

On the 9th day the Stonechat wasn’t found anymore but I managed to see a Wood Lark and a Stock Dove and hear a Black and a Grey-headed Woodpecker competing which one had most powerful call – black won. In Siikalahti I saw 5 Bean Geese, heard a Canada Goose, 7 Coots were already swimming in small pen water area and Mallard were on the field that had quite a lot of water.

On the 10th a Lapland Bunting, a Song Thrush, 4 White-tailed Eagles, a Golden Plover, 3 Wigeons, 4 Common Snipes, 2 Ospreys and a Bittern were observed in Siikalahti. And on the 11th day 103 Bean Geese, 18 White-fronted Geese, a Smew, a Great Black-backed Gull, 4 White-tailed Eagles, 5 Marsh Harriers, a Curlew and a Brambling were seen. The snow had already melted and there was already a bigger open water area. On the next day only 3 Rooks were seen.

More ticks

On the 13th day “konza” Kontiokorpi found a Little Grebe in Siikalahti and it was a new tick for me not only to Siikalahti but also to Parikkala! In the afternoon we left to Helsinki with Sampsa Cairenius where we managed to twitch a crazy early Subalpine Warbler! A new lifer! Other birds seen in surprisingly frozen Viikki were 5 Grey Herons, 11 Great Crested Grebes, 33 Barnacle Geese, 2 Pheasants and 2 Black Redstarts which seems to be more common than ever!
I was back in Parikkala after midnight but I decided to visit Siikalahti where I saw an Eagle Owl perched on a bird-tower! Only new year-tick of the day was a Pintail.

On the 15th some Pochards had arrives, 2 more White-tailed Eagles were migrating like 3 Rough-legged Buzzards too, also a Rook, 100 Meadow Pipits and a good one – a Shore Lark were seen.

Eagles

On the 17th day I participated in an Eco-bird race. I drove by bike to Melkoniemi forest where I really worked hard to find a good place or bird to start and after 3 hours I decided to start with a Siberian Jay. Luckily right then a Capercaillie flew over me. Hazel Hens, Common Crossbills and a Parrot Crossbills were seen too. Then I biked to Kangaskylä where only a Pheasant was heard and then continued to Siikalahti where I spent almost the rest of the race – about 7 hours – and it was really worthy! A Wood Lark, 320 Bean Geese, 37 White-fronted Geese, a Greenshank, Green Sandpipers, a Bittern and an early Water Rail were observed soon. The first good raptor was a White-tailed Eagle, but soon a 2nd c-y Greater Spotted Eagle came from NE and landed to the ice in the middle of the bay. It took a fish from a gull and moved to the reed-bed to eat. Soon another eagle was found from the sky and surprisingly it was a sub-adult Golden Eagle. Altogether I saw 12 species of raptors: other good ones were a Hen Harrier, a Goshawk, a Merlin and 12 Rough-legged Buzzards. Other good birds were a Grey-headed Woodpecker, 2 Woodcocks and a Linnet. I still biked around the bay to Kangaskylä but nothing else was found. After all I won the race with 76 species.

On the 18th day I did a duck-count and better birds were 2 Canada Geese, 4 Tufted Ducks, 2 Great Crested Grebes, a Redshank and a Chiffchaff. There were much less duck than normally in Siikalahti. On the 19th day one more White-tailed Eagle and another Greater Spotted Eagle, this time a 3rd c-y bird were seen. Again the spotted eagle landed to the bay and we managed to see it very close but couldn’t get any really good pictures because of it soon flew to the other side of bay. In the afternoon we saw 2 Bewick’s Swans in Kontiolampi.

On the next morning a Greater Spotted Eagle was still in Siikalahti. Also an early Yellow Wagtail, 8 Canada Geese and a White-tailed Eagle were seen. I also found a couple of Long-tailed Tits building a nest – many of them didn’t survive from the cold winter.

First for Finland

On the 21st day I saw 2 Redshanks in Siikalahti and on the 22nd a Red-breasted Merganser in Särkisalmi and a Northern Wheatear in Härskiinmutka. But in the evening there was something weird happening in Laukaa! There had been a Snipe calling like a Tengmalm’s Owl for 2 summers already in Vihtasilta, but only now a real birder Tero Linjama heard it and took recordings. He took somograms from the voice and found out that it was similar than Wilson’s Snipes!
Still the snipe hadn’t been seen but in the evening of 23rd of April we drove to Mikkeli where we first twitched a Black Redstart and surprisingly found it had got a female, before continued with “potu” Suojarinne and “mape” Lund to Laukaa. We were there at 7.45 p.m. and when we got out from my car the bird was calling first time! There were some 30 twitchers and soon we found the bird flying on the ground and I immediately managed to get to my scope and even though it was flying fast it really looked good! Soon the snipe landed but luckily just in front of Petteri Mäkelä and some other twitchers that were in different part of a small bay that we were. Petteri ran to us and soon we were seeing this bird on the ground just some 20 metres from us! I managed to get some pictures and videos of the bird before it slowly walked in to the reed-bed and disappeared.
After an hour a snipe was found from the reed-bed and a bigger and bigger number of twitchers were looking at it but it wasn’t showing well, just a head or part of a back was visible. And later I found out that there were actually several snipes very close to each others so we really had no idea which one was the right bird. Luckily the bird or 2 birds started to call soon and we could hear some very different calls than Common Snipes. And at 9.45 p.m. the bird finally started to display again so everyone could hear it well!
Almost right away many of those maybe 200 twitchers started to leave and car-engines were running and doors slamming – and I really desperately wanted to get good recordings of the display! The bird soon landed to another reed-bed where I managed to get short recording of its call but only after 45 minutes wait it started to display again and luckily most of the twitchers had left so it was quiet enough to get some quality recordings! At 11 p.m. we were on our way back home.

At home we were at 3 a.m. on the 24th of April. And I had promised to send my pictures to media and I also put my pictures, video and recordings to my home-pages. So I had no time to sleep at all before we had to go to Siikalahti to start a local migration-watch day at 5 a.m. The weather was again horrible; it was cold, windy and even snowing a while. Anyway we saw a Black-tailed Godwit, 59 Curlews, 3 Whimbrels, a Great Grey Shrike, a Black-throated Diver and a Hobby before I had to stop at 12 a.m. and go to sleep. Altogether 65 species were seen from the Siikalahti bird-tower.

On the 25th of April I counted the ducks again. Only good bird was a Greylag Goose. Later we checked all the best places in N-Parikkala but only a Great Grey Shrike in Akanvaara Tetrisuo and 400 Teals, 280 Bean Geese and 50 White-fronted Geese in Suurenjärvenliete were seen.

Rubber-duck

On the 26th we did first a short night-trip with Ilkka Jarva and in early morning went to Siikalahti where 6 Slavonian Grebes and 5 migrating Cormorants were seen.
In the evening we went to twitch a Mandarin Duck in Ruokolahti Kuokkalampi with “jamppa” Pirhonen. After 1.5 hours waiting the bird finally showed up. We saw this stunning male in flight too. On the 27th the weather was windy but the wind was from SW so lots of new migrants were coming. New year-ticks were a Little Gull and a Wood Sandpiper.

On the next day the wind was again from north and very cold. During my lunch-hour I visited first Siikalahti where a Garganey was found and then continued to Särkisalmi. On the way I saw a raptor flying over main road and right away I realized this was something better – and when I managed to drive closer it was easy to identify as a Black Kite! I drove under it and parked to a bus-stop and managed to see it very well when it was soaring and getting higher before it continued to NNE.

On the 29th day there were already several Red-necked Grebes around Lake Simpele. In Siikalahti I saw the first Whinchat of the spring and a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker was calling but the bird of the day was a Feral Pigeon because of it’s very rarely seen in Siikalahti!

On the last day of May we drove to Lappeenranta to buy some clothes and other equipments for the counts that we begin in Siikalahti. On the way we found a Wood Lark in Rautjärvi and on the way back we stopped in Konnunsuo where more than 800 White-fronted Geese, only 30 Bean Geese and 30 Barnacle Geese were counted. Also 2 Tree Pipits were heard. In the evening I still made a short trip to Siikalahti by bike with Matti Lötjönen. A Jack Snipe was heard!

In the beginning of the March it was still hard winter. It was snowing more and more and temperature was “minus too much” in many days. I wasn’t birding very much because of it was just impossible to find anything new. I had to drive to Lappeenranta for several times because of work so I saw some birds on the way.

On the 3rf of March a couple of White-backed Woodpeckers were drumming in Siikalahti and a Nuthatch was still visiting a feeder in Likolampi. In Kokkolanjoki I saw a Dipper and a Whooper Swan and in Toikansuo a Goshawk.

On the 5th day I saw a Great Grey Shrike in Moskuunniemi and a Fieldfare flying over our house. In Joukionsalmi 4 Feral Pigeons were drinking from the small open water area and somewhere in Rautjärvi I saw a Black Woodpecker.

On the 7th day a Three-toed Woodpecker was calling in Siikalahti but it disappeared surprisingly. A Black woodpecker was seen in Koitsanlahdenkangas. On the 8th day a Fieldfare was flying over Kokkolanjoki and a Twite was finally found in Toikansuo. It was singing with Greenfinches.

On the 9th day I saw a Mute Swan, a Canada Goose and a Cormorant in Vuoksi and a Smew with Goosanders in Lappeenranta Luukkaansalmi. In Kangaskylä I saw a surprise when a Tawny Owl flew in front of my car.

On the 10th day I saw a couple of White-backed Woodpeckers and a Treecreeper in Siikalahti and on the 12th day 2 Great Grey Shriker and the first clearly migrating Hooded Crow. On the 13th day I saw 3 Herring Gulls in Vuoksi and a Pygmy Owl in Mikkeli while I was in a bus to an ice-hockey game.

On the 15th day I saw a Goosander and a Goldeneye in Kokkolanjoki, a male Smew in Vuoksi and the same female with more Goosanders in Luukkaansalmi. Also a Goshawk was seen there. On the 20th day a Dipper was in Joukionsalmi and on the 21st a Mute Swan and now 266 Herring Gulls in Vuoksi.

On the 22nd of March I heard a Whooper Swan calling in Siikalahti but still nothing was seen migrating. On the 23rd day I found a nice surprise, a Great Grey Owl in Tiviä. It is always an amazing bird! Unfortunately I had only a couple of minutes before I had to get back to work so I took only a couple of pictures and a short video with my pocket-camera. Also 7 Black Grouses were seen. On the 24th day I saw a Goshawk and 25th a migrating adult White-tailed Eagle. After a work I went to see Siberian Jays and on the same forest I managed to find also Crested and Willow Tits, Jays, a Pygmy Owl and a Three-toed Woodpecker.

On the 26th of March it finally started to happen! In Siikalahti I saw a local adult White-tailed Eagle that left towards Ladoga and another migrating north. 5 Skylarks, 16 Lapwings, 5 Common Buzzards, 3 Herring Gulls, a Snow Bunting, a Kestrel, 5 Rooks and a Fieldfare were migrating too. Local birds were a Goshawk, Great Grey Shrike and a Starling. It seemed that the spring was coming! But on the 27th day we biked to Siikalahti and watched for migration for 8 hours in a perfect weather, but a Common Buzzard was flying South, both a Lapwing and a Snow Bunting were turning to South, 7 Herring Gulls were flying here and there. Only 2 Siskins and 2 Blackbirds were going north and 2 Common Crossbills north-east. Local birds were a Common Buzzard, 2 Starlings, 2 White-backed Woodpeckers, a Black Woodpecker, a Grey-headed Woodpecker and a Great Grey Shrike. In the evening 2 Whooper Swans were seen in Särkisalmi.

On the next days it was raining. The snow was melting fast but the migration was stopped. On the 29th day 11 Lapwings landed to Siikalahti. Also 2 local Common Buzzards and a migrating Blackbird were seen. A couple of Whooper Swans were calling in Kirkkoranta so we could hear them to our home.

On the last day of March I was birding in Siikalahti both on the lunch-our and after work. The migration was still quiet but 50 Lapwings, 2 Skylarks, a Blackbird, a Wood Pigeon, 60 Snow Buntings, a Goosander, some Common Buzzards and adult White-tailed and a younger Golden Eagle were seen. Local birds were a Rook, a Great Grey Shrike, a Goshawk and Black Grouses, White-backed and a Grey-headed Woodpecker were calling. But in the afternoon it started to rain and came very cold. So the migration hadn’t really started yet!