First of January in Helsinki area
When the year changed we had been sleeping for hours already. At 3:15 a.m. we woke up and a half an hour later I saw the first bird of the year when I opened our door – a Jackdaw had been sleeping under the roof. Soon we started driving towards south. At 7 a.m. we picked up Markus Keskitalo in Porvoo and soon continued driving.
At 8:30 a.m. we parked to Kirkkonummi Porkkala and soon were walking along a muddy and slippery path towards the sea. Just before Pampskatan rock we hearda Treecreeper and a Goldcrest. On the rock we met may other early first of January tickers that were already watching towards the dark sea. The sun hadn’t rose yet so there was still almost nothing to see. Some Common Gulls and a couple of Herring Gulls were seen but nothing else. After half an hour seawatching there hadn’t been anything new but then the first Kittiwake arrived! That was the bird everyone had been waiting for! And after some time (when the craziest tickers had already left towards their next targets) the second bird arrived. Soon these birds were flying on the shore with some Common Gulls so Hanna went to take some pictures. When Hanna came back we still hadn’t seen almost anything on the sea, just 4 Goldeneyes, a Long-tailed duck and a couple of Ravens. So we decided to leave too.
While we were walking back to our car we saw flocks of 8 Waxwings and 6 Long-tailed Tits and heard the first Great Tit of the year.
When we were driving along the curvy road we saw 2 Black Woodpeckers chasing each others over the road. In Sunds we saw a Hawk Owl perched on the wire and there we also saw the first Blue Tit and I heard a Coal Tit singing. In Månviken we saw a flock of Rock Pigeons and in Friggesby a Great Grey Shrike and the first Magpies. Then on the next field we found a rare mammal-tick – a big male Fallow Deer! In Saltfjärden we saw a big flock of Hooded Crows, some flocks of Yellowhammers and a flock of 6 Starlings.
Soon we were heading towards Vitträsk and on the way we saw a Common Buzzard and Greenfinches in Masala. In Vitträsk we soon found a flock of Goosanders with 2 Great Crested Grebes, some Whooper Swans and another flock of Goosanders with 4 Smews, a Blackbird was heard. But the bird we were mostly searching was missing, but soon we heard it was on the next bay. We drove there and there was a Red-necked Grebe swimming alone in the middle of the bay. In a flock of Herring Gulls there were also some Great Black-backed Gulls too.
Soon we continued to search a Hen Harrier that had been seen on the previous day but we saw only another Black Woodpecker on the way. Then we went to Espoo Finno to twitch a Wren but it wasn’t found either. Then we continued to Helsinki Lauttasaari where we missed 2 Wigeons that had left the place where they had been 30 minutes earlier. But we saw 200 Goldeneyes, 100 Long-tailed Ducks, some Mute Swans, a Sparrowhawk, a small flock of Siskins and 2 Common Eiders. After some seawatching we continued to another part of Lauttasaari where we managed to find a flock of 5 Wood Pigeons perched on one roof. After we had seen the first House Sparrows of the year we continued towards Arabianranta.
In Arabianranta we walked a long way but finally found a lonely Barnacle Goose that was still surviving there. Then we walked a long way to the another side of the bay where we twitched 2 Common Teals. And after one more long walk we were back in our car. We still had planned to twitch a Wigeon but it was so far that we decided to start driving towards home. After all we should have gone to twitch the Wigeon as we soon heard that it had still been there…
We dropped Markus to Porvoo and after a long drive we still stopped in Imatra where we checked a place where a Great White Egret had been seen in the afternoon but of course we didn’t see it – it was sleeping somewhere. But we still saw a Canada Goose in keskusliikenneasema before continued to Parikkala. We still tried to twitch one of our own Ural Owls but couldn’t find it. After a long day we were finally at home at 9 p.m. Anyway we had seen 42 species whis 2 of them had been new month-ticks and 5 first of January ticks for me!
J.A.