Lifer twitch
On the 13th of February I visited Siberian Jay forest but most of the time was lost when I had to push one local birder’s car back to the road from the deep snow where it was stuck. He had been trying to get back to the road for 3 hours so luckily I got there. I managed to hear a drumming Black Woodpecker and calling Grey-headed Woodpecker before I had to hurry back to work.
After my work I left driving towards South. I headed to Heinola where I twitched a Shoveler in Tommola. Also 7 Whooper Swans were seen but I couldn’t find a Little Grebe that had been staying on the same place. In the evening I arrived at Kirkkonummi.
On the 14th of February I woke up early and at 7 a.m. Tom Nordblad picked me up. Jari Laitasalo and Pasi Pirinen were also in the car and we headed towards west. It was 170 kilometers drive but it went quickly. Just before 9 a.m. we arrived at Masku Laulainen and there were already plenty of twitchers in a group along the road. When we walked to them, we could easily see a Calandra Lark that was feeding along the road about 70 meters from us. This 12th Calandra Lark for Finland had been staying in this very same place for some days already. There was some traffic but the bird didn’t move much. When a bigger truck came it once flew a little bit to the snowy road-side. After about 20 minutes a an came walking a long the road and then the bird moved to the field and we couldn’t see it anymore. After 15 minutes waiting we decided start a long way back.
We stopped in Salo Moisio where we found a flock of 13 Collared Doves after some searching. Also a lonely Gold Finch was seen. In Lohja we still saw a Great Grey Shrike before we were back in Kirkkonummi.
It was still early afternoon so after U had eaten, I left birding to Kirkkonummi Porkkala. I watched to the open sea for a couple of hours but all I saw were 110 Long-tailed ducks, Herring Gulls, 9 Mute Swans, a Goldeneye, 4 Great Black-backed Gulls and a flock of 3 Velvet Scoters. I still visited Saltfjärden and in the evening we did a 2.5 hours owl-listening trip with my father but nothing was seen or heard.
On the 15th of February I left early to Hanko and when the sun was rising I was in Gåsörsbukten. Night had been quite cold so I didn’t really try to find a Wood Lark that had been there but continued to Tallholmarna. But there was very bad haze on the sea so I saw only some flocks of Long-tailed Ducks, local Goldeneyes and Herring Gulls with some Great Black-backed Gulls. A lonely White-tailed Eagle was perched on a distant rock. Then I continued to Drottningsholm where I visited a tower. While I was wondering why on Earth there was a tower, I noticed a Great Grey Shrike perching on the closest tree. It looked very pale! With binoculars I could also see that the mask was very weak and the base of the bill was pink. I ran to get my scope and managed to get some pictures and videos before the bird flushed and flew to the sea towards the closest islands. I was very confused as I knew that it didn’t have big enough white area on its wing for pallidirostris.
So I had no idea what it could have been. After I had seen my pictures and videos from the screen, I was still as confused. Maybe it was more like a sibiricus with brownish head but then the bird had no scaly markings at all. Hopefully someone can find it and watch and photograph it more than I could.
In harbor I saw only 2 Common of the day before I continued to Gåsörsbukten where I managed to find the Wood Lark after some searching. In Vedagrundet I counted 43 Mute Swans and 2 Whooper Swans and with Goldeneyes there were 12 Scaups and a Tufted Duck. In Svanvik a Common Buzzard was seen in flight and 2 White-tailed Eagles were also seen. The haze was still very bad so I decided to drive back to Kirkkonummi. On the way I saw still one more White-tailed Eagle in Inkoo.
In the afternoon we visited my grandmother in Helsinki with my father. On the way we stopped in Jätkäsaari where we found a flock of 21 Linnets and a Twite. After 1 hour discussing with my grandmother it was time to start driving back to Parikkala.
J.A.