Wilderness-rally
On the 31st of March we had a traditional Wilderness rally again. We woke up at 1:45 a.m. and a half an hour later we picked up Matti Lötjönen and started to drive north towards out area in the most northern part of Parikkala in Uukuniemi. At 3 a.m. we crossed the border of out area and started to try to find some owls. We were driving a lot and stopping many times in a freezing -15 degrees weather but it was a perfect weather otherwise, no wind at all. But maybe it was too cold, we heard only one distant Eagle Owl.
The first bird of the morning was a singing Treecreeper and it was really early – it was still almost dark. In Jyrkilä area we found a Black Woodpecker and a couple of Black Grouses and soon we heard a couple of lekking Black Grouses more. After some more common species we continued to a bird-lake where we had never been before and found a couple of White-backed Woodpeckers and a Winter Wren. A couple of Whooper Swans flew over us and another Treecreeper was found too. Soon also a Goldcrest and a Crested Tit were found.
We continued towards northern parts of our area and in Niukkala we saw 14 Lapwings, 3 Starlings and only House Sparrows on our area, in Kirkonkylä we saw 2 Blackbirds, in Sirkee we found an Arctic Redpoll in a small flock of Redpolls and in Värtsi we found a Snow Bunting which was in a snowy field together with a Linnet. Then we had another surprise when we found another couple of White-backed Woodpeckers, which we later heard was a completely new place! And soon we had one more surprise when we found a Dipper from a small ditch.
It was quiet in Lammitaus but a Grey-headed Woodpecker was nice anyway. Then Hanna and Matti dropped me to Kumpu view-tower where I tried for more than an hour to see migrating raptors, but the weather had changed – it was now a freezing north-western wind! So I saw only Ravens and a Sparrowhawk and 3 migrating Chaffinches. Matti and Hanna weren’t lucky either so after all we spent the rest of the rally by driving roads around without any good birds.
At 4 p.m. we were already in Mikkolanniemi where all teams came soon. After a dinner we counted the results and the winner team was Juha-Matti and Arttu Valonen and Ari Parviainen. They had been skiing 4 hours in Melkoniemi forests and they had seen a lot – for example 5 Siberian Jays and 5 Three-toed Woodpeckers. The rest of the evening was fun but at midnight we left to sleep at home.
The first days of April were freezing so no birds were seen. On the 3rd day we left to Sicilia… So more soon…
- J.A.