Hailuoto bird-race 2012
On Friday 28tg of September I ended y work already before mid-day and left towards North-West. After a couple of hours driving I picked up Jari Kiljunen in Kuopio and together we continued towards Oulunsalo. On the way we saw a Black Woodpeckers, Black Grouses, a Nutcracker, a Kestrel and a Great Grey Shrike. At 5:30 p.m. we drove to Hailuoto ferry and after an hour we parked to Pöllä where we had the familiar cottage rented again. There we met Antti Vierimaa, Antti Peuna, Mikko Ala-Kojola and Harry Nyström who had already came to the island earlier and had been birding for some hours there. Harry had bought once again lots of pizza so soon we started
After an hour my brother Pirkka came too and the rest of the evening we were eatling, having sauna and having good time! We went to sleep about at midnight.
19th of September – rally-day! We woke up about at 5 a.m. and after an hour we were driving towards Riisinnokka. Our team was Harry, Jassi, Pirkka and me, but also Antti V, Antti P and Mikko had decided to start in Riisinnokka. On the walk through the forests we flushed a Woodcock but it was 15 minutes before the race started. A couple of minutes later we found a Three-toed Woodpecker and we decided to wait until seven and start the race with it.
When we had walked to the coast, there were already 3 other teams. It was very quiet on the sea but luckily there were lots of ducks and some better birds with them like 10 Scaups, Smews, Mute Swans, Long-tailed Ducks, Common Scoters and so on. 2 Golden Povers flew past us and a Dunlin was flying here and there. At least 4 White-tailed Eagles were flushing the ducks and other better birds were a Hen Harrier, a Marsh Harrier, a Merlin, a noisy Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and finally something from the sea – a young Arctic Skua.
We walked back to our car through the forest but we couldn’t find anything better – not even that Woodcock. Of course we gor many common species to our list.
In Kirkkosalmi bird-tower we met 2 new teams but luckily they weren’t all the time in the tower. There we saw at least 7 more White-tailed Eagles and another Hen Harrier and some new species like Gadwalls, Shovelers, a Sparrowhawk, a Rough-legged Buzzard, a Blackbird and 2 Swallows.
Next we decided to continue to Ulkokarvo where we saw 5 Slavonian Grebes and 2 Bean Geese but nothing else new. Then we made some empty stops, before we continued to Ojakylä where House and Tree Sparrows and 2 Rock Pigeons were seen. Then we continued east to Huikku where only new birds were 2 Velvet Scoters. Pökönnokka was worse than ever even though we really hammered it well. Only Skylarks were found. Well we saw also a flock of 20 Golden Plovers and 1 Dunlin but it was really a big disappointment.
So soon we continued back to the central part of the island and to Järventakusta fields where we saw only more Skylarks. In Koivukylä fields we saw a Kestrel and a Jackdaw before we continued to western tip of the island to Marjaniemi. But again the sea was empty – only new bird was a Red-necked Grebe.
Then we took the bad and extremely long road to Keskiniemi and there we walked through meadows again but nothing was found. From the shore we found 2 Ringed Plovers but nothing else and also the sea was almost empty, luckily we found about 10 Black-throated Divers but no Red-throated at all.
We had still 1.5 hours left when we decided to drive to Kuivasäikkä to see if there were any waders there. We hammered again lots of meadows but no Jack Snipes were found. A big flock of 40 Golden Plovers and finally 2 Grey Plovers were found. Then we flushed a Lapland Bunting and found a flock of 15 Dunlins with one more Grey Plover but no new species were found anymore.
The results were given in Hailuoto school and surprisingly there was only one more team that we hadn’t met. So many old and good teams hadn’t participated this year. So we almost knew we or our friends’ team would win. We hadn’t been very lucky so it wasn’t a surprise that they won with 85 species and we came 2nd with 82 species.
The evening was fun as we could celebrate our victorious rally! We ate a lot, had sauna and had lots of fun! The weather was turning bad when we went to sleep.
29th of September we woke up at 7 a.m. and the weather was so bad that we just cleaned the cottage and visited only Ulkokarvo before we continued to the ferry at 10:30 a.m. We said goodbyes to everyone and started a long way back home. I dropped Jassi to Kuopio at 2:30 p.m. and I was finally in Parikkala at 6 p.m. after I had stopped shopping in Savonlinna.
J.A. (Pictures Harry Nyström, Pirkka Aalto and Mikko Ala-Kojola)