Twitching geese in Northern Ostrobothnia
Because of the weather forecast was really horrible there couldn’t be any better idea than drive through whole Finland. On Saturday the 12th of April we met in our parking place with Elissa Soikkeli and Veikka Kosonen at 4:30 a.m. and started a long drive towards Northern Ostrobothnia. Thermometer was showing -14 degrees and on the way there were huge snow-clouds so the driving was very slowly. Finally in Siikalatva snowing stopped and in Rantsila we saw a flock of Snow Buntings.
After long drive we turned to Tyrnävä, drove through the village and soon arrived at the fields. And there we started to stop and check every flock of geese carefully. Our goal was to find famous “Klenkka” – a Cackling Goose that had arrived to Western Coast every spring or autumn or both since 2019 mostly to Pori or Tyrnävä where it had now again been seen in a couple of days during last week. The nick-name of the bird was given because it had always had problems with its left leg and it was limping quite badly. This bird was still the second ever tickable Cackling Goose in Finland after the first one which we had found in Parikkala with Hanna on the 1st of May in 2013. But Elli and Veikka still hadn’t seen this species in Finland and for me it was about the time to see it again after the first one.
There were lots of Taiga and Tundra Bean Geese, some White-fronted Geese but amazing numbers of Pink-footed Geese. I had never seen so many! We also found a couple of Barnacle Geese before we continued towards the next fields. We saw a Common Pheasant along the road and soon stopped to scan the next flock. It was so windy that we had to be careful with our scopes.
We were again changing to next fields when Veikka noticed that there was a message in Lintutiedotus that the Cackling Goose had been found in Jokikylä – less than 2 kilometers from us! I asked Veikka to call to the observers and keep their eyes to the bird as we would be there in a couple of minutes.
Soon we parked next to Otso Valkeeniemi and Heikki Jakkula who were watching the goose. And soon we also found it hiding behind some Pink-footed Geese in a small ditch. It was mostly lying down but when it was walking we could see it limping very badly. The locals told that its leg was now worse than on the previous years.
After 30 minutes the goose flew a bit further to the field and wasn’t visible anymore. While we had been observing it, we had seen also a Peregrine Falcon and a couple of flocks of Snow Bunting and of course more other geese.
Then Veikka noticed a message again. A Snow Goose that had been some days in Lumijoki was again there in Lumikari. So we decided to go to twitch it even though Snow Goose is not tickable nowadays but you never know what is the situation in the future? This bird had thought to be an atlantis-subspecies which is the best option for a real-deal.
So we drove quickly to Lumijoki but there were only other geese in Lumikari. When we continued towards next fields Veikka found a couple of Grey Partridges on the field. And soon we saw the next flock of geese and there was a bright white bird with them. Snow Goose was showing very well so we had to take some pictures of it. It really was a big bird, with big bill with grinning-patch and somewhat triangular head. So it really could be atlantis-race.
Next we drove to Liminka to eat very well and then continued to Virkkula where we visited my very good friend Mikko Ala-Kojola and Anni Koskela. It was really good to see Mikko, Anni and their dogs! But after all we had to leave as we had a long driving ahead. Everything had gone so smoothly that we had decided to drive back to southeast. Our ordinary plan had been to stay overnight somewhere and keep on birding on the next day if necessary.
We still stopped briefly in Rantakylä where we saw one more flock of Snow Buntings and a Merlin. Then we still drove to Kempele Koskela where we easily found a couple of Collared Doves. Then it was time to start driving back to Parikkala. Luckily the weather was now nice and finally at 11:30 p.m. we were back in Parikkala. Veikka still continued to Lappeenranta where he had left at 3 a.m. after night-shift at work! We had really had a long day!
J.A.