July 2009
July
In July I was birding almost every day, but as usually in mid summer mostly I had pretty boring trips. Mostly I was birding at night but almost every day I went to Siikalahti too. On the 1st of July we were birding together with Dani and Albert Burgas. First we had a short stop in Siikalahti where a Spotted Crake and a Water Rail were heard and a Short-eared Owl seen. Then went to listen and see Great Snipes to Kullinsuo. Of course Corn Crakes were nice too for Catalans. Also another Short-eared Owl was seen.
Then we headed to Poutala where my friend had seen an interesting bird a couple of nights before and there it was again – a Great Grey Owl was sitting on the border area. A great lifer to Albert! After some time we continued and heard some Blyth’s Reed Warblers and much more Corn Crakes. Also plenty of Woodcocks were seen, funniest bird was perched on the roof of a barn. A Nightjar was seen in Sounio and a Quail was heard in Koitsanlahti before we continued to Rautjärvi Lahnanen. After 2 hours searching we managed to see a booted Warbler very briefly. But Dani and Albert saw it well enough to get a lifer!
Still on the 4th of July I saw a Great Snipe, but it wasn’t calling anymore. We also went to count the nests of Sand Martins to Sounio, because of Sand Martin was BirdLife project species this year. On the 5th day I still heard a couple of new Blyth’s Reed Warbler sand saw my first Red-backed Shrikes of the year in Parikkala. What a bad summer this was for many species! With Pekka Punnonen we made a tour in Saari but only a Hen Harrier was seen and a couple of Golden Orioles heard. I also ringed a couple of young Lapwings.
On the 6th day I saw a Wryneck in our backyard and at night I headed to Sulkava to identify 2 different strange locustella warblers. Another one was just a normal River Warbler but even though the second one was also a River Warbler, it was singing all wrong! Strange River Warbler -recording While I was driving back I saw a couple of Elks, a Black Grouse and a couple of Nightjars.
On the 9th day I saw a couple of Grey Herons in Siikalahti and a Hen Harrier in Kullinsuo. I laso ringed a couple of more Lapwings and in Lahdensuo I saw a couple of Whimbrels. On the 11th day we had a short night-trip to Koitsanlahti where a Quail was still calling and a Red-backed Shrike was making a couple of Thrush Nightingales angry.
On the 12th day I started to visit Siikalahti at least a couple of times during the day because of it was the best time to see adult waders. On my best visits I saw 102 Lapwings, 30 Wood Sandpipers, 17 Ruffs, 3 Dunlins, 3 Temminck’s Stints. 2 Whimbrels, 10 Greenshanks, 2 Green Sandpipers and 2 Spotted Redshanks. But of course most of the visits were really boring. After the mid July I also made several night-trips because of I hadn’t really done any during that time of year before – and it was really easy to realize why I haven’t. A Nightjar was still singing for a couple of days but then it went silent. A River Warbler was singing in 16th and a Grasshopper Warbler from 17th to 19th day and there were several families of Long-eared owls around Siikalahti, but nothing better was found. Otherwise only a Garganey, a Goldfinch and just some normal bird for the season were seen.
On Friday 24th of July I drove through the whole country west to Kristiinankaupunki. I parked to Kiili harbour where after some waiting a boat with driver and 2 happy twitchers arrived at the jetty. We just changed places and soon were on the way to small island of Domarkobban. Toni Vilkki was driving the boat and a Black Guillemot was seen on the way. Soon we were on the rocky shore of Domarkobban and after just some seconds I found the bird that we were twitching – a Lesser Sand Plover! This 1st ever Lesser Sand Plover for Finland had been found a day before and there had been lots of twitchers all the time coming and thanks to local birders they had made it possible for every single birder to visit the island and see the bird! Good for the on Sunday the bird had disappeared.
In the evening it started to rain very hard but I decided to go to visit all bird towers of Kristiinankaupunki. In Siipyy I saw a couple of Arctic Skuas and huge numbers of Cormorants and I am pretty sure I managed to see the Lesser Sand Plover standing on a rock on the shore of Domarkobban – for sure it could have been identifies in better weather in that place.
At night I drove to Rauma to my friend Juha Honkanen. And on the next day we were in Sonisphere festivals where for example Linkin Park and Metallica were playing!
On Sunday I was birding in Pori. Already on the way to Yyteri I saw 2 Collared Doves and a Nutcracker. From the parking place I found a Pygmy Owl. And from the tower could just see that the water was too high to see anything. So I decided to go to walk and try to find where the waders were. And I managed to found a Ruddy Shelduck that had been there for some time but was claimed to disappear just a day before, 8 Curlew Sandpipers, 2 Grey Plovers, a Bar-tailed Godwit, 33 Grey Herons, 35 Dunlins, altogether 88 Shelducks and some other nice birds.
During the day I still visited Kirrinsanta where I saw a flock of 36 Caspian Terns, walked a bit in Yyteri sand-beaches and checked Kaarluoto bird-tower before I had start a long way back home.