July 2010
Amazing hot July
July started hot and came even hotter. On the 1st of July I twitched a Baillion’s Crake as a month-tick and together with Mika I. Koskinen and Petri Salakka we continued to twitch also Savi’s Warbler that was further in Ruokolahti Utula. There we heard also a young Long-eared Owl. During the day I saw a Red-backed Shrike in Siikalahti, somehow it had been breeding there so that we had missed it on the counts.
To see Wolverines
On the 2nd day we drove north to North Karelia where we went to celebrate our 10th anniversary to a hide where we tried to photograph Wolverines in Lieksa Erä-Eero. In Joensuu Eno we saw a Ural Owl and in the late evening we parked to Patvinsuo Autiovaara where we spent the night while a Red-flanked Bluetail was singing.
On the 3rd day we first walked around Autiovaara track where 3 Red-flanked Bluetails were singing, a couple of Red-breasted Flycatchers were alarming, Greenish Warbler was singing and also plenty of Crested Tits, some Coal Tits and Treecreepers and a Hazel Hen were found.
After a short walk on one big bog we continued to Erä-Eero where we met Eero and a couple that were joining us to the hide. Abut 4 p.m. we drove near the hides and walked to the hide that was closest to the place where animals came to feed. Soon after Eero had hid some meat to the ground and under rocks and trunks the first Ravens came and started to search for food and they did find too many meats too quickly! Also a Common Gull and a Herring Gull were good in stealing food that we really wanted to be left for bigger animals.
Finally at 6.40 p.m. after more than 3 hours wait I saw shortly something running in the forest and soon after Hanna saw a Wolverine coming towards us. Soon it came down from the bigger hide and came straight to feeding place and started to find food. It found first meat soon and dig it to the ground very close to the hide and it also did it to a couple of next meats. The 4th meat it took with her and soon disappeared to the forest.
It was already late and dark when it started to happen again. It was too dark to photograph but it was amazing to follow the Wolverines. There were two of them, a smaller and darker male and bigger female coming to feeding place a couple of times always one in time. At 1:35 a.m. another Brown Bear came slowly and carefully towards us. It was much more careful than the first one and it was trying to find some food and found some after a long search and soon disappeared to the darkness.
Still between 2 and 3 a.m. both Wolverines were still visiting shortly but they couldn’t find any food anymore. After 3 a.m. we heard a couple of splashes of a Beaver and soon it came to swim to the lake nearby.
Soon the sun started to rise and Ravens and gulls came to finish serving that were mostly leftovers from the bears. At 5:30 a.m. I had just felt asleep for a first time when Hanna woke me up and told that the Wolverine was back. Finally we managed to photograph and video the male Wolverine in good light. After this we saw only Ravens and gulls, Wrens were singing and soon it became so hot that after 9 a.m. we decided to leave. We still went to say goodbye to Eero and started our way back home. It had been an amazing night!
On the 5th of July I twitched a White-fronted Goose as a species that I’ve now seen in every month. A Great Reed Warbler was still singing and the first bigger a flock of Wood Sandpipers were flying over Siikalahti. The autumn was coming!
The weather was still hot and it was even getting hotter – hotter than ever! Every day it was more than 30 degrees but nights were even more awful because of it was more than 25 degrees then. It was impossible to sleep even though we had all the doors and windows open all the time!
On the 8th day we drove to Hollola where we collected Hanna’s paintings that had been in an exhibition in Liminka and were soon going to another one to Inkoo Galleria Karaija. On the way we twitched a Corn Bunting that was still in Luumäki and saw a 2nd c-y Heuglin’s Gull in Nastola.
On the 10th day we were joining to a bird race where we tried to get some Bird-Atlas areas better solved. Our area was in Ruokolahti near Akkala where we checked every single place in that 10 times 10 km area for 12 hours. We also tried to find all the divers on the area as they were this year project species. We managed to 16 Black-throated Diver territories, but only one pair had a youngster. Altogether we had 47 Black-throated Divers but we couldn’t find any Red-throated Divers. Other good birds were many Wrens, a Wryneck fledling, Thrush Nightingale family; several Red-backed Shrike families, a House Sparrow couple and altogether we saw 66 species in an area where we would never went to do birding without this race.
After the race we all gathered to Klaus Jernstöms summer cottage that was on the coast of Lake Saimaa and had a good time. Next morning we twitched a family of Red-throated Divers nearby so also this project bird was seen.
New species to South Karelia
On the 14th days night I was unable to sleep because of the heat so I left to do some birding to Lappeenranta. A couple of Grasshopper Warblers were found on the way to Joutseno Kotasaari where a Temminck’s Stint was seen. In Lappeenranta Hyrynmäki I just checked the places where Jarmo Pirhonen had found the first ever Crested Lark for South Karelia. But I knew it was still too early to find it so I continued soon to Toikansuo to check the Askola pools. Only a Golden Plover was seen and at 5 a.m. I decided to drive back to Hyrynmäki. I had still 1.5 kilometres to drive when I noticed a bird on a grass just next to a road and there it was, a Crested Lark that I was going to try to find! After some photographing I started a way back to Parikkala. I just did a short stop in Ruokolahti Laurniemi where an Oystercatcher was seen. At 7.30 a.m. I had to be at work.
To Hanko
On the 16th day we drove south to Inkoo where we dropped Hanna’s paintings to Galleria Karaija. In the evening we enjoyed the weather and did some seawatching in Kopparnäs. Later we continued to Siuntio Purnus where Pirkka’s family was staying on their holiday.
Early on the next morning I drove to Hanko. Hanna had too many projects to do so she went to shopping to Helsinki and continued back home in the evening. On the way I saw a beautiful Tawny Owl in Lohja. In Hanko I stopped first in Svanvik where were some waders, for example 9 Dunlins and a Temminck’s Stint. I also stopped in Vedagrundet and Långören but at 5 a.m. I arrived to Tallholmarna where I had decided to stay as much as possible during the next 2 days and try to see a Sandwiched Tern. There were lots of tern on the sea but they were all Common and Arctic Terns and 4 Caspian Terns. Only migrating species was a Black-headed Gull, some hundreds were seen. In the evening I went back to Tallholmarna where I saw a Razorbill but not a lifer tern.
I slept in a car and in the morning I went to check Svanvik again. A Curlew Sandpiper was the best wader again and soon I was back in Tallholmarna again. The weather was now windy, rainy and much cooler. There were only some terns flying on the sea and I was almost giving up already when I saw flocks of Curlews and Whimblers migrating. Soon I saw some flocks more and altogether I saw 42 Curlews and 32 Whimbrels but also 13 Bar-tailed Godwits, a Knot, 22 Dulins, 10 Grey Herons, a Gadwall and 4 Arctic Skuas. So the morning was good after all. Anyway I decided to leave towards Espoo pretty early. I visited Finno where I counted 69 Gadwalls, 28 Moorhens, 7 Slavonian Grebes and had also 2 Reed, 2 Great Reed and 2 Marsh Warblers. I also stopped in Laajalahti where were good number of waders and 55 Dunlins, 6 Curlew Sandpipers, a Broad-billed Sandpiper, a Grey Plover and so on. In the afternoon I drove back home.
On the 19th day a rain had dropped a couple of Dunlins to Siikalahti but otherwise it was very quiet there.
It had already been too hot, but it came even hotter! It was impossible to sleep in our apartment so I was very tired all the time. Anyway I tried to do some birding every day as I knew there was something rare coming with the weather. But there was absolutely nothing interesting in Siikalahti. On the 22nd of July I had my first Grey Heron in Siikalahti and on the 23rd I heard a young Long-eared Owl in Lahdensuo. On the 24th I did a duck-count but nothing interesting was found – a Smew was the best bird and worst thing was that there were almost no young birds at all!
Next weekend we spent on the shore of Lake Saimaa. First we were on “potu’s” cottage in Anttola and then on my relatives villa in Ristiina where we celebrated my grandmas 90th birthday. 5 Grey Herons were seen there.
The heat brings cosmic mindf***ers
On the 27th of July a Woodchat Shrike was found in Luumäki so after a work I had to drive there. The bird had been missing for 4 hours but when I parked there it was just found! It was a long-waited lifer and the first really rare bird in South-Karelia for ages! I was looking at the bird for some hours and it was almost all the time visible even though sometimes it disappeared to trees or to the field. In the evening we did some spontaneous birding in Luumäki with “potu” and visited one of the worst birdtower I have ever visited. The place Ylä-Hirvas was pretty good but the tower wasn’t. I also stopped in Kotasaari, but nothing better was found.
On the 29th day even bigger bomb was dropped! And it wasn’t the truth that it was the hottest day in Finnish history as 37.2 degrees were measured in Liperi, but a Pallas Sandgrouse was found in Lappeenranta Toikansuo by Matti Vanhapelto! I visited the place immediately but the bird was hiding in a dense vegetation so all I could do was to organize the twitching as well as I could because I knew all the Finnish twitchers were now coming there!
After a work we left back to Lappeenranta with Hanna and we had got good news that the bird was still hiding in exactly same place where it had landed after Matti had found the bird. Only some birders had seen it walking, but most had to still wait.
We had just arrived to the place and the bird had now been hiding for hours so many birders were just going to buy something to drink and rest a little bit because of it was so extremely hot! But then after a minute the decided to fly back to the Askola pools where it had been first found. We saw it extremely well and it seemed to land to the pools, but it landed so that it wasn’t visible. But soon it flew to the closest pools and it stayed there for hours so everybody could see it. Every other bird was chasing it so it managed to get only once some water from the pool. Once the bird flew a long round around the whole area and seemed to be leaving but luckily it turned around and landed back to the pools. In late evening it flew to the further pools and wasn’t visible anymore so we decided to leave. Other bird there were 600 Swifts, Marsh and Blyth’s Reed Warbler, 3 Spotted Redshanks, 4 Little Ringed Plovers, 9 young Little Gulls, 345 Black-headed Gulls and so on.
We then twitched a Crested Lark that had been found again after some weeks, and also visited Kotasaari and Kukkuroinmäki but 3 Spotted Redshanks, 4 Little Ringed Plovers and a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker were the only better birds.