February 2005
February – Last winter bird rally month
In the beginning of February it was still warm. It seemed that there won’t be any freezing days in whole winter. So it was nice to do birding wearing so it was still possible to move.
On the 2nd day of February I saw a Grey-headed Woodpecker while going for shopping. In Siikalahti I saw also a female White-backed Woodpecker and a huge female Goshawk.
On the 5th day I twitched a wintering Blackcap in Savonlinna.
Next week my only bird trip was made for the Siberian Jays. They seemed to be alright. On the 12th of February I and Matti Lötjönen drove to Imatra. On the way we saw a Pygmy Owl.
We couldn’t find a Nuthatch in Ruokolahti but we surprisingly saw a Blackbird which was in the middle of a pine-forest. At Joutseno Kukkuroinmäki we saw a Chaffinch but Merlin wasn’t found.
While driving we saw a Black Woodpecker and we also checked if the wintering Jack Snipe was still alive. Surprisingly we found two Jack Snipes only 5 metres from each others and both were doing well. A Smew and a Tufted Duck were still on the Vuoksi River with also 2 adult and 1 2nd calendar-year Herring Gulls.
On the 18th day we started a long drive to Oulu. We were on our way to a bird-identification meeting to Hailuoto. On the way we stopped at Liperi Viinijärvi where we twitched a Black-throated Thrush. We found the bird easily but it escaped quickly because of the train that passed the feeding place. I managed to get only a couple of pictures.
On the next day we continued from Oulu to Hailuoto. On the way we saw a rare wintering bird – a Stock Dove passing us. In Hailuoto we twitched with Mikko Ala-Kojola a Great Grey Owl. But the bird was the most active Owl I have ever seen. So I managed to get only one picture before it moved on.
The meeting in Hailuoto was great! I told about birding in Cap Verde, and there were lots of good programs, but it was good to see old friends too.
At Sunday evening we drove back to Oulu and on the way we accidently found another Great Grey Owl at Oulunsalo. Later in the night there were three Owls seen on the very same field!
During the next day we planned to go to ring those Owls. I asked my friend Juha Heimovirta to join us and before we went to Oulunsalo we saw 14 Hawfinches in Hietasaari and photographed some Waxwings in Intiö. But finally in the evening we were trying to catch some Owl with Tuomo Jaakkonen and Pekka Suopajärvi. The Owls weren’t doing anything before the dusk, but then they started to hunt. We weren’t lucky. We had a couple of possibilities to catch some of the Owls but maybe partly because of the freezing weather we didn’t made it.
On 22nd day we photographed some skiing and other activities for my brothers coming books. We took some 1000 pictures in 5 hours. Just after we had finished we had a call that Mikko and Tuomo had caught an Great Grey Owl. After 10 minutes we where in Kempele and photographing thi Great Grey Owl on a hand.
On the next day we drove back to Parikkala. We did some birding in Tyrnävä and Liminka. We found a flock of 140 Snow Finches and some Collared Doves but no Grey Partridges, just footsteps. In Liperi we tried again to see the Black-throated Thrush but nobody had seen it anymore after our last observation and neither did we.
On 24th of February I had information about an Ural Owl in Mikkolanniemi and Great Grey Owl in Tyrjä. We still had South-Karelia winter bird rally going on, so I had to go for them. After my day at work, I drove to Mikkolanniemi but I saw only 2 Pygmy Owls. I wasn’t lucky either in Tyrjä where I was just disturbed by much too friendly 50 kilos dog.
On the next day I decided to try again. Now I found the Ural Owl directly sitting on a branch next to a feeding place. I took some pictures of the bird but it was looking to another direction all the time. It was also too close for digiscoping, but anyway I managed to get some better pictures. Later I found also the Great Grey Owl but not so easily. Finally I saw it after playing some it’s favourite music from a CD.
So I had my rally going well. That’s why I had to keep on going. On the next morning we went to see a Capercaillie that Jussi Valonen friendly told us. And we found the bird easily. So I had already 69 species – but I needed more! I had to drive to Vuoksi River and find a Common Scoter which had stayed there for a week. On the way I saw a family of Whooper Swans in Simpele but that was the last observation for me on that day. I never found the Scoter even I really tried. Maybe it had left more South because of the freezing weather.
On the 27th day I did the last winter bird count. I skied around the Siikalahti and the best observations were a couple of White-backed Woodpeckers and flocks of Black Grouses and Gold Finches.
After all I saw 69 species during the winter in South-Karelia. Paavo Rantanen (71) and Kari Kärkkäinen (70) had got more species. I was happy with the result because this was my first winter in South-Karelia ever.