February 2010
Snow, cold weather and more snow
On the 2nd of February I still saw 6 Hawfinches in Satumäki. On the 6th day we went skiing around Siikalahti and saw a White-backed Woodpecker, 6 Siskins and a Hawk Owl that flew in front of us. It was a new Siikalahti-tick for us!
On the 7th day I went to count the birds to river Vuoksi, but on the way I checked also river Kokkolanjoki where 3 Whooper Swans, 11 Mallards, a male Goosander, a Little Grebe and 2 Dippers were seen. On Vuoksi I saw 650 Mallards, 150 Goldeneyes, 11 Goosanders, 10 Cormorants, a Canada Goose and a Smew.
On the 12th day it was snowing like I’d never seen before. Anyway I saw a White-backed Woodpecker in Siikalahti and a Mallard in Tyrjä. On the 13th day I was again in Vuoksi but nothing new was found. On the 16th day I saw a Great Grey Shrike in Tönkinsuo and on the 18th a flock of Goldfinches flew over our house.
On the 19th day I saw a Little Grebe again in Kokkolanjoki and continued once again to Vuoksi where I twitched a Mute Swan near Niskalampi where also a Black Woodpecker was flying around. In Itä-Siitola a Goshawk flew over the river and a Smew was swimming with Goldeneyes. In Linnankoski a Canada Goose was swimming and it really looked bad. And soon an adult White-tailed Eagle came to soar over it. The eagle had been found a day earlier but after all it didn’t catch the goose but it was seen catching huge fishes from the river.
On the 23rd day I got a message that there was a Black Guillemot in Savonlinna Kyrönsalmi. I had nothing else to do after my work and days were already getting longer so I managed to see the bird pretty well. Black Guillemot is an extremely rare bird in inland and especially in winter!
On the 27th of February we had a bird-count walk in Parikkala and Rautjärvi. 8 pairs of birders were counting every single bird in every village. We were walking every street between our home and Ristimäki. In early morning we first went to Ristimäki by bike, later walked all the streets in Kangaskylä and in the evening drove around the whole area by car. The birds we saw included a Ural Owl, 2 White-backed Woodpeckers, a Black Woodpecker, a Grey-headed Woodpecker, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, 15 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, 2 Fieldfares, a Nuthatch, 2 Treecreepers, 264 Great Tits, 83 Blue Tits, a Coal Tit, 3 Willow Tits, 13 Jays, 165 Tree Sparrows, 10 House Sparrows, 52 Greenfinches, 12 Bullfinches and 77 Yellowhammers and so on. Before the results were told in Simpele we had time to go to twitch a Tengmalm’s Owl that Pekka Punnonen and Seppo Korpela had found on their area in Änkilä.
On the 28th day I still did a winter-bird count and skied 18 kilometres around Siikalahti. The best birds were 17 Black Grouses, a Grey-headed Woodpecker, 2 White-backed Woodpeckers, a Fieldfare, 3 Long-tailed Tits, 109 Great Tits, 10 Willow Tits, a Great Grey Shrike, 51 Greenfinches, 16 Bullfinches and 96 Yellowhammers.