. . Lintuharrastajan päiväkirja Birders diary . .

On the 17th of August I saw a Black Kite and also a young Hen Harrier and on the 18th day I saw the Black Kite for the last time. They seem to leave surprisingly early! Also a Red-throated Diver was seen flying around Siikalahti and we counted 19 Great Egret.

On the 20th day we went to Saari where in Pohjanranta we saw a young Dunlin, in Jyrkilä 180 Common Cranes and 70 House Martins but otherwise we found nothing better.

On the 22nd of August we had SSP-ringing and we got 5 Blue and 4 Great Tits, a Blyth’s Reed Warbler, 2 Willow Warblers, a Garden Warbler, 4 Lesser and 2 Common Whitethroats, a Tree Pipit and 7 Reed Buntings. We also heard a Hawfinch flying over us. When we were driving back to home a Eurasian Nuthatch was calling on the way. I still visited Saari Pohjanranta briefly but saw only 4 Great Egrets. In the evening we counted 340 Cranes and saw 4 some sort of Bean Geese in Siikalahti.

On the 23rd day I photographed a Nuthatch in Kangaskylä and on the 24th day there were 10 Taiga Bean Geese and in the evening we saw 2 European Nightjars. From the fields we caught 4 Woodcocks, a Great Snipe and 2 Skylarks. We also saw a couple of Long-eared Owls.

On the 26th day we did duck-counts in Siikalahti. There were already lots of ducks but nothing special- We counted 440 Mallards, 231 Eurasian Wigeons, 7 Smews, 9 Common Pochards and so on. It was already late when we headed to Saari to twitch a Great Grey Owl that had been found feeding its fledglings. We were lucky to see the mama-owl extremely well and I got some really good pictures too.

On the 27th day I saw a Nuthatch in Siikalahti and in the afternoon we headed to Saari again. We had planned to photograph Great Grey Owls a little bit more but we couldn’t find them. Hanna wanted to search for them but meanwhile I wanted to do some birding. I went to check some fields and in Pohjasuo I found a young Pallid Harrier. Then Hanna called that she had found the owls and I decided to get back there. We saw the mama-owl trying to catch mice and finally it caught one and flew quite nicely past us. But then we just heard the youngsters moving further. On the way back home it was already dark but we saw a Ural Owl in flight.

On the 29th of August we were ringing in Kukonkanta and got 8+3c Blue and 2+1c Great Tits, 2 Sedge and 2 Blyth’s Reed Warblers, a late Common Grasshopper Warbler, 11 Willow Warblers, 8 Garden Warblers, 7+1c Blackcaps, 4 Lesser and 5 Common Whitethroats, a Treecreeper, a Song Thrush, a Robin, a Bluethroat, 2 Dunnocks, a White Wagtail, a Common Rosefinch, surprisingly a young Redpoll and a Siskin – but not a single bunting. We also saw 62 Canada Geese, a Cuckoo, a Stock Dove, a Goshawk and a Northern Wheatear. The rest of the day we just relaxed. But just went to put mist-nets ready for the next morning ringing in Papinlahti where we saw a Red-backed Shrike.

On the 30th day we had SSP and while walking towards the ringing-place we heard a Pygmy Owl calling. It was a quiet morning; we got only 1c Blue Tit, 4 Willow Warblers, a Garden Warbler, a Common Whitethroat, 5 Lesser Whitethroats, 2 Song Thrushes, 2 Robins, a Bullfinch and a Reed Bunting. A Great Grey Shrike was singing in the morning and we got a rare visitor as our old friend Kristjan Niitepöld was with us for a few hours.

In the evening we headed to fields and we caught an adult Golden Plover, 3 Woodcocks, a Great Snipe, a Common Snipe, a Skylark and surprisingly 3 Northern Wheatears. Again we saw a Long-eared Owl and on the way back home, already after midnight, a Nightjar. Otherwise the last day of August was quiet, I saw 68 Canada Geese and 8 young Little Gulls in Härskiinmutka.

On the 1st of September I still saw some Common Swifts in Siikalahti on my lunch-hour and after my work, we headed to Saari with Erkko Elonen. It was quiet there too which seems to be new normal. After all autumns aren’t usually very good for rarities in Parikkala as we are in the “shadow” of huge Lake Ladoga. In Akonpohja we saw a couple of Great Egrets, in Akanvaara Tetrisuo a couple of Great Grey Shrikes and a young Hen Harrier, in Pohjasuo a Bluethroat, 17 Linnets and 27 Goldfinches, in Pohjanranta a young Dunlin and 4 Great Egrets and when it was already getting dark, we still saw the same Great Grey Owl briefly.

On the 2nd day the only birds to mention were a few Common Swifts and a single Sand Martin. On the 3rd day I saw a Red-throated Diver in Härskiinmutka and 4 some sort of Bean Geese, a Stock Dove, 8 Golden Plovers, 2 Common Swifts and finally the first Nutcracker of the year in Siikalahti. Nutcrackers had been numerous in almost everywhere else in Finland but not here in the shadow of Ladoga.

On the 4th day I finally saw the first Peregrine of the year and last Swift. On the 5th day we were ringing in Kukonkanta and caught a Red-backed Shrike, 4+1c Blue and 3 Great Tits, 3 Sedge and 2 Blyth’s Reed Warblers, 16 Willow Warblers, 11 Chiffchaffs, 2 Garden Warblers, 11 Blackcaps, 4 Lesser and 4 Common Whitethroats, 5 Robins, 2 Bluethroats and 2+1c Reed Bunting and the controlled bird had ring from San Sebastian Spain. We also saw a Goshawk, a Hen Harrier, some other common raptors migrating, a Black Woodpecker and a single Coal Tit which also had been numerous almost everywhere else,

After some naps we did a short trip to fields nearby and it started well as we found a young Pallid Harrier in Tetrisuo. In Tiviä we saw 3 Hazel Hens, but otherwise we saw only a flock of 37 Bean Geese (most of them were Taiga but there were at least a couple of Tundra Bean Geese too) and a Grey-headed Woodpecker couple.

On the 6th of September it was very windy so ringing wasn’t very productive. We got only 2+1c Blu Tits, 3 Sedge Warblers, a Blyth’s Reed Warbler, 3 Willow Warblers, 2 Chiffchaffs, a Garden Warbler, a Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Blackcaps, 2 Song Thrushes, 2 Robins and a Bullfinch. We saw a flock of 34 Common Scoters migrating.

As we stopped ringing so early because there were no birds, we headed to Saari with Anssi Laitinen. In Härskiinmutka we saw a couple of White-tailed Eagles on the way. There weren’t many birds in this stormy weather; 300 Cranes and a Great Grey Shrike in Akanvaara Tetrisuo, 30 Linnets in Pohjasuo, 72 Canada Geese, a Goshawk and a Hen Harrier in Pohjanranta, 5 Common Scoters, a White-tailed Eagle and a Spotted Flycatcher in Hiekkaniemi and a male Grey-headed Woodpecker in Karinmäki.

In the evening we headed to fields and caught 2 young Golden Plovers, 5+1c Woodcocks, a Northern Wheatear and then on another field we caught a Ruff.

On the 7th day we did duck-counts agai: 36 Taiga Bean, 12 Canada and 2 Barnacle Geese, 344 Mallards, 11 Northern Pintails, 4 Gadwalls, 423 Wigeons and 7 Common Pochards were numbers to mention. It really seems that this year there are no Great Egrets either, only 6 birds were seen.

On the 9th of September we went again to fields and got 4 Woodcocks, a Great Snipe, a Common Snipe and a Northern Wheatear. On the 10th day Hanna had to visit Siikalahti with some high-school students and we showed them some ringing and counted Cranes together. But there really weren’t many Cranes either, just 50. Luckily we caught some birds – mostly Great Tits (11), a Blackcap, 6 Robins and 2 Chaffinches and saw a Bluethroat. The rest of the week was quiet.

At weekend we were in Kukonkanta again and on Saturday the 12th we got 14+3c Blue and 26 Great Tits, a Willow Tit, 4 Sedge Warblers, 3+1c Willow Warblers, 24 Chiffchaffs, 2 Garden Warblers, 7 Blackcaps, 2 Lesser Whitethroats, a Common Whitethroat, a Goldcrest, a Wren, 2 Song Thrushes, a Redwing, 13+1c Robins, a Bluethroat, 7 Dunnocks, a Tree Pipit, a Chaffinch, a Siskin, 2+1 Reed Buntings and a Rustic Bunting. So we cought even 22 species! We also finally saw something better as a young Montagu’s Harrier was seen migrating. We also saw a White-backed and a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.

After the ringing we checked Härskiinmutka and saw 13 adult and 1 young Lesser Black-backed Gulls and a young Little Gull. Soon we headed to Saari again. In Akonpohja we saw a couple of Gadwalls and a Great Egret, in Akanvaara Tetrisuo a Peregrine, a Hen Harrier, a Great Grey Shrike, a Bluethroat and a Lapland Bunting, in Pohjasuo 4 Taiga Bean Geese and a couple of Bluethroats and in Pohjanranta 4 Great Egrets and a Hen Harrier. Jyrkilä was empty but in Tarassiinlatiwe found 100 White Wagtails, a Yellow Wagtail, 15 Ruffs, a young Dunlin and a couple of Bluethroats and heard a Grey-headed Woodpecker. In the evening I still visited Siikalahti and saw 9 Pochards.

It was a good weather on Sunday too but quieter on the mist-nets: 3 Blue and 14+1c Great Tits, 2+1c Willow Warblers, 10 Chiffchaffs, a Garden Warbler, 4 Blackcaps, 2 Common Whitethroats, a Song Thrush, 10 Robins, 11 Dunnocks, a Chaffinch, 8 Reed and 2 Rustic Buntings. We also saw 14 Golden Plovers, a White-backed Woodpecker and a few more Rustic Buntings and heard a Common Ringed Plover. In the evening we headed to fields and saw a Nightjar on the way. I was wondering why all birds were so shy and it took some time before I caught any. After all we got 2 Great Snipes, 4 Common Snipes and 4 Skylarks. We were already walking back towards our car when we noticed that there was a mama Brown Bear with 2 cubs and at least one middle-sized bear on the other side of the field. They probably had been on the field before us and were the reason why birds had been so shy.

During the week there weren’t much happening: some flocks of Barnacle Geese were seen and on the 16th day we did duck-counts again. There were even 932 Wigeons and 7 Gadwalls, still only 6 Great Egrets and only single Pochard anymore. In the evening we headed to fields again and got a Teal, 2 Golden Plovers and 2 Woodcocks but saw again a young Brown Bear and also a Lynx very well! On the 17th day I saw a young Pallid Harrier and a flock of 7 Greater Scaups on migration and a couple of pairs of local Gadwalls.

On the 18th of September only birds to mention were probably 12 Rock Doves in Siikalahti. In the evening we visited one field briefly before the rain and caught 2 Woodcocks, 1+1c Great Snipes, a Common Snipe and 1c Skylark. On the way we saw a Pine Marten nicely.

On the 19th day we woke up early again and ringed in Kukonkanta luckily in much better weather than had been in forecasts. But the results were poor: 5 Blue and 5 Great Tits, a Willow Tit, 12 Chiffchaffs, a Redwing, 10 Robins, 3 Bluethroats, 2 Chaffinches, a young (Lesser) Redpoll and 2 Reed Buntings. We also saw a flock of 23 migrating Velvet Scoters, 3 Stock Doves, 7 Golden Plovers, a Great Egret and a 2nd year male Pallid Harrier. Again the birds stopped to come very early so we headed to Saari with Minna Terävä. In Akanvaara Tetrisuo we saw 3 Hen Harriers, a Merlin, 2 Great Grey Shrikes, about 100 Meadow Pipits (and still not a single Red-throated Pipit for me as a year-tick) and 4 Redpolls. In Pohjasuo we saw a Bluethroat and 40 Linnets, in Pohjanranta only a Great Egret and a flock of 120 Starlings, in Uukuniemi Suurenjärvenliete a Great Grey Shrike, in Tarassiinlahti 3 Common Ringed Plovers and a Dunlin and in Karinmäki a White-tailed Eagle.

After long naps we decided to finally go to Saari fields to try to catch birds. The weather-forecast for the next morning was too bad for mist-netting anyway. So we were checking several fields between 9:30 p.m. and 4:30 a.m. and caught a Teal, 12 Golden Plovers, 10 Woodcocks, a Great Snipe, 5 Common Snipes, a Short-eared Owl, 11 Skylarks and 2 Meadow Pipits. We also saw a Ural Owl and lots of different kinds of small mice and voles and also bigger mammals like Elks, Roe Deers, Raccoon Dogs, Mountain and European Hares and Red Foxes. Then after this we really did nothing in the rest of the day.

On the 22nd of September I saw a couple of Gadwalls and a migrating Hobby in Siikalahti and in the evening the weather was so nice that we had to do something. So we went again to Siikalahti, put up a few mist-nets and were just enjoying the warm evening on the dam-road. We saw 2 Hen Harriers, a Marsh Harrier, only 24 Cranes anymore, 5 Great Egrets, 2 Northern Lapwings and 3 Bluethroats and caught only 3 Willow Tits and then after the sun had already set also a Pygmy Owl. a Great Bittern was flying over us calling.

On the 23rd day the only birds to mention were a couple of Nuthatches on the way to Siikalahti in Muttelinmäki. In the evening we had mist-nets in Tarvaslampi while having a sauna, but a Pygmy and a Boreal Owl just came to visit but didn’t hit the net.

It was raining the of the week but we visited fields on a couple of evenings. On the 23rd day we got 6 Woodcocks, 3 Common Snipes and 2+1c Skylarks. We also saw 3 Jack Snipes but they were on the places where was too much other traffic – Common Snipes and Teals. We also saw again a Brown Bear and nice family of Lynxes – a mom with 2 cubs. On the 24tg day we caught 2 Woodcocks, 2 Great Snipes, 2 Jack Snipes, a Common Snipe and a Meadow Lark in an hour.

J.A.