Imatra winterbird-walk
Jukka Jantunen had come again from Canada to spend his winter-holiday to Imatra and he arranged the 7th Imatra city winter-bird counts. Imarta city area has been split to 9 parts from where a couple of birders are supposed to count every single land-bird. This year there were even too many birders participating so we had 2 extra areas, one in Imatra countryside and one in Ruokolahti.
With Hanna we counted birds in area F, Sienimäki-Linnansuo. We started at 9 a.m. in Neitsytniemi where the first bird was a White-backed Woodpecker! Also Bullfinches, a flock of Siskins, a Redpoll and a Goldfinch were found before the first tits started to wake up. In Vuoksi river we saw Goldeneyes, Goosanders and a Cormorant but they weren’t included to land-birds.
Soon we continued to Itä-Siitola where were lots of Mallards and a Smew but we concentrated counting Jackdaws and Rock Pigeons etc. Then we left the river Vuoksi and the rest of the day we were walking along the roads between the houses. In our area there were 5 bigger areas with houses and we really had to hurry to walk all the roads in them. We also drove some longer roads and counted all birds along them.
The weather was very good in the beginning but during the day it started to snow and birds disappeared. Anyway we continued until 2:30 p.m. when it started to get too dark.
During the day we saw 2 Black Grouses, 9 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, a White-backed Woodpecker, a Fieldfare, 303 Great Tits, 114 Blue Tits, a Willow Tit, 7 Jays, 50 Magpies and Jackdaws, 30 Hooded Crows, 136 Tree Sparrows, 0 House Sparrows, 32 Siskins, 6 Redpolls, a Goldfinch, 49 Bullfinches and 93 Yellowhammers.
In 9 traditional areas altogether 10331 birds were counted, it is about 800 less than the average in years 2006-2012. Great Tit was clearly the most common, 2832 (average 2557) Also 1120 Blue Tits (919) was the second biggest number ever counted. Only 8 Coal Tits were found. Green Finches are in troubles, only 996 birds were counted (av. 1987). Also Rock Dove, 217 (327) is getting down. Again we had almost no berries so no berry-eaters – only 16 Waxwings, 10 Blackbirds, 9 Fieldfares and 147 Redpolls but Siskin was more common than ever with 299 birds. Yellowhammers were in countryside because of the warm winter and only 833 were counted. 91 House Sparrows (av.165), normal number 995 Tree Sparrows, only 6 Chaffinches and no Brambling or Haw Finch at all. 99 Jays was a new record and the best birds were a Two-barred Crossbill, a Nuthatch, 3 White-backed Woodpeckers, 2 Grey-headed Woodpeckers, a Pygmy Owl and a Great Grey Owl in Imatra countryside.
We had a great evening again. Jukka’s pictures from Canada were amazing once again! I think we are getting old or something because we were the last ones that left home and it was not even 11 p.m. Thanks again Jukka and also Konza!
J.A.