Imatra city-count and weekend in Hanko
On the 10th of January we were counting Imatra again. It was the 10th time a group of birders gathered to count all wintering land-birds in Imatra. Every pair had one of the nine areas to count. With Hanna we had the only are where I hadn’t been before, Rautio-Huhtanen-Petsamo. It was a nice day and we walked the whole area and drove the rest of the forest roads and managed to see a Goshawk, 21 Rock Pigeons, a Black Woodpecker, 8 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, 84 Waxwings, 21 Blackbirds, 84 Fieldfares, 109 Blue Tits, 265 Great Tits, 4 Coal Tits, 4 Nuthatches, a Jay, 69 Magpies, 166 Jackdaws, 49 Hooded Crows, a Raven, 93 Tree Sparrows, a Brambling, 228 Greenfinches, 10 Gold Finches, a Redpoll, 133 Bullfinches, 7 Common Crossblls and 97 Yellowhammers. But I must say that I had expected to see much more in this area which has usually been much better…
The results of the whole count in Imatra were: 43 species, 16859 birds: 2777 Great Tits, 2513 Fieldfares, 1905 Redpolls, 1432 Waxwings, 1190 Blue Tits, 1118 Yellowhammers, 1040 Tree Sparrows, 956 Bullfinches, 762 Redpolls, 706 Jackdaws, 674 Magpies 580 Hooded Crows, 242 Siskins, 231 Blackbirds, 163 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, 115 Rock Doves, 111 House Sparrows, 67 Jays, 56 Haw Finches, 49 Goldcrests, 46 Coal Tits, 37 Pine Grosbeaks, 35 Gold Finches, 26 Long-tailed tits, 20 Willow Tits, 18 Treecreepers, 16 Chaffinches, 14 Common Crossbills, 12 Ravems, 7 Nuthatches, 6 Bramblings, 5 Black Woodpeckers, 5 Crested Tits, 4 Goshawks, 4 Sparrowhawks, 4 Great Grey Shrikes, 3 Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, 3 White-backed Woodpeckers, 2 Grey-headed Woodpeckers, 2 Arctic Redpolls, 1 Hazel Hen and 1 Starling. As you can see quite many differences were between our records and tho whole Imatra records. Rock Dove and House Sparrow have been declining most during these 10 years but many berry-eaters had now record numbers.
The evening was fun again and best pictures were seen from Australia by Jukka Jantunen.
During the week I was biking around Kangaskylä in Parikkala. I managed to find 25 Waxwings, some Blackbirds, 20 Fieldfares but in the end of the week there weren’t so many anymore, 2 Coal Tits, 3 Starling that were still alive, a Hawfinch, a Siskin and 15 Gold Finches. There were lots of Bullfinches in Parikkala too.
On Friday the 16th of January I drove south. On the way I saw a family of Whooper Swans in Simpele Kokkolanjoki and 2 Cormorants in Imatra Vuoksi. I was in Kirkkonummi with my parents where I stayed at night. Next morning I drove early to Hanko and I was in Tallholmarna before the sun rose. The weather was warm and there was no snow and the sea was completely open. Lots of Common Gulls were flying and Goldeneyes, Goosanders, some Mute Swans and a couple of flocks of Long-tailed ducks were seen right away. A Black-headed Gull was seen before Heikki Vasamies and Ina-Sabrina Tirri arrived and soon after that we saw a Black-throated Diver and 2 Red-breasted Mergansers. Then arrived Petteri Mäkelä, Tom Nordblad and Markus Lampinen and still 6 more Red-breasted Mergansers, a Red-throated diver, a Scaup, a Goshawk, 3 Starlings and a Robin were seen before we all continued to Vedagrundet.
Jörgen Palmgren had already seen a long-stayed Steller’s Eider when we got to Vedagrundet. but the bird was missing again. So we continued sea-watching and saw a Velvet Scoter, a Common Scoter, a Grey Heron, 4 White-tailed Eagles and so on before Petteri found the Steller’s Eider that was just in front of the closest islet.
Then it was time to drive to Tvärminne where we had Bongariliitto council meeting. Somehow we managed to do everything that was needed before the midnight which was good as we were able to go birding again the next morning. But anyway we went to sleep somewhere at 3 a.m.
So on Sunday we were birding with Heikki, Ina, Petteri, Tom and Markus again. We started in Svanvik but the water was so high that we couldn’t get into the tower at all. Luckily the swans were countable from the path too. We counted 47 Mute Swans and 27 Whooper Swans but the best bird was a Mistle Thrush that was feeding behind them on the ground. Then we continued to Högholmen and saw 3 Velvet Scoters, a Red-throated Diver, 8 Tufted Ducks and a White-tailed Eagle. The road to Vedagrundet was flooding so together with Heikki and Ina we continued to Hanko city. There we walked around and tried to find Wood Pigeons but didn’t find any. But we found a Nutcracker, 3 Chaffinches, a Brambling and saw a Common Buzzard and a White-tailed Eagle. Then we drove back to Tvärminne to eat.
In the afternoon I drove back home to Parikkala. I had planned to stop in Heinola on the way but somehow I took the wrong road and drove along the coastal road. So I missed the Shoveler again. But it wasn’t my biggest mistake. In the evening Heikki called me and said that my telescope was still in his car…
J.A.