December 2006
December – Winter bird rally starts again
The December was warmer than ever! So it was interesting to start a traditional South Karelia winter bird- ally. All the lakes were open and fields were almost green! The first of December was a Friday so I could start to collect winter ticks well. I started from our backyard where I saw Whooper Swans, Siskins, Common and Herring Gulls and a flock of Common Crossbills. In Tähtiniemi I saw a Cormorant, Great Crested Grebe and a Hazel Hen and in Koitsanlahti I saw 6 Cormorants and a Great Grey Shrike.
On the 2nd of December I had a great trip to southern parts of the South Karelia. In Imatra Immalanjärvi I saw a Velvet Scoter, on river Vuoksi some Smews and 2 Tufted Ducks and in Mellonlahti I saw a Hawfinch. Then I continued to Lappeenranta Luukkaansalmi where I saw 3 Grey Herons. In Toikansuo I saw a Chaffinch and the first Wren for me in winter ever. But there were more lifetime winter ticks to come… In Joutseno Konnunsuo I saw only a Great Grey Shrike but from Kivisaari fields I found first a Bean Goose and then a Lapwing! Both real winter rarities and Lapwing was the 1st ever in winter in South Karelia! I still saw a Pygmy Owl in Imatra Salo-Issakka, so I had had a good day!
Next day I decided to go to check the river Vuoksi more carefully. Smews and a Tufted Duc, a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker was drumming, a couple of Dippers and Cormorants were seen but nothing else. I decided to go to Joutseno again. A Bean Goose and a Lapwing were still present and soon there were also some twitchers. But even though I really tried I couldn’t find anything new. When I was back in Parikkala I twitched a Common Scoter in Koitsanlahti and 2 Canada Geese in Rautalahti.
The only tick I got in the 4th day was a Wigeon that Jari Kontiokorpi had found in Kokkolanjoki – I twtiched it on my lunch-hour.
On the 5th day I had a short trip in forests to see my old friends Siberian Jays and Crested Tits. I also cleaned several owl nest boxes.
On the next day I twitched again the birds that Jari had found: and both were the first ones for me for the year in South Karelia: a Mute Swan in Kivijärvi and a Hawk Owl in Pitkätsolaset.
On the 6th day was the Independence Day and traditional ID-rally. We started at 7 a.m. and the weather was really bad. It was raining and very windy. So we decided to go to forests where the wind is not a problem. The first bird was a Black Woodpecker in Tarvaslampi. The second bird was a Black Grouse and even though the sun started to get higher it was very quiet. Some Common Crossbills were calling and finally Siberian Jays and Crested Tits came for us. We drove back to Melkoniemi and a flock of 4 Hazel Hens, Ravens, Great Tits, Willow Tits, Goldcrests, Bullfinches, Hooded Crows and so on came to ticks.
From the lake Simpele we found Goosanders, Common Gulls and a Herring Gull. In Tarvaslampi we saw some Tree Sparrows, Blue Tits and 2 Coal Tits on a feeder. In Rautalahti we saw Whooper Swans and Canada Geese but also a Long-tailed Tit. In Parikkala Kangaskylä we ticked Jackdaws, Feral Doves and House Sparrows.
In Koitsanlahti we saw again a Common Scoter and in Kivijärvi a Mute Swan. In Kokkolanjoki we found a Dipper, Mallards and a Wigeon. A Hawk Owl wasn’t found so we continued to Immolanjärvi where a Velvet Scoter was still present. In Vuoksi we saw a Smew and a Tufted Duck but nothing else. Hawfinches or Fieldfares weren’t found either but a Great Spotted Woodpecker and a Siskin were finally found. In Salo-Issakka we saw a Great Grey Shrike and in Suokumaanjärvi we finally saw Yellowhammers, where on Earth they had been earlier! The Bean Goose had disappeared so we continued to Joutseno Pulp where we finally found Cormorants. In Lappenranta Murheistenranta we couldn’t find any new species but in Luukkaansalmi we could get our last tick after the sunset when 2 Grey Herons flew against the factory-lights. We still had a couple of hours, but we couldn’t find any owls. After all we got 44 species in this very poor birding day but it was enough to win the rally.
On the 7th day I saw an Arctic Redpoll and during the next day we cleaned all the owl-nest boxes in Punkaharju. It was nice to see 2 old beautiful Capercaillies too. Later in the evening I saw a Sparrowhawk.
On the 9th day I drove to Imatra again and even though I had a good start for the day when I found a Hawk Owl along the main road 6, the rest of the day was very poor, only 3 Velvet Scoters and a Goshawk was seen. On the next day I got my last Siikalahti yeartick (number 181) a Grey Woodpecker. Even Tiviänlampi was open and there was a Goldeneye..
Only ticks on the mid-December were Parrot Crossbills in Melkoniemi, a long-tailed Duck in Särkisalmi, a surprise a White-tailed Eagle in Siikalahti where I saw also a Great Grey Shrike, Blackbird in Kangaskylä where were also a Hawfinch. One more Pygmy Owl was seen in Rasvaniemi. On our way to Lappeenranta to buy Christmas presents we twitched 2 Pine Grosbeaks in Joutseno.
On 16th day I saw a small Turdus with 4 Fieldfares. I am pretty sure it was a Redwing but I saw it too briefly. The rest of the day we cleaned owl nest boxes in Rautjärvi. On the 17th of December we had a good trip: in Joukio we saw a Ural Owl, we had our first visit to Simpele Lahnanen where some Long-tailed tits were seen, in Syvienkallio we saw 6 Cormorants, a Mute Swan was still alive in Kivijärvi and a Hawk Owl was again seen in Pitkätsolaset. A surprise was also to see altogether 196 Whooper Swans in Lemmikonsalmi and Rautalahti!
Finally on 19th day I saw the 1st White-backed Woodpecker of the winter. It had been so warm that the woodpeckers were still in the forests. Also a Chaffinch was found from one feeder.
The winter-holiday was spent in Kirkkonummi with my parents. Anyway I did some birding every day. The real birding day was the 22nd of December when we went out with Andreas Lindén. In Espoo and Helsinki we managed to see for example a Reed Bunting, Bearded Tits, a Robin, A Chaffinch, a Gadwall, 3 Coots, a Nuthatch and a Hawk Owl. On the next day I went to Porkkala where was more quiet than ever: only 5 Cormorants and a Long-tailed Duck. So I went to twitch one more bird which I had never seen in winter before – a Bewick’s Swan in Nummi-Pusula.
On 26th day we were back in Parikkala and we had a traditional winter birdc ount rally. In Simpele, Parikkala and Särkisalmi centres were split to 5 areas and all teams had one area where to count all the birds they could find. We walked with Mikko Ala-kojola more than 16 kilometres in Särkisalmi and found 24 species. The most common ones were a Redpoll with 477 birds, Great Tit (202) and Blue Tit (120) and some better species were a Whooper Swan, an Arctic Redpoll, 5 Coal Tits and flocks of 10 Long-tailed Tits and 8 Chaffinches.
On the 28th day I saw again a Pygmy Owl this time in Kirkonkylä and on the next day the same Common Scoter was seen last time. On the 30th day I did the winter bird count and walked some 19 kilometres from Kangaskylä around Siikalahti. Nothing very special was seen just a Black Woodpecker, a Whooper Swan and altogether 22 species.
The last day of the year was spent in a forest with Siberian Jays. After all in a year 2006 I got 244 year ticks in Finland and at midnight I had again 0 year ticks!