Winterbird count in Christmas Day
In Christmas Day I did a winterbird count. It had been raining almost every day but luckily on the Christmas Eve it had been snowing a little bit so there was some snow on the ground to give some light. Mikko Ala-Kojola joined me to this hard walk around Siikalahti. We walked whole daylight, 6 hours and 18.2 kilometres. Unfotunately Lake Simpele had frozen a couple of days earlier so there were no birds anymore on the lake.
So the first kilometres we walked in Kangaskylä village and saw corvids, tits, 10 Rock Doves and sparrows. In Saharanta we saw also a flock of 33 Redpolls with an Arctic Redpoll. Then we continued over main road 6 towards Siikalahti.
Jays were common on the way to Siikalahti as always and there in dam-road we heard a couple of Whooper Swans. A farm on the eastern side of Siikalahti had Yellowhammers, corvids and Tree Sparrows, but otherwise the walk around Siikalahti was very birdless. 3 flocks of Black Grouses, a Grey-headed Woodpecker and a Great Grey Shrike were seen, but almost nothing else.
We crossed the main road six again and walked back to Kangaskylä where more tits, a couple of Great Spotted Woodpeckers were seen. Jackdaws were in a big flock because of a Goshawk was chasing them.
Totally we saw: 2 Whooper Swans, 18 Black Grouses, 10 Rock Doves, a Grey-headed Woodpecker, 4 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, 105 Great Tits, 28 Blue Tits, 5 Wllow Tits, a Great Grey Shrike, 10 Jays, 34 Magpies, 120 Jackdaws, 28 Hooded Crows, 7 House Sparrows, 14 Tree Sparrows, 33 Greenfinches, 33 Redpolls, an Arctic Redpoll, 3 Bullfinches and 30 Yellowhammers. So 22 species and 430 indiwiduals which is pretty normal number of birds in mid-winter here even though the weather hadn’t been normal.
J.A.