Midsummer-trip
We have never been interested on traditional Finnish midsummer-partying so also this year we decided to go birding. Even though we got info that there had been found the first ever Scops Owl in Finland in Hämeenlinna we decided to go to North Karelia. The weather wasn’t promising for twitching the owl but it seemed to be better in north. So with Hanna’s brother Miika we left towards North Karelia on the 23rd of May in the evening.
First we stopped in Kesälahti where we knew a breeding place of a Great Grey Owl. Right away we heard the fledlings calling but we couldn’t find them from the deep forest. Luckily an adult bird came to alarm and we managed to see and photograph it very well. Unfortunately the weather was rainy so the pictures weren’t that good we wanted.
We continued to Tohmajärvi Värtsilä where we stopped in Savikko but couldn’t find any Great Snipes – the filed had been cut so the birds had probably moves somewhere else? A Marsh Warbler and a Grasshopper Warbler were heard in the other places nearby.
After some birding we drove to Keltasuo fields where we put up a tent and after watching a Long-eared Owl and Whimbrels we went to sleep.
On the 24th of May I woke up at 4 a.m. and checked the big field area. I managed to find a singing Booted Warbler and another bird that was probably a female. But I couldn’t hear the Quails that had been reported there earlier. At 5 a.m. I went back to sleep.
At 8 a.m. we woke up and went to see the Booted Warblers again. But we couldn’t find them, but luckily we found a more active singer not far from the place. This bird was singing very actively so it was easy to see. Other birds found were a couple of Wood Larks, a Greenshank and Green Sandpipers.
We continued next to Sääperi bird-tower where we tried to find a Steller’s Eider that had been there for a week but even though we tried pretty hard we couldn’t find it. Only better bird was a male Smew. Then we continued to check Jänisjoki before we continued to Peijonniemenlahti bird-tower. There we met Jari Helstola and together we saw a sub-adult White-tailed Eagle and surprisingly a male Scaup.
We still walked a couple of kilometres on a nature-trek in Piilovaara where we found the flowers we were looking for, Monkshoods. Only better birds in the forest were a Chiffchaff and a Blackcap.
We had planned to do birding in North-Karelia for 2 days but as it seemed the weather was now getting good in Southern Finland, we decided to go to Hämeenlinna Hauho right away. So when we were in Parikkala, we dropped Miika to Tarvaslampi and started a long way to twitch.
We had a long drive but finally at 9:30 p.m. we parked in Hämeenlinna Hauho behind a long line of cars – there were already tens of twitchers! And more and more were coming! We met many friends and soon understood that most of them had been there already on the previous night! The bird had been calling in a bad weather for only a minute from 00:05 a.m. and then it had been seen once by 6 twitchers very shortly! So many twitchers had missed it.
It started to get darker about at midnight but we only heard a couple of short whistles that were too far to tell what had been whistling. It was very quiet and most of the twitchers started to get nervous. But we knew the night was too light and the bird just waited the darkest hours.
Then after 1 a.m. some birders heard some whistling but we were just behind one building to hear it. Luckily soon we heard it clearly from the other side of the building at was for sure a Scops Owl! Then it suddenly stopped and people started to discuss what they had heard. I also got several different kind of recordings to listen that had been recorded from the other side of the building and somehow there was more Pygmy Owl like caller on those recordings! The tone was like Scops but the rhythm was like Pygmy! Strange! Luckily soon the bird started to call again and then we saw it flying straight towards us! It flew just over us and landed to the spruce-trees where it had been calling every night before birders had found it (the locals had thought it to be a Pygmy Owl). And soon it started to call properly and we could get good recordings of it!
Scops Owl 1
Scops Owl 2
Scops Owl 3
After 20 minutes calling it stopped and soon we saw it flying again and disappearing to the other side of the field and it wasn’t seen or heard again during the night.
After some 30 minutes we decided to leave and we drove to Hollola where we parked to one forest, put up the tent and went to sleep.
On the 25th of June we woke up at 10 a.m. and decided to drive to Hamina where we tried to twitch a Tawny Pipit. A nest of Penduline Tits had 2 big nestlings now and the adults were feeding them continuously. Also Golden Oriols and Great Reed Warblers were heard and families of Northern Wheatear and Little Ringed Plover were found.
We still continued to Virolahti Lintulahti where we saw a White-tailed Eagle and Hanna heard a Moorhen. On the way to Parikkala we stopped in Ylämaa Väkevänjärvi, in Joutseno Konnunsuo where a Short-eared Owl was seen. Still we tried to listen to a couple of Quails but weren’t lucky. Finally we were at home at midnight.