. . Lintuharrastajan päiväkirja Birders diary . .

It had been the best autumn ever in Parikkala and every week there had been a new rarity to be found. So of course we were leaving to Parainen Korppoo Jurmo island to spend our autumn-holiday. And of course the best bird of the autumn was found while we were there – a Western Cattle Egret and of course it was in Siikalahti…

But we spent a week in Jurmo birding-station. We started driving south in the afternoon of the 16th of October. We drove close to Helsinki-Vantaa airport and stayed in a hotel so we could sleep and eat well.

On the 17th of October we still did some shopping and then started driving towards Parainen. We still had to spend some time in Salo but after all we continued to Pärnäinen harbor.

Our ferry left at 2:15 p.m. and I headed to deck to do some seawatching while Hanna had some work to do. I saw a Hen Harrier, a Common Buzzard, a Common Kestrel, a Eurasian Sparrowhawk and some White-tailed Eagles and a couple of flocks of Long-tailed Ducks but nothing else. It was already getting dark when we arrived at Jurmo and carried our stuff to the station. There we met Aapo Sirén and Zhenya Popov who was from Belarus. Then the rest of the evening we were just organizing our stuff.

1On the 18th of October we started the routines. Hanna and Aapo went ringing and with Zhenya we went to do 2 hours morning migration-watch. A Common Buzzard, a Rough-legged Buzzard, a Black Guillemot, thrushes, Redpolls and nice migration of 2390 Jackdaws were seen migrating and also 2 female Black Grouses were seen. Hanna caught a Firecrest which we of course had to go to twitch – it was a new Jurmo-tick for us.

Later we went to count birds on the eastern route with Zenya. But after all he had to hurry to ferry. In the afternoon I went to count birds from west too. Hanna and Aapo were ringing until the evening. The best observation was a Black Woodpecker that was flying around the island but I was unlucky and didn’t see it. There were also 47 Great Spotted Woodpeckers and ringers had hands bleeding.

The 19th day started well with a Boreal Owl on the mist-net. And finally I also managed to hear the Black Woodpecker which is extremely rare in Jurmo. On morning-watch I saw this male Black Woodpecker leaving as far as I could see to south-east. But surprisingly after some hours Aapo got another, female Black Woodpecker from the mist-net. Morning was quiet, 5 Razorbills, a Goshawk and a Wood Lark and again Redpolls on migration. I headed to east again and then to west so I really walked a lot. Some birds seen were 3 Smews, Greater Scaups, a Merlin and a Great Grey Shrike. We also got more birders to the station as Severi Heikkilä arrived.

On the 20th of October the schedule was the same, morning-watch and then to west. Severi went to east so I could take a little bit easier. 1556 Barnacle Geese, 5 Red-throated Divers, 4 male Black Grouses and a Grey Plover were only birds to mention.

On the 21st day it was so quiet on mist-nets that Hanna came with me to west. We walked until Heinäsaari and managed to find the first 17 Purple Sandpipers of the autumn. A Boreal Owl was again ringed and it stayed close to the mist-nets and we managed to get some pictures of it. The female Black Woodpecker was still flying around and in the afternoon Gustaf Nordenswan ja Sonja Lagerström arrived.

On the 22nd day the nice weather was just a memory and it was very windy. It was still warm and gloves weren’t needed even on the morning-watch. Hanna and Severi found a Hume’s Leaf Warbler and luckily we managed to see it well. And some time later it was hanging on a mist-net. There was a Hawfinch visiting the feeder and it also was caught and ringed.

Otherwise a couple of Blackcaps, a Little Gull, the same Black Woodpecker and altogether 5 Jack Snipes were seen. “Gusse” and Sonja saw lots of Purple Sandpipers in the west so in the evening we decided to go to catch some waders. Unfortunately there was a family of Red Foxes also harassing wafers and for example Grey Plover was only heard. Anyway we managed to ring 5 Jack Snipes and 7 Purple Sandpipers.

On the 23rd day 3 Brent Geese and a Golden Plover were seen on migration and a young Greater White-fronted Goose was found from the east. While we were walking back along the northern shore with Severi, we flushed a Grey Wagtail. Gusse and Sonja were again in west and they saw even 19 Jack Snipes. Unfortunately it was raining heavily in the evening. Other birds seen during the day were 9 Little Gulls, a Merlin, a Chiffchaff and the same Hawfinch.

On the 24th of October we still started the routines but we had to stop before 10 a.m. as all but Gusse and Sonja were leaving. There was a very stormy weather coming so we had make sure that we can get out from the island. We still saw the same White-fronted Goose, some seaducks, a Little Gull, 9 Razorbills and 3 Twites that migrated over us. But then we had to do some cleaning, pack everything and hurry to the harbor.

On the ferry-trip I saw almost nothing and then we had a long driving ahead to Parikkala. We were at home after 9 p.m.

On Sunday the 25th of October it was raining but when the rain stopped we headed to Saari. We saw still quite a few Barnacle, Tundra Bean and Greater White-fronted Geese, 3 Great Grey Shrikes, 3 Snow Buntings, a Skylark, a Grey-headed Woodpecker, Long-tailed Tits, 60 Black Grouses and a migrating flock of 22 Velvet Scoters. On the way back in Rautalahti we saw 2 Common Scoters and 2 Greater Scaups. Then we decided to go twitching as the first ever Calandra Lark in South-Karelia had been found on the previous day in Lappeenranta Joutseno Kivisaari. When we got there the bird had been seen landing to a field for some time ago, but nervous twitchers had decided to walk and flush it.

The bird was soon found and it was flying around us and landed further to another field. We went to see it but it was visible only with thermal-camera. Boot soon it flushed again and flew back to its ordinary place.

There were still twitchers arriving and at 4 p.m. we decided to walk to the fields again so everyone could see it. But it had disappeared – we found only a Skylark and a Snow Bunting.

J.A.