June 2010
June and no time to sleep
On the 1st of June we were again doing night-singer counts in Siikalahti. 15 Thrush Nightingales, 5 Reed Warblers, 4 Blyth’s Reed Warblers, 2 Golden Orioles, 8 Bitterns, 3 Corn Crakes, 13 Water Rails, 11 Spotted Crakes and after many years a female Little Crake! White-backed Woodpeckers were drumming, adults were teaching the youngsters.
On the 2nd of June we had again counts in marshes and bushes that were full of Reed and Willow Warblers. Only better birds in my area were a Reed Warbler, 2 Great Reed Warblers and 3 Hawfinches that flew over.
On the 3rd of June after work I drove to Kirkkonummi. I twitched a Booted Warbler, a European Serin and a Red-breasted Goose on the way. On the 4th of June I left to Iceland with Kalle and Johanna Larsson. The full trip-report can be read here: Iceland 4th to 9th of June 2010 (for example Harlequin Ducks, Barrow’s Goldeneyes, Blue-winged Teal, Gyr Falcon, Great Northern Divers and amazing places.)
After the Iceland-trip I was a little bit sick and also extremely tired and busy so I didn’t do much birding. On the 10th of June we saw 2 Ringed Plovers on the beach next to our house.
On the 14th day I had counts again but only a Blackcap, a Wren and a Great Reed Warbler were seen. Also a flock of Barnacle Geese were found on the field next to the bay and there were 2 different kinds of hybrid geese too. One was a hybrid between Canada and Barnacle and another some grey goose and Barnacle Goose. At night I heard a Grasshopper Warbler in Sammallampi.
On the 15th of June we ringed our only owl-nestling of the season. A Ural Owl mother was again extremely angry and attacking continuously but we managed to ring the youngster safely in a car.
At night I went to twitch a Baillion’s Crake in Ruokolahti Kotilampi. I met many local birders there as this was the first Baillion’s Crake of the area after the one we found in 2003.
Another lifer
On the 16th of June after work I drove to Varkaus Lehtoniemi where I had to wait for more than 3 hours that a female Black-headed Bunting arrived at one local birders feeder. Together with Harry Nyström we also twitched a Mandarin Duck in Könönpelto.
On the 18th of June at night we counted the night-singers again and found a Long-eared Owl, 4 Reed Warblers, a Great Reed Warbler, 6 Thrush Nightingales, 2 Corn Crakes, 2 Blyth’s Reed Warblers, 5 Golden Orioles, 8 Water Rails, 15 Spotted Crakes and now both male and female Little Crakes that I managed to record very well from the rowing boat.
To south South Karelia
On the 19th day I did a traditional night-trip to southern parts of South Karelia. First I drove to Joutseno where I found Corn Crakes, Blyth’s Reed Warblers and a River Warbler before I arrived at a traditional Turtle Dove place. I tried to find the doves for some hours but couldn’t find any. Only a Tawny Owl was seen. Then I continued to twitch a Booted Warbler that was singing very actively and I could get some good videos and photographs of it. I continued to Luumäki where I twitched a Corn Bunting in Heimala. The bird wasn’t very active so I didn’t get good pictures. Also an Ortolan Bunting was singing on the fields. In Huopainen I twitched the first Greenish Warbler as a year-tick even though the species was more common than ever. I just haven’t got time to go to forests. The rest of the day was spent together with Pekka Punnonen in Luumäki, Savitaipale and Lemi where we visited several places where I hadn’t been before. Nothing very good was found but we had fun. We still twitched a Brent Goose in Lappeenranta Askola before I drove back home.
On the 20th of June we had planned to go to forests but it started to rain too hard. Only good birds were a Reed Warbler in Kukonkanta and 2 Hawfinches in Muttelinmäki.
On the 21st of June at night I did a bike-trip around Siikalahti with some other birders that wanted to twitch Little Crakes. Both crakes were heard very well and also a Long-eared Owl and altogether 7 Blyth’s Reed Warblers were found.
Mid-summer trip
On the 24th day I finally managed to see 2 Nuthatches in Likolampi where they had stayed whole spring and summer again. It seems that these birds are trying to breed but it is possible that they could be different races and maybe that’s why there haven’t been any young birds in these 2 years they have stayed on the area?
After work we started a long way to north to Syöte where we were going to celebrate the mid-summer holiday together with my closest relatives. My brother Riku has a cottage there and we had rent another cottage too next to it so also Pirkka and his family and also my parents were there. But we of course decided to drive up there via Lumijoki where the 1st ever twitchable Gull-billed Tern had been seen during the week.
At 8 p.m. we were in Liminka-bay but because of there wasn’t any message about the tern for more than 10 hours we decided to drive to Liminka Virkkula and start birding there. We were just on the parking place when I got a message that the tern had been seen in Lumijoki Karvonlahti and it had flew towards a pasture where it had been seen on the day before.
After 10 minutes we were walking towards the pasture where were promisingly many Black-headed Gulls catching insects from the air. The air was full of insect and unfortunately they seemed to be the biting ones! After 10 minutes I found a Gull-billed Tern that flew towards us and then it was feeding insects for some 5 minutes over the pasture before it disappeared behind the forest and continued towards Sannanlahti. It was my 350th lifer in Finland! We were extremely lucky to see this bird this easily! There were several twitchers that had been trying to see it for more than 10 hours and some were there already on their third try!
We still waited the bird to come back for a half an hour but mainly because of the insects we soon continued first to Sannanlahti and then to Virkkula. We still saw some Black-tailed Godwits, a White-tailed Eagle, 2 Arctic Skuas, a Spotted Redshank, a Hen Harrier, 260 Greylag Geese and heard 2 Spotted Crakes before we continued out way to north just before the midnight. We were in Syöte at 2 a.m.
The next days were spent in Syöte together with altogether 14 Aalto. The weather was a bit rainy but we did some birding on the early mornings. The best birds were a family of Waxwings that were just o the garden of Riku’s cottage, Siberian Jay in Särkiperä, 3 Greenish Warbler in Vattukuru and 3 more in Aurinkomäki and 1 Red-flanked Bluetail in Maaselkä and 2 more in Taivalkoski Luokanvaara.
On Sunday the 27th of June we drove back south to Parikkala driving the eastern roads. We stopped in Ilomantsi Hattuvaara where a Nightingale started to sing at 11 p.m. This rare visitor was of course recorded – Nightingale – before we continued home to Parikkala where we were again at 2 a.m. On the way we saw a Tegnmalm’s Owl, a Short-eared Owl and a Ural Owl in North Karelia.
On the 29th day we had counts again. Cranes had 2 youngsters; a Wren, 2 Golden Orioles, a Reed Warbler and a White-backed Woodpecker were also observed. Even though there had been lots of migrating Common Crossbills in other parts of the country I had only my second flock in Parikkala.
On the last day of June we did night-singer counts and 6 Reed Warblers, a Great Reed Warbler, 4 Thrush Nightingales, 4 Water Rails and 13 Spotted Crakes were heard. Most of the birds seemed to be already quiet. Also Little Crakes had probably found each others and started to breed?