Counting Cranes and walking on fields
On the 5th of September we left to count Cranes in Saari. We were three groups and together with Hanna we started at Akanvaara Tetrisuo. We saw a male Hen Harrier, 8 Red-throated Pipits, 5 Lapland Buntings but no Cranes. In Pohjasuo we saw again 2 Red-throated Pipits, but in Ratila we finally found Cranes. There was a big, 394 birds flock feeding on a field. We managed to count only 15 young birds before the flock flushed. There was also 44 Whooper Swans on the field.
In Pohjanranta we saw only a Grey Heron and then we continued to Uukuniemi Suurenjärvenliete where we though the most of the Cranes would have gone. Surprisingly there was only one family of Cranes so soon we continued to Kumpu view-tower where I left Hanna and drove back to Ratila to check if the birds were back there. The fields were still empty but Hanna managed to see 350 Cranes flying to Northern Karelia to a small bog to sleep.
On the 7th of September I left to hammer some nearby fields with Harri Partanen. There had been maybe more Great Snipes than ever (after the bird had extincted in Finland). We started near Siikalahti in Koivula fields but found only 5 Red-throated pipits, 8 Whinchats and a flock of 300 Wood Pigeons. Many fields weren’t harvested yet or then just too long to walk so we continued until Lahdensuo where we finally found a perfect looking green field. We walked for some time when finally a Great Snipe was found! And after a couple of steps more we flushed another one! We also saw a Red-backed Shrike. We calle our friend Matti Lötjänen to twitch the birds but suprisingly we never found them anymore even though we had seen exactly where another of them had dropped.
Matti continued to field-work (harvesting) and we continued to walk one more field and of course we found one more Great Snipe which was flushed together with a Snipe but also this Great Snipe managed to disappear and wasn’t found anymore when Matti was again together with us hammering the place where the bird had dropped down.
On the 8th day we were checking some fields again with Hanna, Harri and partly Matti too. We started in Siikalahti patotie from where we walked to Peltola fields and then to Kaukola fields but only observation was a Green Hawker. In Koivula fields we found a Lapland Bunting and finally we continued to Lahdensuo. We checked all the fields very well but found only the same Snipe than the day before. There was a flock of 12 Northern Wheatears, a Wood Lark was flushed with Skylarks and one more Lapland Bunting was also seen. The best bird was a young Bluthroat that was found from a bushy ditch. When we were back at home we saw a Hedgehog on our garden.
On the 9th day I left to check some more fields with Harri and Matti. In Siikalahti we saw 5 Barncale Geese migrating and once I was watching the through my scope I saw a flock of 23 Bar-tailed Godwits migrating far over them. A Chiffchaff and a Water Rail were calling and a Bluethroat was seen but soon we continued to check more fields. In Kontiolampi we saw a Roe Deer which was my first ever in Parikkala outside Siikalahti. We checked some flocks of passerines and found some Bramblings and a couple of Long-tailed Tits but nothing better. In Kullinsuo we hammered some fields again but found only 3 Snipes and a Lapland Bunting. A Hen Harrier and a Goshawk were seen on the sky.
We still continued to Tetrisuo where on the previous evening Matti had flushed a Great Snipe. It had been in a middle of a field and Matti had seen it from combine harvester! We really walked a lot but found only 4 Snipes, a Lapland Bunting, 45 Meadow Pipits and 5 Tree Pipits. Another Hen Harrier was also seen.
At 7:10 p.m. I got a message that Jarmo Pirhonen had found a young Pectoral Sandpiper in Joutseno Kukkuroinmäki. I knew it would be hard to get there before it gets dark but I decided to try. At 8 p.m. I picked up Sampsa Cairenius in Joutseno and the sun had already set down. 10 minutes later we were in Kukkuroinmäki pools and luckily “Jamppa” and some twitchers were still there and they had a “Pecs” on their scopes. The light wasn’t the problem but the distance! The bird was very far but luckily it was together with a Ruff and a Ringed Plover so the size and the shape were easy to see. Luckily it was feeding on water with a dark back-ground so it was also possible to see some colours and even the breast colouration with 60 times zoom. It was my first Pectoral Sandpiper in South Karelia and only 3rd in Finland. There were also Barnacle and Canada Geese and a Greylag Goose. Soon it came too dark so we left back home.
In the evening of 10th of September we were counting Cranes in Siikalahti. A week earlier Konza, Matti and Harri had counted about 700 Cranes but now they had almost all left to migration. We saw altogether less than 100 Cranes and I saw only about 20 of them. Nothing else interesting was seen from the dam-road.
On the 11th day we counted Cranes in Saari again. I was in Kumpu where I saw about 70 Cranes that weren’t seen from pther places. Most Cranes were in Jyrkilä and they left east to Russia before the dark. Altogether we counted about 850 Cranes. I saw also a flock of 130 Brent Geese, a Rustic Bunting and 8 Golden Plovers.
J.A.