Russian Karelia from 2nd to 4th of August 2001
Getting familiar with birding places in Vyborg and Ladoga
We had been jealous to Jari “konza” kontiokorpi for years as he had been birding so much in Russia. Especially we had heard many stories about amazing arctic migration in Vyborg. When we finally had some holiday from our work in Siikalahti, we wanted to go to see the places where we could maybe one day go to watch arctica. Konza promised to show us some of the best places so maybe Hanna could later plan a tour to Russian Karelia too.
On the 2nd of August we hit the road by Hanna’s father’s “new” Golf. We picked up Konza in Simpele and in Imatra we needed to get some papers for the car so Hanna’s father needed to follow us until there. Finally we had got one more stamp to our papers and we were ready to continue to the border.
Luckily we had Konza with us, we needed to carry so many papers to different offices and get so many stamps to every paper. But finally we were free to drive to Russia.
Vyborg
We were in Vyborg about at midday. We drove straight to Tervaniemi. Of course there is nothing much to see in arctic migration places in this time of the year, but anyway we wanted to see the places. We saw only a Hobby and a Ringed plover.
Next we continued to Pappilanmäki where in the forest we heard a young Greenish Warbler. On the top of the hill the rock was full of glass.
Äyräpäänjärvi
In the afternoon we continued to famous Äyräpäänjärvi. The southern bird-tower was really good. It just took some time to get in to the tower as it was locked. Some local old man was probably a guide or something and he let us go up. We found immediately a stunning Greater Spotted Eagle which was showing very well. It is aloud to fish and hunt on the lake but it seemed to be difficult to watch birds without permissions. Later we saw another Greater Spotted Eagle, several Black Terns, Marsh Harriers, Ospreys, Sparrowhawks and so on.
We continued to west side of the lake to Sikniemi where we saw another pair of Greater Spotted Eagles and then to Bulatnaja fields. There we saw a 2nd calendar year male Hen Harrier, 2 Marsh Harriers, 2 Common Buzzards and a Honey Buzzard. From Kaukila bridge we saw huge reed-beds and how wide River Vuoksi was here. The places really looked good, just the time of the year was wrong.
We stayed in old cowshed that had been renovated to a Vallu’s Guesthouse. Many Finnish tourists were staying in this place. Service and food were good. There were lots of materials from war in the garden so we could have easily spent more time there.
To Ladoga
On the 3rd of August we left early to Ladoga. We were in Taipale before 7 a.m. and there we saw how huge Lake Ladoga really was! We had hoped to see some Common Scoter migration and also Great Spotted Woodpecker migration, but we saw only 317 Common Scoters in 5 flocks and just a single Great Spotter Woodpecker that only tried to go over the lake.
The views were amazing! There was no wind at all and sun was shining from the cloudless sky. Some Greenshanks, Wood Sandpipers, Ruffs, Curlews, Whimbrels and Dunlins and one Black-tailed Godwit were migrating towards south already. Also a Long-tailed duck, 3 Cormorants, Long-tailed Tits, Goldcrests, a Crested Tit, 500 migrating Black-headed gulls, some common Terns, 66 Common Crossbills with some Parrot Crossbills, 6 Ospreys, 2 Hobbies and 7 Marsh Harriers were seen.
There were lots of Russian tourists tenting and fishing on the shore.
In Metsäpirtti shore we saw a Grey Heron and in Igolka we had serious problems to get to the shore because of storms had cut many trees to the road. Luckily someone had been cutting one track clean. There we saw 4 migrating Oystercatchers, 2 Spotted Redshanks and at least 3 local Rustic Buntings.
Our next stop was in Metsäpirtti fields where we saw 2 Honey Buzzards, 3 Common Buzzards, a Hen Harrier, a male Kestrel and a male Marlin. The best bird was a Turtle Dove which Janne saw flying fast to the forest.
To real Russia
We continued checking one fur-corral, Kivennapa, Terijoki and Alakylä fields to real Russia. Until this we had been former Finland.
In Alexandrovskaja pools we found a Grey Heron and some waders: 3 Dunlins, a Temminck Stint, 5 Ringed Plovers, 2 Greenshanks and a Ruff. On the sea we saw a couple of Little Gulls and Black Terns.
In Siestarjärvi we saw another Grey Heron and Common Sandpiper, 20 Little Gulls and a Black Tern. Then we continued to Gorskaja old factory-area and it looked promising. We saw 42 Gadwalls (6 families) and a Garganey. In the evening we tried to find a hotel to stay but Olgino 1300RUR per room was too expensive and a couple of other hotels were just too bad so we chose to go to Repinskaja where we got 2 rooms with 1300RUR. We had no more money to eat so we used cooker on the balcony and had bread with meat-balls.
Lisj Nos warbler paradise
On the 4th of August we woke up early and 5 a.m. we were already driving to the mouth over River Siestar. The weather was very calm and sunny but cool. Only 10 Ringed Plovers, some Dunlins, a Little Ringed Plover and some other common waders were seen. 7 Little Terns were flying on the sea and a Great Crested Grebe had even 7 youngsters. Also a Merlin, 2 Grey Herons and a Nuthatch were seen.
Soon we continued to Lisj Nos grove which was amazing forest with huge leaf trees and also amazing numbers of birds! On the shore we saw Grey Herons, Black Terns, Pochards, a Slavonian Grebe and so on, from the reed-bed we heard Great Reed and Reed Warblers and bushes were full of passerines. We saw plenty of Blackcaps, Garden Warblers, Lesser and Common Whitethroats, Chiffchaffs, Wood Warblers, Wrens, Treecreepers, tits, even a Marsh tit, Spotted and Pied Flycatchers, Nuthatches, Tree Sparrows, a Redstart, a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, a couple of Hawfinches, an Icterine Warbler and so on. They were all together in big flocks!
From Lisj Nos we left towards Vyborg and Finland. We drove along the costal road through Terijoki and Koivisto. Somewhere we collected all our rupias and bought something to eat. From the seaside we still saw some Russian ticks like 4 Stock Doves, 2 Great Black-backed Gulls, a couple of Arctic Terns and 5 Cormorants. Other birds we saw were some Hobbies. We tried to find some Barred Warblers too but they had already left their breeding place.
To Finland
In Vyborg we still checked a couple of places that we had already visited a couple of days earlier and also visited a couple of possible hotels for the future. On the border we had to wait on line for 3 hours before we got to Finland.
Altogether we had seen 121 species so we had got a good beginning to our Russian list. Many South-Karelian birders have much longer lists. But for sure we will get our lists longer in the future!
J.A.