Birdfair-trip
On the 15th of August after work we headed towards south. We drove until Kirkkonummi to my parents and saw only a Black Woodpecker on the way in Hamina.
On the 16th day we headed to Espoo Laajalahti with my father. The water was very high so there weren’t waders as much as we had hoped and only birds to mention were a Dunlin, a Ruff and a Little Ringed Plover. As we still had plenty of time we continued to Vermo where we tried to find a long-staying Crested Lark, but after an hour searching we had to give up and hurry to Helsinki Viikki to BirdLife Finland Birdfair. Hanna was working on the birdfair and so was my brother Pirkka but a little bit later so with Pirkka and my father we walked a longish walk in Vanhankaupunginlahti where we saw a couple of hundreds of Linnets in Etu-Viikki fields and then a young Dunlin, 4 Pochards and a couple of Great Egrets in Hakala bird-tower.
At the birdfair I met lots of friends so again there was no possibility to go to see any lectures but of course I tried to check all the presentations. But after all we decided to leave with my father. At the parking place I checked Lintutiedotus and surprisingly saw that a young Mediterranian Gull had been found already an hour earlier in Vuosaari. We had only about 15km to drive so soon we parked our car to Ruusuniemi harbor and continued walking towards the place where the bird had reported to be. Soon we saw some twitchers and luckily the bird was still sleeping with other gulls right in front of them. I took my camera and started to take pictures and finally a Common Gull disturbed the bird a little and it woke up, yawned and walked a little before fell asleep again. But soon another gull disturbed it again and it flushed and flew alone towards Vuosaari golf but after all it was never seen again. We decided to drive to Kirkkonummi where later in the evening we were watching our pictures from Costa Rica and India.
On the 17th of August we were birding in Kirkkonummi with my father. In Morsfjärden the plankway was in very bad shape so I got my shoes soaking wet. So the rest of the trip I was wearing sandals. There were no birds in Morsfjärden and only 4 Great Egrets and a Ruff in Norra Fladet. In Salfjärden there were a couple of familiar faces in the tower and soon more birders arrived to the parking place. We stayed there until midday but saw only 5 Honey Buzzards and 3 Great Egrets. Then we went to buy good burgers from a country store nearby and went to eat to my parents. Soon it was time to say goodbye.
I picked up Hanna and Harri Hölttä in Itäkeskus and then we started driving towards Parikkala. We were in Porvoo when Harri noticed that there had been a Siberian Stonechat found in Ilolanjoki-fields nearby. Soon we were there but surprisingly there were nobody else. Soon the same Markus Keskitalo arrived and right away we found some Whinchats and soon also the nice fresh-plumaged Siberian Stonechat which was moving with the Whinchats in the middle of a field. Hanna managed to get closer to these birds but unfortunately the stonechat was behind some vegetation but she got at least some kind of pictures. After some time there were also other twitchers arriving so we decided to leave.
We still stopped in Kouvola Elimäenjärvi where had been huge floods but they were already pretty small. We saw some Lapwings, Ruffs, Wood Sandpipers and Greenshanks and a Spotted Redshank and lots of Starlings but nothing better. Then we still stopped in Rautjärvi Lahnanen where we easily found a male and 4 young Grey Wagtails, which one had a ring so it was from Kangaskoski where we had ringed it earlier.
Finally we were at home quite early so we still decided to go to check some fields nearby. But we found only some Woodcocks and Common Snipes and quite a few Skylarks which only one of them we managed to ring. There were several Nightjars flying above the fields and they a quite raptor-like so all the birds were extremely shy.
During the week I didn’t see much. On the 18th day only birds to mention were a White-tailed Eagle and 2 young Golden Orioles and on the 19th day I saw a Black Kite again. On the 21st day we did duck-counts again and there were surprisingly few birds in Siikalahti even though hunting season had begun. Only birds to mention were a flock of 50 Taiga and 8 Tundra Bean Geese.
J.A.