October 2006
October – Geese!
When the month changed we were still in Hailuoto. When we had packed everything we drove to Marjaniemi to twitch a Great Snipe. We saw it briefly and also 4 Jack Snipes and 15 Snipes. We also heard a Blackbird and saw a Wheatear. In Kirkkosalmi we still saw a Ruff which was already the 5th species we hadn’t seen the day before in a rally! So after all the winners weren’t that much better, we just hadn’t had enough luck.
In Oulunsalo ferry-harbour we saw a Lesser Black-backed Gull and then we had a short look at Nenännokka where 305 Whooper Swans were counted and a Jack Snipe, 154 Snipes, a Dunlin, a Ringed Plover, a Snow Bunting and 2 Skylarks were seen. Soon we dropped Pirkka to his car and continued with “potu” to pick up Harry from Oulu. Only observation we made on the way to South-East was a Black Woodpecker. In Juva Harry and potu continued to Mikkeli and I kept on going to Parikkala. At 10 p.m. I was home – the trip had been very hard and meanwhile in Parikkala had been seen maybe the best arctic migration ever – and I had missed it – at least I thought so.
On the 2nd of October I did a short visit to Siikalahti but there was nothing special. In Tiviänlampi I saw Pochards, Scaups and Tufted Ducks and a couple of Common Scoters. After work I started to drive to Iitti where a Ross’s Goose had been found the day before. In Lappeenranta I picked up Harry, Pekka and Henrik Salomaa and after a couple of hours driving we managed to find the right place Isokylä fields. Soon we saw the bird too! The Ross’s Goose was with a flock of 10 000 Barnacle Geese and some Bean and White-fronted Geese. Also 8 Bewick’s Swans were on the field. We also twitched a goose that was first identified as a blue morph of Snow Goose, but it was already so late that all we saw was a white-headed goose in a flock of 15 000 other geese in the middle of lake Särkijärvi. Later the bird was identified as a some kind of hybrid.
So the geese migration had stopped because of in the Southern Finland there had been a very bad weather when the geese were migrating. Many huge flocks had landed to the fields around the South-Eastern Finland and there were several big flocks in Parikkala too. On the next day after the work we drove to the best fields in Saari and we found several big flocks. The biggest flock was found in Kuposenmäki where were 6000 Barnacle Geese, some White-fronted Geese, a Brent Goose and a “minima” Cackling Goose!
On the 4th day afternoon I found some new flocks again. There were also hundreds of Bean and White-fronted Geese and in Jyrkilä there was a flock of 95 Whooper and 8 Bewick’s Swans. A young White-tailed Eagle was also seen there.
The next day was very similar – lots of geese but nothing special. But on the 6th day we drove north to Tohmajärvi to twitch a Red-breasted Goose and another Cackling Goose. On the way I got a message that the Cackling Goose wasn’t real but a hybrid, but luckily we saw the Red-breasted Goose easily. On the way back I got a message that the Cackling Goose we had found had been relocated; it was found from Pohjasuo where I had told the twitchers to go because of it had been the best geese-place in a couple of days. So we managed to see this Cackling Goose again – unfortunately it is not yet a species in Finland, and once it will be, will it be considered as an escaper – I think nobody knows!
On the 7th day I did the duck counts again in Siikalahti. A total of 913 Wigeons were counted! Also all the other common species were still present and of course more than a hundred Barnacle and White-fronted Geese. In the afternoon we drove to Pohjasuo to try to photograph the Cackling Goose. Once we had found the bird (I saw also a Pink-footed Goose) we noticed that all the 5000 geese were walking slowly towards us. So we went inside the car to wait and after an hour all the geese were really close – and the funniest thing was that the Cackling Goose was one of the closest birds! But then came a car full of twitchers and the huge flock of geese flew further and nobody saw the Cackling Goose anymore. Well we didn’t even try anymore – Hanna had got good pictures!
On the 8th day I visited the closest places but in Kullinsuo I found a new flock of geese (4 common species) and 100 swans (2 species). On the next day the southern wind that had made the geese stay finally stopped and turned to north. So geese started to continue their migration. In Siikalahti I saw more than 1400 migrating Barnacle Geese during my lunch-hour. In the afternoon when I was driving to Pohjasuo I saw a flock of 1100 migrating Barnacles and it wasn’t a surprise that there were only a couple of hundreds of geese in Pohjasuo anymore.
In the next week the rest of the geese left. Rains made some flocks to drop down to the fields but soon they continued again.
On the 13th day I counted 910 migrating Barnacle Geese, 170 White-fronted, 150 Bean, 410 Bean or White-fronted and 150 geese sp in Siikalahti. In Kullinsuo there were still 1000 Barnacles.
On 15th day the weather should have been perfect for the rest arctic migrants to go, but after all the weather wasn’t that good. Anyway we were watching for migration in Simpele watertower with Jari Kontiokorpi for the whole morning. About 150 swans, 2267 geese sp, 138 White-fronted or Bean, 260 White-fronted, 68 Bean, 2 Canada, 1451 Barnacle and 90 Brent Geese were seen. 4 White-tailed Eagles, a Golden Eagle, 34 Rough-legged Buzzards, 3 Goshawks, 9 Sparrowhawks, 3 Merlins and a Peregrine were also seen. Waxwings and Redpolls were getting more common. In the afternoon after some rains I stayed in Siikalahti where I saw 99 swans, 190 geese sp:s, 260 White-fronted, 1080 Barnacle and 320 Brent Geese. Also 2 migrating Jack Snipes were funny to see.
After the mid October the geese were almost gone. In a couple of evenings there were still some peaks in migration but soon the best geese autumn ever was over. On the 17th day I surprisingly saw a pale adult Arctic Skua migrating over Siikalahti. On the 18th day I counted 66 Smews in Siikalahti and saw the first Snow Bunting for the season.
To Lithuania
In the evening of 18th of October we started to drive to south – we going to Lithuania to Curonian bird rally. We saw the last Barnacle Geese on the way and in Utti we picked up Miika Suojarinne (potu) and continued to Helsinki.
On Thursday morning we had a ferry to Tallin and about 10.40 a.m. we started our long drive towards Lithuania.
The only birding was made in Kabli bird station where a Nuthatch was heard and we could also watch a local ringer taking many Long-tailed Tits from the “fella”.
The 1st bird we saw in Latvia was a Black Redstart 2.30 p.m. when we crossed the border.
In Saulkrasti we saw some Scaups, a Black-throated and a Red-throated Diver. We ate in Baltezers a little bit north from Riga. It was already late (10. p.m.) when we finally parked to Ventaine hotels parking place. And soon we were sleeping.
At 8 a.m. we started birding. We had only one day to prepare for the rally so we had too many places to go. First we went to Ventes Ragas where we saw amazing numbers of migrating passerines: tits, thrushes, pigeons, Starlings – everything and a lot!
Also better species were found: some Wood Larks, a female Marsh Harrier and a sub-adult male Pallid Harrier were migrating over us. A flock of White-fronted Geese, many Stock Doves, a couple of Collared Doves and Mistle Thrushes and a Hen Harrier were seen too. A Nuthatch and a Wren were calling in the forest. On the sea there were huge flocks of Tufted Ducks and Scaups and also some Pochards in one of the flocks. But otherwise the sea was pretty empty.
We continued to Kintai pools stopping a couple of times on the way. The pools were full of birds: White-tailed Eagles, Great White Egrets, Grey Herons and lots of ducks, even 5 Shelducks, and of course waders. Big flocks of Golden Plovers, lots of Snipes and Lapwings, some Grey Plovers Ruffs and Spotted Redshanks and a couple of flocks of Dunlins where were a couple Little Stints too. We also heard a Curlew and a Ringed Plover.
Next we drove to eat to a restaurant nearby and then we continued birding. We drove to our secret place that we had found last year and again there were Little Grebes, Gadwalls and Grey Partridges but also a Goshawk.
We decided to try to find some new places for the rally but in a couple of hours we managed to find only a Moorhen. In afternoon we continued south to Rusne. On the way we saw a Kestrel and a Rough-legged Buzzard but in Rusne there were nothing really special. Of course it is always nice to see Great White Egrets, Gadwalls, Smews and hear a Penduline Tit calling, but it is a long way to drive to Rusne so we were thinking it might not be necessary to go there in a rally.
At 7 p.m. (well it started an hour late) was the opening ceremony of the rally. And after that we were ready to go to sleep. Next day would be an important day!
Curonian rally!
We woke up early and at 8 a.m. the rally started. Even though they weren’t that many birds migrating now in Vente we had an amazing start of the rally! We drove only 1km towards Ventes Ragas and then started to walk. Scaups, Tufted Ducks and the Pochards were still there, a flock of Bean and White-fronted Geese, again a Marsh Harrier but also a young Pallid Harrier were seen! We found a Sedge Warbler from a small reed bed and once we had walked to Ventes Ragas we heard a Middle Spotted Woodpecker which we also saw well. We had many good species even though we had walked only for 1 kilomerer!
In Ventes Ragas we met several other teams but we were the only one to find a Chiffchaff even though there were a couple of teams really close. On the sea we saw some Smews and Goosanders but also a Red-necked Grebe but much more birds were found from the bushes. Lots of birds were migrating over the bushes: a Pied Wagtail, 2 Stock Doves, many Collared Doves, a Hen Harrier, a Tree Pipit, Common Crossbills, a couple of Mistle Thrushes, Serins, Dunnocks and Wood Larks and in the bushes there were Marsh Tits, Hawfinches, a Wren and so on!
After a couple of hours rallying we continued to Kintai where we found all the birds we had seen the day before but neither Curlew nor Shelducks. Extra species were a Black Woodpecker and a Ringed Plover so were more than happy. Next we had to hurry north to Palanga where all teams had to go to check-point between 12-1 p.m.
On the way to Palanga we saw our 1st Black Redstart and Lesser Woodpecker and finally we were at the check-point at 12.45.
In Palanga we were lucky again! We saw Long-tailed Ducks, Caspian Gulls, a Black-throated Diver, Snow Bunting, 11 Razorbills in 3 flocks, an Eider and a flock of 5 Velvet Scoters! But we stayed there longer than any other team, more than an hour. We were more than happy even though we had expected to see also Red-throated Diver or Common Scoter, but the weather wasn’t very good for sea watching, so we knew we had done it well – and we had already more than 100 species!
On the way to our secret places we saw a Kestrel. Then we ticked a Moorhen and then we continued to a forest we had also found last year. First there were just nothing but after some searching we found a Nuthatch. The river nearby was excellent for Kingfisher so it wasn’t a big surprise we found one. Then we continued to get Little Grebe, Goshawk and Gadwall but also the most ridiculous species we had still missing, a Reed Bunting. Unfortunately Grey Partridges weren’t found.
We had still 3 hours but we had no idea what to do! We had decided not to go to Rusne because of we had everything but the Penduline Tit already. It wasn’t clever to drive that far because of only one species. We walked a lot in a different kind of forests trying to find a Crested Tit or something but we weren’t lucky. So we decided to drive to Kintai again where we found a flock of Bewick’s Swans that weren’t there in the morning. Now we found also 2 Curlews so 2 new species were really good for us!
Even though there were still more than an hour we couldn’t find any new species anymore. We were back in Ventaine in time at 7 p.m. and an hour later started the ending ceremony where the results were told.
We had really had an amazing rally so it wasn’t a big surprise we won. The bigger surprise was that the second was a local team and only 2 species behind us. (In the results they were only 1 species behind us but we had forgotten to mark a White-tailed Eagle to our list.)
We weren’t able to celebrate our victory because of we knew how long drive we’ll have on the next day. So after midnight when the restaurant was closed we were ready to go to sleep.
We started our way at 6 a.m. We had only one stop in Estonia in Häädemeeste bird tower but the weather was really bad so we saw ony some hundreds of Bewick’s Swans, 3 Snow Buntingsand lots of ducks.
In Tallin we did some shopping and then continued to the harbour. After the ferry trip the driving from Helsinki to Parikkala was horrible because of the weather. We were at home at 02.00 a.m. The trip had been really good but also hard!
Winter comes
In Finland the autumn was over! Anyway we did some good bird trips in Parikkala. On the 23rd day there were still 5 Red-throated, a Black-throated Diver and 23 Great Crested Grebes in Haikanniemi. On 26th day in Siikalahti I saw a White-tailed Eagle and 2 Twites. And on the next day I found a Little Gull from the flock of Common, Black-headed and Herring Gulls. Even bigger surprise was a Bluethroat that was found from our backyard! This poor little bird had a broken leg but on next morning it was gone – hopefully it had continued its migration.
The winter arrived at the end of October. On the 28th day we found a Nuthatch from Hanna’s parents feeder. On the 29th day we were birding the whole day and saw a Red-throated Diver, 2 White-tailed Eagles, a Capercaillie, a Hazel Hen, some Black Grouses, a Black Woodpecker, a Grey-headed Woodpecker, a Pine Grosbeak, Common Crossbills, some Common Scoters and a Long-tailed Duck, a flock of 58 Smews and the same Little Gull. I would say pretty good species for many birders outside Finland…
On the 30th day Siikalahti was frozen! Winter was here! The birding season was over! Some Whooper Swans were standing on the ice and a couple of Mallards were in a small free water area. Only 5 Smews were still in Tiviänlampi. Only a couple of weeks and there are absolutely no interesting birds. Now I have to focus on Lake Simpele, it is still possible to see something on the lake. But once the lake gets frozen it is time to wait for spring.