October 2010
October
We were still on our 5 weeks trip with “potu” Suojarinne in Shetland Foula and other parts of Shetland (In October we still saw in Shetland for example Red-breasted Flycatchers, Yellow-browed Warblers, Red-flanked Bluetails, Grey Phalarope, Hornemann’s Arctic Redpoll, Siberian Chiffchaff, Spotted Sandpiper, Bonelli’s Warbler, Radde’s Warbler, Daurian Shrike and Rose-coloured Starling) and thenwe stell went for a week to Catalonia (where we saw Lesser Yellowlegs, thousand of Shearwaters, Black Wheatears, Black-bellied Sandgrouses, Long-billed Dowitcher, Wallcreeper, Pekin Robins and much more.)
We came back to Finland on Sunday evening on the 24th of October and on the next morning I had to go to work. It was already cold and dark in Finland but not snow yet. And surprisingly there were still quite a few birds around. I visited Siikalahti on the 26th day and saw 476 Whooper Swans, 2 Bewick’s Swans and a Mute Swan, 2 White-tailed Eagles, a Meadow Pipit, a Waxwing and 11 Teals and so on.
On 30th and 31st of October we were in Kajaani in BirdLife weekend. I took some free and went to twitch a Marsh Tit that was nearby. It was on a feeder of famous photographer Pekka Helo. Actually there were much more Marsh Tits in Finland than ever – several in Kajaani and much more in North Karelia. So on the way back to home on Sunday we stopped a couple of times in Valtimo where we knew nobody had tried to find Marsh Tits. Already on 2 first stops we found lots of Great Tits but the third stop we made in the village when we found a really good feeder. We played CD, but only Great and Blue Tits with one Willow Tit were found. After some minutes the owner of the house came to talk with us and Hanna had just told him that we were trying to find a Marsh Tit when I found one! A new self-found tick! We continued soon and still managed to find a Hawk Owl in Nurmes before it was too dark.
J.A.