Late summer ringing
On the 17th of July we had SSP-ringing again. I had to leave early to work but Hanna continued the last hours. We caught a Tree Pipit, 7 White Wagtails, 2+1c Sedge and 3 Blyth’s Reed Warblers, a Lesser and 17 Common Whitethroats, 12 Willow Warblers, a Pied Flycatcher, a Blue Tit, 2 Great Tits, a Yellowhammer and 10 Reed Buntings. We also saw 2 Yellow Wagtails and heard a Black Woodpecker. In the afternoon Oystercatchers were in front of our home again.
On the 18th of July I saw a Grey Heron and a Black Kite on my lunch-hour and on the 19th day a Great Bitters, a few Great Egrets, at least 7 Honey Buzzards and the first young Marsh Harriers. In the evening I visited Saari Pohjanranta and saw a Black-tailed Godwit, a Spotted Redshank and 65 Lapwings and so on.
At night I decided to go twitching and drove a long way to Valkeakoski. A Dusky Warbler had been singing in Tykölänjärvi for a couple of days but I tried to find it for 5 hours without luck. It was gone. A Blackcap was only active singer and I also saw many other warblers, a White-backed Woodpecker, 4 Pochards and heard a Black and a Grey-headed Woodpecker.
On Sunday the 21st we woke up early and headed to Kukonkanta to do ringing. With 5 nets and different kind of bird-songs playing we caught 11+1c Sedge, 13 Blyth’s Reed, 3+1c Marsh and 3 Reed Warblers, 10 Common Whitethroats, a Garden Warbler, 8 Willoe Warblers, a Pied Flycatcher, a Common Rosefinch and 4+1c Reed Buntings. We also saw a Red-throated Diver, the same Oystercatcher adults and so on. In the evening we visited Saari and in Pohjanranta we saw 3 Grey Herons and a Spotted Redshank and in Pohjasuo a Short-eared Owl.
During the week I saw a White-tailed Eagle, a Black Kite and finally a Dunlin as a Parikkala year-tick in Siikalahti. On the 24th we did the SSP-ringing again and caught a Tree Pipit, 3 Whinchats, 2 Icterine Warblers, 3 Sedge and 13 Blyth’s Reed Warblers, 2 Lesser and 14 Common Whitethroats, 2 Garden Warblers, 7+1c Willow Warblers, 2+1c Great Tits, 3 Common Rosefinches, 2 Yellowhammers and 13+2c Reed Buntings. We also heard a Grey-headed Woodpecker. And in the evening the whole Oystercatcher family was seen the last time.
In the end of the week I had taken a couple of days holiday and on Thursday the 25th of July we had a Aalto family-meeting in Mikkeli. It was good to see relatives after a long time! In the evening we continued driving west and finally put up hammocks to Hämeenkoski Ahvenainen.
After we had awaken we heard some forest-tits and a Black Woodpecker and soon continued driving towards Tampere. We had plenty of time so we visited a museum and bought new summer-tires before drove to Lempäälä Ahtialanjärvi where we still managed to sleep an hour in the car. At 6 p.m. we met Jani Vastamäki and soon we were all wearing pairs of waders and were rowing to gull-island. There Jani showed us the routines of the ringing station and left us to put up the wader-traps.
Soon we had about 40 traps ready and we hid inside the ringing-cottage to wait for catches. In the evening we caught only White Wagtails (13) but at night we finally got some waders too – 2 Common Ringed Plovers, 7+1c Dunlins, 6+1c Wood Sandpipers, 3 Common Snipes. We also saw a couple of Great Bitterns, a Great Black-backed Gull, a Little Ringed Plover and listened to a Spotted Crake calling all the time.
In the morning we rowed back and found a place to sleep in Mutastenmaa. When we finally woke up we heard again some forest-tits and then went to shopping an eat to Idea-park before headed back to Ahtialanjärvi.
On the shore we met the gull-island’s maker Rainer Mäkelä and Niklas Paulaniemi who also rowed to gull-island to cut hay. It is really tough work to keep the island good for breeding gulls and ducks and migrating waders!
We saw an adult and a young Caspian Tern flying over the island and there was a Little Stint with a flock of Dunlins. Niklas and Rainer saw 3 Curlew Sandpipers too but they never came to the ringing area. We put all the traps up again and then I rowed to pick up Lassi Toivakka to accompany us.
Rainer and Niklas were working until late evening. Maybe it helped us too as many birds were now on our side of the island. So we caught again 21 White Wagtails but also waders much earlier. During the night we caught 25+2c Dunlins, a Common Sandpiper, 8+1c Wood Sandpipers, 3 Common Snipes, 3 Sedge Warblers and then we managed to catch the Spotted Crake too!
In the morning we saw a couple of White-tailed Eagles and soon all the waders had moved to the other side of the island and we unloaded the traps and rowed back to our car. From the bird-tower I still saw a Gadwall and 9 Pochards before we started a long drive towards east.
We slept again in Ahvenainen and then continued to Parikkala in the evening.
On the last day of July we visied Saari once again and in Pohjanranta we saw a Tundra Bean Goose, a Cormorant, a Grey Herin and a Little Ringed Plover and so on and in Pohjasuo we saw 2 Linnets.
At weekend we were ringing again and on the 3rd of August we had SSP and we caught 1c Sedge, 10 Blyth’s Reed, a Reed Warbler, a Lesser and 2+2c Common Whitethroats, 4 Garden Warblers, a Red-backed Shrike, 7 Common Rosefinches and 2+1c Reed Buntings. We saw 400 Barn Swallows getting up from their roost, a Black Woodpecker was calling and a Crested Tit was moving through the bushes but it didn’t hit the nets.
On the 4th day we were in Kukonkanta and caught 11 Sedge, 17 Blyth’s Reed, 4 Marsh and a Reed Warbler, a Lesser and 11+2c Common Whitethroats, 6 Garden Warblers, a Blackcap, 22 Willow Warblers, a Spotted Flycather, 6 Red-backed Shrikes and 8 Common Rosefinches. We also saw 22 Canada Geese, a Cuckoo, 2 Nutcrackers, Goldfinches and a Linnet.
On the 5th of August I saw a Red-backed Shrike and on the 6th day a Black Kite in Siikalahti. In the evening we went to cut some trees and bushes on out SSP-site in Papinlahti and saw 2 Great Egrets there. On the 8th day I saw a Black Kite in Kullinsuo and still an adult and 2 young Oystercatchers were in our yard.
On the 10th of August we were in Kukonkanta again and caught a Grasshopper Warbler, 11 Sedge, 3 Blyth’s Reed and 3+1c Marsh Warblers, 4 Lesser and 5 Common Whitethroats, 6 Garden Warblers, a Chiffchaff, 17 Willow Warblers, 2 Red-backed Shrikes, 3 Common Rosefinches and 2+1c Reed Buntings. We saw again 2 Nutcrackers, a Nightjar and a Temminck’s Stint. Then we still visited Pohjanranta where we saw 5 Great Egrets, a Tundra Bean Goose, a Cormorant and a Temminck’s Stint.
And on the 11th day we had SSP: 4 Robins, 4 Icterine Warblers, 5 Lesser and 6+1c Common Whitethroats, a Garden Warbler, a Chiffchaff, 3 Willow Warblers, 4 Red-backed Shrikes, 5 Common Rosefinches and 4+1c Reed Buntings. Now we saw even 1000 Barn Swallows and we also heard a Golden Plover and a Thrush Nightingale.
On the next day the 3 Oystercatchers were still feeding on the grasses in Kangaskylä – often on our yard. During the week I saw again a White-tailed Eagle, a couple of Black Kites and a flock of 18 Cormorants in Siikalahti but nothing else really.
But I think it is crazy how well we had caught warblers on our ringings – we had ringed 59 Blyth’s Reed Warblers and bunch of other warblers too.
On the 12th of August Aurora-season started very beautifully and Hanna was photographing the, for hours.
During the week I saw a couple of Black Kites again, there were already 11 Great Egrets and more than 100 Cranes and raptors, mostly Honey Buzzards were moving. In Härskiinmutka I counted even 63 Cormorants.
J.A.