The beginning of March
I wasn’t birding much in the beginning of March. On the 6th day I visited Siikalahti and saw a male White-backed Woodpecker. On the evening of 8th dau we did a couple of hours owl-listening trip where we also hoped to see some Aurora borealis, but all we saw were a full moon, Mercurius, Mars, Saturnus, Jupiter and Venus and on tiny Aurora borealis.
On the 9th day we went to Imatra Vuoksi together with Rolf Mortensen and Harri Partanen. We hoped to see at least the first migrants – Herring Gulls but also some other birds. On the way we stopped in Simpele Kokkolanjoki where we saw 2 Whooper Swans, 2 Goldeneyes, 2 Goosanders and a Dipper. Somewhere in Ruokolahti I saw a Great Grey Shrike and once in Imatra we started to check the River Vuoksi. Surprisingly there werne’t that many birds: we saw 14 Whopper Swans, 490 Mallards, 45 Goldeneyes, 15 Goosanders, a male Smew and only one Cormorant. There was also a flock of 150 Herring Gulls with 2 Great Black-backed Gulls but I kew there would be more later in the evening. Only other better bird we saw was a lonely Long-tailed Tit. 
So we decided to drive to Salo-Issakka where we managed to find a Hawk Owl. It was perched on the dead tree even though the wind was blowing very hard. At 6 p.m. we were back in Imatrankoski where we counted 385 Herring Gulls and the same 2 Great Black-backs.
On the 13th of March I saw 2 Whooper Swans in Särkisalmi and on the 14th day Matti Lötjönen found a Rook in the railway-station. So there was already spring in the air!
J.A.