. . Lintuharrastajan päiväkirja Birders diary . .

After a week in Jurmo I decided to try to make my day-lists better as the end of October I had been so many times abroad that my lists were embarrassing. And yes, I have been listing day-lists for years while I’ve been putting my observations to Tiira which is the bird-observation archive in Finland. So I visited Siikalahti every day and several times in Härskiinmutka, Rautalahti and Kirkonkylä too to see some missing species.

In Siikalahti there were still good numbers of waterfowl; Tundra Bean Geese and White-fronted Geese still in the end of October and still in the beginning of November hundreds of Wigeons and Mallards, the best daily counts were 470 and 320, but also lots of Tufted Ducks 115, Shovelers 30 and some Teals and on one day also 3 Gadwalls. And still there were also hundreds of Barnacle Geese. I also saw some Long-tailed Ducks, Smews and Scaups. And White-tailed Eagles and Goshawks were chasing all of them.

In the end of October in Rautalahti I saw Barnacle Geese, less ducks, but 27 Canada Geese, 44 Teals, 23 Scaups, 10 Common Scoters, 8 Velvet Scoters and 6 Pintails. Most of the species were still there in the beginning of November but numbers were getting smaller quickly.

At weekend 29th and 30th of October I visited Saari on both days. In Uukuniemi Suurenjärvenliete I still saw a Skylark, 55 Snow Buntings, 2 Arctic Redpools and 3 Pheasants in Lammintaus, in Jyrkilä and Pohjanranta I saw a Rough-legged Buzzard and altogether I still saw 30 Mistle Thrushes too. Other records during the weekend were 8 Black-headed Gulls in Särkisalmi, 2 Nuthatches in Kirkonkylä, 2 Capercaillies in Soininmäki and a Pygmy Owl in Vartialahti. In the last day of the month I saw even 7 species that was missing only on that on October.

In November we had again a traditional November competition. I have never taken the race seriously and now it’d have been perfect start with a mild weather and lots of birds around, but the 1st of November was a Tuesday… Anyway I started before my work in Siikalahti where I had a Pygmy Owl and a Shoveler and so on and in Härskiinmutka I saw a big surprice, a Little Gull – my first ever on November! Then on my lunch-hour I went to Rautalahti and Kirkonkylä and saw all the species I expected. There were still Barnacle Geese flocks here and there but quite a few flocks were now migrating. In the afternoon I still twitched a Hawk Owl in Oronmylly.

On the 2nd of November the best new species were a Grey-headed and a White-backed Woodpecker in Kirkonkylä and in Siikalahti I still saw a Pintail. In the evening the Hawk Owl was still in same place.

On the 2rd day I visited Tähtiniemi where I saw a couple of Pine Grosbeaks. Then I stopped in Koitsanlahti Mantkanniemi to check a flock of Redpolls and then heard a high and clear call from the top of the trees and found a Marsh Tit! It was only the 2nd ever Marsh Tit in Parikkala! It was calling a lot and I managed to get some mobile recordings of it. I had a feeling that there might have been a second bird too, but I had to hurry back to work. Twitchers didn’t manage to relocate the bird so I visited there and some places nearby in the afternoon but saw only 2 Bramblings. In the evening Hannu siitonen called me about an owl that was in one garden on the village. I went to see it and it was a very weak Tengmalm’s Owl. We did our best, but it survived only until the next evening.

On the 4th of November I had a strange day and nothing was really going as planned but in the end I managed to leave to Helsinki early enough to get to Seurasaari when there was still some light. Luckily I managed to twitch the first Taiga Flycatcher for Finland quite easily and after some waiting it landed to a branch next to a small pond and stayed there until the last light, so I managed to get some pictures and videos too. When almost everyone else had left, the bird started to call actively and I also managed to get very good recordings.

Then I had a long drive to Nakkila where I started to sleep in my car while it was -6 degrees outside!

On the 5th of November I woke up after 6 a.m. when it was luckily only -3 degrees but it was snowing which wasn’t good. I ate well and then drove in the middle of Leistilänjärvi fields to a place where the first Upland Sandpiper for Finland had been mostly seen in recent days. Soon there were more and more twitchers arriving and soon there started to get lighter. The bird had been found about 8 a.m. every morning but this time it wasn’t. So after some waiting twitchers started to spread around the huge field-area. I also walked quite far along a track to the middle of the field as I expected to find the bird from the call when it is flying. Once I heard a Golden Plover calling and then with a couple of other twitchers we saw 9 Stock Doves and homeyeri-type of Great Grey Shrike. Then Mika Teivonen found a big falcon flying on the southern side of the fields. It was in bad light but when it started to soar, we managed to see contrasts on its wings and it clearly was a Gyr Falcon! Some birders saw the bird much better from the beginning of the road.

Finally before 10 a.m. I heard a call of an Upland Sandpiper from the sky and Antto Mäkinen found the bird flying high over us. We lost the bird against the sun, but I shouted so loud that Miska and Tommi Loippo heard me and they could follow the bird flying over the masses of twitchers close to the main road. Other birders hadn’t seen or heard the bird but luckily Mika Bruun soon found it perched in the middle of the field.

The Upland Sandpiper was tired and looked weak and even the sun started to shine warmer and melt the fields, the bird wasn’t feeding very much but sleeping and resting mostly. It had some ice on its feathers and a couple of times it really looked like dying in any minute but after some time it suddenly flew to the middle of the fields where it again hid on the border of the field. Then at 12:30 p.m. it flew as far south as we could follow but still seemed to land to the field-area. Then I decided to leave to Pori to do some birding with Mika and his friends. But soon we heard that the bird had still been found before it had been seen flying as far as it was possible to see towards west and after that it was never seen again!

Birding in Pori was poor so after all I left towards Parikkala where I was after 10 p.m. It had been crazy 1.5 day but I had got 2 new Finnish-ticks!

On the 6th of November I did a traditional winter-bird count around Siikalahti. It was boring that I couldn’t have done it in the 1st day of November as I had been working. Then there would have been still hundreds of birds in Siikalahti, but now it was completely frozen – it was -7 degrees now! anyway already from our garden I found an Arctic Redpoll, saw a Goshawk and on the Lake Simpele I saw a Common Scoter and 3 Velvet Scoters so the beginning was very promising. In the harbor I saw 2 Barnacle Geese that looked like completely frozen, but they had disappeared after I had visited the spit.

Then it was very quiet until I was walking around Siikalahti where on the eastern side there are some very difficult places to walk as the vegetation is so tall and thick. But right on the worst place I noticed a family of 4 Whooper Swans flying with a Mute Swan! And only 200 meters later I heard a familiar call and whistled a little and soon there were 2 Marsh Tits watching me from 5 meters! It was of course a new species to Siikalahti! I hadn’t got my camera with me but I got great recordingswhile one of the birds was calling very actively.

The rest of the count was almost boring, I still heard a Snow Bunting and a White-backed Woodpecker and saw a Hazel Hen. finally I was back in our garden where a Grey-headed Woodpecker was on the top of a tree. Altogether I saw 34 species and only 454 birds which was the smaller number on my autumn-counts ever.

On the 7th of November I visited in Mantkanniemi where Hanna and her brother Miika and sister Elissa had relocated the Marsh Tits and there really were 2 birds. They were visiting a feeder and after some waiting one of the birds arrived and I also managed to get some pictures. Once I was back at my working place a Merlin flew over the parking place.

Lakes are really getting frozen and forecasts are promising cold weather for the future too, so there won’t be many many birds around Parikkala. On the 8th of November I saw only 3 Velvet Scoters and 17 Common Gulls on my lunch-hour even though I visited several places. Winter is coming!

J.A.