November 2008
November darkness
The November started with Hailuoto bird race. We woke up in our cottage in Pöllä and soon we took Pirkkas car with Andreas Lindén and Harry Nyström, Mikko Ala-Kojola and Miika Suojarinne took “potu’s” car. It was really a winter – at least 10 cm snow everywhere!
We started the race from mid island but couldn’t find any owls. Only better bird in dawn was a Siskin. We had a short stop in Kirkkosalmi where Bearded Reedlings were heard and continued towards Riisinnokka. A Goshawk, some Pine Grosbeaks and 3 Coal Tits were seen on the way but soon we parked to Rautaletto and walked to Riisinnokka.
In Riisinnokka we found plenty of woodpeckers: several Three-toed and a couple of Lesser and Great Spotted Woodpeckers. A Treecreeper was found and from the sea we found easily several Mute Swans from the huge flocks of Whooper Swans, a couple of Velvet Scoters, a Smew, Teals, Pintails and a Shoveler and so on. A White-tailed Eagle was soaring on the sky, a Brambling, Snow Finch and a flock of Common Crossbills flew over us.
On the way to Kirkkosalmi we saw more Pine Grosbeaks and from the tower we saw 5 Coots, 2 Great Grey Shrikes, 3 Redwings, heard Bearded Reedlings, a Blackbird again and only I managed to see a Hen Harrier.
A couple of next places had Tufted Ducks and Scaups, Common Scoters, Black Grouses, a Sparrowhawk and so on but then we had to rush to Kuivasäikkä where one team had seen a Little Auk. Of course the bird wasn’t there anymore so soon we continued to Pöllänlahti where a Little Grebe was found easily.
On the fields of Järventakusta we saw a Rough-legged Buzzard migrating and in Marjaniemi we saw 3 Twites and a Black-throated Diver. We continued to east and in Vaski we found a Great Crested Grebe and in Lahdenperä a flock of Long-tailed Tits that were our last species. When the race had ended we still twitched a Crane that had been found too late for us.
After all we became fifth that wasn’t very well. But 5 first teams were very close to each others, the rest of the teams were far behind. Harry, potu and Mikko were second.
Pirkka left to Kemijärvi but the rest of us stayed another night in Pöllä. On the next morning we drove again to Riisinnokka where we found again several Three-toed Woodpeckers, a Woodcock and an Arctic Redpoll. Kirkkosalmi was surprisingly almost completely frozen but there was a Greylag Goose walking on the ice. Bearded Reedlings were heard again
In Järventakusta we saw a couple of Bramblings and a Tree Sparrow and in Ulkokarvo we saw 2 Red-breasted Mergansers. But then it started to rain very hard. So we drove to Huikku to wait for the ferry. But then Harry found the best bird of the trip: a Purple Sandpiper was migrating very close to the shore and I got my year-tick number 267!
In Oulunsalo Vihiluoto we still saw a Long-tailed Duck before we said goodbyes to Mikko, Harry and ”andy” who was catching a train from Oulu to Helsinki. We continued to Liminka with potu where we saw a Rook and a flock of 15 Tree Sparrows before we continued towards south-east.
On the 3rd of November I still saw more than 100 Barnacle Geese a couple of Pochards and some Scaups and a Long-tailed Duck in Siikalahti. Other flocks of Barnacle Geese were also flying around in Parikkala. In Vartialahti I saw a Great Crested Grebe, 3 Common Scoters and a Scaup. On the 4th day I counted 1100 Barnacle Geese in Siikalahti; 5 White-fronted Geese and on the next day also a Bean Goose was also seen. Other good birds were a Coot, a White-tailed Eagle and 11 Pine Grosbeaks. But on the 6th day all the geese were gone! A female Pochard was still with a couple of Scaups and Tufted Ducks, also other ducks were gone, just 8 Wigeons and 2 Mallards were seen. On the 7th day the bay was completely frozen, a flock of 38 Wigeons were flying around and a White-tailed Eagle had already caught one of them and was having a lunch on the ice.
On the 8th of November I did a winterbird-count again. Best birds were a Red-necked and Great Crested Grebe and 254 Goosanders from our back-yard. 8.11. In Siikalahti the White-tailed Eagle was still present and other good bird was a Great Grey Shrike. Altogether 28 bird-species were seen.
On the 9th day we saw 200 Whooper Swans in Pohjasuo but otherwise Saari was very empty. A Buzzard was seen in Akanvaara Tetrisuo and a couple of bigger flocks of Black Grouses were seen. The best birds of the day were 2 male White-backed Woodpeckers in our garden! On the 15th and 17th day we were in Kokkola in BirdLife meeting. On the way we saw a Barnacle Goose in Laukaa in a flock of Whooper Swans.
Still on the 17th day I saw a Red-necked Grebe from our back-yard. Other birds there were a Smew that was in a flock of Goosanders and 5 Common Scoters. On the next day I saw 81 Common Gulls and 10 Herring Gulls. On the 22nd of November I drove to Tampere to receive an award of the twitcher of the year! It was an honour to be chosen! There were really good lectures but unfortunately there weren’t very many people. On the way I saw a Kestrel in Akaa and on the way back I stayed in Lappeenranta and on the 23rd day we went to birding there with Pekka Punnonen. The weather was getting really bad but in the morning we managed to see 5 Rough-legged Buzzards, 3 Teals, a Fieldfare and an Arctic Redpoll in Toikansuo, a Nuthatch in Pappilanniemi and a Nutcracker in Mustola.
The last days of November went while doing many different works for the local bird-association. The weather was also very bad and it was raining almost all the time. I wasn’t birding much. On the last day of November we still found some flocks of Whooper Swans and in Vartialahti we still found a Wigeon. In the afternoon I went to twitch a Grey Wagtail that Jarmo Pirhonen found in Imatra Kupari. Together with Pekka and Jari Kiljunen we managed to find this bird and it was my 230th species in South-Karelia this year. Before I drove back home I twitched also a Hawk Owl in Vallinkoski, only a couple of kilometres from the Grey Wagtail.