4 days in Åland
On Friday I left towards south and made the first stop in Lappeenranta Kaislanen where I twitched a Pink-footed Goose that was with 500 Tundra Bean Geese and 18 White-fronted Geese. Then I continued straight until Helsinki where I picked up Pirkka from the airport. Then we drove straight to Turku where we had some 20 minutes to visit Ruissalo and we managed to find a flock of 62 Barnacle Geese that was a March-tick and an ace (species seen in every month in Finland) for me. Then about at 6 p.m. we picked up Mikko Ala-Kojola and Antti Peuna from the railway-station and went shopping. Soon we were heading to the harbour where we still saw 4 Tufted Ducks and a Pochard and finally at 20:10 p.m. huge Viking Grace ferry left towards Åland.
On the ferry we spent most of the time in puffet where we ate once again too much. Then in the end of the trip we planned a little bit the next day’s Åland bird-race. At 1 a.m. we finally arrived at Lumparland Långnäs and then we still had a long drive to Maarianhamina Solhem to sleep.
On the 29th of March after a couple of hours sleep we woke up to have breakfast at 4:45 a.m. After 5 a.m. we were driving towards Eckerö but at 5:30 when the race started we were still in Hammarland. So the first birds were ticked there: a Robin, a Dunnock and a Wren and some more common species of course. I also saw a Woodcock flying over us but nobody else saw it. In Eckerö Storby we heard a Song Thrush, Cranes and Goldcrests and saw the first Greylag Geese. On a road to Styrsingsudden we heard a Coal Tit and some Siskins and finally we were walking to the southernmost tip of the island to Styrsingsudden. There were already a couple of teams seawatching and soon we started to see Eiders, Long-tailed Ducks, Black Guillemots and Razorbills migrating. Some other common species were seen too but nothing better! A couple of Ringed Plovers were on the shore, 3 Common Scoters were migrating and 2 White-tailed Eagles were flying over the islands, but I had expected to see at least 5 better species more. Finally we had to leave but luckily right then Mikko found a flock of about 50 Purple Sandpipers landing to an island very far, but we all managed to see them after some waiting. Along the way we heard a Willow Tit and some Treecreepers.
In Skeppsvik we found the first Shelducks, Greater Spotted Woodpeckers, Teals and a White Wagtail and in Stormossa a Jay crossed the road. In Torp we saw both sparrows and a nice Haw Finch. In Västerfjärden we found 3 Great Crested Grebes (another ace – and new March-ticks were coming all the time). In Degersand we didn’t see anything new but in Storby we saw 2 Rock and 2 Stock Doves. In Böle we tried to see a Moorhen that had been reported there but we couldn’t find it.
In Hammarland we twitched a Slavonian Grebe in Marsund where also a Raven, 2 Common Buzzards and 2 Grey Herons were seen. In Lillbolstad fields we had nothing else than a Linnet, Canada Geese, 2 Sparrowhawks and Golden Plovers. In Bodafjärden we saw Meadow Pipits, a male Pochard, a flock of Scaups, 3 Smews and 7 Great Crested Grebes. Then we headed to Jomala Hammarudda where we had a Grey-headed Woodpecker and an Oystercatcher.
Maarianhamina harbour had only a Coot and 2 more Oystercatchers. In Lemland Nåtö we had nothing but on the way back towards Maarianhamina a flock of Waxwings crossed the road. In Jomala Gällaräng fields we had only ordinary Cranes, geese and Golden Plovers -nothing new. So then we decided to drive to Salvik Haga fields. In Haga we found immediately a big flock of geese where were 3 Pink-footed and 12 White-fronted Geese. But waders and raptors were still missing like many other common birds too. Luckily we found 4 Pheasants and on Satviksfjärden we saw 20 Teals, 2 Pochards, 10 Scaups, 2 Great Crested Grebes and 2 Coots but not even a Wigeon that was missing. Finally Pirkka found our last species a Great Grey Shrike. But we knew we hadn’t done well. The day had been really nice – lots of birds and very nice weather but we had missed too many common species still and not found enough goo ones.
We still twitched a Chiffchaff in Lemland Nåtö before we drove to Solhem where we had dinner and then the results were given. It wasn’t a surprise that we were only 11th in 14 teams race. We lost even 22 species to the winner-team 88/103. Soon we were ready to go to sleep.
On the 30th of March we had breakfast at 6 (at night had been a change to summer-time) and soon we were driving towards Eckerö again. We tried to twitch an Eagle Owls in Björnhuvud but heard only a Black Grouse. In Böle we saw the Moorhen easily and soon we were in Styrsingsudden again where were already some other birders. Razorbills and Black Guillemots were migrating again and soon we found the first Common Guillemot. Somehow we hadn’t seen any on the race. But now we saw altogether 10 Common Guillemots, 390 Razorbills, 140 Black Guillemots, 120 Bean Geese, 2 Wigeons, 22 Common Scoters, 5 Velvet Scoters, 2 Shelducks, a Black-throated and a Red-throated Dives, 3 Rooks, a Common Crossbill and a Rock Pipit. So the morning was much better than on the race!
At 10 a.m. we headed to Degersand where we twitched a Red-necked Grebe and soon we saw also several Mistle Thrushes. In Jomala Ramsholmen we twitched a Nuthatch that we also had missed on the race. Then we headed to Saltvik Haga again and there we saw pretty much all the same birds than on the race. Still we couldn’t find any Bearded Reedlings but we saw again a flock of Waxwings. Finally we left back towards Maarianhamina and made a couple of stops in Finström and we heard a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker there.
In the evening we had pizza and sauna and finally went to sleep after 11 p.m.
On the 31st of March we were the only birders left from the race as everyone else had left on the previous afternoon. After the breakfast we headed to Styrs again. Surprisingly there were 4 twitchers that had twitched the Slavonian Grebe as a March-tick. Again we counted 188 Black Guillemots, 132 Razorbills, 7 Velvet Scoters, 26 Common Scoters, 2 Shelducks, 10 Oystercatchers and then had the best bird of the morning a dark Arctic Skua! One of the twitchers made the record of species seen in on March ever and soon he made the number even bigger with a Red-necked Grebe and the only Common Guillemot of the day. Also a male Goshawk, a Redpoll, a Black Grouse and a Snow Bunting were seen so the morning was pretty good again.
After 10 a.m. we continued and saw the Moorhen again ans also a Scaup in Böle. In Hammarland Lillbolstad we had nothing new but Bodafjärden was good again and a Green Sandpiper and 3 Snipes were both new March-ticks. All other birds were also still there and we heard also a Black Woodpecker. In Finström we had another Black Woodpecker but still no Bearded Reedlings, just some more Snipes. The weather turned worse and it was even hailing and snowing. Anyway a couple of Gold Finches were heard singing. In Jomala Gällaräng we saw nothing new, but in Ytterbyviken we had 2 more Snipes again. Then we headed to Gottby where we found 2 Pink-footed and 2 White-fronted Geese in a flock of Taiga Bean Geese. In Hammaruddan we heard a Grey-headed Woodpecker again and saw 6 Shelducks, 20 Wigeons, 7 Oystercatchers and a Red-throated Diver. On the way back to Solhem we stopped in Torpfjärden where we had 210 Mallards, 70 Teals, 6 Shelducks, 16 Grey Herons, 12 Pochards and 5 White-tailed Eagles but nothing better really.
In the evening we had great burgers in local rock-restaurant, had sauna and went to sleep after 11 p.m. again.
The first of April we headed to Styrs again but the migration was not very good. We counted 360 Eiders, 160 Long-tailed Ducks, 2 Red-throated Divers, 20 Razorbills, 50 Black Guillemots and again a dark Arctic Skua. After 10 we headed back towards Maarianhamina and twitched a Slavoanian Gebe again in Marsund. Then we decided to go to Lemland Herröskatan. On the way we had a Pheasant in Flakan and from the tower we had only 5 Oystercatchers. In Storviken we counted 850 Tufted Ducks and finally it was time to go back to Solhem to pack everything. Soon we had to drive to the Maarianhamina harbour.
Grace left at 2:30 p.m. and the first 30 minutes we were seawatching from the deck but saw only some Shelducks and Oystercatchers and a Lesser Black-backed Gull. Unfortunately no Steller’s Eiders were seen, so soon we went to have puffet again. When we were close to Turku we climbed to the deck again and saw some more Lesser Black-backed Gulls and the same Barnacale Geese in Ruissalo. In Turku we dropped Mikko and Antti to railway-station and soon continued towards Helsinki. There I dropped Pirkka to hotel Pilotti and I still had a long drive to Parikkala where I finally was after 2 a.m.
Altogether we saw 106 species in Åland, 11 of them were new March-ticks and 107th species and 12th month-tick was a Barnacle Goose in Turku. Altogether I got 27 year-ticks and for example Pirkka got about 3 times more year-ticks than he had before the trip! We could have seen more species but we didn’t really try, we had concentrated finding good species. But anyway we had once again had a very nice trip to Åland!
J.A.