. . Lintuharrastajan päiväkirja Birders diary . .

On the 26th of August we woke up when we heard calls of a flock of Barnacle Geese through the open window. Local geese were flying somewhere. On my lunch-hour I saw a Blyth’s Reed Warbler in Siikalahti and a Cormorant in Härskiinmutka.

After the work we left towards Kirkkonummi with our new Skoda Yeti. We had to make a stop on the way in Vantaa Seutula where was a Black-winged Pratincole. It was a long walk from the parking place to the field where the bird was. While walking we saw a young Pallid Harrier. It was already getting dark when we finally were there. Unfortunately the bird was hiding behind some vegetation and we could hardly see it. It was already too dark to get any pictures, when it flew a little bit and landed visible in the middle of the field. When the bird flew second time, we decided to leave, but there were still twitchers arriving. I bet they didn’t see the bird very well…

On Saturday the 27th day Hanna left early towards Helsinki and BirdLife meeting and I left even earlier towards Hanko. I drove straight to Tallholmarna where I saw a Common Sandpiper, 2 Oystercatchers, a white-tailed Eagle and so on. In Långören I saw almost nothing as it was very windy, so I continued to Vedagrundet where I knew to get shelter from the hut that is on the shore. There were lots of waders in Veda and I was photographing a flock with 75 Dunlins, 2 Little Stints, a Curlew Sandpiper, a Sanderling, 4 Knots, 2 Turnstones, a Ruff and 50 Ringed Plovers. Also a Bar-tailed Godwit and 2 Grey Plovers landed to the shore. But on the stormy sea I saw almost nothing, only some more waders.

I still visited Svanvik where I saw 2 Curlew Sandpipers and 4 Grey Plovers and Täktom where I saw only some Kestrels before I left back towards Kirkkonummi.

I called to my parents and we decided to go to see bird-paintings to Galleria Karaija, also Hanna had 10 painting in the exhibition.

During the day I still visited Kirkkonummi Saltfjärden where I saw one possible adult female Pallid Harrier migrating but a young Pallid Harrier was showing well. 5 White-tailed Eagles were also seen.

In the evening I was relaxing and early in the next morning I left towards Azores pelagic trip.

J.A.

On the 19th of August I did a good visit to Siikalahti on my lunch-hour. First I saw some flocks of migrating Golden Plovers, 60 altogether, and there was also a Bar-tailed Godwit in one flock. Then I saw a dark and small skua but it flew to Vartialahti and never came close enough to make sure if it was an Arctic or a Long-tailed Skua. Soon after that I found a harrier that came close enough to identify it as a young Pallid Harrier. I also saw 15 migrating Honey Buzzards, so not a bad 40 minutes at all!

On the 20th day we did a morning trip to Siikalahti with Miika Soikkeli. In a rainy weather we saw some quality waders: a Red-necked Phalarope was swimming on the bay, a flock of 13 Ringed Plovers migrated over us, 7 Bar-tailed Godwits were flying around over the bay and a lonely Little Stint was flying over us. So there were several species that I don’t see every year in Parikkala! Maybe I should do more birding in rain?

Later in the same day the duck-hunting season started and I went back to Siikalahti to see if there was migration going on. I saw 2 White-tailed Eagles, a Common Rosefinch and some flocks of ducks that all landed to Siikalahti to safe. There were some Pintails and Shovelers too. In the afternoon I still saw 12 Velvet Scoters and a Common Scoter in Härskiinmutka.

On the 21st day I went to Siikalahti by bike but I got a flat tire one kilometer before the dam-road. 2 Ringed Plovers, a Spotted Redshank, 2 White-backed Woodpeckers, a Cuckoo and a Blyth’s Reed Warbler were seen. Already 170 Common Cranes arrived to the bay.

On the 22nd day I saw 2 Canada Geese and 7 Grey Herons in Härskiinmutka and 3 Nutcrackers in Kangaskylä and 1 more later in the afternoon in Kirjola while playing tennis.

On the 24th of August we headed to Lappeenranta after the work. We had been searching a new car in the internet and found a good candidate. Luckily the car was perfect and now we are proud owners of Skoda Yeti. The first stop was made to Askola where we twitched 2 Sanderlings. It was only my 2nd observation of the species ever in South Karelia! We also saw 20 Canada Geese, 5 Ringed Plovers, a Stock Dove, a Goshawk and a Goldfinch there.

The rest of the week I was birding a little but saw almost nothing. I was already preparing to my pelagic trip to Azores.

J.A.

After the bird-race in Hailuoto I started to visit Siikalahti every day. 2 Great White Egrets were still there and I saw at least one of them every day and both together in some days. On the 13th of August Hanna managed to get some good pictures of one another bird when it flew over the dam-road.

There were also 6 Gray Herons in best day and quite a few local raptors. Honey Buzzards were calling pretty actively which was something that is not so often heard. Other birds seen during the next week were a family of Red-backed Shrikes, a young Goshawk and a young Hen Harrier, some Water Rails were still calling and the best birds were seen on the 12th of August when I found 2 Caspian Terns. It was only my second ever observation of the species in Siikalahti and the 3rd in Parikkala.

Birds seen in other places were a flock of 20 Long-tailed Tits in Tarvaslampi where we also saw a Beaver, a Nutcracker that was still in Kangaskylä in the beginning of the week and 2 Nuthatches that I twitched in Kirkonkylä on the 15th of August. On the 17th day I saw a beautiful young Pallid Harrier flying over me in Härskiinmutka. It flew towards west over the Lake Simpele. On the 18th of August I saw the Great White Egret for the last time. It was still seen a couple of days later but not since that.

J.A.

On Saturday the 5th of August was once again bird-race in Hailuoto. We had driven there on the previous day with Jari “Jassi” Kiljunen, Miska Loippo and Jani Varis and met Antti Peuna and Antti Vierimaa on the cottage in the evening. We had sauna, pizza and good time and late in the evening decided the teams too as 6 members were too much to one team.

Alarms woke us up at 5 a.m. and led than an hour later we were driving towards Riisinnokka. Our team was Antti P., Miska and me and another one Antti V., Jassi and Jani, both Anttis were driving.

While walking to Riisinnokka we saw a Woodcock and a couple of minutes before 7 a.m. we were finally on the shore. Then we found a Jay which disappeared 2 minutes too early! So we had to start the race from the birds we found from the shore.

There was some haze on the sea as the day was warming up quickly. Unfortunately there weren’t many waders, just some Ringed Plovers, a couple of Dunlins and some sandpipers. We kept on scanning the shore and found Curlews, Golden Plovers, a Merlin and a Broad-billed Sandpiper that was flying with Common Snipes. From the tops of the trees behind us we found a Bramling, 2 Pied Flycatchers and some Lesser Whitethroats. Some Redpolls and Common Crossbills were heard and of course some other common species were seen. Finally Miska found a Black-tailed Godwit flying over Isomatala and suddenly it got 3 Bar-tailed Godwits following. On the sea we saw some Mute Swans, Cormorants and so on.

Once we were walking back to our car we heard the Jay calling and saw 3 species of common thrushes which always are difficult in this time of year, especially when the race starts so late. In Rautaletto we still saw 2 Red-backed Shrikes and 2 migrating Red-throated Divers and on the parking place we had a Treecreeper, some Goldcrests and a Cuckoo.

We made some stops on the way and got a Coal Tit and a Waxwing and once we got to Kirkkosalmi, there was a bus on the parking place and the tower was full of noisy old people! From the bridge we saw some common species and luckily the bus left soon with all the people so we could climb to the tower. There we saw Gadwalls, Spotted Redshanks, Sparrowhawks, Honey Buzzards, White-tailed Eagles and Hobbies and heard a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.

In Patelanselkä a Marsh Harrier was chasing the ducks so we couldn’t see them well at all. Luckily an Osprey was found soon and we were ready to go on. In Järventakusta fields we found more Hobbies and Honey Buzzards but then Miska found a nice female Pallid Harrier! Luckily it was in very good light even though it was quite distant. One more Red-backed Shrikes was also seen.

Then we decided to continue a long way east and the next stop was made in Ojakylä where we had House Sparrows as expected but also a Grey Heron, a Common Redstart and a Hen Harrier!

In Potinhamina we saw 20 Common Shelducks, 5 Grey Herons and I saw 2 waders that looked like young Red-necked Phalaropes but they disappeared too soon. We hoped to find them again once we get to Pökönnokka where I saw them. But first we visited Huikku ferry-harbor and there we saw an Arctic Skua and Kestrel – both far on the sea! And soon we were back in Pökönnokka where the meadow was surprisingly empty, only many Common Snipes were flushed. Luckily from the flocks of ducks I found first a Pochard and then a Garganey. And soon I also found the missing Red-necked Phalaropes! But no other new waders were found…

We were almost back to our car when we got a message that a Black Tern that had been in Huikku in the beginning of the month, was still there. We were so close that we decided to go twitching. We had no idea where exactly the bird had been, but as we hadn’t seen it an hour earlier, we thought it must have been on the breakwater next to the ferry-terminal, where had been too many cars as the ferry had been just leaving. So we drove straight there and found the tern resting with other tern on the breakwater. It was a nice moulting adult bird. There had been a couple of Black Terns breeding in Kirkkosalmi in the summer, so this was one of these birds.

While we were driving in Santonen, very close to our cottage, we saw a flock of crossbills crossing the road. We stopped and tried to find the flock but the birds were gone. Luckily another flock of 3 birds flew just over us and they were Two-barred Crossbills! We started to have a feeling that the race was going well!

But then in Ulkokarvo all the birds were too far and only new bird for us was a Sedge Warbler. And in Pöllä we also found only ducks, gulls and terns but then I found a young Black Tern that was perched on a rock with Little Gulls. So we had this special bird also spontaneously! We decided to skip Kuivasäikkä as we had heard that the road was in bad condition. This saved us lots of time so we knew we didn’t need to hurry too much.

So we did some extra stops on the way and finally found Tree Sparrows. And in Koivukylä we found a flock of Jackdaws.

Finally we were west in Marjaniemi where we had a Velvet Scoter, 2 Turnstones and 2 Whimbrels. Then it was time to head to Keskiniemi which was our last place. The road was almost too bad for Antti’s low car, but he drove carefully and we made it there so that we still had 40 minutes to go. But unfortunately we didn’t find better waders that Antti had seen there on the previous evening. Just Dunlins, Ringed Plovers and a couple of Temminck Stints were found. Another new species for us was a Skylark that was numerous. We had expected to find at least 5 new wader-species! We had still 20 minutes to go, so we decided to start walking along the shore and hoped to find anything new. 10 minutes later Miska found a Black-throated Diver from the sea. The bird was very close and we had scanned to sea already many times. Then 5 minutes after that Antti was checking the shore for the 10th time and suddenly there was an Oystercatchers on the scope! We still had one minute left when Miska found a distant Green Sandpiper flying over the forest and luckily I managed to find it before it dropped behind the trees! For once we had amazing last minutes!

The results were given in the school of Hailuoto. Our 117 species were enough to win the race with clear marginal. The 2nd were J. Markkola , V-P. Honkanen, H. Kianen and A.Niemi with 112 species, 3rd our friend’s team with 108 and 4th V.Suorsa, K.Hiekkanen and T.Herva with 107 species. Altogether 137 species had been found in 12 hours in Hailuoto.

In the evening we had sauna and pizza again and had fun until the midnight.

On the 7th of August we did a morning trip with Antti P., Miska and Jani. We drove to Marjaniemi where a Velvet Scoter and a Red-necked Grebe that we had missed in the race were still present. Now there were no tourists, so we found 5 Turnstones easily.

Next we drove to Virpiniemi where had been quite a few waders in the race but only new species we found were 2 Curlew Sandpipers. Also Dunlins, 10 Temminck Stints, Ringed Plovers, a Spotted Redshank and a couple of flocks of Whimbrels were found.

Then we still drove to Pöllä where we met Jassi too. Antti V. had already left to Oulu to his family. Jassi had seen quite a few good birds like a flock of Two-barred Crossbills and 2 Starlings and so on even though he had started birding much later than us. With Antti V. they had slept longer and then cleaned the cottage. In Pöllä we saw the same young Black Tern again and 2 Honey Buzzards but nothing else. Soon we had to drive to our cottage, take our luggage and continue to Huikku. Luckily we managed to get to ferry that left 11:30 a.m. and in Oulunsalo we said goodbye to Antti P. and started a long way back to south-east. In Siilinjärvi we dropped Jani that had his wife waiting there. In Juva we said goodbye to Miska and finally in the early evening we were in Parikkala. Jassi still had some driving before he was in Joutseno.

It had once again been a funny weekend with good friends in Hailuoto! Race in August had been surprising and at least it had been the first race ever when we had been sweating all the time!

J.A.

In the mid July there was still at least 1 Great White Egret in Siikalahti. It stayed all the time in the reeds on the northern side of the dam-road and was seen only in flight very briefly. I also visited Imatra again and saw this time a couple of Grey Wagtails in Tornansilta. Other birds seen in Siikalahti were a male Hen Harrier in Siikalahti on the 13th and 2 female plumaged Smews on the 14th of July.

On the 15th of July we drove to north-west and stopped in Siilinjärvi Raasio where we saw 5 Ringed Plovers, a Ruff, 2 Red-necked Phalaropes, 2 Curlew Sandpipers, 2 Temminck Stints, 4 Dunlins, 1 Little Stint and 1 Sanderling. We continued until Siikajoki Tauvo where we put up the tent at 2 a.m.

On the 16th of July we woke up after the heavy rain finally stopped at 11 a.m. We walked to Tauvo Ulkonokka where we saw a Bittern, 16 Ringed Plovers, 24 Curlew Sandpipers, 3 Sanderlings, 120 Dunlins, 4 Little Stints, a Temminck Stint, a Spotted Redshank, 7 Little Terns, 2 Arctic Skuas, a Caspian Tern and so on.

Then we continued to Sääri where we counted 192 Mute Swans! In Lumijoki Sannanlahti we saw nothing interesting and in Liminka Virkkula only 2 White-tailed Eagles. Finally we were in Kempele Vihiluoto where we had booked a room. In the evening we met my parent and my brother Pirkka’s family and ate well together.

On the 17th day we visited Oulunsalo Kemepeleenlahti and heard a Spotted Crake. During the day we celebrated my brother Riku’s daughter Oona’s confirmation parties. Unfortunately we had a long way back home so we had to leave in the afternoon. On the way we stopped in Raasio again and saw 6 Little Ringed Plovers, 10 Curlew Sandpipers, 2 Temminck Stints, 144 Dunlins, 2 Little Stints, a Sanderling, 2 Common Sandpipers and a Green Sandpiper.

On the 21st day I counted 116 Barnacle Geese in Joukionsalmi and saw a White-tailed Eagle in Siikalahti. During the weekend I was sailing in Saimaa with my friends and we camped in a big tent in islands. Only better birds were a couple of migrating flocks of Common Scores and a few Cormorants.

On the 25th of July a Nutcracker had arrived again to Kangaskylä. We get every autumn some birds from Punkaharju Metla. In the afternoon we visited Siikalahti and found a young Pygmy Owl roosting in the middle of bushes. An angry Garden Warbler helped us to find the owl.

On the 29th day I saw a young Hen Harrier in Siikalahti and during the next days we found some families of Red-backed Shrikes. It is amazing how this species can be hiding until the youngsters are leaving their nests. On the 31st day a visit to Saari wasn’t good but we had the first flock of Common Crossbills in Parikkala for whole year! And in the next days I saw some more Common Crossbills. Only a couple of Grey Herons were seen, nothing else really.

J.A.

On the 8th of July, Friday morning I started to change my mind and think about twitching trip to Rauma. There had been a Rufous Bush Chat in Kylmäpihlaja island since Monday and still this morning. We had come back from a long and hard trip to Polar Ural In Sunday and I had been thinking that I couldn’t drive long distances for a long time after all that travelling by train. But I had seen too many pictures from Kylmäpihlaja and not only the bird but the island too looked beautiful.

So I sent a few SMS and asked my friends opinions about the twitch and luckily “Potu” Suojarinne replied and was interested. Also Hanna was easy talk to join us so after my lunch-hour I was already buying morning tickets to the boat to Kylmäpihlaja. An hour before we were leaving, Sampsa Cairenius called and also he joined us. So we were 4 participants.

We picked up Sampsa in Joutseno and Potu in Lahti and continued a long way to Rauma where we finally were in the evening. There we camped in Poroholma camping which was the place where the boat was leaving next morning.

On the 9th of July we woke up at 7 a.m. and after some shopping we were back in Poroholma where were already many other twitchers too. The boat left at 9:30 a.m. and it was full – there were 60 people and most of them were birders.

On the way we saw some Grreat Black-backed Gulls, Arctic Terns, Common Eiders, Greylag Geese, an Arctic Skua and so on and after 50 minutes we were in Kylmäpihlaja. On the harbor we saw Black Guillemots breeding and heard a Rock Pipit singing.

We were hardly out of the boat, when someone already shouted that the bird had been found. So soon we also saw a Rufous Bush Chat hiding on the ground behind some vegetation. And of course soon it was flying because of too many people going too close.

There were many photographers and some of them were going too close to the bird, so after some time, we decided to go to see other birds and of course see the island. We found soon a Rock Pipit, some Linnets, Common Whitethroats and of course terns and Black-headed Gulls were all around the island. A colony of Sand Martins were breeding in an odd place under a dock in harbor and Black Guillemots were flying to the rocky breakwater.

On the sea we saw some flocks of moving Velvet Scoters, a couple of Common Scoters, another Arctic Skua and on the shore we found a Turnstone and a Dunlin. Little Gull had 2 fledlings and we saw also a Lesser Black-backed Gull with badly broken wing. We also saw some Grass Snakes.

We were walking around the island for an hour and then when the second boat of the day arrived, went to see the Rufous Bush Chat again, and of course met some familiar birders again. This time the group of birders was acting more careful and I managed to get a short video of the bird. Then we still climbed to the lighthouse to take some pictures of the island.

Finally at 2:30 p.m. we left back towards Poroholma. And there we left straight towards home. It was a long drive but after dropping Potu and Sampsa, we were in Parikkala before midnight. We still visited Siikalahti and Kullinsuo but saw only a Grey Heron and heard some Water Rails and Corncrakes and in two places 2 fledlings of Long-eared Owl.

On the next morning, the 10th of July I managed to twitch a Great White Egret in Siikalahti. One bird had been there for some days, but on Saturday there had been 2 birds together. The birds/bird stayed once again in the middle of the reedbed on the northern side of the bay and at least one bird was seen on the next days too.

J.A.