. . Lintuharrastajan päiväkirja Birders diary . .

There were more and more geese in Siikalahti area every day. On the 4th of October we went to count the geese that came to stay night in Siikalahti bay and we saw 10 000 Barnacle Geese, 200 Tundra Bean Geese, 200 White-fronted Geese, 1 Canada Goose and 1 Brent Goose. There were also 340 Whooper Swans and even 66 Bewick’s Swans!

On the 6th of October we participated to a national Birding place -competition that FotoFennica had organized. It was a good idea to organize this kind of happening on international EuroBirdWatch -weekend. In this competition a team had to find birds in one place by feet. The competition started already at midnight but we went to Siikalahti at 6:30 a.m. just about 45 minutes before the sun rise. And then we stayed there in Siikalahti until the end of the competition, 6 p.m.

In our team there were me, Hanna “Potu” Suojarinne, Matti Lötjönen and Veijo Vilska. Hanna spent the first 6 hours in a tent that we had put up to the field where the geese were feeding. She took more than 25 gigabytes of pictures!

The weather was perfect and southern wind stopped more and more geese to the fields and to the bay, only White-fronted Geese kept on migrating and we counted altogether 7000 White-fronted or unidentified grey geese. 4 White-tailed Eagles, 2 Goshawks and some hunters were scaring the local geese and at least 11 000 Barnacle Geese were flying over us many times and it was amazing!

Other birds we saw during the competition were: a Golden Eagle, a very late Marsh Harrier, 2 Rough-legged Buzzards, 2 Common Buzzards, a Merlin, 2 Red-throated Divers, 21 Long-tailed Ducks, a Golden Plover, 3 White-backed Woodpeckers, 2 Wrens, a Chiffchaff, 350 Waxwings and altogether we saw 78 species!

During the day many people visited Siikalahti and they all got amazing experiences with the geese!

The last our of the competition we spent again in the tower where we could see all the geese again coming to the bay to stay over night. Amazing!

We came 4th in the competition. The winner was Lappeenranta, Joutseno Konnunsuo where were more than 70 birders in a huge area (and I am pretty sure they all weren’t walking). The second was Espoo Laajalahti (85), 3rd Parainen, Korppoo Utö (81) and 5th after us was Lemland Lågskär (75). Altogether 21 places were participating.

On Sunday 7th of October Hanna went to photograph geese again but many Barnacle Geese had left during the night and there were many hunters so Hanna didn’t get that many good pictures. I did a brief visit to Saari where I saw still 5000 Barnacle Geese and a late Northern Wheatear.

When I was back in Siikalahti I saw an extremely late Honey Buzzard migrating. Soon Hanna had got enough of geese too and when the weather was changing worse we decided to drive home to rest.

J.A.

On Friday 28tg of September I ended y work already before mid-day and left towards North-West. After a couple of hours driving I picked up Jari Kiljunen in Kuopio and together we continued towards Oulunsalo. On the way we saw a Black Woodpeckers, Black Grouses, a Nutcracker, a Kestrel and a Great Grey Shrike. At 5:30 p.m. we drove to Hailuoto ferry and after an hour we parked to Pöllä where we had the familiar cottage rented again. There we met Antti Vierimaa, Antti Peuna, Mikko Ala-Kojola and Harry Nyström who had already came to the island earlier and had been birding for some hours there. Harry had bought once again lots of pizza so soon we started

After an hour my brother Pirkka came too and the rest of the evening we were eatling, having sauna and having good time! We went to sleep about at midnight.

19th of September – rally-day! We woke up about at 5 a.m. and after an hour we were driving towards Riisinnokka. Our team was Harry, Jassi, Pirkka and me, but also Antti V, Antti P and Mikko had decided to start in Riisinnokka. On the walk through the forests we flushed a Woodcock but it was 15 minutes before the race started. A couple of minutes later we found a Three-toed Woodpecker and we decided to wait until seven and start the race with it.

When we had walked to the coast, there were already 3 other teams. It was very quiet on the sea but luckily there were lots of ducks and some better birds with them like 10 Scaups, Smews, Mute Swans, Long-tailed Ducks, Common Scoters and so on. 2 Golden Povers flew past us and a Dunlin was flying here and there. At least 4 White-tailed Eagles were flushing the ducks and other better birds were a Hen Harrier, a Marsh Harrier, a Merlin, a noisy Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and finally something from the sea – a young Arctic Skua.

We walked back to our car through the forest but we couldn’t find anything better – not even that Woodcock. Of course we gor many common species to our list.

In Kirkkosalmi bird-tower we met 2 new teams but luckily they weren’t all the time in the tower. There we saw at least 7 more White-tailed Eagles and another Hen Harrier and some new species like Gadwalls, Shovelers, a Sparrowhawk, a Rough-legged Buzzard, a Blackbird and 2 Swallows.

Next we decided to continue to Ulkokarvo where we saw 5 Slavonian Grebes and 2 Bean Geese but nothing else new. Then we made some empty stops, before we continued to Ojakylä where House and Tree Sparrows and 2 Rock Pigeons were seen. Then we continued east to Huikku where only new birds were 2 Velvet Scoters. Pökönnokka was worse than ever even though we really hammered it well. Only Skylarks were found. Well we saw also a flock of 20 Golden Plovers and 1 Dunlin but it was really a big disappointment.

So soon we continued back to the central part of the island and to Järventakusta fields where we saw only more Skylarks. In Koivukylä fields we saw a Kestrel and a Jackdaw before we continued to western tip of the island to Marjaniemi. But again the sea was empty – only new bird was a Red-necked Grebe.

Then we took the bad and extremely long road to Keskiniemi and there we walked through meadows again but nothing was found. From the shore we found 2 Ringed Plovers but nothing else and also the sea was almost empty, luckily we found about 10 Black-throated Divers but no Red-throated at all.

We had still 1.5 hours left when we decided to drive to Kuivasäikkä to see if there were any waders there. We hammered again lots of meadows but no Jack Snipes were found. A big flock of 40 Golden Plovers and finally 2 Grey Plovers were found. Then we flushed a Lapland Bunting and found a flock of 15 Dunlins with one more Grey Plover but no new species were found anymore.

The results were given in Hailuoto school and surprisingly there was only one more team that we hadn’t met. So many old and good teams hadn’t participated this year. So we almost knew we or our friends’ team would win. We hadn’t been very lucky so it wasn’t a surprise that they won with 85 species and we came 2nd with 82 species.

The evening was fun as we could celebrate our victorious rally! We ate a lot, had sauna and had lots of fun! The weather was turning bad when we went to sleep.

29th of September we woke up at 7 a.m. and the weather was so bad that we just cleaned the cottage and visited only Ulkokarvo before we continued to the ferry at 10:30 a.m. We said goodbyes to everyone and started a long way back home. I dropped Jassi to Kuopio at 2:30 p.m. and I was finally in Parikkala at 6 p.m. after I had stopped shopping in Savonlinna.

J.A. (Pictures Harry Nyström, Pirkka Aalto and Mikko Ala-Kojola)

The numbers of geese started to get bigger in Parikkala. On the 23rd of September there was a flock of 500 Barnacle Geese in Särkisalmi and on the 24th day I counted 4000 Barnacle Geese in Vartialahti. On the 25th day I went to Siikalahti on my lunch-hour and the migration was really going on! In a less than an hour I saw 2500 Barnacle and a flock of 2000 Brent Geese. And there were many other birds migrating too like 8 Red-throated Divers, 14 Rough-legged Buzzards, Wigeons, Pintails, Red-brested Mergansers and so on. In the afternoon agfter work I left birding with “Rolle” Mortensen. We started from Siikalahti and in a less than an hour again we saw 3000 Barnacle Geese, 3000 Brent Geese, a White-tailed Eagle and 2 Peregrine Falcons. Most of the geese were migrating towards west and a little bit too north so we decided to move to Saari.

In Akanvaara Tetrisuo we found 4500 Barnacle geese and 500 of them were migrating. A White-taile Eagle was also seen. Next local geese we found in Jyrkilä where some 4000 geese were feeding on a field. I started to check them carefully and found the same, or at least similar minima Cackling Goose that I had twitched in Kitee some days earlier. Rolle managed to see it too but then the flock flushed for no reason and we could see that there had been even more birds on the lake. We counted 9000 geese on flight. We also saw 290 Cranes and a Hen Harrier there.

Next we continued to Kuposenmäki to see if the geese came to overnight to Lake Pien Rautjärvi. There were already thousands of geese on the fields but soon also birds from Jyrkilä and maybe some other fields started to arrive too. Altogether we saw about 20 000 Barnacle Geese! When it started to come too dark we left to home.

On the 26th of September I visited Siikalahti again on my lunch-hour. The migration was still going on. Geese had been migrating whole night. 1500 local and 1100 migrating Barnacle Geese were counted. Cranes were migrating too and I saw 134 of them in less than an hour. After a long day at work I still drove to Saari Kuposenmäki where at least 12 000 Barnacle Geese came to the lake again.

On the 27th of September the migration was almost stopped because of the wind had changed. In Kullinsuo I found 2500 Barnacle Geese and 2 Bewick’s Swans and in Vartialahti there wasa flock of 1500 Barnacle Geese. After my work I drove to Saari again where I counted 2500 Barnacle Geese in Akanvaara Tetrisuo, 4000 in Pohjasuo, 8000 in Jyrkilä and 6000 in Kuposenmäki. Some of the birds in Kuposenmäki were same than I had seen already in Jyrkilä. Other nice birds were 2 Great Grey Shrikes in Akanvaara Tetrisuo, 30 Bewick’s Swans in Pohjasuo and a Grey Heron in Kuposenmäki. I saw still only some tens of Bean and White-fronted Geese so at least most of White-fronted Geese were still coming.

On the 30th of September once I had just driven from Hailuoto and I was unpacking my car I saw a flock of 290 White-fronted Geese migrating over me. On the next day, 1st of October, I visited Siikalahti and there were 200 Bean Geese, 60 White-fronted Geese, 600 Barnacle Geese, 325 Whooper Swans and 6 Bewick’s Swans. I also saw again the same Nutcracker and a Chifffchaff was calling next to my working place.

J.A.

Almost all around Finland owl-ringers had caught good numbers of Tengmalm’s Owls during the last week or two. Even in Kesälahti one of our friends had caught almost 10 owls per best nights. So last week we went one evening to Tarvaslampi to Hanna’s parents and built up the mist-net and prepared to catch some owls. Even thought the weather was very good, we didn’t catch any owls. Only one Tengmalm’s Owl was calling some times close to sauna where we were cooling down after sauna.

Then the autumn came with rains and winds and only on the 20th of September was the next good evening. When the sun was setting we started with Pygmy Owl tape and played it for more than an hour but no owls were seen or heard. When it was completely dark, we changed to Tengmalm’s Owl tape and very soon we head an owl calling. We checked the net every half an hour but again after sauna we just heard the owl calling. Then on the next check it finally had flight to the net.

This big 2nd calendar year female Tengmalm’s Owl was ringed, measured, weighted and of course photographed before we relieved it to the back-yard. At midnight we stopped and left to home to sleep.

On the 21st evening we were again in Tarvaslampi. Harri Partanen joined us too. Unfortunately no owls were observed at all and at midnight we gave up again.

And there we were again on the 22nd of September. The weather was optimal and soon there was the first owl calling close to the net. And before 11 p.m. it was hanging on the mist-net. This Tengmalm’s Owl was small 2nd calendar year male. When we were relieving this bird there was another bird calling close to the net again, but this bird wasn’t caught.

Hopefully we have good weather soon again. Tomorrow it rains…

J.A.

On the 16th of September we left early to do some birding with Pekka Punnonen. We started from Siikalahti dam-road where we heard a couple of strange Chiffchaffs. The first one was not so rare “e-ly” but another sounded like Siberian Chiffchaff. Unfortunately we didn’t see it. We also heard a Rustic Bunting shortly but didn’t see it either. Only birds we saw on the bushes were 2 Sedge Warblers and some Goldcrests.

We continued along the border-road towards Saari and first 2 stops were quiet. In Tyrjä we heard a Wren calling and Kanavalampi was almost empty. In Tarassiinlahti we stayed for an hour and saw 2 Sedge Warblers, a Bluethroat, at least 5 Willow Warblers, a Chiffchaff and again we heard a Rustic Bunting. Some flocks of Geese were migrating and a White-tailed Eagle was soaring on the sky.

In Jyrkilä we found about 400 Cranes, 123 Whooper Swans, a Bewick’s Swan and even 1100 Barnacle Geese. Only about 10 Tundra Bean Geese were on the fields but some flocks were seen migrating. Also some hundreds of Barnacle Geese were seen on the sky. A Hen Harrier was hunting along the fields.

Pohjanranta was empty and so were Ratila and Pohjasuo fields. In Akanvaara Tetrisuo we walked a lot in the fields but found only a Whinchat, 3 Northern Wheatears, Meadow Pipits and Skylarks. Another White-tailed Eagle was seen too. The best bird was seen when we were already leaving when a Nutcracker was migrating towards north. Then we left back towards Parikkala.

After lunch Hanna left with us too and we drove towards Tetrisuo fields. On the way I found a Peregrine from the sky, but soon it continued its migration towards south-west. On Tetrisuo fields we saw Golden Plovers, Skylarks, some Snipes and Northern Wheatears and a Lapland Bunting. 80 Barnacle Geese were searching for a place where to land, a Rough-legged Buzzard and a Hobby were also seen.

Next we stopped by the dam-road again and we saw a White-backed Woodpecker flying over the bay. Otherwise nothing special was seen, only lots of thrushes flying here and there. So we continued to Kullinsuo where 3 Snipes, a bluethroat, 13 Golden Plovers and a Ruff were seen. Last we walked in Lahdensuo where only Meadow Pipits and Skylarks were found. A Rough-legged Buzzard was soaring on the sky.

The next goose-trip we made on the 22nd of September and to Saari again. We stopped first in Tarvaslampi where we heard a Rustic Bunting. There were good numbers of other passerines too, even though it was raining. We continued to Akanvaara Tetrisuo where we walked on the fields for some time and found 80 Meadow Pipits and a Tree Pipit. Black Grouses were lekking on the fields.

It was quiet in Ratila, Pohjasuo and Pohjaranta but in Jyrkilä we found about 2000 Barnacle Geese. When we were back in our car I found a harrier flying over us. It was a female Pallid Harrier and Hanna managed to get a couple of pictures of it even though it continued straight towards west.

Tarassiinlahti and Kanavalampi were empty too so we continued along the border to Siikalahti where the rain had finally stopped. A flock of 80 Brent Geese, a Smew and a Pochard were the only better birds there.

In the evening I twitched together with Pekka Punnonen a Cackling Goose in Kitee Puhos. The bird was with about 2000 Barnacke Geese but luckily it was easily observed from the road. I am not quessing which sub-species it was as I don’t know where to find the right information about the sub-species, if it is even possible to find somewhere…

J.A.

On the 5th of September we left to count Cranes in Saari. We were three groups and together with Hanna we started at Akanvaara Tetrisuo. We saw a male Hen Harrier, 8 Red-throated Pipits, 5 Lapland Buntings but no Cranes. In Pohjasuo we saw again 2 Red-throated Pipits, but in Ratila we finally found Cranes. There was a big, 394 birds flock feeding on a field. We managed to count only 15 young birds before the flock flushed. There was also 44 Whooper Swans on the field.
In Pohjanranta we saw only a Grey Heron and then we continued to Uukuniemi Suurenjärvenliete where we though the most of the Cranes would have gone. Surprisingly there was only one family of Cranes so soon we continued to Kumpu view-tower where I left Hanna and drove back to Ratila to check if the birds were back there. The fields were still empty but Hanna managed to see 350 Cranes flying to Northern Karelia to a small bog to sleep.

On the 7th of September I left to hammer some nearby fields with Harri Partanen. There had been maybe more Great Snipes than ever (after the bird had extincted in Finland). We started near Siikalahti in Koivula fields but found only 5 Red-throated pipits, 8 Whinchats and a flock of 300 Wood Pigeons. Many fields weren’t harvested yet or then just too long to walk so we continued until Lahdensuo where we finally found a perfect looking green field. We walked for some time when finally a Great Snipe was found! And after a couple of steps more we flushed another one! We also saw a Red-backed Shrike. We calle our friend Matti Lötjänen to twitch the birds but suprisingly we never found them anymore even though we had seen exactly where another of them had dropped.
Matti continued to field-work (harvesting) and we continued to walk one more field and of course we found one more Great Snipe which was flushed together with a Snipe but also this Great Snipe managed to disappear and wasn’t found anymore when Matti was again together with us hammering the place where the bird had dropped down.

On the 8th day we were checking some fields again with Hanna, Harri and partly Matti too. We started in Siikalahti patotie from where we walked to Peltola fields and then to Kaukola fields but only observation was a Green Hawker. In Koivula fields we found a Lapland Bunting and finally we continued to Lahdensuo. We checked all the fields very well but found only the same Snipe than the day before. There was a flock of 12 Northern Wheatears, a Wood Lark was flushed with Skylarks and one more Lapland Bunting was also seen. The best bird was a young Bluthroat that was found from a bushy ditch. When we were back at home we saw a Hedgehog on our garden.

On the 9th day I left to check some more fields with Harri and Matti. In Siikalahti we saw 5 Barncale Geese migrating and once I was watching the through my scope I saw a flock of 23 Bar-tailed Godwits migrating far over them. A Chiffchaff and a Water Rail were calling and a Bluethroat was seen but soon we continued to check more fields. In Kontiolampi we saw a Roe Deer which was my first ever in Parikkala outside Siikalahti. We checked some flocks of passerines and found some Bramblings and a couple of Long-tailed Tits but nothing better. In Kullinsuo we hammered some fields again but found only 3 Snipes and a Lapland Bunting. A Hen Harrier and a Goshawk were seen on the sky.
We still continued to Tetrisuo where on the previous evening Matti had flushed a Great Snipe. It had been in a middle of a field and Matti had seen it from combine harvester! We really walked a lot but found only 4 Snipes, a Lapland Bunting, 45 Meadow Pipits and 5 Tree Pipits. Another Hen Harrier was also seen.

At 7:10 p.m. I got a message that Jarmo Pirhonen had found a young Pectoral Sandpiper in Joutseno Kukkuroinmäki. I knew it would be hard to get there before it gets dark but I decided to try. At 8 p.m. I picked up Sampsa Cairenius in Joutseno and the sun had already set down. 10 minutes later we were in Kukkuroinmäki pools and luckily “Jamppa” and some twitchers were still there and they had a “Pecs” on their scopes. The light wasn’t the problem but the distance! The bird was very far but luckily it was together with a Ruff and a Ringed Plover so the size and the shape were easy to see. Luckily it was feeding on water with a dark back-ground so it was also possible to see some colours and even the breast colouration with 60 times zoom. It was my first Pectoral Sandpiper in South Karelia and only 3rd in Finland. There were also Barnacle and Canada Geese and a Greylag Goose. Soon it came too dark so we left back home.

In the evening of 10th of September we were counting Cranes in Siikalahti. A week earlier Konza, Matti and Harri had counted about 700 Cranes but now they had almost all left to migration. We saw altogether less than 100 Cranes and I saw only about 20 of them. Nothing else interesting was seen from the dam-road.

On the 11th day we counted Cranes in Saari again. I was in Kumpu where I saw about 70 Cranes that weren’t seen from pther places. Most Cranes were in Jyrkilä and they left east to Russia before the dark. Altogether we counted about 850 Cranes. I saw also a flock of 130 Brent Geese, a Rustic Bunting and 8 Golden Plovers.

J.A.