While birding in forests we visited Siberian Jays. They were this time well visible that they haven’t done for long time. They stayed with us for some time posing on pine branches. There was already 10cm snow. Other observations were Tree-toed Woodpecker, Gold Crests plus Elk and Hazel Grouse foot prints.
After we had come back from England I was very tired at work – I had been sleeping only 2.5 hours. So I decide to go out on my lunch-hour and drove to Siikalahti to see if the bay was already completely frozen. It had been -8 degrees last night. I was driving along the road towards Siikalahti when I saw a pale bird perched on the wire behind the field. I stopped and immediately realized it was a Hawk Owl! It was my first self-found Hawk Owl in Parikkala and only second ever in Siikalahti – my local patch.
In November we decided to have a bird-competition. On the 1st day I saw a Canada Goose, a Wigeon, a Tufted Duck, 2 Common Scoters, 2 Great Crested Grebes, a Grey-headed Woodpecker, a Blackbird and a Redwing and so on and on the 2nd day a Coal Tit and flock of Long-tailed Tits and so on.
On the 3rd day we had a floorball tournament but during the day I had a message that the first ever for Finland and only 4th for Europe and WP Slaty-backed Gull had been seen in Espoo Ämmässuo rubbish tip! Anyway I decided to play the games but in the evening I called to Pekka Punnonen and in the evening I drove to his home to Lappeenranta.
On the 4th of November we woke up at 3 a.m. and a half an hour later we picked up Mikael Rytkönen and started to drive towards south. Before 7 a.m. we were in Kirkkonummi Vitträsk where the bird had still been seen late in the previous evening and soon we had walked to the shore of the lake. There were already some 20 twitchers and more were coming all the time even though it was still completely dark!
After some waiting we started to see some shapes of swimming gulls and grebes and after 15 minutes more we saw that there was only one dark-backed gull on the lake. Of course we thought it would be a Great Black-backed Gull but we kept on looking at it as it was our only hope. The light was still bad and there was more fog coming all the time but after maybe 15 minutes waiting again it finally opened its wings and it really looked good! We had already thought that the secondaries had a wide white border but it was clear when it had opened its wings! Maybe we really had the right bird! Soon the bird flushed with some Herring Gulls and we could see it even much better – it really was a Slaty-backed Gull! It was still far but when it was flying against the dark forest on its back-ground we could see the colouration of its wings and the dark hood and even its moulting in its secondaries.
About 100 twitchers were happy now but there were still many more coming but the bird had already disappeared to the fog. But we thought that it had just left to the rubbish tip again so we left there too.
Ämmässuo rubbish tip is a closed area so we drove along a bad road to a place where it is a best visibility inside the area. Luckily we managed to park our car even though there were already too many cars. And soon we were watching to the foggy rubbish tip. Some Pine Grosbeaks were flying over us and one stopped to the top of pine to sing for a minute. Soon the visibility came better and we could see some hundreds of gulls but there were thousands more behind the rubbish-hill. All gulls were flying a couple of times but all dark-backed gulls we saw were Great Black-backed Gulls. Then Tero Linjama found another interesting gull – a Caspian Gull! It was a classic-looking 1st calendar year bird and even though it was far, it was possible to identify as we saw it opening its wings. But soon all birds were flying again and we lost it.
The Slaty-backed Gull wasn’t found but soon we got a message that it was again in Vitträsk. All twitchers left and of course there was a chaos on the muddy road. We weren’t in that bad hurry but we decided to leave soon too. After all it was a false alarm – there had been a dark Herring Gull or some kind of hybrid. Anyway we stopped there briefly and saw a Red-necked Grebe, Black Woodpecker and a Nutcracker. But then we decided to do something else. We drove to Espoo Laajalahti where we saw 40 Gadwalls, 36 Smews, 4 Grey Herons, a Pine Grosbeak, a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and so on. Then we drove to Kirkkonummi Saltfjärden where we found a Hawk Owl and heard a late Reed Bunting. Then we still drove back to Vitträsk where still were lots of twitchers and also lots of gulls but not the right one. It was already getting dark when we decided to start our long way back home. I was in Parikkala at 10 p.m.
On the next days I tried to increase my November bird-race list and on the 5th day I heard a Hazel Hen and saw 2 Siberian Jays and on the 7th day I saw 4 Velvet Scoters, 2 Long-tailed Ducks, a Great Grey Shrike and finally 4 Pine Grosbeaks (first ones for me in Parikkala for a couple of years). On the 8th day I saw a Smew and some Common Crossbills and on 9th day a Dipper and so on.
On the 10th of November I did a winter-bird count with Matti Lötjönen. We started from my garden and walked around Siikalahti. In 6 hours we saw 37 species and 1156 birds. The best birds were 313 Whooper Swans, a Canada Goose, a Long-tailed Duck, a Hazel Hen, a Black Grouse, a Pygmy Owl, a Grey-headed Woodpecker, a Coal Tit, a Crested Tit, 6 Long-tailed Tits, 2 Starlings, a Pine Grosbeak, a Gold Finch, 260 Redpolls, an Arctic Redpoll, 8 Common Crossbills and so on.
J.A.
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.