Lesser Butterfly-orchid is one of our most common orchids. It grows in Birch mixed forests having good soil. Esker slopes with nutrients are common areas too. These plants were in this kind of place, growing among other grove plants.
Lesser Butterfly-orchid has strong scent during nights. They try to attract moths and hawk moths with this smell.
In history this plant was said to be sacred.
H.A.
Earlier I have sawn only this plant without flowers. We found this location couple of years ago, but then it was late in summer and only big leafs were visible. Last year we attempted to visit site too late. This year timing was perfect and flowering was its best.
Lady’s-slipper orchid is big orchid species. These attracts wild bees that fall inside flower. There is only one way out and while bee is crawling out from hole in back of flower it is covered by pollen.
Lady’s-slipper orchid grow in calcareous soils that are rare in Finland. This orchid has been protected for years but still growing sites are kept as secrets. Wild plants do not grow well in gardens, but still there is people who will try to move these big orchids to their gardens.
In same forest there was also singing Red-breasted Flycather and Wren. We also found Tau emperor moth resting on twig. This fresh female was still drying its wings. Pine Hawk-moth was older having missing scales on its wings.
Twitching
After the week tour with a British group I was in Tampere without any plans what to do next. I had still more than a week holiday left before a military refresher course. So I decided to drive towards Oulu anyway; it’s too long I’ve been there more than one day. There are many good birding places and of course many friends and also relatives to see. But I was too tired to drive straight until Oulu, so my first goal was to get to Jyväskylä where a Baikal Teal had been found.
Somehow I managed to drive until Jyväskylä Manunsaari where the Baikal Teal had been seen. It had been seen just 5 minutes before I got there but it had swum to a reed-bed on the other side of the lake. I met my old friend Antti Pesola there and he had also missed the bird by a couple of minutes. As he was in a hurry to go to twitch another lifer, a Red-rumped Swallow to Espoo, he decided to drive to the other side of the lake to see if the duck was visible there. I decided to follow him so after 12 kilometres drive we found the exact place. We started to scan the reed-bed and then a couple of Mallards flushed just in front of us, and 2 other Mallards and a Baikal Teal followed them even though they were more than 200 metres from us. All the ducks flew over us and disappeared behind the closest trees. We ran after them but couldn’t see then on the lake. Antti managed to see one Mallard climbing to an island far on the other side of the lake so we thought that the Baikal Teal was also there. And the bird was found again soon.
But I was too tired to do anything anymore. But it was just the same where I was going to rest, so I joined Antti and Matti Tuunanen and tried to sleep on back-seat of Antti’s car. I managed to sleep only a little but surprisingly soon we were in Espoo Laajalahti where we walked to Maari bird-tower. There were plenty of twitchers and in a couple of minutes we found a Red-rumped Swallow from the flock of Swallows, House Martins and Sand Martins. We also saw 16 Broad-billed Sandpipers, 2 Gadwalls, 2 Slavonian Grebes, 2 Temminck’s Stints and heard a Reed Warbler there. I also saw briefly a Wagtail that probably was a female Citrine Wagtail but the light was too bad to that direction. Soon we continued to the other side of the bay where in Elfvik we twitched a Bushchat Shrike. So it was the 3rd second for me in Finland during the day! A Corn Crake was calling and a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker was seen there too. Pretty soon we were on the way back to Jyväskylä again.
Again I tried to sleep on the way but I couldn’t. Before Jyväskylä we stopped in Joutsa Rusila fish-pools where we twitched a Mandarin Duck. Finally we were in Jyväskylä and I felt even more tired than when we had left. So I just drove my car to Manunsaari and went to sleep to the back-seat. I’d try to get pictures of Baikal Teal when I’d wake up.
On the 31st of May I woke up at 5 a.m. and met some Baikal Teal twitchers – the bird had been missing for more than 10 hours, last evening there had been 30 searchers and all the regular places had been checked. So I decided to drive to check the place where we had seen the bird on previous afternoon – it wasn’t one of the regular places I thought. I couldn’t find the bird from the reed-bed but I decided to check the regular places by scope as they were very well visible from this place – and there the bird was in its regular place, just under a jetty. Soon it started to swim and swam behind the island. I put the message out and decided to drive back to Manunsaari to get the pictures I wanted. Soon the bird was found again and I managed to get some pretty good shots before it again swam to the wrong side of the island.
Tauvo
I was happy to leave Jyväskylä and continued towards north. I had decided to drive to Siikajoki Tauvo bird-ringing-station. I had already called to a ringer Matti Tynjälä and he warmly welcomed me there.
I was already in Siikajoki when I got a message about a possible Steppe Eagle in Kalajoki. I decided to drive to Alhonmäki to see if it comes there. So I spent there 3 hours and saw a young Golden Eagle, a Honey Buzzard, a Goshawk, 2 Sparrowhawks and a Common Buzzard but nothing else. Then I continued to Tauvo where I carried my luggage to the station and went to sleep.
I woke up after a couple of hours and left to walk around the protected Ulkonokka spit. Once I reached the shore I saw a strange 3rd calendar year harrier flying straight away from me. It was just gray upper side and there were no clear black wing-tips on under side either. I was sure it was a Pallid or Montagu’s Harrier but I hoped to see it better later.
I walked around the spit for 3 hours and saw 6 Little Terns, 3 Shelducks, a Turn Stone, family of Greylag Geese, 10 Ringed Plovers, 2 Dunlins, 10 Temminck’s Stints, a Red-backed Shrike and so on. When I got back to the station Matti had put up the mist-nets and started to check them every hour. It was surprisingly quiet on the mist-nets so I went to sleep for a couple of hours again.
The 1st of June. And I slept too long – I woke up after 5 a.m. but luckily there hadn’t been any hurry with the birds on mist-nets and I hadn’t missed anything better. During the morning we caught a Blackbird, a Chiffchaff, a Common Rosefinch, a Yellowhammer, a Siskin, a Redpoll and some more common species. The best bird of the morning was a Sedge Warbler with a Croatian ring! Every hour I spent 15 minutes in a bird-tower and heard a Willow Grouse and a Bittern and saw a Three-toed Woodpecker, 7 Broad-billed Sandpiper and a migrating Hawk Owl! It was really migrating north-east high on the sky! I also saw the same harrier again and now identified it as a Pallid Harrier. It was very far but I managed to see it well enough.
After a good day-sleep I went again to Ulkonokka. Of course the harrier wasn’t seen there, but in Munahieta I found another rarity – a Little Bunting! Also a Water Rail that was calling in same place was a local rarity. Other birds were pretty much the same than day earlier: 3 Shelducks, 3 Arctic Skuas, 2 Red-necked Phalaropes, 2 Broad-billed Sandpipers, but then weather changed and a thick fog covered everything. So I walked back to the station and then it started to rain too.
On the 2nd of June I had managed to change my rhythm totally – now I was awake at night and sleeping the day. I was making all the mist-net rounds but because of the wet weather there weren’t many birds. Luckily in the morning the bushes started to get dry and the birds started to move. Some better birds we caught were a White Wagtail, 2 Common Rosefinches and a couple of Whinchats. During the day we caught 65 birds + 13 controls.
After a short sleep I went to Ulkonokka again. The water was very high so I had to take my wellingtons away a couple of times and wade. Anyway I managed to get my wellingtons wet. Best birds were 16 Broad-billed Sandpipers, 2 Turnstones, 2 Red-necked Phalaropes, 2 Arctic Skuas, 3 Shelducks, a Garganey, a White-tailed Eagle and a Water Rail. It really is a long walk – 7 kilometres – to go around the Ulkonokka spit.
In the evening I slept again and woke up when the mist-nets were up again. The best birds during the night were a Blackcap and a Snipe. I also climbed to the tower a couple of times but saw only 7 Broad-billed Sandpipers and a couple of Little Terns.
At morning Mikko and Liisa Ojanen arrived and after some chatting with them I decided to leave to Oulu. On the way I checked Vartti fields but the wind was so hard that there was nothing to see. I also stopped in Liminka Virkkula where we birded together with a guide Antti Vierimaa for a couple of hours and saw 3 White-tailed Eagles, but not a Sandwiched Tern that Antti had seen on the previous day. In the afternoon I drove to Oulu to my brother Riku.
Gull-billed Tern
On the 4th of June I didn’t really do birding but when I was still shopping in Oulu Antti called me that a Sandwiched Tern was back in Virkkula. So I drove there immediately and the bird was luckily still there when I got to the bird-tower. It had just flight to a bay where it wasn’t visible but after a couple of minutes we saw it. The bird was flying along the shore but then suddenly started to get higher and higher to the sky. It was extremely far, maybe 2.5 kilometres from us but when it got very fast back down I started to see some identification marks of it – and it really didn’t look like a Sandwiched Tern to me! Soon other twitchers came too and I told them that someone should drive soon to Puhkiavanperä bird-tower which was much closer to the bird than we were – as I thought the bird was the 3rd Gull-billed Tern for Finland! Soon a couple of birders left there and I also decided to follow them. They managed to get to the tower before me and the bird was a Gull-billed Tern! I had still 100 metres to the tower when I heard a familiar call just some metres from me – a Penduline Tit was calling 6 times but I couldn’t find the bird. I called to the twitchers about the tit and continued to tower. The Penduline Tit called 3 times more but the twitchers didn’t see it either, but the Gull-billed Tern was missing. Antti still saw it a couple of times from Virkkula but I never saw it again. Luckily on the next day twitchers managed to see it again!
Hailuoto
On the 5th of June we left to birding to Hailuoto with Antti. In Oulunsalo Riuttu we saw 2 male Gadwalls while waiting for the ferry. At 7:30 a.m. our ferry left and from the ferry we saw a Turnstone and 4 Cormorants. In Hailuoto Huikku we saw the first 2 Shelducks and later during the day we saw 29 Shelducks. We visited Potinlahti, Karvonlahti, Ulkokarvo, Patelanselkä, Kirkkosalmi but didn’t really find anything special: a couple of adult White-tailed Eagles, a Honey Buzzard, a Turnstone and 20 Gadwalls. At 2 p.m. we took a ferry back and checked Oulunsalo Akionlahti and Oulu Kiviniemi on the way back to Oulu but found nothing better.
On the 6th of June we tried to find a Gull-billed Tern in Liminka with “potu” Suojarinne, but without luck. We checked Puhkiavanperä, Sannanlahti and Karvonlahti while Antti was in Virkkula but didn’t find anything else than a couple of Red-backed Shrikes and a Caspian Tern, Potu still continued until next day but he wasn’t lucky – the bird wasn’t seen anymore.
Military refresher course
On the 7th of June my military refresh course started in Oulu Hiukkavaara. The weather was awful hot – more than 30 degrees and there were too many insects, but we had a great group so 4 days went pretty quickly. I eve managed to see some birds: Green Sandpipers, Parrot Crossbills, a Honey Buzzard, a Black Woodpecker and then I amazingly heard a Bee-eater! Unfortunately I couldn’t find it from the blue sky. Im must also say that a call of Cuckoo is never the same again. They were calling all the time!
Last days of holiday
On the 10th of June the course ended and after some shopping I decided to drive back to Parikkala so I could relax and do some easy birding in there too on my last free days. In the evening I went to listen to a River Warbler to Moskuunniemi and at night I did a short night-singer-trip and I heard Blyth’s Reed Warblers, Corn Crakes, Spotted Crakes and a Nightjar.
On the 11th of July we guided a familiar Ponc Feliu and his family. Hanna had already been birding with him but during the day we still had some species to find. First we drove to Punkaharju Laakkii where Hanna’s brother Miika had found a nest of Grey-headed Woodpecker a couple of days earlier. On the way to the nest we walked through a beautiful meadow and forest to a lake and we had a Red-backed Shrike, a Black-throated Diver, an Icterine Warbler, Wood Warblers, Bullfinches, a Marsh Warbler, a Blackcap, Treecreeper and so on. But on the nest we had to wait for an hour before a female Grey-headed Woodpecker came to feed the nestlings.
Later we still went to ring the Ural Owl nestlings that had been too small on our last visit. Unfortunately another of the smaller sisters had been eaten by the bigger ones.
On the last day of my holiday I went to count night-singers to Siikalahti. I found 8 Reed Warblers, 5 Spotted Crakes and 7 Water Rails but not any Little Crakes, Savi’s Warblers or other rarities I was hoping for. A Long-eared Owl was carrying a prey to its nestlings in Kaukola where also a River Warbler was singing. Also some Corn Crakes, many Blyth’s Reed Warblers and Thrush Nightingales and a Golden Oriole and a Nightjar were also heard. The rest of the day I just relaxed so I’d be able to get back work on the next day. I had been birding a lot on my 3.5 weeks holiday! I had seen 214 species in that time in Finland!
J.A.
We met Gavin in Foula trip and we already discussed then that when he comes to Finland we will show his target birds for him. I had chance to go birding with Gavin and Sharon for 3 days. Firs we went to see Ural and Tengmalm´s Owls. After heavy dinner we were ready to go to sleep. Alarm clock wake us up before sunrise. We visited several birding sites good for night singers and after sun rice we searched birds that are most active during mornings. We heard and saw many Blyth’s Reed Warblers, Thrush nightingales, pair of White-backed Woodpeckers, Icterine warbler and many more common birds. Forest birding produced huge male Capercaillie, Hazel grouses and Red-breasted Flycatcher. Temperature rose up to 28°C and we were ready to sleep.
After sleeping several hours we woke up to continue our journey towards North-Karelia. On the way we stopped in Pohjanranta bird tower and our good field areas. Gavin was happy to see 3 Hen Harriers on their breeding field. We stopped also in good tall forest were Great Grey Owl female was laying besides its nestling. Temperature was very high and we were wondering what rarities this wind might bring.
In Värtsilä we made stop on Great Snipe lecking area. These birds did not show up in middle of afternoon, but we saw very nice and tame Ruff on same field. We arrived to Kitsi late in the evening in same time when cold front arrived with some rain showers. Our accommodation was in nice old rustic school building.
In morning Sharon continued sleeping white I and Gavin left to forest birding. We arrived Hemminvaara hill before sun rise. Three Toed Woodpeckers had started incubating and thus they were silent, but Greenish warbler, Red Flancked bluetail and several Red-breasted Flycatchers were singing nicely.
After our lunch time breakfast we decided to go walking in Patvinsuo National park. Crazy Willow Grouse did not show up even with shoe attrapp. There was lots of waders calling along the wooden trail and adder laying on trail. Back in Kitsi we had very good Elk stew as dinner and after we were ready to sleep.
Bog-Rosemary was flowering everywhere in Patvinsuo National park.
Next morning our target location was Autiovaara trail in very good old growth forest. Weather was not very good so we walked this trail almost twice. There was several Red-Breasted flycatchers, Bluetail, other forest birds and only couple of times drumming Three-toed Woodpecker.
After Autiovaara Gavin and Sharon left towards Martinselkonen, to see bears and Hawk Owls. I came back home from Joensuu.
H.A.
The trip begins
On the 23rd of May I started my way to Tampere at 6:00 a.m. and I drove straight until Hervanta where I left my car to a garage and then took a taxi to Pirkkala airport. After some waiting the British group, that I was about to guide for the next 8 days around “Southern” Finland, came with their luggage and after they had got their rental Opel Astra, we were ready to go.
The group was Sean Minns, who had contacted Hanna and then gathered a group from BirdForum users, David Bruce, Dave Bywater and Robert Ulph. The age of the group was from 39 to 64 years.
The weather was very bad, windy and rainy, so we after some shopping we started to drive straight to Oulu.
On the way we didn’t really see many birds: of course some Whooper Swans, Cranes and Black-throated Divers and so on, but the first stop was made only when it was necessary. So we stopped in Kärsämäki just for a leak, but it was a good stop as there was a Hazel Hen singing on the closest trees. I used my mp3-player and soon the Hazel Hen flew over us and landed to a tree where we could see it pretty well! It was already getting late so we hadn’t got any serious plans for the day except to get to Liminka. So we decided to try to twitch a Whiskered Tern in Utajärvi Ahmasjärvi as it would have been a Finnish lifer for me. But unfortunately the bird had disappeared once we got there. Anyway we saw some birds like a flock of Bean Geese and of course many birders that had also came there too late. Soon we continued to Oulu.
In Oulu we drove to Terek Sandpiper places where we met my old friend Antti Vierimaa who gave us a key to old information centre of Liminkabay. Antti was working as a guide in Virkkula, so he helped us to get a roof over us as the weather was still very bad. After some waiting the Terek Sandpiper started to call and soon we found it perched on a small hill. What a good bird! This species is so rare nowadays that you never know when it is the last time you see it! Soon we continued to Liminka where we went straight to sleep to the floor of the information centre. Of course we all had good mattresses and sleeping bags as the group had wanted to camp during the trip and so keep the costs down.
On the 24th of May part of the group had awaken early and they had seen some good birds like a Peregrine, Short-eared Owls, Common Rosefinch, Bluethroat, Bean Goose and so on. Luckily most of the species were found again with the rest of us too. A couple of Barnacle Geese, Black-tailed Godwits, 4 White-tailed Eagles, a Garganey, 2 Smews and so on were also seen before we continued our way.
On the way to Oulunsalo we found the first singing Ortolan Bunting and in Letto we tried to find a Hawk Owl that had been seen on the previous morning. But the wind was still extremely strong so it wasn’t a surprise that only a Sparrowhawk and a Common Rosefinch were found. In midday we met Pentti Hukkanen in Oulu and we continued with him to Kiiminki to see owls! Pentti is an old friend of my parents so he is always happy to help me with the owls that he and his son Markku really love!
On the way we saw a male Hen Harrier and surprisingly already our first Reindeers! After some walk in a deep spruce-forest we found the nest that we were looking for – a stunning Great Grey Owl female was looking at us from the nest! It was one of the main target-species of the trip!
After some time Pentti asked me to use mp3-player if the male would come to visible too and I carefully played a couple of tunes of a Great Grey Owl, first nothing happened, but then we noticed a raptor flying right over us – a male Pallid Harrier had came to see the owl! Amazing! And this wasn’t yet enough; soon we noticed that a male Great Grey Owl was also perched just on one of the closest trees! So after some photographing we were happy to leave these owls and walked back to the cars.
Then we walked some hundreds of metres to another direction where we checked a hole in the tree where a Pygmy Owl was breeding, but it was impossible to see to the nest and the male wasn’t found – we only heard female calling from the nest. So we had to continue to another nest of Pygmy Owl.
On the way we saw a Pheasant and checked one old Eagle Owl nest which unfortunately was empty this year but soon we were walking in a forest again. Now we had a Pygmy Owl nest-box and there was a female with 5 nestlings and still 2 eggs.
Soon we said thanks and goodbyes to Pentti and continued towards Kuusamo. We had planned to visit Ahmasjärvi and Whiskered Tern again as it had been again in the lake whole day but unfortunately soon it disappeared again so (luckily) we could stay on the main road on keep on driving. We stopped shortly in Ylikiiminki Hirvisuo where only a female Hen Harrier was seen before continued to Taivalkoski Lampilehto where a ringer I didn’t know had reported a family of Hawk Owls on the previous day. It was a long way but luckily we managed to find the right place with help of a GPS I had. The weather was still very windy but soon we found the first adult Hawk Owl and soon also another one and after some waiting we started to hear calls of youngsters too.
So we photographed these amazing birds and while we were photographing youngsters the adults were carrying food for the other youngsters. We found 3 youngsters from the trees and one was still in the nest-hole high on the tree. What amazing birds! But it was already getting late so we had to continue towards Kuusamo.
Kuusamo
On the way we still saw an Elk and more Reindeers and in Kuusamo Ruka we found a couple of Willow Grouses along the road! It was already very late and it was again raining but still I decided that we should overnight in Valtavaara. On of us decided to sleep in a car but the rest of us climbed up to Valtavaara and camped there. Luckily it wasn’t raining too heavily so we managed to go to sleep dry. Even though the climbing was a little bit too hard, I was sure it was the right place to wake up next morning!
25th of May. The night was very wet but luckily it wasn’t raining at all when we woke up. And why we woke up – a Red-flanked Bluetail was singing just above our tent! Unfortunately the bird was very mobile and it stopped singing soon, so we didn’t manage to see it at all. With Sean and Dave we packed our tents soon while Rob decided to sleep a little bit more. David was up also when we were back in Konttainen parking place. He had managed to see Willow Grouses just in front of the car earlier. Soon we found a family of Siberian Jays and some Parrot Crossbills were heard too. I climbed back up to Valtavaara to help Rob with his packing. When we were again down Sean and Dave had seen a female Capercaillie and Dave and David had seen a Pygmy Owl! We still continued birding around the hills as the group had different interests and different styles of birding and we found a couple of more families of Siberian Jays, 3 Red-flanked Bluetails, but only David managed to see one female well, a Red-throated Diver flew over us and other birds were a Wren, a Chiffchaff, a Dunnock, Bullfinches, singing Hazel Hens and so on.
After some hours birding in Valtavaara and Konttainen we continued to Vuotunki bird-tower which is a good place for buntings and also many other birds. We found 23 Velvet Scoters which one of them looked amazingly just like a Steller’s Eider until it finally woke up and showed its wings! A Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and an Osprey were seen and a Rustic Bunting heard “ticking” but then it started to rain very heavily, so we decided to continue towards Oulanka National Park.
On the way to Oulanka we saw a Dipper and in Oulanka we first walked to Kiutaköngäs rapid where a Grey Wagtail was heard once. Then we spent an hour in forest where we after some searching found beautiful Calypso Orchids. Sean saw a Ural Owl briefly but it wasn’t found again. A couple of Crested Tits were also heard before we continued back towards Kuusamo city.
In Ruka we saw a Waxwing perched on the top of a spruce and then we continued to a traditional area to search a nest-box of a Siberian Tit. We had met Pentti’s son Markku who was leading a Finnature group and he had his own Siberian Tit studies in Kuusamo so he could give us notes how to find the right nest-boxes and after some searching we finally found one where was a female Siberian Tit still incubating its eggs. We left the Siberian Tit soon and found a stunning Black Woodpecker while walking back to our car
In the evening we still checked Kuusamo rubbish tip where we found lots of Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 6 Heuglin’s Gulls, a Great Black-backed Gull, a Temminck’s Stint and a young White-tailed Eagle flew over us.
In Säynäjäperä we stopped to check a traditional Little Bunting place and surprisingly saw a Tengmalm’s Owl flying to one of the Smew nest-boxes with a prey – it was breeding there! Also a Marsh Harrier and some Red-necked Grebes were seen.
It was again very late when we were heading to our camping place to Iivaara. On the way we saw 2 male Black Grouses but finally we were in Iivaara parking place where we made a camp to the forest and started to sleep.
26th of May. Some of the group had again awaken earlier and already seen and heard a Rustic Bunting on the Rajalampi river but luckily the bird stayed active and we all managed to see it well.
Soon we started to walk towards Iivaara hill. The forests were surprisingly quiet, only several big flocks of Common Crossbills with some odd Parrot Crossbill were heard. I was the first one to reach the top of Iivaara while the rest were resting a little bit lower along the track. And almost the first birds I found were a male and a female Two-barred Crossbill!
I whistled and shouted and luckily Rob managed to hear me and ran to see the birds and while Rob stayed there I went to find the rest of the group. Luckily the birds stayed there long enough that we all managed to see them well.
Later we found also the fledlings of Two-barred Crossbills and these sleepy birds let us photograph themselves from just some metres. While we were photographing them we heard a Pine Grosbeak singing and soon we were photographing a young male singing on the top of a spruce! What a visit to Iivaara again!
While we were walking back down to our camp a heavy hail-storm hit us! All but Rob managed to get tents and other stuff to a car before getting absolutely wet and luckily Rob had very good quality equipments so getting them wet didn’t really matter.
North Karelia
Then we had another long drive in front of us. We started do drive towards North Karelia and Lieksa Kitsi. The weather was again very rainy so we didn’t really have any opportunity to do any birding on the way. We did stop to watch a funny Silent people -artwork and of course did some shopping for the next 2 days as we knew there were no shops where we’re going.
Finally we parked to Loma-Kitsi where we had rooms in an old school building. From the garden we found a male Red-backed Shrike and a couple of Common Rosefinches before we had a good Elk-soup, good Finnish sauna and went to sleep.
On the 27th of May we woke up before 6 a.m. again. Just outside the building we found a couple of Wood Warblers, a Hazel Hen and a Blyth’s Reed Warbler which unfortunately left to continue its migration. Soon we were on our way to our next target Hemminvaara.
When we had parked our car and were taking all our equipments out, we already heard the first Greenish Warbler singing. This bird we also managed to attract closer to get photographed. We walked in the forests for a couple of hours and found 2 more Greenish Warblers, one more Red-flanked Bluetail that we didn’t manage to see, a nice singing adult male Red-breasted Flycatcher, several Three-toed Woodpeckers, a Honey Buzzard, a Goshawk, Wood Warbler and much more. So we got several important target species again!
Our next place was long Teretti path which lead to a bird-tower into the middle of big bogs, but as we didn’t have enough time we decided to walk just as far as we had time. Waders were surprisingly quiet so we heard only some Wood Sandpipers and Whimbrels, but some of us saw briefly an eagle flying low in a haze and disappearing soon – it might have been a Greater Spotted Eagle – for sure not a White-tailed Eagle but an Aquila. We also 3 Willow Grouses which one of them was defending its territory very aggressively! It was really attacking to us!
Its main targets were Rob’s shoes so we all managed to get good pictures and videos and of course good laugh before we let this poor bird to its territory. But soon we had to turn back, before we had reached to bird-tower, as we had to hurry to Erä-Eero where we were supposed to be at 3 p.m.
Erä-Eero hide
We were just in time in Erä-Eero cottage where we met Eero and another guide. After some coffee and Karelian pies we got information about the hide and how to act there. Eero luckily remembered me and it was ok that we didn’t need any other guide than me. So soon we drove to the hide following Eero who still had to come to hide all the meat for large beasts.
Just after 5 p.m. Eero left and we stayed in photographers hide and started to wait something to happen. First we practised our camera-settings with Common and Herring Gulls and a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers that were feeding with meat just in front of us.
But already before 7 p.m. a Wolverine came slowly visible to another side of the lake. It stopped to the shore and watched and sniffed to the air but soon it continued to a tree that lead over the river towards us! It came slowly closer and closer and finally started to search for food from the places it had used to find the meat that Eero had hidden. It didn’t take long when it found some meat and carried it back to where it had come from. But surprisingly it stopped under a spruce and started to eat the meat and after some time it came to get another piece of meat. Now it had to come even closer so we managed to get very good quality pictures of it!
I had given very strict instruction how we should act in a hide but anyway we were maybe a little bit too noisy so Ravens never came to get their pieces of meat. Maybe that was the reason that Brown Bears didn’t come either. David maybe saw one Bear briefly but too far in the forest to make sure what it really was. We had to also wait for Wolverines for several hours before the first visit but finally at 11 p.m. a Wolverine came to get its meat. This Wolverine was much smaller than the first one but it was already too dark to get any pictures.
28th of May. At 1:00 a.m. another Wolverine came to search for food but after that it was very quiet for a long time. Every one of us slept for some time – some longer and me only a couple of hours. There was a good snoring in a hide so it wasn’t anymore possible to see any bears. But Wolverine came still once at 4:30 but after that I also went to sleep again. Sean had still seen a Wolverine once at 6 a.m. so altogether we had seen a Wolverine 6 times – we weren’t sure if there had been 2 or 3 animals.
The group had been sleeping so well that I decided to change the plans as I was maybe the only almost too tired to continue, so we drove to Autiovaara. We walked around this 3 kilometres long path and finally found a 2nd calendar year Red-flanked Bluetail that we managed to see well. We also found 3 Red-breasted Flycatchers, 2 Wrens, a Hazel Hen and so on.
After finishing a breakfast in a parking place, we had a long drive to Tohmajärvi Värtsilä Sääperi. It was raining again very heavily but when we reached Sääperi it stopped. So we continued straight to a Great Snipe place as I had got information that they had been lekking during the day too. We were just walking along the field-road when 3 Great Snipes flushed some 30 metres from us and flew just over us and continued to different directions. Right after this it started to rain again, which was probably a reason why the birds had left – they probably wanted to get somewhere under a willow to escape the heavy rain or something. We still heard a Thrush Nightingale and a Grasshopper Warbler singing but the heavy rain forced us back to the car. We had seen the Great Snipes much easier than I had expected and the heavy rain was causing that they weren’t coming back to lek very soon, so we decided to start driving towards Parikkala right away and save some time for the rest of the trip.
In Parikkala
Our group started to be extremely tired so I made a decision and called to Hanna that she’d ask a cottage for the next 2 nights we still had left. None of the group looked like that they’d like to be in a tent any more nights. So Hanna arranged a big cottage, or maybe more like a villa, from Loikonsaari. We managed to keep the costs down as we didn’t take any bed-clothes or towels. The villa was the biggest and best in whole Parikkala and it is the one where Russian politicians are staying when they visit Parikkala on their holidays. So it’d have been much more expensive than it now was, but we have good contacts to the owner.
On the way to Parikkala David wasn’t too tired yet as he found a perched Ural Owl while we were driving 100km/h. The bird stayed there long enough that we all managed to see it, but not enough to stay photographable.
We also stopped in Parikkala Saari Akanvaara Tetrisuo where we saw 29 Black Grouses, 2 Ortolan Buntings and 2 female Hen Harriers and in Pohjanranta bird-tower where we saw a flock of Barnacle Geese before we continued to Loikonsaari.
The owner Matti Kähkönen still showed us some things in a villa and then I left the group there and drove to home to sleep.
29th of May. We were back in Loikonsaari with Hanna at 6 a.m. and the group was already ready (which surprised me 
! Soon we were on our way to Siikalahti, but on the way we stopped in Särkisalmi where we heard several Thrush Nightingales and Blyth’s Reed Warblers and a Marsh Warbler. In Siikalahti dam-road we heard a couple of Spotted Crakes and surprisingly we even saw one bird flying from a reedbed to another. Also a Bittern flew over us. A Canada Goose, Slavonian Grebes and Pochards were of course seen and Water Rails heard too.
Soon we continued towards Sammallampi which is always a good place to find the first Corn Crakes of the year and the first Corn Crake was heard in a couple of minutes. A Golden Oriole was also heard. Unfortunately we couldn’t see a Corn Crake so we continued towards Suurisuo where we found another one but it also came quiet when we tried mp3-player and even more quiet when we tried to flush it.
Next we continued to a nest of a White-backed Woodpecker that Hanna had found a day earlier. Big nestlings were begging food from a couple there! We also saw and heard a Grey-headed Woodpecker very briefly in same place.
Next we continued to a Tengmalm’s Owl nest-box from where we had already ringed 3 bigger nestlings but there had been still one more, too small nestling to ring. But now the sisters had eaten the smallest one so there was nothing to ring anymore. In Tyrjä we checked a Ural Owl nest-box where surprisingly was a female still incubating an egg! The nesting must have been destroyed for some reason as there had been 2 eggs a month earlier.
Then we all started to feel too tired to continue so we drove to Loikonsaari and arranged to meet there again at 4 p.m. I must say that during the morning we had heard 25 Blyth’s Reed Warblers and 7 Thrush Nightingales and of course we had managed to see some of them well.
After some sleeping at 4 p.m. we were birding again. We headed again to Siikalahti where we had an Ortolan Bunting singing in a parking place and a Wryneck next to an information centre. But it was surprisingly quiet in a bird-tower. So soon we continued to ring some more Ural Owl nestlings. Our old crazy Ural Owl mama was as aggressive as always but I managed to get the nestlings to the car where we ringed them easily. I also managed to get the nestlings back to the nest-box easily but when I was closing the roof of the nest-box the mom-owl hit to my soft fireman-helmet very hard. Luckily we both were uninjured, but at least the group believed me as I had told that the most dangerous animal in Finland is a Ural Owl – not a Brown Bear! At least Ural Owl is the only animal I am afraid of…
In Rautalahti we counted 80 Whooper Swans and saw the first Long-eared Owl of the trip and also for the year. On the next Ural Owl nest the mom-owl was very shy so we hardly saw it at all. 2 nestlings were ringed but 2 were still too small to ring.
We still continued to Punkaharju to one small lake where a Red-throated Diver was again breeding. We didn’t go close at all as the breeding seemed not to be in the island it usually is. So maybe the nest was on the shore? So we just enjoyed good views of another adult swimming on the lake by telescope before we left back to Parikkala. We still twitched a pair of Long-tailed Tits that surprisingly was in the same place than a couple of months earlier when we had been checking the owl nest-boxes. After we had seen a couple of male Red-backed Shrikes we were ready go back to the villa. We warmed up the good wood-sauna for the group and left them to do packing and have sauna and sleep and drove to our home to sleep.
The end of tour
On the 30th of May we were ready to leave again towards Tampere at 6:15 a.m. We had planned only one stop on the way which was made in Lappeenranta Joutseno Kotasaari. After walking 1.5 kilometres from the main road to the pools, we found first 2 Little Ringed Plovers and after some searching also 11 Broad-billed Sandpipers! So David had got a lifer for each day of the trip!
At midday we were in Tampere where we got my car from the garage and continued towards Pirkkala airport. After seeing 167 species, including all target owls, woodpeckers, grouses, Red-flanked Bluetail, Siberian Tit, Siberian Jay, Great Snipes, Blyth’s Reed Warblers, Thrush Nightingales, Pallid Harrier and much more in a week it was time say goodbye to the group. Only target species that we had missed were Little Bunting, Arctic Warbler and Red-necked Phalarope – the 2 first ones hadn’t been seen in whole country yet and the last one I didn’t know any place where to see it easily without wellingtons – thanks to Ryan Air the group didn’t have them. So it wasn’t a surprise that at least some of the group said that this had been the best birding trip they had ever done – and these guys had been travelling a lot!
But after all, I had still a long holiday to do birding! And staying in Tampere wasn’t a part of my plan – so I hit the road again!
J.A.
White-backed Woodpecker is endangered and specially protected species. Finnish population is estimated to be 120-180 pairs. Most of them breed along eastern border area. Their favourite habitat is in this area dying, water harmed shore forest of Alders, Aspens and Birch. When these trees grow in too wet places they cant fight against insects. White-backed Woodpecker eats insects during winters too and they can’t change their diet to seeds as Great-spotted Woodpeckers do. There is winter feeding with pork skins to reduce winter mortality of White-backed Woodpeckers. Many of Finland’s White-backed Woodpeckers are colour ringed during last decades. This ringing program has provided lots of information of their behaviour, movements and life.
I had promised to be assistant in ringing. Kimmo Martiskainen and Anniina Kontiokorpi try to ring all nestlings of White-backed Woodpeckers in Parikkala and surrounding regions. In this nest there was a risk that large nestlings will escape from nest and fly to all directions. Collecting them and taking them back to nest would be huge work for one person.
Kimmo uses pole climber shoes that electric workers use when they have to get up to electric poles. He climbed up and angled nestlings out.
Anniina did ringing on ground. Every ringed White-backed Woodpecker gets individual colour rings. These rings can be checked from distance with telescope. Another ring is colored very light aluminium ring and to another leg they get 2 plastic rings.
It is possible to sex nestlings this size from redness of their head. After ringing Kimmo will put nestling back towards to door of nest. Nestling will back to nest hole. When ringer has climbed down and collected tools, parent woodpeckers will start to feed their young’s right a way.
This time nestlings did not try to escape, so my assistance was not actually needed. White-backed woodpecker is our finest woodpecker species and one my favourite birds. Participating ringing was great experience. H.A.
