. . Lintuharrastajan päiväkirja Birders diary . .

To Virolahti

On the 17th of May my long-waited holiday finally started and I left to Virolahti to watch arctic migration. On the way I stopped in Lappeenranta Joutseno Konnunsuo where only 2 Short-eared Owls and a Hen Harrier were seen. In Miehikkälä I still saw a female Capercaillie and after some shopping in Virojoki I continued to Virolahti Lintulahti bird-tower. After a coupel of minutes waiting I heard a Savi’s Warbler singing – the bird had been found a couple of days earlier, but it had been very difficult to hear, so I was lucky to hear it almost immediately. Also a couple of Caspian Terns were seen as a year-tick.
Soon I continued to Lakakallio where many birders that come to see arctic migration every spring already were. In the evening there was almost no visible migration but in the darkness we could hear almost continuous calling of Common Scoters from the sky.

Ristisaari twitch

On the 18th of May the weather was very bad. The fog was very thick so there was less than 100 metres visibility. Only a tailless Wood Lark and a small flock of Common Crossbills were seen in the first hour. So when a message came about an Iberian Chiffchaff that had been found on the previous day but was still in Ristisaari, it was an easy decision, we’re going! With Matti Sulko and Markku Lund we managed to get places to the first boat to this island and soon we’re driving towards Kotka Sapokka harbour.
In a harbour there were 65 twitchers and soon we were on a big boat and going towards my first ever big island twitch! The sea was still foggy but still we managed to see an Arctic Skua and a Razorbill on the way.

Close to Ristisaari there was a smaller boat waiting for us so we managed to get to the shore easily. First half of the twitchers were already going towards the place where an Iberian Chiffchaff still had been singing. We had about a kilometre walk to a place where one of the founders of the bird told where the bird was and there the first group had already heard the bird calling and then they had stopped about 30 metres before the edge of the trees to wait and listen.
But then it was silent. A Chiffchaff, a Lesser Whitethroat, a Wood Warbler and a Garden Warbler were seen and some maybe saw the right bird too, but it was always behind the branches or something. A Wren was singing and also 2 nice male Red-breasted Flycatchers were making similar calls than Iberian Chiffchaff, but finally I was sure I heard the right bird calling too and soon some twitchers saw it on the top of one tree. But still I couldn’t find it but now we knew in which tree it used to come, so we started to plan mist-netting it. We all knew that it was necessary to catch the bird to make its identification sure, so after some planning we were putting up the mist-nets with two other Twitchers association executive committee members. Soon we were ready and had also a mp3-player playing under the mist-net. I was on the one end of the mist-nets and Jörgen Palmgren, the ringer, on another end. Soon the bird came to the tops of trees just over us and started calling and singing! It started to fly over the mist-net but always too high, but slowly it came lower and finally it was in the mist-net! “Jösse” ran faster than anyone expected and soon the bird was in his hand! And very soon he was taking the measurements and I was writing them down. As every good birder know many measurements are needed to make sure the identification of an Iberian Chiffchaff, but “Jösse” made it very quickly, actually I had problems to write all the information down that quickly. DNA-samples were also taken (3 feathers) and then the bird was of course photographed well. The whole situation lasted about 30 minutes which is less than a normal ringing takes time in a ringing station for example. But like many times when all the measurements have been taken the bird was not able to fly when it was released. I was sure it was because of the many maximum measurements of the flight feathers and of course a small bird can be a little bit shocked. Anyway I was sure it was flying again soon.

Unfortunately we couldn’t stay following the bird as our boat was coming to get us back to the bigger boat, so we had to hurry.
Of course we all felt uncertain about the birds wealth while we were walking back to the boat but I had seen this many ties before and this time the bird didn’t really look any weak so I was sure it was ok. A Greenish Warbler was singing no the way and soon we’re on the boat again. On the way back to Kotka Sapokka we still saw a Black Guillemot.
After the twitch there was a headline in newspapers that twitchers killed a rarity and so on! But I think this was just imagination of the people that never saw the bird – it wasn’t found on the next morning again – I am sure it had just continued its migration and was singing somewhere else.

We still drove to Hamina Kirkkojärvi where we twitched a Penduline Tit that was building its nest. Also a Common Whitethroat was singing there.

The evening migration in Lakakallio was quiet: only a Whimbrel and a mixed flock of Whooper and Bewick’s Swans were seen and Eiders were seen as a year-tick.

Late in the evening we of course had a fire in a camp and had sausages, drinks and many good laughs. Anyway I was once again one of the first ones to go to sleep.

In Virolahti

On the 19th of May we started watching arctic migration at 4:15 a.m, but the migration was still pretty weak. In 4 hours we saw 4774 geese and 2679 of them were identified as Barnacle Geese. 68 divers, mostly Black-throated Divers, a couple of Scaups and a Short-eared Owl were also seen.
During the day I was in Kurkela bird-tower which is the best place in a coutry to see rare raptors. In several hours trying the only better bird was a Black Kite.

On the 20th of May we started at 4:15 a.m. again. A Common Rosefinch was already singing but again there was almost no migration at all. Only 750 Barnacle Geese, 21 Brent Geese, 2 Velvet Scoters and so on were seen. A Rook and a flock of Common Crossbills were seen too. Almost all other birders went to sleep but me and “potu” Suojarinne who had just arrived and a couple of others stayed on the rock which was good as I found a flock of waders that migrated just over us and there were 3 Greenshanks, 3 Knots and a Marsh Sandpiper in a flock!
During the day we were again in Kurkela with ”potu” and Kalle Larsson. The day was extremely hot so it was very hard work to scan the sky for hours while the first Spotted Flycatcher of the year was calling next to the tower. Anyway a couple of White-tailed Eagles, 2 Black Kites, a Hen Harrier, a Merlin, 3 Arctic Skuas and a nice White Stork were seen.

In the evening we went to see a Penduline Tit again. A Thrush Nightingale and 2 Great Reed Warblers were singing in Kirkkojärvi too. On the way back to Lakakallio we still saw a male Capercaillie close to Virojoki.

On the 21st day we started at 4:30 a.m. the geese migration was stronger. First there were only smaller flocks of Barnacle Geese but soon the flocks came bigger and there started to be mixed flocks between Barnacle and Brent Geese and in the afternoon there were almost only big flocks of Brent Geese migrating. So we stayed in Lakakallio until 7:45 p.m. (only an hour shopping trip was made in the afternoon). We counted altogether 34174 geese and 20501 of tem were Brent Geese! Also a nice flock of 105 Knots, 70 divers, 4 Arctic Skuas, 75+45 middle-sized waders, 40 Dunlins and so on were seen – and again a nice White Stork too.

On the 22nd day we started at 4:30 a.m. but again there was nothing happening on the sky. In 4.5 hours we saw just a little bit more than a thousand geese, 35 divers, 4 Dunlins and a nice mixed flock of 4 Bar-tailed Godwits, 22 Knots and 40 Grey Plovers.
During the day with “potu” we visited Kolsinpohja bird-tower, but nothing except 6 singing Wood Warblers along the track were found and in Lintulahti where a Reed Warbler and an Icterine Warbler were heard. Then we still drove to Hurppu because of a Brent Goose flock with a Red-breasted Goose was coming but even though we saw the flock it was too far to identify a Red-breasted Goose from the others.

During the afternoon I drove to Parikkala to rest as I was going to have an extremely tough next week touring around “Southern” Finland with a British group! In Parikkala we still had to go to ring a nestlings of one Tengmalm’s Owl with Hanna and then Matti Lötjönen called that he had found an adult male Black Redtstart in Kukonkanta and of course we had to go to twitch it. There was also a Little Ringed Plover.
Then I had to go to sleep, I was going to have a long journey: Tampere-Oulu-Kuusamo-Lieksa-Parikkala-Tampere – and many good birds to find for the Ornio group!

J.A.

On the 13th of May in my lunch-hour I saw a flock of 150 Yellow Wagtails, a White-tailed Eagle and 5 Swifts in Siikalahti. After my work we left birding to Saari area where we checked all the traditional places Rautalahti, Akanvaar Tetrisuo, Pohjasuo, Pohjanranta, Jyrkilä, Tarassii and Kanavalampi. The best birds were 2 Ortolan Buntings and a Rook in Tetrisuo, a flock of 2000 Barnacle Geese, a Brent Goose, 3 Black-tailed Godwit, 24 Spotted Redshanks and a Grey Heron in Pohjanranta and 250 Wood Sandpipers in Kanavalampi.

On the next day we saw 2 Arctic Terns with 115 Common Terns in Kirkkoselkä. It was only my 2nd observation of the species in Parikkala! In Siikalahti I saw a Canada Goose that seems to be nesting, a White-backed Woodpecker and heard 2 singing Blackcaps.
In the afternoon I made almost similar trip to Saari than on previous day with Harri Partanen and “rolle” Mortensen. The north-eastern wind seemed to have stopped the migration and most of the same birds were seen again. New birds were a younger White-tailed Eagle and 3 male hen Harriers. There were now 2500 Barnacle Geese in Pohjanranta

In the evening we went to check the size of the Ural Owl nestlings and surprisingly the mom owl was in the nest-box so we managed to check the ring and it was the same bird than already 5 years.
The 3 nestling were still too small to be ringed. Then we continued to ring Tengmalm’s Owl nestling and surprisingly all 5 nestling were still alive. The mom Tengmalm’s Owl was watching from the tree while we ringed the youngsters. Harri and “Rolle” really enjoyed the owl-experience!

Harri sended nice picture of ringing. This Tengmalm’s Owl nestling is just getting aluminium ring on its furry feet.

On the 15th of May I went to Siikalahti already at 4:30 a.m. Again a crazy Common Tern had incubated to the middle of the parking place. So like last year we have to try to move slowly the eggs to the man made nest outside the parking place. Sedge Warblers were singing and also a Bluethroat was singing quietly. At 5 a.m. I walked to the main bird-tower and started to count migration. Soon flocks of geese started to migrate and in the beginning they were mostly grey geese (Bean and White-fronted Geese) but later they were mainly Barnacle Geese. Only other better migrants were a Black-tailed Godwit, a Whimbrel, a Honey Buzzard and on possible female Pallid Harrier which was just too far to positively identify. I counted the geese until 1 p.m. when there was no more flocks coming and altogether I saw 10685 geese.

While I was driving to home I got a message that a Black-eared Wheatear had been found in Siuntio. It was one of the species that I had always wanted to see In Finland so I decided to give a try even though it was 390 km to Siuntio Myrans. I picked up Pekka Punnonen in Lappeenranta and after some hours driving we finally found to Myrans pools. After a kilometre walking we found also the twitchers that had the bird almost in front of them. It was a nice female.

We watched this Black-eared Wheatear for some time and then decided to start our long way back home. WM ice-hockey final Finland-Sweden started when we had still 100 km to Lappeenranta, but I still managed to get to home to see the 3rd period when Finland made 5 goals and won WM-gold 6-1! What an amazing day!

J.A.

On the mornings I checked Lake Simpele from Härskiinmutka and saw (best daily number) 50 Tufted Ducks, 232 Long-tailed Ducks, 45 Common Scoters, 4 Velvet Scoters, 135 Common Terns and an Oystercatcher. In Kangaskylä I heard a Wryneck calling.

On the 10th of May I got a message that Esko Veijalainen was watching a Lesser Spotted Eagle in Siikalahti. I drove there and managed to see the bird disappearing behind the trees in east. While we were discussing about the eagle we noticed a Black Kite flying over us towards north-west. What a 5 minutes in Siikalahti!
In the afternoon we went to check the owl nest-boxes in Punkaharju, but there was nothing else than some marks that there has been an owl visiting the nest-boxes sometimes earlier. We also went to ring one of the new Ural Owl females and it was the biggest we’ve ever handled! It was also pretty angry and when we released it, it called very angrily and then also male started to call surprisingly close. On the way back I saw my first Hobby of the year.

After we had been in new sauna in Tarvaslampi we still went to see if one of our old Ural Owls really was the same than in previous years, but surprisingly it was already out from the nest-box! So we couldn’t check if it had the ring or not, but when I climbed to check that there really were nestlings in the nest-box, the female started to attack like in previous years! For sure it was the same bird! It’ll be very interesting to come back later to ring the nestlings!

On the 11th day there was a good geese migration, but I had to be at work. During my luch-hour I still saw about 1000 geese, mostly grey geese (Bean or White-fronted) but also some flocks of Barnacle Geese. Also one sub-adult White-tailed Eagle was seen.

In the evening we went to ring another new Ural Owl, which was much easier as it flew to the fish hand-net when we put it in front of the hole of the nest-box. This bird was also clearly smaller and weaker than the previous one.

On the 12th of May I visited Siikalahti on my lunch-hour. 30 Swallows and 30 House Martins, 70 Wood Sandpipers, 45 Ruffs, 7 Spotted Redshanks and a Temminck’s Stint were seen. I laso saw one more Black Kite. It seems they are again commoner than in many years in Siikalahti.

In the evening I had to go twitching again when I got a message that Markku Loippo had found a Steppe Eagle in Lemi Urola. On the way I picked up Sampsa again ans the rest of the trip was fast as Sampsa knew thr route to the place well.

When we were finally there in Urola we found the other twitchers and the bird was still on their scopes! The Steppe Eagle was perched on a pile of stumps about 1.5 km from us. But still it was easy to identify because of the colouration and its enormous bill. Hooded Crows were attacking towards it so it opened its wings a couple of timed and then it was even clearer to identify!

After some time the snu started to set down and then a Red Fox came to the same stumps. There was a couple of dead Whooper Swans on the field; they had flight towards the electric wires and thet was where the eagle had been found. Now the Fox was going to eat the swans too but it then noticed an eagle and I managed to get a video of these too animals metting each others!

J.A.

Twitching a dream bird!

When we parked to our parking place we got a message that Karri Kuitunen had found a SOCIABLE PLOVER in Lappeenranta Joutseno Kivisaari (again, he had found one also 23 years ago)! Hanna wasn’t very keen to leave because of we knew that we probably couldn’t make it to Kivisaari before the darkness. But we left together with “potu” anyway.
We managed to Joutseno sooner than we thought and picked up Sampsa Cairenius and then continued towards the field-areas. We had only 10 more kilomtres to drive when we got a message that the bird had been lost to the darkness because of a Lapwing had chased it to flight at 10:35 p.m. We were in Kivisaari only 20 minutes late and it was absolutely too dark to do anything anymore. We still checked the place where the bird had been found, but it was too dark to see anything anymore.
So we decided to drive back to Joutseno and to rest and sleep a couple of hours in Sampsa’s apartment. After all I managed to sleep maybe an hour on Sampsa’s carpet and already before 3 a.m. we were back in Kivisaari.

There were already some twitchers and more came all the time. It was really cold. Luckily I had got some extra clothes from “potu” and Sampsa, but I still missed gloves.
When it started to get lighter we started to find Lapwings from the fields, but even thought there were more than 100 twitchers watching to the field the target bird was not found before at 4:40 a.m. it suddenly was just in the middle of the field! A SOCIABLE PLOVER – one of my dream birds!

The bird was running straight towards us and I managed to get the first pictures and videos o fit right away. Then it suddenly stopped and started hiding again, but so that its head was still visible. More and more twitchers were coming all the time and everyone was extremely happy! Soon the bird started to call like a Garganey or weak Corn Crake and then it started to feed.
Then suddenly at 5:35 after it had already flight a couple of times it left towards NE with a Lapwing. And of course there were still birders coming and it was awful to see a couple of pretty famous twitchers miss the bird by 2 minutes!
I was sure that the bird hadn’t leave anywhere far, because of the Lapwings weren’t migrating anymore. I was sure it was just going to Konnunsuo fields or Kotasaari pools that were pretty close in that direction the bird had left. We decided to check Kotasaari with “potu”.
In Kotasaari we found only a couple of Little Ringed Plovers and soon we got a message that Vesa Väkevä had seen the plover in Konnunsuo fields and it had left towards us again. We were watching to the sky but couldn’t find it, so we decided to drive back to Kivisaari. We asked the first disappointed twitchers to follow us and after a minute in Kivisaari I saw the bird coming back and landing to the same place it had left an hour earlier! And everyone was happy again!
The bird was now active all the time but the haze started to get worse so after an hour we decided to leave back to Parikkala to rest.
We slept a couple of hours and then “potu” had to leave back to Mikkeli. Then I did some “Photoshopping” and worked with these sites before in the evening 5 p.m. we left again to see the bird with Hanna and Hanna’s mother – it was a Mother’s day!
Once we were again in Kivisaari the bird and surprisingly many twitchers were still there! Now the haze was gone so I managed to get much better pictures and videos. The bird was again flying a couple of times and also calling a little. I even managed to get a couple of calls recorded. It was also chasing female Lapwings so it really seemed that it wasn’t going anywhere soon.

After maybe 100 pictures and 10 minutes videoing and the 1st House Martin of the year we continued to Konnunsuo bird-tower where were still amazing numbers of geese. I counted 1525 White-fronted Geese and there were also about 200 both Bean and Barnacle Geese. Some of White-fronted Geese were very close so we took some pictures before we continued to Parikkala.

On the way back home we saw a Honey Buzzard and then in Parikkala we still decided to go to try if great Snipes had arrived to their traditional lekking place to Kullinsuo. We saw a female Capercaillie, a Hazel Hen and some of Black Grouses but no Great Snipes (yet). Then we finally were ready to go home to sleep.
In next morning the Sociable Plover was still seen but at 4:50 it had left alone towards north and it wasn’t seen again.

J.A.

Bird-tower competition

On the 7th of May we woke up before 4 a.m. and after a good breakfast we were in Siikalahti parking place at 4:40 a.m. Ilpo Kuusisalo was already there and soon we started to walk towards the bird-tower. It takes about 15 minutes with so much to carry so after all we had only 5 minutes to the beginning of the competition when we climbed to the tower. Hanna put some magazines and other stuff for visitors and soon also Matti Lötjönen, our 5th team-member arrived and then it was 5 a.m. and the race started. Our first species was a good one, 4 Smews were swimming in front of us. A lot of Black Grouses were lekking and Bitterns whooping. Other good birds in the beginning were a couple of Bullfinches, a flock of 60 local Barnacle Geese, 4 White-fronted Geese in a local flock of Bean Geese, a Merlin that was perched on a dead tree and a Canada Goose that was hiding on the back of the bay.
Of course we got plenty of common species in the beginning but some common migrants were maybe missed because of the group of photographers that climbed to the tower for the first couple of hours and they weren’t very silent – we heard almost nothing from the sky. Luckily Water Rails and a Whimbrel were calling aloud enough that we got them to our list.

Like always the most of the passerine migration was going too far from the tower and almost all the passerines we managed to identify were Chaffinches. Luckily we managed to see the first Bramblings and also Tree Sparrows from a feeder that was pretty far from the tower. And when the group of photographers left we managed to hear the only Tree Pipit of the day and also some Siskins and to see some Mistle Thrushes and Redwings and so on. Also a Green Sandpiper was got on its 2nd flight (2 of the team members have to see and identify a species). These birds are difficult every year in this competition! Also a couple of flocks of Waxwings were seen on their migration back to north like almost every bird-tower competition.
When the thrush and Chaffinch migration stopped there was almost nothing else migrating than Bean Geese. Surprisingly also a couple of bigger flocks of Barnacle Geese were seen and also 5 flock of Common Scoters – 300 birds altogether, 6 Velvet Scoters and a couple of bigger flocks of Black-throated Divers where were also 3 Red-throated Divers and an amazing huge Black-throated Diver with them.

The weather was very good and the trees behind the tower sheltered us from the weak northern wind. The visibility was great so we managed to identify Song Thrushes, a Dunnock and a House Sparrow very far and finally also a Yellowhammer.
Jay was much easier than normally this year when several birds were seen still migrating to different directions.
After 9 a.m. we had a bad hour and a half when we didn’t get any new species but finally a couple of Ruffs came to try to find a place where to land. And soon also a White-tailed Eagle and a male White-backed Woodpecker were seen.
It started to get very warm, but only other raptors were just local Marsh Harriers, Sparrowhawks, Ospreys, Common Buzzards and Kestrels.
A Cuckoo was calling shortly and a Spotted Redshank was migrating, only 4 Swallows were seen but 3 Sand Martins was a nice surprise, a Willow Warbler, a Pied Flycatcher, some Whinchats and our last species, a flock of 4 Linnets made our list up to 91 species which was our new record!
Of course we had expected to see also Pintails, Hen Harriers, Goshawks, Hobbies, Common Sandpipers, House Martins, Wheatears, Sedge Warblers and many other migrants and of course anything better too.
In the results we were once again the 2nd best tower inland ad 24th in whole country. Once again Tarassiinlahti was better, they had got 93 species.

After the bird-tower competition we slept for a couple of hours and went birding again. We checked a couple of places nearby but found only a nice Short-eared Owl in Lahdensuo. We decided to go to rest for a couple of more hours before a night-trip to Siikalahti and Kullinsuo, but there was something else coming that changed our plans…

J.A.

The beginning of May

We continued checking the owl nest-boxes but unfortunately almost all the nest-boxes were empty. Only on new Tengmalm’s Owl was found and surprisingly there were alresdy 5 nestlings too! The female was of course ringed but the nestlings have to grow bigger. On my birthday on the 2nd of May the weather was very cold so my only birthday-tick was another female Tengmalm’s Owl that we ringed from one of the nest-boxes. On the first 3 days only other observations were a couple of female Capercaillies and a Grey-headed Woodpecker.

On the 4th day I saw my 1st Tree Pipit of the year and heard the 1st Redstart and on the next day new birds were a Willow Warbler, a Whimbrel and several Common Terns. The nest-box round was also boring, only a female Capercaillie and a couple of Long-tailed Tits were seen.

On the 6th day I found 45 Common Scoters, 13 Long-tailed Ducks, 2 Velvet Scoters and so on when checking the Lake Simpele from Härskiinmutka. In the afternoon “potu” Suojarinne came to traditional Bird-tower competition weekend and once again we decided to go to birding to Saari area. In the first places we didn’t find anything interesting, some flocks of Bean Geese with some White-fronted Geese and a Bewick’s Swan, Whimbrel, some Yellow Wagtails and do on. But after all altogether we found 955 Bean Geese, 216 White-fronted Geese, 113 Barnacle Geese and then from the best place Kanavalampi we found a Marsh Sandpiper with 78 Wood Sandpipers and a Ruff. Also a Rook was getting chased by Magpies there.

J.A.