4 days arctica holiday
On the 16th of May I had a good start for a day when a Parrot Crossbill flew over our garden. I still heard a couple of Garden Warblers in Siikalahti before I had to go to work. On the lunch-hour I counted birds from Tiviänlampi and after the work I left again to Virolahti, now I had 4 days holiday for arctic migration!
I drove straight to Virolahti Vilkkiläntura and walked to Kolsinpohja bird-tower. After some searching I found a Steppe Eagle that my friend “potu” Suojarinne had found a day before. After some waiting the eagle flew amazingly beautifully over me but landed soon to the same trees again. Also 2 Great White Egrets were found from the bay so I had amazing start for my holiday!
In the evening we were in Lakakallio with potu, Jani Varis and some other but there was almost no migration. After we had made some sausage on the fire I went to sleep about at midnight.
On the 17th of May I woke up at 5 a.m. and walked straight to the top of the rock and there were already divers migrating. I had awakened too late! During the morning we counted 1087 divers (mostly Black-throated) but otherwise we saw only about 500 Barnacle Geese, 220 other unidentified geese, 9 White-fronted Geese, 2 Gadwalls, 2+1 Black Kites, 3 Arctic Skuas, 2 Red-necked Phalaropes and so on.
During the day we saw the Steppe Eagle again but Great White Egrets were gone. In Leerviikki we had some lunch and visited FotoFennica exhibition. Then we drove to Vaalimaa fields where we saw 8 White-tailed Eagles and a beautiful 2nd c-y Montagu’s Harrier! After some shopping we saw a Capercaillie in Virojoki and heard a Greenish Warbler in Hurpuntie. The evening migration in Lakakallio was again boring.
On the 18th of May I woke up 4:30 a.m. but it was raining and very foggy so after all I woke up at 6 a.m. and slowly walked to the rock to watch empty sky. After a couple of hours I was completely wet and when we got a message about a King Eider in Hurppu we decided to go. With Kai Hilditz, Jani Varis and potu we drove to Hurppu and once we had walked to Verkkokallio the rain stopped and then the migration started! We just watched the King Eider quickly and started to count migrating geese and divers! I still had all wet clothes and potu didn’t have his telescope as we had planned to go back to Lakakallio but now it was too late.
The migration was amazing strong! In hard back-wind geese and divers were going extremely fast! And there were flocks everywhere! 6 Scaups, some flocks of Long-tailed Ducks and Common Scoters, 8 Bar-tailed Godwits with a Grey Plover, 60 other unidentified plovers and 13 Arctic Skuas were seen but then 110 000 Barnacle Geese and 4804 (Black-throated) Divers! Only 25 Brent Geese were identified and no grey geese at all.
After midday we moved to Lakakallio and I got dry clothes. Divers weren’t migrating at all but some 20 000 Barnacle Geese were still seen during the rest of the day. In the afternoon we visited Vilkkiläntura where a Blackcap was singing and a couple of other places but in the evening we were again in Lakakallio. We still saw 21 Arctic Skuas, 150 Brent Geese, 2 Red-necked Phalaropes and a rook.
On the 19th of May I woke up 4:30 but not much migration was seen. 80 White-fronted Geese were in a flock with Barnacle Geese and also 5 Arctic Skuas and 136 divers were seen. The drive during the day didn’t show us anything else than 2 Red-backed Shrikes and the evening in Lakakallio was also boring: 24 swans, and some flocks of Long-tailed ducks (some thousands), Common Scoters (some hundreds) and Velvet Scoters (65) were seen.
On the 20th of May the morning was again bad even though the weather was very nice. 55 divers (half of them Red-throated), 3 Arctic Skuas and almost nothing else were seen. So already at 7 a.m. I was ready to leave. I wanted to twitch a European Serin as a South-Karelia tick on the way home. Potu and Jani decided to leave too so soon we were driving towards Savitaipale. We were on the half-way when we got a message about a Firecrest in Virolahti Harvajanniemi. With potu we made a U-turn but Jani continued to Savitaipale. Potu left his car to Virojoki and we continued to Harvajanniemi. Luckily we heard the Firecrest right away when we got out of the car! A lifer! It was singing very actively on the spruces and we managed to see it briefly. After I had taken some recordings too, we continued on our plan and left towards Savitaipale where Jani had already seen a Serin.
Behind Savitaipale S-market we found first some birders and soon we heard a European Serin singing. The bird was told to be very shy so we didn’t try to see it at all, but drove to ABC to eat something. We were already leaving to our homes when I checked how long it was to Kauhajoki and surprisingly it was only 385 kilometres. Somehow I managed to talk potu with me and soon we were driving towards Mikkeli. We left potus car to his parking place and then had still 300 kilometres to drive!
It was a long way but somehow we made it to Kauhajoki Ikkeläjärvi at 5 p.m. But then the bay where a Surf Scoter had already been for several days was empty, only some Common Scoters were found. A nice local couple helped us and told us to check the lake from the swimming place and luckily we found the bird! A Surf Scoter was swimming on the opposite side of the lake but already the second lifer of the day for me and potu! We still wanted to see this bird better and the same couple helped us a lot. We drove to the other side of the lake where the man had seen it but it was gone again. Then we checked the lake from these people’s own beach and saw it again but far. We drove again to the other side of the lake and then managed to see it better. It was swimming with Common Scoters and Goldeneyes in the middle of the lake, what a stunning bird!
The way back home was long and only a Great Grey and a Red-backed Shrike were seen in Kihniö on the way. Finally, after 10 p.m. I dropped potu in Mikkeli and I still had a couple of hours drive to Parikkala. In Särkisalmi I stopped to listen Blyth’s Reed Warbler as a year-tick and finally at 00:30 a.m. I was able to get to sleep. I had really had a good 4 days arctica holiday!
On the night of 22nd and 23rf of May I went to listen to night-singers to Siikalahti and heard 13 Water Rails, 3 Spotted Crakes, 2 Corn Crakes, 4 Blyth’s Reed Warblers, a Great Reed Warbler, many Thrush Nightingales and 3 Nightjars. On the next days I did duck-counts again but didn’t see anything special, 2 Long-tailed Tits were seen and a Golden Oriole was heard.
On the 24th of May I twitched an Icterine Warbler as a year-tick and in the evening we went to ring Ural Owls with Hanna and her Dutch group. The group was watching from the car when we got kicked asses from the aggressive Ural Owl mom. The Pygmy Owls had still eggs on their nests and I still went to check the further Tengmalm’s Owl nest which was unfortunately empty. There hadn’t been enough foo so the mom had given up breeding.
J.A.