. . Lintuharrastajan päiväkirja Birders diary . .

On the 5th of December I left to drive towards Lapinjärvi after 5 p.m. 3 hours later I parked to Juha Tuomaala’s garden and after a half an hour we continued to Myrskylä to Tiina Mäkelä’s apartment where we stayed over night. We had planned to start already at night so we were there closer to good owl forests.

On the 6th of December, Independence Day of Finland, we woke up at 4:45 a.m. and at 5 o’clock we were out and listening to owls. Unfortunately there were no owl calling at all so we decided to try to see or hear a couple of Whooper Swans that had been in one river nearby, but they weren’t found either. So after all we had to start driving towards Porvoo, where we picked up Markus Keskitalo, our 3rd team member at 7:15 a.m. Then we got our first species too, a Bullfinch.

After we had seen some Rock Doves in Porvoo centrum, we continued towards Emäsalo where we parked to the end of the road. It was still completely dark so we had plenty of time to arrange everything ready for the rest of the day. Finally we walked to the shore and climbed to the bed-rock to start seawatching. But it was very quiet on the sea – just some Goldeneyes; but it was still very dark. So we walked towards the tip and soon started to see something more: Goosanders, Herring Gulls, a flock of Redpolls with a good surprise – an Arctic Redpoll! A Scaup looking bird was too far to identify but a Tufted Duck and 3 Common Scoters were seen well. Soon a Cormorant flew over us and a couple of Common Gulls were found from the sea. Then I found 3 Long-tailed Ducks and soon also a Velvet Scoter so it started to turn good!

While we were walking back towards our car we heard Coldcrests and saw 4 Mute Swans and 8 Whooper Swans in flight. In Emäsalo we still searched a couple of bays where we saw a Great Black-backed Gull and several feeders where Blackbirds, Great Spotted Woodpeckers, a Pine Grosbeak, Blue, Great, Coal and Willow Tits were found.

Once we were on the main road we tried to find a Hawk Owl which had been seen on one field in several days but we weren’t lucky. Soon we saw a Sparrowhawk chasing Hooded Crows and after some searching we found a Nutcracker and the luckily stopped in a place where was a flock of 50 Siskins. Then we continued to Huhtanen which trees were still full of berries. So there were lots of Waxwings, Blackbirds and Fieldfares too but we also found a Hawfinch! Then we got a message that the Hawk Owl was found a couple of kilometres from the place we had been just searching for it. So we went to twitch it and found it pretty soon.

Next we drove to Kiiala where a Great Grey Shrike was found immediately and after some walking we found a big flock of Yellowhammers and luckily found a Chaffinch with them. In Bjurböle we checked one great feeder and saw about 10 Bramblings and our easiest missing species a Greenfinch and a House Sparrow.

Then it was time to continue towards Lapinjärvi. On the way we stopped in Loviisa Liljendal Sporrasbacken on of Ralf Rikberg’s summer-cottage. Ralf was in our team last year. There we found a Grey-headed Woodpecker easily but the last easy species a Pheasant and a Treecreeper were still not found.

In Lapinjärvi we tried to twitch a Collared dove but without luck. In Lindkoski and Markusbacken we were checking several fields but didn’t find anything new. It was snowing all the time so it started to get dark too soon. So we continued toward Heikinkylä where a Snowy Owl had stayed for several days but it hadn’t been found during this day at all. But we thought the evening could be the best time to see it. The owl was not found but luckily we saw a flock of more than 40 Snow Buntings. We still tried to find Black Grouses without luck and when it was already dark we still tried to find the Collared Dove but it was already useless. So we gave up and drove to Juha’s apartment from where I left to drive towards Parikkala and Juha and Markus left to Porvoo to the log.

I had already been in sauna on Hanna’s parent when I got a message that our 47 species had been enough to get to the 2nd position in the race! We had been doing very well!

On the 8th of December I had a floorball tournament again but in the evening I left towards south again. In Lappeenranta I picked up “Potu” Suojarinne and together we continued to Espoo Matinkylä to Andreas Uppstu’s place. There together with Andreas and Margus Ellermaa who was also visiting Andreas, we talked until midnight.

On the 9th of December we woke up at 5:30 a.m. and a half an hour later we were driving towards Helsinki with Potu and “Uppan”. In Lauttasaari we picked up Vesa Jouhki and then Frans “Fräne” Silvenius was picked up near the harbour. Our ferry to Tallinn left at 8:30 a.m.

After 2 hours we were in Tallinn and soon we were driving towards Haapsalu. About 10 a.m. we parked to the gate of sewage works of Haapsalu. We hadn’t got any better instructions but luckily we saw a man walking with a camera and he pointed us to a right direction. Soon we had walked along a clear path to a corner of the fence where between two lines of bushes was lots of seeds for birds – and there it was a Fox Sparrow! The bird was feeding just behind some branches so mostly we saw only its tail and sand that it was kicking with its feet.

Soon the bird flew inside the bushes but after about 5 minutes it came back to feed. Then after some time it disappeared again and came back again after 5 minutes. It was pretty cold and my batteries were running out of power very fast but finally the bird stopped between the bushes and started to feed so it was well visible and me and Uppan got some better pictures too.

While we were photographing the Fox Sparrow we heard a Water Rail, saw a Goshawk, a Robin and some Reed Buntings. We were lucky that there weren’t almost any other twitchers, only a couple of locals that had seen the bird earlier too, so we could take as many pictures as we wanted. The place where the bird was feeding was possible to see only to a small area so it would have been difficult to work with more photographers.

Of course the light was very bad between the bushes but after all we got good enough pictures. So we continued to harbour of Hiiumaa ferries where we saw lots of gulls, Goosanders, Smews and a couple of Red-breasted Mergansers. We also saw some flocks of Waxwings and 3 Black Grouses before we continued back to Haapsalu to eat and do some shopping.

We had lots of time to waste as all except the last ferry of the evening had been booked full. But after all we drove back to Tallinn and tried to change our tickets to an earlier ferry but we weren’t lucky. So we went to old town to sit in an old restaurant and walk around the old town. At 9 p.m. we drove to the harbour and finally drove to the ferry which really was full of cars and people! The ferry left at 10:30 p.m. and we tried to sleep on the floor which was almost impossible. Anyway I tried. At 00:30 we arrived at Helsinki and it took more than 30 minutes to get out from the ferry. Then we dropped Vesa, Andreas and Frans to their homes and started a long and tired drive back towards Lappeenranta. It was already early morning when I dropped Potu and finally at 6 a.m. I was at home. And after an hour and half of sleeping I had to go to work. But anyway the Fox Sparrow had been worth it! It had been one of the most beautiful birds I have ever seen.

J.A.