Red-breasted Goose and the first Swallows
On Monday the 27th of April I saw 4 Common Scoter in Lake Simpele before I went to work. On my lunch-hour I visited Siikalahti where I saw 2 male Bitterns chasing a smaller and much paler female over the reed-bed. A Common Gull was calling somewhere near the bird-tower and a White-backed Woodpecker was calling.
After my work I drove to Saari to twitch a Red-breasted Goose that had been found during the weekend. When I got to Pohjanranta where it had been still 15 minutes before I found only 1 goose – a Canada Goose. Next I checked Pohjasuo fields but found only some Tundra Bean and White-fronted Geese. In Akanvaara Tetrisuo I found some hundreds of Geese but couldn’t find the Red-breasted. My friend Jari Kiljunen came there too and together we kept on checking the geese as some of them where in pretty high vegetation. After some searching all the geese flushed and then we found it – a nice adult Red-breasted Goose flew over us but then continued towards Pohjanranta.
But the goose wasn’t in Pohjanranta either but in an hour we saw 2 Barn Swallows, a Common Tern and a Bewick’s Swan. Then we decided to go to check some other places but found nothing interesting before in Kanavalampi where we found a Black-tailed Godwit and saw a migrating flock of 22 Common Scoters. When “Jassi” had left home, I still went to check Tetrisuo and no found about 1000 geese there. The Red-breasted Goose was now showing well, so I took some pictures and video of it before I continued back home too.
J.A.