More rarities
On the 29th of September it was raining on my lunch-hour and only birds I saw were a flock of 10 Long-tailed Tits. After work we visited Saari with Arttu Valonen but saw only a Common Kestrel, a Merlin and about 6000 Barnacle Geese in Jyrkilä, a few White Wagtails in Tarassiinlahti and so on. In the evening we went to fields and ringed 3 Jack Snipes and 2 Woodcocks and controlled a Great Snipe. Again we saw a couple of Long-eared Owls and the same Great Grey Owl that was now on a different field than on the previous day.
On the 30th of September I saw a Red-throated Diver in Härskiinmutka and during my lunch-hour the best observation was a migrating Golden Eagle. On my second visit to Härskiinmutka I saw a young Little and a young Lesser Black-backed Gull. In the afternoon I was again in Siikalahti and visited the bird-tower where I saw a Hen Harrier, a couple of Gadwalls and a Common Scoter. In the evening we went to check if the Great Grey Owl was still around but saw a Tawny Owl instead – which was a year-tick.
On the 1st of October I tried again to find the Great Grey Owl but saw only 6 Stock Doves. In Härskiinmutka I saw a young Lesser Black-backed Gull again and my lunch-hour was quiet: a Rough-legged Buzzard, a couple of Merlins and a late Barn Swallow were seen. I was already driving back to work when I got a message that there was a Squacco Heron in the dam-road – in a place from where I had just left! Iturned around and was soon running to a place from where to see the place where the heron had landed but couldn’t find it. Then I saw it flying with a Great Egret straight towards the dam-road platform where the other birders were. But none of them had a camera. So I had to run under the heron (it was about 10 meter above me) to get my camera from my car and then run to the platform, but when I got there the heron was already quite far on the northern side of the road. I managed to get some distant shots of the bird but I knew that identifying winter-plumaged Squacco from Pond Herons is extremely difficult!
I had to go back to work and in the afternoon the heron was seen a couple of times only very briefly in flight. After work I was back and together with many birders we tried to find the heron again. It was seen flying on the southern side of the bay but after that nobody saw it anymore. In the late evening we still saw 2 Great Egrets and a Grey Heron and also 5 Cranes, a Bluethroat and heard a several Water Rails and also a Moorhen. On the next day there were also several birders trying to see it but without luck.
On the 2nd of October I also visited Siikalahti early in the morning before work but saw only a Great Egret and a Grey Heron. I ended my work-day at 11 a.m. and left driving towards Oulu. In Kuopio I picked up Anssi Laitinen and in Siilinjärvi my old friend “Potu” Suojarinne. After a long drive we were finally in Oulu Kiiminki Sivuräme where a Lesser Kestrel had stayed for a few days. It was the first twitchable Lesser Kestrel in Finland for 37 years! The bird had been easy to twitch and also now we were told that it soon comes to perch to somewhere visible as it had been doing whole day. My friend Mikko Ala-Kojola also arrived and we kept on waiting and after 10 minutes waiting we started to worry. Then we saw a falcon just disappearing after a big dirt pile at this soil dumping ground. But we saw it too briefly to tick it. Then we had to wait extremely long 5 minutes more before it finally came to hunt insects next to the next dirt hill.
The Lesser Kestrel was hunting without any other prey than a small spider for about 15 minutes. It once landed to a lamppost but only very shortly. Then at 5:15 p.m. it flew to the forest on the other side of the road and didn’t come back anymore. It went to sleep more than an hour earlier than on the previous evenings. We still waited until 6 p.m. and saw a flock of geese which had mostly Pink-footed Geese before we decided to give up and start a long drive back home.
I dropped ”Potu” again in Siilinjärvi and Anssi in Kuopio and continued lonely and tiresome driving to Parikkala where I was finally at 1:30 a.m.
On the 3rd of October we woke up early and before the sun was rising we were already ringing in Kukonkanta. It was a quiet morning as we got only 7+1c Blue and 29+7c Great Tits, 4 Chiffchaffs, 7 Robins, the latest ever Whinchat in Parikkala, a Dunnock and 2 Reed Buntings. We also saw a flock of 20 Brent Geese, a Stock Dove and 20 Goldfinches.
During the day we visited Saari and saw a Brent Goose in Rautalahti, a Hen Harrier, 2 Great Grey Shrikes and 21 Linnets in Akanvaara Tetrisuo, a Pink-footed Goose in Pohjasuo, 2 Tundra Swans and about 20 000 Barnacle Geese in Jyrkilä and a Common Kestrel in Karinmäki.
On the 4th of October we were ringing again and caught 3 Blue and 21+2c Great Tits, 6 Chiffchaffs, a late Blackcap, a Wren, 8 Robins, a Tree Sparrow and 4 Redpolls. We also saw a Grey-headed Woodpecker and 8 Goldfinches.
During the day we checked all the closest fields and visited Varpavaara which is a hill that has recently been completely cut open from trees and has now a very good visibility to almost all directions. It will be a good place to watch arctic-migration and raptors for next few years. Only better observations were a couple of Greater Scaups in Vartialahti, 10 000 Barnacle Geese in Kullinsuo and a Nuthatch in Kangaskylä.
In the evening we went to fields again and ringed a Jack Snipe, 2 Woodcocks, 3 Common Snipes and a Redwing. We also controlled the same Great Snipe for the fourth time. It has stayed on the same field at least from the 9 of September – now it was the latest ever for me. We also saw a couple of Long-eared Owls again.
J.A.