. . Lintuharrastajan päiväkirja Birders diary . .

The winter arrived and it started to get really cold. It was even more than – 20 degrees when I left to drive towards Kirkkonummi on the morning of the 19th of December at 8 a.m. I had been suffering too many problems with my ears as a child and now I was going to an operation one more time. But after the operation I would have 2 weeks sick leave so I had packed really everything with me.

I drove staright to Helsinki where I headed to Viikki sewage plant where after some searching I found the right place where it took only a couple of minutes to find the bird I was looking for – a Rock Pipit! It was a nice year-tick and also a winter-tick.

Then I continued to Kirkkonummi where I turned to Hirsala and after 10 more kilometres turned to Änkarlaxintie. After 500 metres I stopped and started to scan the trees and soon found a Great Grey Owl perched on the top of one trunk. It moved on soon but luckily I found it again when I was already leaving and managed to digiscope a couple of good pictures before it moved on again.

At my parent’s place I rested for an hour before my father drove me to Helsinki to Laser-Tilkka hospital. There I had to wait for 3 hours before my operation started. The operation took almost 2 hours but surprisingly I was able to walk away from the surgery room to my own bed. I slept very well until next morning and my father picked me up before 9 a.m.

When I was back in Kirkkonummi I got a message that a new bird-species for Finland had been found on Utö island. Luckily it was the same Fox Sparrow that I had already twitched in Estonia so I wasn’t very worried. Anyway I sent a message to my friend Kalle Larsson if he would be going there next morning I might be joining him. Kalle answered that he wasn’t going so I started to sleep.

I woke up some hours later and Kalle had sent me a message that after all he was arranging a big twitch to Utö. He had arranged a huge M/S Aspö to get even more than a hundred twitchers to the island. I was feeling better and better all the time so I booked myself in. Then I relaxed the rest of the day and in the evening I checked all my messages again and there was again a surprise – after all Kalle wasn’t able to join the twitch so I decided to send a couple of messages to some other friends if I could join somebody else’s car – I didn’t want to drive until Turku alone. Luckily I managed to get a place with Heikki Vasamies and Andreas Uppstu. We decided to meet in Andreas’ place at 03:15 a.m. next morning!

I woke up at 2 a.m. and after half an hour I was driving towards Matinkylä. And on time we were driving towards Turku. We stopped once in Salo and finally at 5:55 a.m. we were in Turku Pansio where our boat was leaving. We parked inside the gates with tens of other twitcher’s cars and soon walked inside the M/S Aspö where we all 97 twitchers paid 120 euros for the ride!

All the seats were soon taken so we walked down to the lowest floor where we got a cabin. There we slept for the next 4 hours and woke up at 10:15. We climbed up and there some birders told that the bunting had been seen again and we were closing to a place where the twitchers that had gone to Utö with a smaller and quicker boat had seen a Peregrine Falcon. Soon we passed the Kvinskär island and soon saw the Peregrine perched on a beacon.

Soon we were in Utö and there we got some instructions and then started to walk towards the middle part of the island.

Soon we were close to the place where the bird had been seen and the founder of the bird Jarmo Koistinen told us where the bird had been seen. We got instructions to stay on the roads and then we started to search for the bird.

We decided to walk to a place where the bird had been seen last and started to check the bushes carefully. Soon I saw a brown bird under the densest bush but it disappeared too soon. But then Eino Repo who was standing just next to me said that he had the bird – but then it disappeared again. Luckily after a couple of minutes Heikki found it perched on a tree just some 50 metres from us. I climbed next to Heikki and managed to see a Fox Sparrow for some seconds before it flushed and flew 100 metres away behind some buildings.

Of course most of the twitchers had missed the bird and a chaos started. I decided to stay in the same place when almost everyone else rushed after the bird. But luckily they found it again perched on a tree and everyone saw it easily! And soon it moved to Jarmo’s own garden where it first perched on the bushes and then to the feeder and there it stayed for so long time that we could watch and photograph it well.

The weather was really cold, windy and snowy so soon I had got enough and together with Andreas Lindén we decided to go to try to twitch a Rock Pipit from the southernmost tip of the island. But the bird hadn’t been found by other twitchers so we gave up soon and walked back to the middle part of the island. There we managed to see a young Smew and a Long-eared Owl that was roosting on a pine before we had to start walking back towards the harbour.

At 1 p.m. our boat left toward Turku again. We got a cabin again but anyway I decided to spend a couple of hours outside on the deck. Not many birds were seen, just some gulls, Goldeneyes, a Cormorant and a White-tailed Eagle – and the same Peregrine again. At 4 p.m. it started to get dark so I went to the cabin to sleep.

About at 6 p.m. we were in Turku again and started to drive back. A couple of hours later I said goodbye to Heikki and Andreas and drove to Kirkkonummi to my parents. I had really had different kind of second recovery day thatn I had expected before the operation!

On the 22nd of December I had planned to take easy. I slept until 10 and then started to update my sites and this blog. But then I got a message that there was a male Black-throated Thrush in Espoo Eestinmalmi. Anyway I finished with my blog before I left so once I had driven all 18 kilometres to the place, there were already many twitchers. The bird was pointed to me right away as it was perched in a tree above a feeder. It was really showing well so I took so many pictures that my camera batteries started to run out because of the cold weather and my fingers started to get completely frozen.

Next I drove just some kilometres to Olari where a Capercaillie had been spending already a couple of weeks under some pine trees in the middle of big buildings. I parked to Alaportti and walked only 20 metres before I found it. It was standing under a pine and I of course started to digiscope it. The light was bad and the bird was too big and too close for digiscoping but luckily I managed to get some pretty good pictures.

The rest of the day I took easy. I even did some Christmas shopping, but mostly I was just relaxing – after all I was having a sick leave…

On the 23rd of December I slept long again but at 11 a.m. I decided to go to check Ämmässuo rubbish tip as there had been 3 Glauscous Gulls. Only gull counters are able to get inside the rubbish tip but there is one place where you can see most of the gulls outside the gates. But to get there I had to walk a kilometer in a deep snow which was pretty hard and I had told not to do any sports for a couple of weeks. Anyway I got there but it took some time. There were good numbers of gulls perched on the hill and in half a minute I managed to find a young Glauscous Gull with numerous Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls. I took some pictures and a couple of videos and then after I had checked all the gulls several times and managed to see 2 Starlings in flight, I started to walk back.

Then I still decided to drive to Hirsala to check if the Great Grey Owl was still around. I was almost there when I got a message that Heikki Vasamies had just found a Ural Owl in the same place. Unfortunately it disappeared before I got there and I didn’t find it anymore. After some searching I decided to drive back to my parents and take it easy for the rest of the day.

The Christmas days I was relaxing, eating and spending time with my family. It was really snowing a lot! Hanna came also in the Christmas day. So on the Boxing day we were birding together in Espoo. First we went to see the Black-throated Thrush. It was chasing all Blackbirds all the time so it wasn’t easy to photograph.

Next we continued to photograph the Capercaillie which was showing extremely well in a pine tree.

Next we checked if a Hen Harrier was seen flying around in Soukka but we weren’t lucky. 5 White-tailed Eagles were seen. Then we still drove to Kaitalahti where we saw amazing flock of 65 Reed Buntings!

Hanna left back to Parikkala and after a wet and rainy day the weather was nice again and on the 28th of December I went birding to Kirkkonummi Porkkala. Te walk to the shore was hard because of the snow but I managed to get there. The shore was on ice but there was some open water behind the closest islands. There were lots of Goldeneyes, Goosanders and Mallards, 13 Mute Swans and 5 White-tailed Eagles were perched on the rocky islets. Far behind the bigger islands I could see big flocks of Long-tailed Ducks – at least 2500 birds. After some time I noticed a bird perched on a top of a dead tree on a tiny islet – I needed some time to realize that it was a Hawk Owl! After I had walked back to my car I drove to my parents and took it easy for the rest of the day.

The 29th of December it was really foggy. Finally in the afternoon the weather cleared and I decided to go out. After I had checked that the Black-throated Thrush was still present I drove to Soukanlahti to see gulls flying to roost to the sea. It was really something! In an hour I saw at least a couple of thousands of Herring Gulls, tens of Great Black-backed Gulls and even 2 young Glauscous Gulls! It must have been the first time ever that I had enjoyed watching gulls! I was in so good mood that I still went to buy a new television…

J.A.