Pacific Golden Plover
Long-waited lifer
I needed some rest after a tough holiday so I didn’t do much birding. On the 18th of June we went to shopping to Savonlinna and on the way we went to photograph Lady’s-slipper Orchids in Kerimäki. In the evening I visited Siikalahti bird-tower but only better birds were a couple of Golden Orioles and an Icterine Warbler.
On the 19th of June we did an early morning trip to Kirjavala and Tyrjä area but couldn’t find anything else than 13 Blyth’s Reed Warblers, 2 Icterine Warblers and 3 Corn Crakes. In the evening we visited Siikalahti again and saw a male Gadwall and some migrating Wood Sandpipers, Ruffs and Greenshanks – and they were going towards south already.
On the 20th of June it had been raining whole day in Parikkala so I wasn’t birding at all. But then at 11:30 p.m. I received a message that there was a male Pacific Golden Plover with a female Golden Plover sp in Lappeenranta Joutseno Konnunsuo. I left immediately! On the half-way I started to call to the birders I expected to be there already and got info that the bird wasn’t visible from the bird-tower anymore but from Myllärinen road. After an hour driving I was there but could found only cars. Luckily Karri Kuitunen, who had been going over a huge ditch when he was going to identify the plover, came soon and told me that I had to walk 500m along to the place where the bird and twitchers were. And luckily the plovers were still there visible even though it was already getting very dark. Also a thick fog was covering the fields and soon it was too thick to see the birds anymore. I could see the birds for 10 minutes and I really had a feeling that the female was also a Pacific Golden Plover. Anyway I wanted to be sure so I decided to stay in the car for some hours and see if the birds were still there when the sun started to shine. Anyway it meant only a couple of hours wait. Of course there were some birders that had come too late so I didn’t have to wait alone.
More and more thwitchers started to arrive and finally after a couple of hours wait it started to get lighter but the fog was still too thick to see anything, but still we decided to walk back to the place where the bird had seen last.
Finally the fog started to get weaker and soon the birds were found! The male was again easy to identify but now when the birds were much further the female still stayed unidentifiable. So after some time we decided to get just a little bit closer to get some pictures and video of the female. We walked less than 100m when the birds were still maybe 400m from us. I decided to get some video already as it was now getting lighter all the time.
The birds were still feeding but then they stopped and surprisingly jumped to the air and left directly towards south-east. And when the birds were flying it was easy to tell that they both were Pacific Golden Plovers!
When we walked back to other twitchers we heard that a Montagu’s Harrier that had been on the fields for a couple of days had been flying towards the plovers and that was maybe why they had left. And I hadn’t seen a Montagu’s Harrier – not for years! So when the other twitchers started to leave I still stayed there until I finally saw a Montagu’s Harrier too. It was already 6 a.m. when I left towards Parikkala where I had to be at work at 7:30 a.m. On the way I still stopped a couple of times in Rautjärvi Simpele Kokkola-river but couldn’t find anything better.
But anyway I had finally got a Pacific Golden Plover as a WP-tick! There had been lots of them in Finland in 1996 but I was then in army so I missed it then
J.A.