Autumn arctic-migration coming
I continued visiting Siikalahti every day. In most days I went there early before I had to go to work and then again during my lunch-hour. On the 16th of September I saw the e first flock of 5 Barnacle Geese, 2 Bluethroats, 2 Redpolls and 2 Swallows. A Grey-headed Woodpecker was calling as were 4 Water Rails too. In Härskiinmuka I saw a flock of 13 Common Scoters and in the evening in Imatra I saw already 80 Barnacle Geese.
On the 17th day I saw already 200 Barnacle Geese and 13 Bean Geese in Siikalahti. 2 Golden Eagles were very nice and surprisingly there were 15 Rock Doves in Kangaskylä. 10 birds had arrived from somewhere. On the 18th day I still saw a Marsh Harrier, a Honey Buzzard and 2 Tree Pipits but the bird of the day was a Little Grebe that I found from Härskiinmutka! In the afternoon I went to Saari but saw only 27 Ruffs in Pohjanranta and 200 Cranes in Jyrkilä and so on. In Moskuunniemi I still heard a White-backed Woodpecker.
On the19 th day I saw altogether 4910 migrating Brent Geese, but almost nothing else was moving. On the next day I was running a half-marathon in Joutseno.
On the 21st day the morning was very misty, but even though the weather was good also after that it was very quiet. In only geese-flock there was a Pink-footed Goose migrating, a couple of White-tailed Eagles were hunting on the bay, a Marsh Harrier and the last Swallow were seen and a Grey Plover was heard from the misty sky. 2 Bluethroats were still on the bushes where also a Wren, some Chiffchaffs and Sedge Warblers were seen. On the 22nd day I saw a White-backed Woodpecker in Härskiinmutka and on a short visit to Saari I saw 900 Barnacle Geese in Pohjasuo. There was also a strange white-headed, dark hybrid goose in a flock. A Grey-headed Woodpecker was calling there too.
On the 25th day I saw only a couple of small flocks of migrating Long-tailed Ducks. It was raining pretty hard but nothing special was found from the fields either. On the 26th there were 900 Barnacle Geese and a Grey Heron and a Rough-legged Buzzard were seen migrating. In the afternoon I decided to go twitching to Joensuu Penttilä. I had some difficulties to find the right place but luckily I got good instructions from Janne Koskinen and once I got to the right place I met Mika Ilari Koskinen and Tarmo Lehtilä who had really good instructions. So soon I heard a right kid of “tacking” from the bush – a Dusky Warbler was calling! But it was really difficult to see the bird. After an hour I had seen it only in flight but then Mika managed to see it on the ground. I waited and waited in the same place and Mika walked towards the bird and then it stopped for a second just in front of me and I finally saw the bird pretty well! Also 2 Bluethroats, 8 Chiffchaffs, a Willow Warbler, a Dunnock and a White-backed Woodpecker were seen there. On the way back I stopped in Kitee Puhos where I counted 3000 Barnacle Geese from the field.
At the weekend I was in Siikalahti again. On Saturday I stayed there for 7 hours and saw a Grey Heron, 2 Peregrines, a Dunlin, a Bluethroat and a Sedge Warbler. 2 Nutcrackers were seen in Kangaskylä and in Kullinsuo I counted 1000 Barnacle Geese and in Kannas 140 Bean Geese, 20 White-fronted Geese, 77 Whooper Swans and 3 Bewick Swans. On Sunday I was 6 hours in Siikalahti and during the morning we saw lots of thrushes, finches and Wood Pigeons migrating but nothing really good. 200 Great Tits and 40 Goldcrest migrating were something that we don’t usually see in Siikalahti, but only a Chiffchaff and one possible Yellow-browed Warbler was seen in flight with them. A young Red-backed Shrike was seen which was pretty late, a Peregrine was chasing ducks and 1000 Barnacle Geese. A Bewick Swan was seen landing to the lake and an Osprey was still hunting on the bay. In the evening I counted 3300 Barnacle Geese in Kullinsuo and in Kannas I found a Pink-footed Goose that was with 270 Bean and White-fronted Geese.
On the 29th day an Osprey was still there and a Water Rail was calling. I saw again some Brent Geese – 2000 bird were migrating during my lunch-hour. In Kullinsuo fields there were already 3500 Barnacle Geese.
On the 30th of September migration was strong but I was at work. The flocks weren’t very big and they were very high up and in wide range. There were also several species in most of the flocks, even 4 species – White-fronted, Bean, Barnacle and Brent. So the best observation of my lunch-hour weren’t some 4500 migrated geese but a nice flock of 77 Black-throated Divers.
J.A.