September 2003
September – Waiting for weekends and weekend birding
What I made mostly in September was waiting for weekend! It was hard to watch out from small window and think what I could find if I wouldn’t have to be at work. When weekend finally came the weather was always bad. It was cloudy and very windy and it was Southern wind – very bad weather for watching migration and also for digiscoping.
I had never been before in South-Karelia in autumn, so I was very keen to get birding to whole new places. Thanks to Jari Kontiokorpi, he told me where to go to watch migration. First of September I had to go to work at 10 a.m. so I went with Hanna to Parikkala Oravanniemi for early morning. And we were there also next day one hour before my work. But there were just 20 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and some migrating Divers.
I visited also Siikalahti few times, but there was just thousand ducks. They were there because it`s protected area and they are safe from hunters there. Some raptors and Bluethroats were there too. At Savonlinna Nätki we couldn’t see Lesser Spotted Eagle anymore even it still was somewhere there.
6th-7th of September the weekend went by watching migration. Saturday we were checking some fields and standing in Simpele water tower. We saw some Red-throated Pipits, Rustic Buntings and a young Pallid Harrier (which was little too far to be 100% sure)… At Sunday we visited Siikalahti and we saw Three-toed Woodpecker, White-backed Woodpecker and Nutcracker all migrating.
13th day we went 100km north to Kitee Kyyrönniemi to see some migration. But the wind was far too strong, only one Three-toed Woodpecker was flying back to east with the wind.
At night we put the nets to Tarvaslampi and Tengmalm’s Owl CD to player. And surprisingly we got three owls. It was nice to watch TV and make these sites and ones in hour to go to check the nets.
At Sunday I went with Jari (which was sick) to Punkaharju to see new birding places for me. Punkaharju Hirvikoski offered the best species, we saw two Saimaa Seals! But there was not many birds. At Uitonniemi we heard a call of Richards Pipit, but we couldn’t see the bird. It flew just over us but the voice is really difficult to localize.
In the middle of September I was running around Siikalahti, when I found pretty late Whitethroat. It was nice to go jogging because there were so many birds in forests. A lot of Tits, mostly Great Tits but also smaller ones – hehheh.
When the weather was good enough we went to Tarvaslampi to ring owls at night. About two or three nights a week the weather was enough good. But we got only some birds anymore. But it was nice that we got also Pygmy Owls! Totally we got five Tengmalm’s Owls and two Pygmy Owls
Rest of the weekends I was watching arctic migration. Unfortunately arctic birds were not migrating yet! But at least I was trying hard! 20th day at Hirvikoski we saw 186 Jays, 623 Brent Geese and some flocks of Bean and Barnacle Geese. Same day I and Hanna went to Soininmäki to photograph Siberian Jays. Birds were very co-operative so we got pretty good pictures. Unfortunately the light was not that good. There was also very funny Crested Tit which really wanted to get photographed. It also tried to eat everything we got. It tried almost to get our pockets!
27th day we were standing on the top of Simpele water tower for nine hours with Jari. But after two hours Chaffinch migration we had to watch mostly to empty sky. More than hundred Divers and Geese, more than five hundred Ducks also a flock of Velvet Scoters and two flocks of Scaups, some raptors for example late Honey Buzzard and two Hawfinches and Tree Pipits.
Next day, Sunday, I was at Hirvikoski. But it started to rain soon so no arctic migration still. There was funny Saimaa Seal which was only 50 meters from me and came even closer when I started to whistle for it. So I got it digiscoped, but it was really cloudy, but at least I got some kind of pictures before it dived again. Same afternoon I finally got Long-tailed Tit digiscoped. Earlier I had got just photos of the branch where the tit had been sitting less than a second earlier.