Again in southeast (a couple of times)
After a trip to south-east I took it easier for a couple of days. I did a couple of long bike-trips and of course visited Siikalahti a couple pf times. On the 14th of May I saw a Little Ringed Plover, 2 Golden Orioles and heard a 3rd one and also heard a Garden Warbler. I also checked lots of owl nest-boxes but found only one breeding Pygmy Owl that had 9 eggs! Otherwise the week wasn’t very good.
On thursday Hanna’s and 2 other artist’s expedition opened in Savonlinna Riihisaari. There were lots of people in the opening ceremony.
On the 17th day I drove again to south. On the way I checked nest-boxes in Rautjärvi and saw a Wood Lark in Laikko. Then I drove straight to Virolahti Leerviikki where I met “Potu” who had been in Virolahti already for 2 days. The weather was poor – the wind was from east and it was raining a little. So we left to check some fields. We twitched a Collared Dove on the way but didn’t find anything better from the fields in rain. The rain stopped but there was no migration in the evening so we could go to sleep early in Lakakallio.
On the 18th of May I woke up at 4:30 a.m. when a couple of noisy birders climbed to the rock. So I decided to get out of my car too. There was almost nothing migrating until 6 a.m. some Black-throated Divers started to move. We continued until 11 a.m. and counted 277 of them. Only other better bird was a Common Rosefinch.
During the day we tried to see raptors on Elokallio but saw only some Honey Buzzards and a couple of White-tailed Eagles. In the evening we joined an arctica boat-trip which took 4 hours. The weather was great but birds were missing. We saw 2 Arctic Skuas and finally on the way back some flocks of Long-tailed Ducks and 55 Velvet Scoters. We still watched Long-tailed Ducks migrating over Lakakallio and they kept on going until late night.
On the 19th day I woke up before 4 a.m. and climbed to the rock. Pretty soon I saw the first Black-throated Divers and soon Potu and a couple of other birders came there too and then we started to see flocks of Scaups. At 6:30 a.m. I spotted a falcon migrating over the sea and realized it was a male Red-footed Falcon! The migration stopped about 8 a.m. but we continued still one more hour. During the morning we had counted 737 Black-throated divers, 20 Red-throated Divers, 617 Scaups, 25 Tufted Ducks, 2 Arctic Skuas, 4 Brent Geese, about 500 grey geese and Barnacle Geese, 35 Velvet Scoters, thousands of Long-tailed ducks, 5 Grey Herons and so on.
Then we drove to Hamina. On the way we heard an Icterine Warbler, but soon we parked to Kirkkojärvi where we heard another Icterine Warbler on the parking place. There were already about 100 twitchers waiting for a Booted Eagle to come. It had been seen on several places on the previous evening and it was coming towards Hamina. It was very hot and sunny so when there was almost nothing happening it was pretty boring. Geese were migrating but too far. A Penduline Tit was heard and once we heard a call like a European Serin but nobody saw it. Finally Hoey Buzzards and Common Buzzards started to move and during the long day we saw 18 Honey Buzzards. At 2:43 p.m. we finally saw the first eagle and it was already the third Lesser Spotted Eagle for me this spring! But the Booted Eagle was missing. It was 4 p.m. when we decided to give up. Many twitchers still stayed there but we were just too tired – we had started so early. We started to drive back to our home. And of course the bird was seen 45 minutes later! So I decided to turn back and try to see the eagle in Virolahti. I managed to get there pretty fast and the bird had still been seen in Hamina. It really looked promising that I could still see it. There were again almost 100 birders waiting for it in EastGate. Then after a long wait the bird was seen only 5 kilometres from us and coming towards us. But it newer came! We did see a Black Kite but nothing else! At 7 p.m. I had to start driving back home – and I was pretty pissed off!
On the 20th day I heard a couple of Blyth’s Reed Warbler on my way to work. Then after my work day I decided to go to a very long bike-trip. Maybe I just wanted to do something really hard to get something else to think than a missed Booted Eagle. So I drove 82.7 kilometres around the whole Lake Simpele! I heard a Red-breasted Flycatcher, 4 Blyth’s Reed Warblers, 2 Wood Warblers and a Chiffchaff and I can say that after that I felt very happy again!
On the next evening we went to check the last owl nest-boxes that are in Punkaharju. They were empty too so we have only 3 breeding owls this year – luckily they are all different. We have 1 Ural, 1 Tengmalm’s and 1 Pygmy Owl – hopefully they breed successfully! During the evening we heard 2 Red-breasted Flycatchers, a Corn Crake, 2 Blyth’s Reed Warblers, a Blackcap and saw 2 Hazel Hens.
On the next night I woke up at 2 a.m. and went to listen to nightsingers to Siikalahti. In 2 hours I heard a Corn Crake, a Blyth’s Reed Warbler, a Great Reed Warbler, an Icterine Warbler, 2 Golden Orioles and the same Savi’s Warbler again. I also saw a Short-eared Owl migrating and one Short- or Long-eared Owl hunting in Tetrisuo.
In the afternoon I went to bike with “Masa” Valkeapää and we biked to his cottage where we did a short tour to Lake Simpele by motor-boat. Then we biked back. On the lake we saw that Barnacle Geese had arrived to their breeding island where were also 2 pairs of Lesser Black-backed Gulls. On one rock in the middle of the lake we saw a Cormorant. Then while biking I heard some Blyth’s Reed Warblers and one Marsh Warbler.
On the23rd of May I got a message that there was a possible Southern Grey Shrike in Kotka. After my work I drove there with Henrik Salomaa. Unfortunately the bird was clearly a Great Grey Shrike of race homeyeri. Anyway I had never seen this subspecies so I took some pictures and video of it.
We also went to twitch a Short-toed Lark that had been seen on the previous day in Hovinsaari. Luckily we found it easily and after some chasing I managed to get really good pictures and videos of it. nothing else was found and because of the weather was really cold, windy and rainy, we left back to home. I dropped Henrik to Lappeenranta and in Parikkala I still checked that Savi’s Warbler was still singing in Siikalahti.
J.A.