January 2005
January – New Year – new year ticks!
Even though we had been celebrating a New Year and also new bigger Parikkala (Saari and Uukuniemi joined in Parikkala), we started a traditional bird trip early on 1st of January.
I had planned that we would try to see as many species (new year-ticks) as possible but also to find as many 1st of January -ticks as possible. (Quite a few birders are collecting such ticks.) So we decided to do birding in same places as on Independence Day bird rally. On the way to Ruokolahti Utula we shortly stopped at Suomaankorpi and tried to see a Hawk Owl. Hawk Owl wasn’t there but we surprisingly heard a Long-eared Owl.
Utula was almost empty, so we just got some common year ticks. At Imatra we first saw a Black Woodpecker at Vuoksenniska and then continued to Vuoksi River where we found a pair of Tufted Ducks, Cormorants and a female Long-tailed Duck.
At Meltola we found Siskins, a Hawfinch and a Arctic Redpoll and a t Salo-Issakka we saw easily a female White-backed Woodpecker.
Next we twitched the same Jack Snipe I had seen before on December. We were happy to see this bird again without disturbing it at all.
At Simpele Lakkakuja we sae a Blackbird and a Brambling which were there on a feeding place. A Dipper was easily found at Kokkola River. Now the Hawk Owl was also found at Suomaankorpi so we could continue to Parikkala before the dusk.
We were parking our car in Kangaskylä when a Sparrow Hawk landed next to us to a tree. We were still watching a hawk from the car when a Grey-headed Woodpecker flight to the same tree and staretd to attack to the hawk. The Pheasant wasn’t found, but the last and 36th tick for the day was a lonely Waxwing.
On the 2nd of January we had to go to Savonlinna where we also twitched a Black-throated Diver which was overwintering there. We tried to see also Nutcrackers in Punkaharju but we saw also a flock of Parrot Crossbills. On the next morning I saw a Pheasant in Kangaskylä.
4th of January we drove to Mikkeli to see my grandmother. Pirkka’s family was also there. We couldn’t see any better birds but at least I did photograph a lot of my relatives.
Finally during the mid January I managed to get some bird pictures when I digiscoped a Dipper at Oronmylly. Even I birded a lot I couldn’t find anything better than some Great Grey Shrikes. Bigger surprise was another Pheasant which I got my 221st Siikalahti tick.
On the 15th of January we went to check everything was alright with the famous Siberian Jays. Birds were happy to het something different to eat than normally when we shared our box lunch. We also saw a nice male Three-toed Woodpecker there.
During the next day I birded again at Imatra. First I twitched a Nuthatch at Ruokolahti Huhtasenkylä and then at Vuoksi I saw a couple of new year ticks: a Smew and a Goldfinch. This time I saw a pair of White-backed Woodpeckers at Salo-Issakka, but Joutseno didn’t offer anything else than a Goshawk.
On the 17th we drove again to Helsinki. Hanna had lots of to do there and we both joined to my brother Riku’s book-publishing. I had taken some and Hanna had drawn some pictures to another of these conditioning books. I had also planned to do as much birding as possible, but the weather was awful all the time. Finally only better observations were Common Crossbills at Luumäki, Whooper Swans at Jaala and a Rough-legged Buzzard at Siuntio. On the way we tried to twitch a White-billed Diver at Sysmä and an Iceland Gull at Hämeenlinna but the diver had disappeared and the gull wasn’t seen because of a fog. Actually the gull was identified as a leucistic Herring Gull later.
During the last days of January the weather turned bad again. I did tried to listen for Owls at couple of nights and tried to find some grouses. I heard an Eagle Owl, saw a Tengmalm’s Owl and a Hazel Hen. Also a Grey-headed Woodpecker, Dippers, Sparrow Hawk, an Arctic Redpoll and a flocks of Long-tailed Tits were seen. Some more Owls and a Capercaillie are still missing from my winter-rally list. But I do have still February.
In the end of January I had 60 year-ticks. Usually the February is the worst month for birding, but let’s see!