January 2006
New Year – new year ticks
In New Years day we woke up early. I had been too tired because of last day’s winter bird counts so we had been sleeping before other people started to clebrate the New Year. It was still dark when we were getting away all the ice and snow that was covering our car. Somewhere near were a Hooded Crow and a Redpoll calling, so they were the first yearticks.
We drove towards the south and a Magpie became the 3rd species and in Simpele on the Kokkola River there were the 4th species, Mallards. At Korjontie and its feeder was our first target and there we had Tits in unusual order: Coal, Willow, Marsh, Great and Blue. Bullfinches were also eating from the feeder.
At Lakkakuja it was pretty quiet but Yellowhammers, Green Finches and a couple of Bramblings were near the feeding place.
At Kokkola River we found no Dippers but a Jay was calling. When we continued towards Imatra we saw a flock of Waxwings and in Imatra Vuoksenniska we saw some common city birds – Rock (Feral) Pigeons and Jackdaws.
Then we checked the Vuoksi River very carefully and with Mallards, Goldeneyes and Goosanders there were 4 Smews, 3 Velvet Scoters, 3 Tufted Ducks and 13 Cormorants. A Goshawk flew over us and a Dipper was found at Mellonlahti. At Vellamonkatu a Great Spotted woodpecker was drumming and 5 Haw Finches were found from the flocks of Green Finches. Tree Sparrows, which are more common than House Sparrows here nowadays, were calling in the bushes. A surprise was a female Chaffinch that flew over us.
This time of year the day is really short here so soon it became dark. The first bird trip of the year and 29 species was found.
On the 3rd of January I walked to the closest feeder from our house and ticked the House Sparrows but the real observation of the day was made at night when I saw 2 Lynxes walking over the road when I was driving by car on the main road 6.
On the 6th day the ticks were a Raven and a Crested Tit and on the 8th day we heard a Goldcrest on our skiing trip, the Siberian Jays weren’t found.
On the 10th of January I saw a Great Grey Shrike in Siikalahti but the trip ended soon because I got a lot of muddy water inside my boots. It had been so warm winter that Siikalahti bay wasn’t fully frozen! A couple of days later I did a short trip to Siikalahti and saw a White-backed Woodpecker and 2 Hawfinches which is rare there and on the 15th day I found a male Mallard there – it really should be somewhere else! There was a small ditch which wasn’t fully frozen and this poor Mallard thought it could stay there for whole winter; unfortunately it was still coming cold! A flock of Black Grouses was also seen and in Melkoniemi I twitched a Grey-headed Woodpecker and a Pheasant as a year tick.
But then came the real winter! More than a week it was about -30 degrees! So there was no way to go out at all! Only bird which gets more common in the weather like that is a Dipper so it wasn’t a surprise I saw a Dipper on he Joensuu river mouth. This bird comes more south when it is too cold.
So after all I saw 38 species in January. If you compare the result to my friend Oriol’s close to 200 species in January in Catalonia it is really easy to guess do I like the winter here in Finland! Some beautiful day I will be living somewhere where only ice is in my drink.