Action weekend
On Friday the 14th of August I had to wait for frustrating long until Hanna finally got off work at 3 p.m. A quarter of an hour later we headed towards south and Virolahti where the second ever Masked Shrike for Finland had been found in the morning. The first one had been in 1982 and only 4 birders had seen it, so this was a mega-twitch. We parked to Virolahti church at 5 p.m. and already saw the shrike from the parking place. There were lots of twitchers and of course many friends of hours but I just took my camera and went to say hello to Mika Bruun as I knew he already knew what was the best way to get good pictures. And soon we were photographing the shrike together as it was moving between some bushes behind the church and in the middle of the garden.
We were watching the shrike and talking with many friends for an hour or so before we had to continue driving. We drove until Kirkkonummi to my parents where we had an accommodation.
Next morning we woke up early with my father and drove to Espoo Soukka harbor. There we met my old friend Kai Hilditch who ha his Marineri company and he organizes different kind of bird and nature trips to archipelago of Espoo, Helsinki and Kirkkonummi.
Soon we were boating towards the sea and went quickly to first islets in the open sea. There we found Common Ringed Plovers and Dunlins but also a young Common Shelduck and so on.
Our main target was to find waders so we continued to next open sea islets to Kirkkonummi where we found more Common Ringed Plovers and Dunlins but also a Grey Plover, a Little Ringed Plover, a Ruff and a Rock Pipit before we got to Örskät island where we went ashore. We walked a little on the island and saw a Bar-tailed Godwit flying over us and a Red-backed Shrike. But soon we were ready to continue our journey.
We headed even outer to the sea but the outermost islets had no birds. But we saw some Black-throated Loons, one Red-throated Loon and a young Little Gull. We also saw some Grey Seals here and there. Views were stunning and even the weather was getting better and better,
Then we still hurried to Helsinki to check some more islets and found more Common Ringed Plovers and Dunlins, another Ruff and then also 6 Red Knots.
Then it was time to head back to Espoo and we hoped to see a Sandwich Tern on the way as there had been quite a few in last days in the area. We weren’t lucky at all as later we heard that there had actually been more records of Sandwich Tern than ever in whole country in seas and islands nearby but we didn’t bother but continued out journey and finally were back in Soukka. Then it was time to say thanks to “Kaitsu” and with my father we continued in a tight schedule.
We drove to Helsinki Viikki where BirdLife had Birdfair going on. There we went straight to eat but later I met again (too) many friends and did also some shopping. Hanna and my brother Pirkka were working on the fair as they both are in BirdLife board. Also Pirkka’s daughter Iina was on the fair.
Finally it was 4 p.m. and wit my father and Iina we drove back to Kirkkonummi to my parents. In the evening I still headed to Espoo Laajalahti where in a couple of hours I managed to see a Little Grebe, 2 Curlew Sandpiper, a Little Stint and a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and so on.
On the 16th of August I woke up early and headed to Porkkala Pampskatan where I finally was at 7:!5 a.m. My target was finally to see Sandwich Terns. This species had been my boogey-bird even though I had seen one several years ago. I started to scan the sea and islets and almost immediately saw 3 terns landing to an islet. There were an adult and 2 young Sandwich Terns. I decided to keep on scanning as there had been amazingly 19 birds seen nearby on the island of Rönnskär on the previous day. But there was nothing else to be found and when I checked the islet where the birds had been again, they were gone.
On the next few hours I saw just gulls, Common Terns and one young Arctic Tern but also some migrating ducks (215 common species), 30 Common Scoters, 3 Velvet Scoters, a Long-tailed Ducks, 2 Black-throated Loons, a Red-throated Loon, a Great Egret, 8 Oystercatchers, 13 Bar-tailed Godwits, 6 Grey Plovers, 6 Golden Plovers, 10 Dunlins, a Green Sandpiper, a Merlin and 95 Yellow Wagtails and so on.
Again there had been Sandwich Terns in many other places, even in some that I could see. Finally I found 3 Sandwich Terns flying towards west fishing on the way, but they were again very far. Luckily the next four birds came much closer so I could even get some pictures of them. While I was photographing I started to feel that there were Sandwich Terns everywhere and in best moment there were at least 6 birds visible.
I was still watching there birds when my father and Iina arrived higher to the rock. But once they got down to the shore where I was, all the terns were gone. Next hour or so I was scanning the sea while they were having their packed lunch and watching Alisa Vainio win EC-marathon, but I just couldn’t find any more terns. Finally we had to start walking back. But we still climbed to the rock first and there were surprisingly some twitchers searching for terns. They hadn’t seen any yet but luckily one was soon found from the area that I hadn’t seen from the shore and my father and Iina also saw this normally so bird.
Once we were back at my parents, I went to pick up Pirkka from the railway station and soon we ate again. Finally I had to start my long way back to home and Pirkka and Iina jumped to our car too. I drove to Itäkeskus where Hanna had been shopping after all BirdLife-meetings. There I picked up her and Pirkka and Iina went shopping in turn as they still had some hour before their train to Kemijärvi. With Hanna we started a drive back to home to Parikkala. On the way we stopped in Luumäki Taavetti to twitch a young Black Redstart that we found after some searching and it was posing nicely.
Finally we were back at home – but for once we had got some luck. And Hanna had also bought new binoculars.
J.A.