Bird-tower competition
Alarms woke us up before 4 a.m. and a half an hour later we were driving towards Siikalahti with Hanna and Potu. Allu and Pirkka were already waiting for us in the information centre and soon we continued towards the bird-tower. On the way we saw a White-backed Woodpecker and hoped to see it again later in during the bird-tower competition.
On the tower we took our positions and soon the rest of our team: Matti Lötjönen, Ilpo Kuusisalo and Boy Possen arrived too. We had the biggest team ever. We of course started to search for good species for the start but when it was 5 a.m. we hadn’t found anything better. So we had to just start listing common species. Canada Goose, Common Tern and Whimbrel were only better ones that really mattered. The rest of the species were those that we could see whole day.
We really had to wait for the first good species! Finally a big flock of Swallows came to fly over the bay and we managed to find one Sand Martin that was with them. The next hours were pretty similar, we got plenty of common species and some of them were of course very important ones like Pied Flycatcher, Robin, Song Thrush, Tree Pipit, Siskin, Green Finch and so on. These species can really be difficult, usually some of them are missing completely. The visibility was amazing good so we managed to get House and Tree Sparrows easily too.
The first Rough-legged Buzzards were seen surprisingly early but only other raptors we saw were the common ones. Only common waders were seen too, Spotted Redshank, Ruff and Wood Sandpiper were already numerous but finally we saw a Green Sandpiper too. After we had checked many migrating Black-throated Divers we finally saw the first Red-throated Diver. Other better species we got were Smew, Pintail, Water Rail, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Cuckoo, Whinchat, Mistle Thrush and Lapland Bunting. Finally we saw a Jay too and surprisingly there were more coming – 7 Jays were like migrating towards west. A Great Grey Shrike came to perch almost next to the tower and it was a new species to our bird-tower competition list ever. Hanna walked a long way to the western side of the bay and tried to find some species for us so we could see them from the tower too but there was nothing new there.
After 9 a.m. a long empty period started. When Hanna came back, Allu decided to go to walk to the eastern side of the bay. The rest of us were watching to the sky but there was nothing new! Only Yellow Wagtails were migrating. Finally after an hour big flocks of geese started to come from Tetrisuo fields and but only one of us managed to see 2 Barnacle Geese landing to the bay but behind the islands! And in this competition at least 2 team members have to see the species! So the next half an hour some of us were waiting the geese to swim visible and the rest kept watching to the sky. Finally the Barnacle Geese came visible and Pirkka said unforgettable words: “Now it begins to go well again”.
At 11:30 a.m. I found a big raptor soaring over the islands and said right away that: “There is a good looking raptor coming, must be a spotted eagle!” The bird came straight towards us soaring and getting higher all the time. So soon it was easy to identify as the better one, Lesser Spotted Eagle! Soon it started to glide and flew over the dam road and went behind the trees. We had called to Allu who was still walking but he didn’t manage to see it but of course we called to the team that was on dam-road tower and they managed to see it well.
After some hand shaking and celebrating we continued watching to the sky and soon Boy found 2 White Storks that were soaring on the southern sky. We all found the birds soon and then managed to call to Allu so he could find these birds too and got this lifer which he had hopes to get. We also called to the another team again.
And only some minutes later Potu found a Black Kite coming towards us and again Allu and another team were called. And again Potu found a Goshawk and then 2 Hobbies and I found a Red-breasted Merganser migrating with 2 Goosanders and then I found a flock of 6 Rooks and Boy found a very distant male Redstart. We had really had an amazing hour!
The last 45 minutes we tried to find anything new but it was quiet again. The last 5 minutes we tried to find a Yellowhammer which was the easiest missing species. Finally on the last minute I found one flying towards a farm building and luckily Ilpo managed to see it just when it flew inside the building!
After all we had got 93 species which was our new record! We were the best team in Parikkala, but both Tarassiinlahti and Pohjansuo had got only 1 species less. We were also the best team inland together with Outokumpu Sysmäjärvi and Tohmajärvi Värtsilä Uusikylä. I must say that we didn’t see any White-backed Woodpeckers.
After we had eaten something we planned to keep on birding but the weather changed windy. So after we had seen the first Merlin of the day we decided to leave. We still heard a Bluethroat singing shortly near the information centre. Then we deceded to go twitching to Lappeenranta.
We drove to Kaislanen and tried for a couple of hours to see the Ferroginous Duck but without luck. Only better birds we saw were 3 Gadwalls and a Chiffchaff. On the way back to Parikkala we saw a male Capercaillie flying over the road. We still decided to drive to Saari where the Cackling Goose had been seen again but it had disappeared again. We saw only a Bewick’s Swan. It was very late when we finally went to sleep.
J.A.