Birdtower competition 2017
On the 4th of May I visited Siikalahti a couple of times, first before my work and then on my lunch-hour. I saw 5-6 White-tailed Eagles, 5 Wood Sandpipers, a House Martin, 2 Yellow Wagtails and heard a Chiffchaff. In the afternoon we went to check owl-nestboxes and found and ringed a Pygmy Owl which had 7 eggs and a Tenmalm’s Owl with 5 eggs.
On the 5th of May I visited Siikalahti on my lunch-hour and again after work. A White-tailed Eagle, a Hen Harrier, both male and female Pallid Harriers, a Merlin, a Ruff, a Spotted Redshank, 28 Wood Sandpipers and 10 Lapland Buntings were seen. The male Pallid Harrier was flying high up on the sky with Marsh Harriers. A Grey-headed Woodpecker was still calling and Willow Warbler was singing – it really looked promising for the next day’s Birdtower competiton, but the weather forecast looked extremely bad – cold and northern wind.
After 10 p.m. my brother Pirkka arrived and of course we met in Siikalahti where Water Rails were calling and after some waiting we heard also a Jack Snipe extremely well.
On the 6th of May we woke up at 3:30 a.m. and soon I was biking towards Siikalahti while others were driving by car. I wanted to get some eco-ticks as we have a competition with some friends. At the parking place we met Matti Lötjönen and while walking to the tower we saw and heard a White-backed Woodpecker and a Wren was singing behind the tower. Soon also Ilpo Kuusisalo and Miika Soikkeli arrived and at 5 a.m. the competition started.
The beginning was pretty quiet but some very good species were got like a Wren and a Grey-headed Woodpecker which both were new species in our birdtower competition 18 years history. We also got White-backed Woodpecker, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Smew, Shoveler, Pintail, Kestrel, Black Grouse, Water Rail and so on soon. The first surprising species was a Cormorant that landed to the bay and stayed there for whole day! Soon we had seen 3 species of geese but unfortunately we didn’t see more at all.
A lot of passerines were migrating and especially thrushes, Redpolls and Siskins were numerous. And because of the northern wind the flocks stayed low and some of them were flying close enough to the tower. So soon we had seen all the common thrushes, but also Tree and Meadow Pipit, Lapland Bunting, Waxwing, Yellow Wagtail, Jay and also Red-breasted Merganser, Black and Red-throated Diver, Golden Plover, Wood and Green Sandpiper, Greenshank, Spotted Redshank and Ruff but we really hoped to see more migrating waders, but we weren’t lucky. On funny observation was a Willow Warbler that was found extremely far but because of the cold weather the visibility was extremely good and it was easy to identify even from that distant.
Before 7 a.m. we had already more than 80 species and eve after that we got species very well. But nothing better was found until Matti said: “There is a Grey Heron or GREAT WHITE EGRET COMING!” and a Great White Egret came from north and flew almost straight over us and landed to the shore of the bay.
But soon after the egret it went quiet. Even though lots of migration was still going on, we couldn’t get any new species. Common local raptors were seen which a Hobby and 3 Hen Harriers were the best ones but even White-tailed Eagles were missing. Only other better species was a Great Grey Shrike. And then we had even 1.5 hours without any new species! But finally a 2 Goldfinches flew over us. The last 2 hours went again a little bit better and we still got Northern Wheatear, Dunnock, White-tailed Eagle and the last species was Merlin. But we still had hoped to find a Sand Martin as there were altogether more than 100 Swallows and House Martins, or the Pallid Harriers that were now completely missing or any other better species at all… So when we counted our species it was a surprise that we had made the new inland record with 99 species! Our own old record was 97 species but in Saari Tarassiinlahti our friends had got 98 species even twice.
After we had eaten and rest a little bit, we headed to Saari with Pirkka. On the way we saw nothing but in Akonpohja we saw 3 Little Ringed Plovers. Then in Pohjanranta we had 2 Oystercatchers, a Greylag Goose, 7 Canada Geese, 2 Bewick’s Swans, a Common Sandpiper and a Pink-footed Goose-looking bird flying over us. The goose was found on the field nearby and it indeed was a Pink-footed Goose. In Jyrkilä we saw 2 Stock Doves and a Great Grey Shrike and in Kanavalampi we found a female Redstart. The best bird of the trip was a Great Grey Owl in place Y. After all we had seen 111 species during the day in Parikkala, and we didn’t try to find any common birds. I think this is very good number if you think that most of the passerines haven’t arrived yet.
On Sunday we started in Härskiinmutka where we saw single flocks of Long-tailed Ducks and Common Scoters. Then we headed to Siikalahti to count ducks. There were much less ducks than one week earlier and it really seems that we are losing some species soon. We saw only 2 Slavonian Grebes, 20 Pochards and 31 Black-headed Gulls! And I still haven’t seen any Garganeys in Parikkala!
While doing the count we saw 2 White-backed Woodpeckers, a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, heard a Black and a Grey-headed Woodpecker and a Cuckoo, and saw also 2 Sand Martins, a male Redstart and 2 Long-tailed Tits and so on. The “funniest” accident happened to me – I was trying to get to one counting-tower and the water level was a bit higher than I expected as the Lake Simpele had opened during the previous day. I also expected that the bottom would still be frozen but it was only on my first 2 steps. So after all I had to swim to that tower… The water was probably +4 degrees but after very cold night the 30 meters path to the tower was much colder, so my walk to the tower and back with my bare feet was horrible! After I had managed to get back to my car, I drove to home to get dry clothes and continued to the next place to continue counts.
After the count the weather turned very cold again and it started snowing. And the weather forecast looked awful for the next week again! This is really the worst spring ever, or actually it feels that spring still hasn’t arrived at all…
J.A.