May 2006
Again hard May
May is the best, but also the worst month for a birdwatcher. There is no time to sleep because of all the counts, guiding and other bird trips and I am still in “real” work too.
The first days of May I was again checking the owl nest boxes, but there were no owls at all. I had also several counts to do. Many year ticks were found: Pied Flycatcher, Ruff, Little Ringed Plover, Wryneck, Lesser Whitethroat, Whinchat and many more. Better observations were a couple of Ural Owls, Capercaillie and several Gadwalls.
On the 6th of May we had a traditional Bird tower Competition, and we were once again at Siikalahti. The day was pretty quiet but we had an amazing hour: first we saw a Grey Heron, then a Cormorant and a Greylag Goose, then a Hen Harrier and at 10 o’clock a 2nd calendar year Greater Spotted Eagle! Other better birds were a Merlin, Black-tailed Godwit, Gadwalls, 20 Barnacle Geese, Little Ringed Plover, Whimbrels, Waxwings, White-backed Woodpeckers and first Sedge Warblers and Cuckoos for the year. Finally we got 87 species in 8 hours, which wasn’t very good result.
On the next morning we started the mapping counts in Saari bird lakes. Hanna saw a Marsh Sandpiper but I and Jari Kontiokorpi saw just some Jack Snipes, Thrush Nightingales and early Whitethroat.
On the 7th to 8th night we did a night singer counts in Siikalahti and it was nice to find 20 Spotted Crakes – much more than in last 3 years. Also 9 Water Rails, a Jack Snipe, few Thrush Nightingales and 1st Nightjar were found.
On the 9th day we did a duck count in Siikalahti and we saw a Marsh Sandpiper.
On next day I had to go to Helsinki for a couple of days but I had some time for birding too. At Kirkkonummi Porkkala I got some easy year ticks but on Sunday we did a whole day bird trip with Andreas Lindén to Espoo, Helsinki, Vantaa and Sipoo bird places. We had an amazing start for the trip when we saw and heard a Black Redstart in the middle of Helsinki city!
Otherwise the trip wasn’t very successful but we really saw many new bird places for me. And of course some common year ticks were seen. In Helsinki Viikki which was the last place we went we saw 2 male Citrine Wagtails.
On Sunday morning I drove to Virolahti Harvajanniemi to watch arctic migration. More than 10 000 Barnacle Geese, 100 Brent Geese, 3 Arctic Skuas, 5 Scaups, 22 Velvet Scoters, a Caspian Tern and so on – so it wasn’t very good day. During the day I drove to Hamina Kirkkojärvi but only a White-tailed Eagle was seen and a Great Reed Warbler was heard.
Next a couple of days I was doing the duck counts again: some Gadwalls, a Canada Goose, a Greylag Goose, a White-fronted Goose and 2 Bean Geese and a Red-throated Pipit were seen.
On 17th day I went to twitch a lifer with Harry Nyström and Pekka Punnonen to Ilomantsi Patvinsuo Ritovaara. An Oriental Turtle Dove was surprisingly heard before seeing, but after a couple of hours waiting we managed to find the bird and digiscope it too. On the way we saw a Hazel Hen that almost crashed my car and a female Capercaillie that was standing on the road.
On the 18th day after the work I drove again to Virolahti, where I met Miika (Potu) Suojarinne and Markku (Mape) Lund just before the ice hockey quarterfinal. Well the game was worse than the even arctic migration would have been, even though Finland won.
On the 19th day the Harvajanniemi arctica was pretty good: 99 Divers including a White-billed Diver, 421 Brent Geese, 77 Scaups etc. After the morning migration we went to check some of the many good bird places of Virolahti and saw a White-backed Woodpecker, Red-backed Shrike and twitched a Black-tailed Godwit and a Savi’s Warbler. At 8 p.m. we were ready to go to sleep.
Next morning was very foggy so the migration was pretty bad: 25 Red-necked Phalaropes, 60 Golden Plovers, 2678 Long-tailed Ducks, 26 Oystercatchers, a Turnstone, 4 Honey Buzzards and an Arctic Skua were all better ones. In the evening Finland lost the semi-final. Once again mo gold!
Next morning was the worst ever in Virolahti. 9 hours we were waiting the fog to disappear but it didn’t. Then we had had enough and went to do birding to other places: Garden Warblers, Spotted Flycatchers and Common Rosefinches had arrived; we twitched a Red-breasted Flycatcher, heard 2 Corn Crakes, and again went twitchind – 3 Dotterels. In the afternoon the fog disappeared and then we saw 6600 Brent Geese, 2755 Barnacle Geese, 4664 geese sp, 16 White-fronted Geese, 510 Divers, 7310 Long-tailed Ducks, 810 Common Scoters, 44 Velvet Scotes, 4450 duck sp, 12 Red-necked Phalaropes, 3 Arctic Skuas, 6 Honey Buzzards, a couple of Gadwalls and the best one was a Ruddy Shellduck that migrated calling. Later in the evening the migration was something amazing – only bad thing was that I was on my way home…
At night we did a night singer count in Siikalahti and found a Savi’s Warbler! 21 Spotted Crakes, 12 Water Rails 16 Thrush Nightingales, 6 Bitters, 3 Grasshopper Warblers, 3 Ural Owls and a Corn Crake were found too.
The week had already been one of the hardest in my live but still we had to do a duck count (hundreds of ducks of course but also a Golden Oriole, Blackcaps, 200 Little Gulls and the first ever Arctic Tern for me in Siikalahti! And next morning, 23rd day, we did the map counts in Saari again: a Short-eared Owl, a couple of Corn Crakes and so on, a couple of thousand of Barnacle Geese were migrating too.
On the 24th day I drove to Tohmajärvi Akkala to twitch a strange goose that was first thought to be a Snow Goose then a Ross’s Goose and then hybrid between them. I have no idea why it would have been the hybrid – why not a Ross’s Goose, never Snow! Well on the way back I found 2 real Dotterels from Akanvaara Tetrisuo fields.
On 26th day we did a night singer counts in Saari but nothing special were found – a Long-eared Owl, Corn Crakes and Spotted Crakes. On next day a Marsh Warbler was singing next to our house and at the afternoon I drove again to SE-corner of Finland to 24 hours Kymenlaakso birdrally.
At Hamina I met my team: Andreas Lindén, Andreas Uppstu and Jaakko Aarniala. We ate well and then we had a couple of night hours before the rally started at midnight to prepare a little for the rally. And we managed to find a Long-eared Owl, a Tawny Owl and then 10 minutes before the rally a strange owl that stopped “calling” before the rally started – probably an Eagle Owl.
The first species included Bittern, Nightjar, Corn Crake, Spotted Crake and Water Rail. Finally we heard an Ural Owl and then the same Tawny Owl.
At early morning we drove to Hamina Kirkkojärvi where we got Great Reed and Reed Warblers, before we continued to Virolahti which was foggy again. Icterine Warbler, Red-necked Phalaropes, a Brent Goose, Greylag Geese, Marsh Warbler and Blyth’s Reed Warblers, Wood Lark and Garganeys were seen and the best species a White Stork and a Black Kite. At midday in Kurkela we saw a Sparrowhawk, a Honey Buzzard, a Common Buzzard and a White-tailed Eagle. Also the second Black Kite for the day was seen.
A Linnet, Pochards and a Gold Finch were ticked on the way to Kotka Hovinsaari where we couldn’t find anything else new than a couple of Gadwalls, Little Ringed Plovers and a Pheasant. Even worse place was Pyhtää Valkmusa bogs where we got only Golden Plover even though we had expected to get many new species.
In the afternoon we drove to Ruotsinpyhtää Busholmen where managed to get several good species like Black Guillemot, Turnstone, Velvet Scoter, Razorbill, Common Scoter and Red-throated Diver. Also a couple of Gadwalls, Brent Geese and Red-necked Phalaropes were seen.
On the way back to inland we got a Green Sandpiper and a Hazel Hen before we did the biggest mistake of our rally and went again to Valkmusa bogs where we couldn’t find any more waders or anything.
At Elimäki Raussila we couldn’t find a Turtle Dove but saw a Long-eared Owl sitting on athe top of an electric pole. We had to hurry to finish the rally to Ruotsinpyhtää Teutjärvi, where we heard a Grasshopper Warbler that was our last species.
After all we managed to get 145 species and came 3rd (lost only 4 species for the winners). Very well done, because none of our team knew very well the places in Kymenlaakso.
After the rally we drove to Pyhtää where Jaakko had a summer place on an island next to Husö. Next morning we had the results of the rally in Hamina and then boys started their way to Helsinki and I drove to Parikkala. On the way I twitched a Greenish Warbler at Luukkaansalmi.
On the next morning I did the duck counts in Siikalahti. I had never seen so small number of ducks in Siikalahti in spring! Blyth’s Reed Warblers were in many bushes. After the work I had to drive again to North Karelia to twitch – this time a White-winged Black Tern in Tohmajärvi Peijonniemenlahti. I also saw a female hybrid between a Smew and a Goldeneye.
On 30th we did again a night singer count in Siikalahti. We counted the record of Thrush Nightingales 22 singing birds in small area of Siikalahti protected area.
At next night we ringed the Savi’s Warbler and also a couple of Grasshopper Warblers. The last day of May was still amazing – I twitched a Roller in Rääkkylä. Very beautiful end for amazing month!