May 2010
Busy May
On the 1st of May I started to check our owl nest-boxes. Around Siikalahti I heard several Willow Warblers and together with Jari Kiljunen we continued to Melkoniemi, on the way we checked that at least one Ural Owl was incubating in a familiar nest-box. While checking some Pygmy Owl nest-boxes we accidentally found a Siberian Jay that we were going to try to find at least a kilometre further in same forest. While “jassi” was giving some food for a Siberian Jay, I recorded a Hazel Hen that was singing. A couple of flock of Waxwings and a Common Sandpiper were also seen. I still did duck-counts in Siikalahti and saw 15 Swallows, a House Martin and a Common Tern. In the afternoon we still checked some nest-boxes with Hanna. In Härskiinmutka we saw a migrating Short-eared Owl and in Särkisalmi a migrating 2nd c-y female Pallid Harrier very well!
On my birthday on the 2nd of May I started at 4 a.m. with counts in Siikalahti. After several years we were again mapping all the bird in the protected area. Jari and Anniina Kontiokorpi were couting the southern side of the bay and me and Hanna had the northern part. A couple of Pied Flycatchers, a Wood Warbler, a Yellow Wagtail, 3 Wrens and so on were found. In the afternoon we still saw 11 Barnacle Geese, a White-tailed Eagle, 2 Rough-legged Buzzards, a Red-throated Diver, and 9 Ruffs. But it was quieter than we expected so in the evening we continued with nest-boxes again.
A couple of next days I was still checking the nest-boxes, but the winter had been awful for owls so there was nothing else to be found. Only year-tick was a Redstart.
On the 6th of May “potu” Suojarinne came to us to do birding for some days. In siikalahti we saw some Sand Martins and in Saari we saw some bigger flocks of Bean and White-fronted Geese, 16 Barnacle Geese, a Whimbrel, rare 2nd c-y Lesser Black-backed Gull, Redshank, Spotted Redshank, Little Ringed Plover and a couple of Cuckoos. At night we did a night-singer count and heard 4 Bitterns, 3 Spotted Crakes, 6 Water Rails and a Jack Snipe.
On the 7th day I heard a couple of Wrynecks in Satumäki and at lunch-hour I was trying to see a Citrine Wagtail that “potu” and Johannes Hänninen had seen in Siikalahti, but I found only a Gadwall and a Bluethroat. In the afternoon we still saw a couple of Swifts but then we had to go to rest because of on the next day we had a traditional bird-tower competition.
Bird-tower competition
At night it was raining all the time and hard and it still continued in the morning. Anyway I went by bike to Siikalahti while Hanna and “potu” came by car. The rest of the team Matti Lötjönen and Ilpo Kuusisalo came also early and at 5 a.m. we were ready to start. We had to be on the second level of the tower because of the rain and it was also freezing cold wind. Not many birds were seen in the beginning but at 6 a.m. the rain stopped for a couple of minutes and some of us climbed up. And right then I heard a familiar call of a Citrine Wagtail and we saw it flying over us! Unfortunately not all of us saw it and soon it started to rain again.
We were all really freezing and one of us had to give up because of he felt sick. Soon after that the wader migration started. Mostly Wood Sandpipers, Spotted Redshanks and Ruffs but also some big flocks of Golden Plovers were migrating. At 9:20 Hanna surprisingly found a Citrine Wagtail again. It was hiding in a tiny reedy island with some Yellow Wagtails. So now we were really in good mood even though the rain was still heavy. Altogether we saw 1250 Wood Sandpipers, 220 Spotted Sandpipers, 400 Ruffs and 300 Golden Plovers but nothing better waders, just 3 Common Sandpipers and a Green Sandipiper – a flock of 14 Whimbrels disappeared behind the horizon before anyone else than I saw them.
Finally at 11 a.m. the rain stopped and we could climb up again. Some better birds were found like a Black Grouse, 2 Red-throated Divers, 2 Cuckoos, 2 Redstarts, a Swift, a Hobby, a Water Rail, 2 Common Terns, 2 Sand Martins, 5 House Martins, a Short-eared Owl, a Tree Pipit, a Wheatear, a Pied Flycatcher, a Gadwall and so on. And altogether we saw 88 species in 8 hours and we were 20th best tower in whole country and finally the best tower inland!
But another really good bird for the day was still to be found. Hanna and “potu” had already driven back home when I came by bike. I was just stopping on our back-yard when I found a Black Redstart jumping on the road just in front of our door! I called to Hanna and all they had to do to see the bird was to open the door! The bird stayed in our back-yard at least for a couple of hours and several birders came to twitch it.
On the 9th day several Sedge Warblers had arrived, already 70 Little Gulls, migrating Short-eared Owl, 2 Temminck’s Stints and an early Spotted Flycatcher were seen in Siikalahti. In the evening I still heard a Lesser Whitethroat and a Grey-headed Woodpecker while jogging in Kirkonkylä. On the 10th day 100 Long-tailed Ducks, 4 Common Scoters and 2 Velvet Scoters were found in Lake Simpele, in Härskiinmutka I found also a Black Tern that was in a flock of Little Gulls. But still better bird was an amazing early River Warbler that Matti found in Kirkonkylä. I really couldn’t believe it before I heard it by myself! There was not green on the trees or bushes at all but a River Warbler was already singing!
On the next day new birds were a Common Whitethroat and a Pallid/Montagu’s Harrier that was migrating too far over Lake Simpele to be identified.
On the 13th of May my brother Pirkka came from Kemijärvi to do some real birding! He arrived at 3 a.m. and as a welcome a Thrush Nightingale was singing on our back-yard. Pirkka went to sleep but an hour later I had to go to do counts to Siikalahti. Several Thrush Nightingales, a couple of Blackcaps, a Common Rosefinch, a Garden Warbler, a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker were the best birds. Even though the forecast had promised awful weather the weather stayed good so I continued with duck-counts. A Gadwall was seen again, a couple of Long-tailed Tits were making their nest, a very early Mars Warbler was singing and moving slowly from bush to bush towards north and a nest of a White-backed Woodpecker was also found.
Pirkka also woke up after good sleep and during the day we still saw a Honey Buzzard, 60 Common Crossbills and a Whimbrel. It was getting really hot and also green! In the evening we got a message that a Red-breasted Goose had been found in Saari Pohjanranta, of course we went to twitch it! At night we did a short night-trip and 2 Nightjars, 6 Water Rails, 2 Spotted Crakes and a strange locustella warbler were heard. Probably it was just a Grasshopper Warbler but it was singing very low. Some flocks of Common Scoters were migrating and we could hear them from the sky.
Short trip to Virolahti
On the 14th of May I had to be at work but before that I managed to see 9 Scaups in Härskiinmutka. After my work we decided to pack tents and other equipments to my car and leave towards Virolahti with Pirkka. An Icterine Warbler was singing on our back-yard when we left. In Rautjärvi Lamminkylä we stopped because of a Wood Lark and in Joutseno Konnunsuo we counted 1134 White-fronted, 340 Barnacle, 100 Bean, 5 Pink-footed and a Greylag Goose. In Lappeenranta Rasala we twitched a 2nd c-y female Red-footed Falcon and then we still had a short stop in Ylämaa Väkevänjärvi where a Greater Spotted Eagle had been seen but without luck.
After some shopping in Virojoki we continued to Virolahti Lakakallio where we found also “potu”. We started to watch for arctic-migration but first a couple of hours were quiet, just some ridiculous year-ticks were seen like Eiders, Caspian Terns, Oystercatchers and Arctic Terns. But soon arctic ducks started to show up in big flocks! About 5000 Velvet Scoters, 3000 Long-tailed Ducks and 2000 Common Scoters, 47 Bewick’s Swans and 20 Scaups were seen. It must have been one of the best Velvet Scoter migrations ever, 1400 birds were counted in one flock! When sun set down the migration was still going on strong and we could hear the calls of the birds in the tent.
On the 15th of May we woke up at 3 a.m. because of some Black Grouses came to display just some metres from our tent! I managed to get a short but amazing Black Grouse recording before they left. At 4 a.m. I started to count migration again. The first hour was quiet but when the other birders came the migration was already pretty strong. At 5.45 a.m. we got an sms that in Hamina Vepsu a Great Northern Diver was coming towards us and at 5:54 “potu” found it flying agains a Kauholmi Iceland, much lower than other divers. Luckily we managed to see it well even though it was pretty far. Only a half an hour later we got an sms about a White-billed Diver and at 6:29 I found it flying similarly against Kauholmi! What a great comparison to Great Northern Diver! Even though only 136 Black-throated and 15 Red-throated Divers were seen during the morning, still one big diver was seen, but it flew against the sky so we couldn’t see anything else than it was huge! It was identified as a Great Northern in one place and as a White-billed Diver in a couple of places but later I saw pictures of this bird and it was another Great Northen Diver! Other migration wasn’t hat good but 175 Bewick’s Swans, 2 Arctic Skuas, a Little Ringed Plover, 508 Barnacle, 70 White-fronted, 23 Bean, 2 Greylag and 645 unidentified geese were counted.
During the day we visited Hurppu and Kurkela but nothing interesting were seen before we drove back to Parikkala.
Again to Laukaa
At home we just packed Pirkka’s car and continued a long drive to Laukaa where we were at 6 p.m. Luckily there were some local birders going to try to catch a Wilson’s Snipe and as it seemed that we were the most experienced ringers there, our help was welcome. We put up the mist-nets and soon the tape was playing. But soon we realized that nothing was going to happen and so we just started to wait that the snipe starts to display so we can locate it. We were waiting and waiting and finally I gave up and went to sleep. When I woke up several hours later at 11 p.m. there was still no observation of the snipe. Most of the locals had given up too and soon the ringer also packed everything and left. Not much after that I heard something calling on the other end of the lake than the snipe had always been found and I started to walk closer. Also other birders followed me and there it was calling! Soon Wilson’s Snipe jumped to the sky and it started to display and we could hear its weird Tengmalm’s Owl sound coming from its tail-feathers. After some minutes it landed again to the wrong end of the lake, called some series and stopped. We were happy to go to sleep to our cars and even though we woke up every hour we could hear the snipe displaying only one more time at 00.30 a.m. And after all it was the last time the bird was ever heard!
At 4 a.m. we continued to Lapinjärvi were we found a male Ring-necked Duck easily. Soon we started our long ways towards homes. When I finally arrived at Parikkala I twitched a White Stork in Rautalahti and managed to get some good pictures too. We still went to Siikalahti with Hanna where a Black Kite, an Icterine Warbler and some flocks of geese were seen before I felt too tired and had to get some sleep. In the evening I made a short trip to Saari where 4 Ortolan Buntings were found in Akanvaara Tetrisuo. With Hanna we still went to listen to displaying Great Snipes to Kullinsuo – at least 2 birds were heard! Common Scoters were calling from the sky all the time!
Rarities
On the 18th of May I got an interesting phone-call, Esa Sojamo and Esko Veijalainen had just seen a White-winged Black Tern flying over them towards Siikalahti bird-tower. I drove there as fast as I could and soon were in the tower where Esa was already. It didn’t look good as there were almost no birds at all flying, but soon Esa found the tern flying high against the sky and catching insects. I watched this rarity for some time and called if Hanna was already at home and she was. So I drove to pick her up and soon we were watching this bird together while a Golden Oriole was singing.
On the next night we did night-singer counts again. After a week or so extremely hot weather and eastern winds we expected to find something better and a female Little Crake was found! Other new birds for the year were a Corn Crake, a Blyth’s Reed Warbler.
On the next days I had to suffer at work as the Barnacle Geese were migrating in a beautiful weather. They migrated very high and in wide area but anyway… Even worse news came when the first Black Vulture for Finland was found and when it was seen again on the next day it seemed clear that it’d follow the southern coast towards east like many big raptors do, and I had to be at work until 6 p.m. On this second day the bird managed to fly until Loviisa, so I still had some hope as the next day was a Friday when I have shorter day.
Amazing twitch and arctica
On the Friday 21st of May I decided to take my overtime work hours and then I was able to end my day at 11 a.m. But the day was again extremely hot so the bird rose up to the sky already at 10.15 in Loviisa and it had only short way left to Russia! After all I managed to leave at 10.30 and started my way towards the south-easternmost place of Finland Virolahti Vaalimaa. I had planned to go there for the weekend anyway so it was really important to manage to get there early – I could never watch the other birders smiling faces whole weekend!
I was in Imatra when the bird was passing Pyhtää and in Lappeenranta when it was already passing Hamina! I almost gave up, but something made me to continue. I called to “potu” who had missed the bird in Ruotsinpyhtää and was also driving towards Vaalimaa and once he was there I called several times more… When I was in Ylämaa and the bird still wasn’t in Virolahti I started to worry if the bird had made a similar circle around Kotka than it had made around Helsinki and it was flying much more north now. Anyway I decided to continue to Vaalimaa because I knew there were plenty of birders and in Ylämaa there were maybe none! 20 more kilometres – no news, only 7 to go and still nothing… Finally I parked to Eastgate in Vaalimaa where about 60 birders were gathered, but only maybe 10 of them were really working and scanning the sky. After a couple of minutes we got wonderful news, the bird was still coming towards us but very high! We checked maps and knew that the bird would pass us from northern side and started to work as hard as we could! Soon some birders behind us seemed to have found something and I tried to find out what but couldn’t find anything. And right after that a birder in front of us found something and shouted that there was now something big extremely high on the sky. I ran next to him and checked the direction where he was looking with his binoculars and found immediately an eagle flying fast towards east. I ran back to my scope and found the bird right away and there it was – a Black Vulture! It was very high and many birders could find it only with binos but not with scope. So after I had watched it for some 20 seconds and it had passed us and was already flying away from us I gave many birders to look at the bird with my scope. The bird was visible about 15 minutes but still at least some never managed to find it before it was lost to Russian sky. Together with “potu” and “mape Lund we went to celebrate this amazing lifer and eat well to Rajahovi like any other birders.
After some hours sleep in cars in Lakakallio we started the evening migration watching. 2 Arctic Skuas, 36 Velvet Scoters, 60 Dunlins, 7 Brent Geese and at least 20 000 Common Scoter and 80 000 Long-tailed Ducks were seen. The migration was getting stronger towards the night and in last 30 minutes when we still had some light we counted 5000 Barnacle Geese, altogether 15 000 were seen. At night we still went to record a Moorhen that was calling desperately in Hurppu before we went to sleep while thousands of Long-tailed Ducks and Common Scoters were still migration over us.
On the 22nd of May I woke up early again and at 3:45 a.m. started to count migration. In next 5 hours 11 887 Barnacle, 1350 unidentified, 15 anser (grey), 2 Brent Geese, 458 Black-throated, 15 Red-throated and 205 unidentified divers were seen but then the migration suddenly stopped. I went to check Vilkkiläntura and Leerviikki and found a Red-breasted Flycatcher, a couple of Great Reed Warblers, a Ringed Plover and a Golden Oriole before we met with “potu” and “mape” in Hamina Kirkkojärvi where we tried to see raptors for some hours but saw only a pale “börringe” Common Buzzard. In Lupinlahti we heard a Reed Warbler and after a short sleep we were watching migration again in Lakakallio. 11 Grey Plovers, 246 Brent Geese, a Short-eared Owl, 3 Grey Herons, 15 000 Long-tailed Ducks and 20 000 Common Scoters were seen.
On the 23rd day we went to Hurppu to see arctic migration. I started already at 4:15 a.m. even though it was raining. But it was worthy because of some flocks of Scaups were seen already then. In 5 hours we counted altogether 729 Scaups and at least 200 similar looking birds were migrating too far to identify. Other birds were a couple of Gadwalls, 62 Brent Geese, 1804 Barnacle Geese, 5 Arctic Skuas and 3 Red-necked Phalaropes. During the day we waited for raptors in Kurkela but only 3 White-tailed Eagles, 2 Arctic Skuas and a Golden Oriole were seen. Pretty early I decided to drive back home. I slept a couple of hours and in the late evening we drove with Hanna north to Tohmajärvi Tammalahti where we recorded Baillion’s Crake. I got really good recordings where on the background are a Black-throated Diver, Bean Geese, Barnacle Geese, a Snipe, a Sedge Warbler and a Blyth’s Reed Warbler. We were back at home at 1:30 a.m.
To Oulu
On the 25th of May I drove to Oulu. On the way I saw a Nutcracker in Punkaharju but nothing else. Next a couple of days I was checking some places near Oulu as we were preparing to PPLY 25 hours bird-race. Only interesting birds were some Little Terns, Gadwalls, Caspian Terns, a couple of Scaups, Dunlins and then twitched Ictrine Warbler and cyanecula (white-spotted) Bluethroat. On the 2nd evening we checked some owl nest-boxes with Pentti Hukkanen and Franz Robiller and got 3 owl-species and also a Goshawk nest. On the 28th day we still checked a couple of places with Antti Vierimaa but couldn’t find anything better. In the evening we planned the routes and schedule with Antti and Harry Nyström and also Pirkka came early enough to check the plan. So everything was ready for the race!
On the 29th of May we started the race in Oulu Pateniemi where we saw good diver migration. About 200 divers, mostly Black-throated were counted but we started the race when a flock of 4 Broad-billed Sandpipers were passing us at 10:55 a.m. Then we looked at some local birds like a Red-necked Grebe, Common Scoter, Velvet Scoters, Long-tailed Ducks, a Lesser Black-backed Gull and heard a Pheasant. Also an Arctic Skua was seen before we continued to Taskila where we saw 2 Turnstones easily and then to Toppila where Black Redtstart was found after some searching. We drove through the city to Oritkari where we surprisingly found 2 Grey Partridges. In Kiviniemi bird-tower we saw a Cormorant, a Common Whitethroat, Little Terns, and a surprise Pink-footed Goose. In Oulunsalo Vihiluoto we saw a Gadwall and in Kempele Teppola heard a Corn Crake and saw Black-tailed Godwits, a Green Sandpiper and Stock Doves but Bluethroat was hiding too well.
In Iinatti we found a Little Ringed Plover and heard a Chiffchaff and in Turkansaari we had a Hen Harrier and a Hazel Hen but then it started to rain. So we decided to continue to check the nests and in next a couple of hours we saw adult or heard youngsters of Ural Owl, Tengmalms Owl, Pygmy Owl, Goshawk and also Treecreeper. But unfortunately no surprises were found even though we drove quite a lot, only some Ortolan Buntings and our only Mistle Thrush.
It was already late evening when we found a Collared Dove in Liminka and continued to Virkkula bird-tower where 2 White-tailed Eagles, a Short-eared Owl, Coots, Garganeys and a Woodcock were found. In Lumijoki Sannanlahti our only new species was a Barnacle Goose, also 2 Arctic Skuas were seen. In Siikajoki Alhonmäki we found Wood Larks easily but then a thick fog came and the visibility was less than 100 metres! We drove to Tauvo Munahieta anyway but the visibility was even much worse! So we walked a lot and couldn’t find anything else than some Broad-billed Sandpipers and only one new species a Shelduck.
So next we decided to drive back to Lumijoki to twitch a River Warbler before we continued to Raahe where we couldn’t find an Eagle Owl from the rubbish tip, but in Aittalahti we heard a Thrush Nightingale, a Spotted Crake and a Bittern. In Saloinen we heard another Corn Crake but otherwise we couldn’t find anything at all. In Pyhäjoki Heinikarinlahti and Hietakarinlahti we heard 3 more Spotted Crakes. Because of the thick fog we decided to give up with morning seawatching and drove to Siikajoki and tried to find some singers and waders. But even though we checked many places we couldn’t find anything new before in Karinkanta where 2 Starlings were seen. In Savilahti a flock of Smews and again 2 Arctic Skuas were found and in Lumijoki Varjakka we had a Sparrowhawk. But even though we really tried we couldn’t find any waders and the last hour we tried desperately to find any raptors in Siikajoki Alhonmäki without success.
After all we managed to see 139 species and we were in the middle positions of the race which is not normal for us. In the afternoon and evening I drove back home to Parikkala.