The first days of May
The beginning of May
We continued checking the owl nest-boxes but unfortunately almost all the nest-boxes were empty. Only on new Tengmalm’s Owl was found and surprisingly there were alresdy 5 nestlings too! The female was of course ringed but the nestlings have to grow bigger. On my birthday on the 2nd of May the weather was very cold so my only birthday-tick was another female Tengmalm’s Owl that we ringed from one of the nest-boxes. On the first 3 days only other observations were a couple of female Capercaillies and a Grey-headed Woodpecker.
On the 4th day I saw my 1st Tree Pipit of the year and heard the 1st Redstart and on the next day new birds were a Willow Warbler, a Whimbrel and several Common Terns. The nest-box round was also boring, only a female Capercaillie and a couple of Long-tailed Tits were seen.
On the 6th day I found 45 Common Scoters, 13 Long-tailed Ducks, 2 Velvet Scoters and so on when checking the Lake Simpele from Härskiinmutka. In the afternoon “potu” Suojarinne came to traditional Bird-tower competition weekend and once again we decided to go to birding to Saari area. In the first places we didn’t find anything interesting, some flocks of Bean Geese with some White-fronted Geese and a Bewick’s Swan, Whimbrel, some Yellow Wagtails and do on. But after all altogether we found 955 Bean Geese, 216 White-fronted Geese, 113 Barnacle Geese and then from the best place Kanavalampi we found a Marsh Sandpiper with 78 Wood Sandpipers and a Ruff. Also a Rook was getting chased by Magpies there.
J.A.