. . Lintuharrastajan päiväkirja Birders diary . .

On the 23rd of May the only year-tick was an Icterine Warbler in Moskuunniemi. In the evening I went to listen to Great Snipe again and heard only one Spotted Crake in Siikalahti.

On the 24th day I headed to Siikalahti again and found a Great Reed and a Marsh Warbler. During the day I went jogging and saw a Nuthatch in Likolampi. In the evening I met Mika Bruun with his group and we went to see owls. Ural Owl had already fledlings, or maybe climblings is a better name, then we ringed 5 nestlings of Tengmalm’s Owl and checked how Pygmy Owl family was doing. We ended the trip to lek of Great Snipes and found even 5 birds there! On the way back home I still saw a Long-eared Owl as a year-tick.

On the 25th day I had free from work and headed to Siikalahti. The Great Reed Warbler was still singing loudly but then I heard a familiar call and soon found a Penduline Tit male! I managed to get some very good pictures of this rarity before it continued further to the reeds.

I continued to Saari where I found a Marsh Sandpiper in Pohjanranta, but several other places were quiet. In Kanavalampi I found a couple of Grey-headed Woodpeckers, a Tundra Bean Goose and heard a Golden Oriole, a Blyth’s Reed Warbler and a Wryneck.

In the evening we went to twitch some reptiles! Unfortunately the weather was pretty bad but we managed to see plenty of Smooth Newts and a couple of extremely rare Great Crested Newts! We have to try to get back in better weather, if there will be any this “summer”.

On the 26th of May I met “Jassi” Kiljunen at 7 a.m. and soon we were driving towards Oulu. In Juva we picked up Miska Loippo and then we had a long drive to Siilijärvi Raasio, where we stopped to see the new bird-tower but unfortunately there weren’t many birds around. Then we drove to Liminka, where we saw a Collared Dove easily before continued to Virkkula where 4 Black-tailed Godwits, 5 White-tailed Eagles, 6 Broad-billed Sandipers and a White-fronted Goose were seen in extremely windy conditions. Then we drove to Kempele Vihiluoto where Jassi and Miska had booked a room. Unfortunately we didn’t see a Terek Sandpiper that had been seen on the hotel-beach and soon my brother Pirkka arrived and after some shopping we went to my another brother Riku to celebrate his son Eetu’s graduation.

On the 27th of May we met Jassi and Miska in Vihiluoto at 8 a.m. and soon we were on the ferry to Hailuoto. From the ferry we saw 2 pale morph Arctic Skuas and in Hailuoto we made the first stop in Potinlahti. Some waders were seen but much more waders were found in Ulkokarvo. Anyway nothing very good was seen before we had to head towards Riisinnokka where we had decided to begin the 24 hour bird-race.

In Rautaletto we heard a Wren and on the walk to Riisinnokka we saw a Bluethroat. Then it was 11 a.m. and the next hour we tried to find a good species to begin. But 6 Long-tailed Ducks with a Velvet Scoter weren’t good enough and after all nothing better was seen before 12 a.m. when we had to start. Our first species were an Arctic Skua with some flocks of Broad-billed Sandpipers and other more common birds. Luckily soon we saw a Knot, some Little Stints, a flock of Smews, Cormorants, Red-necked Grebes and then I found a ring-tailed harrier which was very distant but clearly it was either Montagu’s or Pallid Harrier.

After some time we had still seen a Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Grey Plovers, Caspian Terns and White-tailed Eagles but then we had to start walking towards Rautaletto again. Unfortunately only Bramblings and some other common species were got and even the Wren was quiet.

In Kirkkosalmi we had the normal Gadwalls, Coots, Shelducks and so on but a flock of Velvet Scoters, a couple of Garganeys, a Bittern and 2 Ospreys were only better species. Luckily in Järventakusta fields we were luckier when we saw 2 Short-eared Owls and a flock of 9 Dotterel. We also saw a couple of alarming Black-tailed Godwits. In Koivukylä we saw a Golden Plover and House Sparrows and in Marjaniemi 4 Turnstones and 6 Red-necked Grebes. When driving again we saw the first flock of Waxwings of the day.

In Ulkokarvo we had great time! We saw at least 350 Red-necked Phalaropes, but probably there were much more as most of them were swimming with Little Gulls and there were some waves so they were very difficult to count. But only other new species were Common Scoter and Scaup.

Then we headed to Pökönnokka where we spent some time but it was worthy! We found 2 Red-throated Pipits, 2 Sanderlings, 4 Bar-tailed Godwits, a Bluethroat and a Jack Snipe. A good record was also a couple of Douthern Dunlins. While driving towards the ferry we still saw a Wryneck and a Kestrel.

From the ferry we saw only some Red-necked Phalaropes that were swimming in the middle of the sea. Vihiluoto was also quiet but in Kempele Teppola we saw a Stock Dove and a Barnacle Goose. It was already late when we headed to Oulu but luckily we found a Terek Sandpiper in an ordinary place. Rooks and Rock Doves weren’t easy that late but while searching for them we also found our first Lesser Black-backed Gull which was a nice 3rd calendar year Heuglin’s Gull. Our last target in Oulu was a Slavonian Grebe which was found easily.

After dipping Collared Doves we drove to Liminka Virkkula where a Spotted Crake was calling actively. Then Miska found a ring-tailed harrier which was soon identified as a Hen Harrier but while Jassi and Pirkka hadn’t found it yet, it flushed a Willow Grouse! Unfortunately only 2 of us saw the grouse as Pirkka found the Hen Harrier a couple of seconds too late when the grouse had already landed and disappeared.

Night was as dark as it gets this north when we continued to Siikajoki where we heard a Little Ringed Plover and a Mistle Thrush in Alhonmäki before continuing to Tauvo. We parked in Munahieta and started to walk towards Ulkonokka. Soon we heard 2 Bitterns and a Water Rail. But Ulkonokka was once again bigger than ever and completely empty! It took ages to find a couple of Little Terns and there were no waders at all! Luckily we still saw a Merlin while we were walking back.

In Raahe Aittalahti we had nothing but in Lapaluoto we finally saw 3 Black Guillemots that we had been trying to see there so many years! Now we were a couple of hours late from the schedule, so there was enough light to see these very distant birds.

In Pyhäjoki we had good time on the first light of the morning and heard a Garden Warbler, a Dunnock, a Black Woodpecker, a Common Whitethroat and we also saw plenty of flocks of Common Crossbills, 2 Green Sandpipers and a Starling. But then we had to hurry to Elävisluoto to seawatching.

In Elävisluoto we saw 4 Eiders and heard some Bullfinches but some strange things happened there so we didn’t stay there for long enough to see anything else new. My team-mates seemed to be very tired but anyway we continued back to Raahe where with Jassi we found a Pheasant and in Pitkäkari we heard a Spotted Redshank and saw a Goldfinch and a Canada Goose.

While some of us were sleeping again I continued towards Siikajoki and Vartti while the weather was changing much worse. It took almost a couple of hours to visit good forests of Vartti but only species we got was a Whimbrel. And when we finally got to Alhonmäki the weather was far too bad to see any raptors that we really were missing a lot. Luckily we heard a flock of Parrot Crossbills and a singing Wood Lark, which were the last species we got. We still drove to several places in Siikajoki, but the weather was too bad to see or hear anything new anymore.

We then dropped our species-list to Virkkula and said hello to some friends and sorry that we weren’t able to stay longer to hear the results and we all needed to start driving back to home. Most of us had to be at work on Monday. We knew that our 148 species wasn’t enough to be on the top 3 and after all we were 5th. The winner was a surprise as Ville Suorsa, Kalle and Eino Hiekkanen and Jukka Österberg who managed to get amazing 169 species and won clearly!

It was a long way to drive back home safely, but luckily I managed to sleep some time while Miska was driving. After all we were all home quite early and able to go to sleep.

J.A.