“Phyllosc” warblers
On the 1st of October I went to Siikalahti before the work. A Marsh Harrier was still soaring above the reeds but nothing else was seen even though I stayed there until 9:30 a.m. A Chiffchaff was still singing and some flocks of Barnacle were still present.
On the 2nd day I went to twitch a Pallas Leaf Warbler to Luumäki, Nuoppola. I was there late as I had about 130 kilometers driving after my work, so it wasn’t a surprise that the bird was not found. I did find some tits and Goldcrests and a Treecreeper but no “phyllosc” warblers at all.
On the 3rd of October I went twitching again, but this time about 130 kilometers towards north to Joensuu Höylas. A Dusky Warbler had been there already for 2 days so I really had to go to try to get it as a WP-tick. Once I got there it had been heard just minutes earlier and after a couple of minutes waiting I heard it too! Then after 30 minutes it called longer series of calls and after that I saw a brown warbler in flight for a second. Then after some wait we still heard it a couple of times and once I saw a brown warbler chasing a Chiffchaff for a second but then it wasn’t heard anymore, because of it was getting late. Anyway I was happy to tick it. It was my WP-tick number 675 and also my new year-tick record in Finland – 269.
On the 4th day I visited Siikalahti on my lunch-hour and I managed to see an older Golden Eagle. Next morning we did a short trip to Saari but saw only 8 Golden Plovers, 4 Skylarks, a Grey Heron, a Great Grey Shrike and some 1400 Barnacle Geese.
On the 6th of October we participated to a Bird-place competition in Siikalahti. Together with Hanna and “Potu” Suojarinne we went to Siikalahti early – at 6:30 a.m. Soon we walked to the northern end of bay to Raikanniemi and back to the dam-road, which took more than an hour. Once we got there “Jassi” Kiljunen and Harri Partanen had been walking on the other side of the bay and altogether we had seen already 45 species. Best ones had been a Coal Tit, Goldcrests, a Dunnock, a Shoveler, a Hazel Hen, a Merlin and a Grey-headed Woodpecker. Soon also Matti Lötjönen and Veijo Vilska arrived and later also family Kontiokorpi – Jari stayed with us until the late afternoon, but some others had to go home earlier.
After mid-day Long-tailed Ducks started to migrate and in 3 hours we saw 5002 of them. Other better observations were 1000 Barnacle Geese, 5 White-fronted Geese, 11 Black-throated and 3 Red-throated Divers, a Common Buzzards, a Rough-legged Buzzard, a Smew, 2 Water Rails, a Stock Dove, a Black Woodpecker, 18 Waxwings and so on. Then at 3:55 p.m. we heard strange calling from the bushes right next to us. I realized almost right away that it was a Radde’s Warbler! There was a flock of tits that were also calling actively (actually the first moving flock of the day) and it was with them. I started pishing and all the tits came closer and visible but they also stopped calling as did the warbler too. And of course we couldn’t see it! I ran to get my player and tape-lured Radde’s when all of us could say that the call had been exactly the same as on the tape, but the flock was already gone! We had heard it calling very actively for about a minute, both calls and series of calls – and it is one of the easiest calls to identify!
The rest of the evening we mostly tried to find the warbler but it was gone with the tits. This is how these birds go inland in autumn – fast towards west – and usually they doesn’t call at all. At 5 p.m. we still walked to the bird-tower and counted 200 Whooper Swans and saw a Scaup but nothing else new. Altogether we had got 66 species in Siikalahti during the day.
J.A.