Quite boring bird-summer

After a hard trip to bird-race in Oulu-area, I was extremely tired. Anyway I did some birding and on the 29th of May I saw 8 Broad-billed Sandpiper and a Velvet Scoter in Saari Pohjanranta and 19 Ringed Plovers and a Heuglin’s Gull in Skanvaara Tetrisuo. In Kangaskylä I saw 2 Gold Finches.

On the 30th day a Linnet flew over me in Siikalahti and 2 Icterine Warblers and 2 Great Reed Warblers were singing. On the 31st at night I visited Great Snipes again and 4 birds were heard. I also saw a Nightjar and a Long-eared Owl.

On the 1st of June I was birding together with Harri Orenius and Kirsi Viuhkonen and we visited Great Snipes again and heard altogether 7 Blyth’s Reed Warblers and 2 River Warblers in Raikanniemi. Along the dam-road there were now 3 Great Reed Warblers singing. Later we were accompanied with a couple of foreign birders too and we visited some of our owls and still managed to see a Ural Owl, only 2 young survived Tengmalm’s Owls and Pygmy Owls.

On the 2nd of June I saw 2 Dunlins in Siikalahti, 7 Dunlins and a Broad-billed Sandpiper in Saari Pohjanranta and a late Golden Plover in Akanvaara Tetrisuo. I also drove around some forests in Siikalahti and saw a White-backed Woodpecker and heard some Wood Warblers and 2 Red-breasted Flycatchers.

On the 5th of June we drove to Helsinki where I went straight birding. In Espoo Laajalahti I twitched 2 Great White Egrets and saw also 13 Broad-billed Sandpipers, 2 Little Stints and saw and heard 3 Reed Warblers. In Helsinki Vanhankaupunginlahti I heard 2 more Reed Warblers and saw 4 Bearded Reedlings and a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.

On the 6th day we visited Kirkkonummi where we twitched a singing Barred Warbler and saw then went to Porkkala where only a flock of 25 Velvet Scoters were seen. In Saltfjärden we still saw 2 Caspian Terns before we drove to Helsinki-Vantaa airport where we had our flight to West-Kazakhstan where we were birding the next 8 days.

Once we were back from Kazakhstan we were again very tired. The weather was still all the time very cold and rainy, so I wasn’t birding very much. We did ring the Pygmy Owls immediately and there were 6 and 7 youngsters. On the way back from the forest, we saw also a Ural Owl.

On the 15th of June we did a night-trip with Harri Partanen. And we had a great start as we saw a Brown Bear running in front of our car! But only better birds were 12 Corn Crakes in one field-area in Lahdensuo, a Long-eared Owl in Kontiolampi and a Grasshopper Warbler in Kukonkanta.

On the 17th day I did a waterbird-count in Siikalahti and the result was extremely bad! There are no Slavonian Grebes at all; only 1 female Pochard and 1 male Shoveler and 8 Coots were seen! It seems that Hooded Crows had destroyed every gull-colony and not many young birds were seen on common ducks either.

On the 18th of June my Pirkka was visiting with his family. At night we went birding and found some Blyth’s Reed Warblers, a Marsh Warbler, a River Warbler, 2 Long-eared Owls and then saw a Heuglin’s Gull in Härskiinmutka. The only Golden Oriole was found in Tarvaslampi and we found nothing better in Soinimäki forests. During the day I counted 41 adult and 12 young Barnacle Geese in Joukionsalmi and surprisingly there were also 3 Oystercatchers.

The next days I saw and heard mostly the same birds again, only on the 23rd day something new was found as we saw a Slavonian Grebe and heard a Marsh Warbler in Valkialampi. We also visited some forests and managed to find 2 nests of Three-toed Woodpecker. But later when Hanna went to ring another nest that was low enough, a huge Brown Bear had destroyed the tree completely and eaten the nestlings.

On the 24th of June we did a nightsinger count in Siikalahti and counted 17 Water Rails but heard no Spotted Crakes or Reed Warblers at all! Only 4 Bitterns were heard and only 2 Golden Orioles. A Lesser Spotted Woodpecker had nestlings, some Common Crossbills were heard and the best bird of the trip was found in Eskola where a Greenish Warbler was singing.

On the 25th we did a night-trip again and heard a Great Reed Warbler in Tyrjä, ringed some young Curlews in Saari, where we also found a Black-tailed Godwit in Poutasenryhmä. In Pohjanranta we saw 5 Barnacle Geese and a couple of Red-backed Shrikes.

On the 26th day we drove to Ruokolahti to try to ring fledlings of Hawk Owl that our friend Mika Ohtonen had found. Unfortunately they were flying too well already, but at least these 2 adults and 3 youngsters were the first breeding record of this species for us in South-Karelia.

During the day I heard a Nuthatch in Likolampi where local birders had been seeing them for whole summer. Then later I went jogging to forest-tracks and saw a family of Hazel Hens and a Long-eared Owl.

On the 30th day I counted 60 adult and 30 younf Barnacle Geese in Joukionsalmi and in Moskuunniemi I saw a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. Then in the evening I got a message that a Ruddy Shelduck had been found already during the day in Lappeenranta Askola. Luckily the bird stayed there and I managed to twitch my South-Karelia tick number 297!

I was driving back to Parikkala late so I went to listen to Great Snipes and they were still lekking. I also heard a couple of young Long-eared Owls and found 2 begging Ural Owl fledlings. In the morning I did waterbird-count again and saw none young gulls and very few other young birds either. The most interesting bird was a duck that really looked like a Lesser Scaup but after all was just a Tufted Duck hybrid with some other duck. It was easy to see that the wing-bar was wrong even from a distance.

On the 2nd of July we went to ring nestlings of Wryneck to Saari Akonpohja and there were 9 youngsters! And later during the day we ringed 5 nestlings of Kestrel in Tarvaslampi. In Joukionsalmi we saw a Canada Goose with Barnacle Geese.

On the 4th day I finally found my first ever really self-found Great White Egrets, when 2 birds were flying in Siikalahti and landing behind the reeds. I also saw a Bittern flying in the same scope-picture. In the evening I visited Lappeenranta again and saw the same Ruddy Shelduck there again. In Askola there were also 2 Caspian Terns.

On the 5th day I heard one Nuthatch again in Likolampi and on the 6th I saw one of the Great White Egrets in Siikalahti again. In the evening we went to try to ring some Barnacle Geese youngsters but managed to catch only 4 of them. And on the next day we caught 4 birds again but they were too small to ring.

On the 8th of July we visited Ruokolahti Kummakivi which was an amazing place! Not many birds were seen there, just 2 Crested Tits, but it was quite an experience! Later in the afternoon we went to see motorbike competition to Imatra.

On the 9th of July we were birding in different forest and saw a family of Hazel Hens, heard some Chiffchaffs and Wrens and so on. Then on Siikalahti fields I managed to catch a young Crane that we ringed. We also ringed one Lapwing in another field where we flushed a Great Snipe too!

J.A.