Vappuretkeilyä
On the 30th of April after I was free from work we were planning to go to Siikalahti, when I got a message that a Spotted Eagle was migrating there. We tried to see it from our balcony and found a big raptor soaring far in South. But then we realized our telescopes were in our car. Of course when we were back in the balcony with a scope we didn’t find the raptor anymore, but we saw a flock of 30 migrating Common Scoters.
In Siikalahti we met lots of birders that had arrived to Parikkala to celebrate the 1st of May. They had seen 3 species of eagles in a short time and also a small harrier earlier. But soon most of them left and we started to scan the sky together with 3 birders from Turku. A Whinchat was singing when someone found a harrier from the sky and it was a second calendar-year Pallid Harrier! It flew straight over us and Hanna manged to get a couple of pictures of this 3rd Pallid Harrier for us in 3 days!
Soon we walked to the bird-tower where we saw that whole Siikalahti was now open. 5 Canada Geese, 5 Wood Sandpipers, 20 Swallows with about 10 smaller martins were seen in bad light and too far to identify. Along the path flowers were already flowering and a tame Chaffinch let Hanna to photograph itself. A Pied Flycatcher was already singing carefully.
In the eveing we went to sauna to Tarvaslampi. On the way back we photographed Spring Pasque flowers and checked Särkisalmi where we saw 93 Great Crested Grebes and 18 Red-necked Grebes. In Liuharanta we still saw 101 Tundra Bean Geese and 10 White-fronted Geese.
On the1st of May the weather had changed and a cold northern wind made it impossible to be in Siikalahti. We checked the wader-area where were 67 Greenshanks, 6 Spotted Redshanks and 2 Ruffs, 2 Tree Pipits and a Yellow Wagtail. Then we checked some bays nearby which all were surprisingly open!
After a couple of hours birding Hanna had to go home to do some painting-work and I continued to Saari with Harri Partanen.
We started at Akanvaara Tetrisuo where we saw a Hen Harrier, in Pohjasuo we saw a Merlin and then in Pohjanranta bird-tower there were many birders keeping the wind. 110 Greenshanks, 24 Ruffs, 22 Wood Sandpipers, 4 Yellow Wagtails and 2 Common Terns were seen.
Next we continued to Suurenjärvenliete where we met Jarmo Pirhonen. Only 19 Pintails and some geese were seen before we continued to Jyrkilä where we counted a flock of 750 Wood Pigeons. In Kanavalampi area we saw 126 Greenshanks and lots of Wigeons. The best bird was an adult Peregrine Falcon which was flying around the lake.
In the afternoon we went to check owl nest-boxes in Tyrjä and Siikalahti area. They were all epmty and one was missing. We still decided to see if there was anything breeding this year at all and went to check a nest-box where a Ural Owl has been breeding in 6 years in a row and luckily it was there again incubating 2 eggs. After a couple of more nest-boxes we still checked Tarvaspohja but nothing new was found.
On the 2nd of May I got a nice birthday-present when on my lunch-hour I checked 3 nest-boxes (or actually 2, one was again missing). In a Ural Owl nest-box there was a Tengmalm’s Owl incubating 2 eggs. After work I still went to check 5 nest-boxes, 2 of them were empty, one was missing (again tree had fallen in a storm and someone had taken the nest-box), a Goldeneye was living in one and then the biggest surprise – a nice Pygmy Owl was incubating again 2 eggs in one! What a great birthday present again!
On the 3rd of May other birders saw good birds in Parikkala but I was at work. In the afternoon I managed to twitch 4 Steller’s Eiders that Jari Kontiokorpi found in Särkisalmi.
J.A.