Around May Day
On the 26th of April I started checking owl-nestboxes. I was good to find out that the same Ural Owl was in the same box than last year. But all the other nestboxes in Tyrjä-area were empty.
On the 27th day I saw a White-tailed Eagle, a Hen Harrier and a Greenshank in Siikalahti and checked again some empty nestboxes. In the evening it started snowing a lot and there was soom several centimeters snow on the ground!
Luckily the snow melted on the next morning and I visited Siikalahti a couple of times during the day. Only better bird was a Black-tailed Godwit. There were more birds in Särkisalmi where I saw 28 Black-throated Divers, 107 Great Crested, 2 Red-necked and a Slavonian Grebe, plenty of ducks, a Common Sandpiper, 4 Common Terns and 17 Little Gulls. In the afternoon we did a tri to Saari where we saw 12 Bewick’s Swans in Pohjanranta, a Peregrine in Suurenjärvenliete, 55 Greenshanks, 27 Green Sandpipers and a Redshank in Jyrkilä and a stunning Great Grey Owl in place X.
On the 29th of April I did duck-counts in Siikalahti and saw 73 Whooper Swans, 128 Tundra Bean, 125 White-fronted, 2 Canada and 8 Barnacle Geese, 37 Wigeons, 121 Teals, 55 Mallards, 12 Pintails, 2 Shovelers, 18 Pochards, 69 Tufted Ducks, 85 Goldeneyes, 34 Smews, 32 Goosanders, 8 Great Crested, 1 Red-necked and 2 Slavonian Grebes and 28 Coots. I also saw a nice male Pallid Harrier a couple of times and a distant migrating Black Kite. In the evening I checked some nestboxes and it was good to find a new Ural Owl with already 2 tiny chicks and one egg.
On the 30th day the weather was really bad again. So we were checking some nestboxes again and it was good to find one Pygmy and one Tengmalm’s Owl. Pygmy Owl was ringed but Tengmalm’s Owl was the same bird that had been breeding in another nestbox nearby 3 years ago! In the evening we headed to Saari again and on the way saw a Swallow in Rautalahti. Several Northern Wheatears had arrived and in Pohjanranta we saw 18 Bewick’s Swans, in Suurenjärvenliete a Hen Harrier, a Rough-legged Buzzard, a Little Ringed Plover and a Redshank, in Jyrkilä we saw a Hen Harrier, a Merlin, 3 Whimbrels, a Redhank and 7 Stock Doves. Then we dropped Hanna to Pohjanranta where she had put up a tent already on the previous day. She was going to stay in tent overnight and try to photograph swans, geese and ducks. I still stopped in Särkisalmi where I heard a Chiffchaff and a Redpoll and at night I visited a couple of minutes in Siikalahti and heard what I was hoping – a Spotted Crake.
At night Hanna was trying to sleep in the tent while swans and geese were calling all the time just next to the tent. The night was cold and the shallow water clse to the tent got frozen. Anyway early in the morning there were lots of ducks, geese and swans to photograph, but later they all moved further to the still frozen part of the lake to rest.
On May Day which in Finland is always on the 1st of May I headed to Siikalahti already at 6 a.m. There were quite a few other birders too so I stayed there until 1 p.m. We saw a Cormorant, 5-6 White-tailed Eagles, 2 Hen Harriers, a Pallid Harrier (maybe the same), a too brief female harrier that looked promising (I hope there is a couple), 6 Rough-legged Buzzards, 5 Whimbrels, a Black-tailed Godwit, 6 Common Terns, a Black Woodpecker, a Swallow, a Great Grey Shrike, a Lapland Bunting and a Grey-headed Woodpecker was still calling quite a lot.
In the afternoon we went to pick up Hanna with her brother Miika Soikkeli. We checked the best places quickly but found only 5 Whimbrels in Jyrkilä and a Redshank in Suurenjärvenliete. Luckily we stopped in Särkisalmi on the way back and found a nice flock of 20 Steller’s Eiders! There was also 34 Black-throated Divers, 12 Little Gulls and 17 Common Terns.
On my 40th birthday, the 2nd of May, I was at work again. I visited Siikalahti already early in the morning and saw a Spotted Redshank and when I arrived to health-center, a Wryneck was calling nearby. But nothing else was seen during the day. On the 3rd of May our car was in service so I didn’t go to Siikalahti at all. In the evening I went to check nestboxes in Melkoniemi and luckily found one more Tengmalm’s Owl.
J.A.