Weekend in the south-east corner of Finland
On the 10th of May I left from work at 1 p.m. and while packing my car I heard a Lesser Whitethroat and a Wryneck. Soon I continued to Imatra where I stopped in Immolanjärvi and heard a Dreat Reed Warbler. In Joutseno I picked up Sampsa Cairenius and we decided to check some places there before continuing to south. We heard a Wood Warbler and a Wood Lark and in Pätilä we heard an Ortolan Bunting and saw a male Red-backed Shrike. In Konnunsuo we saw a Short-eared Owl and counted 2400 grey geese and 320 Barnacle Geese. In Kotasaari and Kukkuroinmäki we checked some really good looking pools but there weren’t many waders. A flock of 47 Ringed Plovers and 2 Oystercatchers were good. But there were amazing numbers of geese: we counted at least 14000 grey geese (half of them Bean and half White-fronted) and 1600 Barnacle Geese. Also 2 Pink-footed Geese were found.
Then we continued straight to Virolahti and Lakakallio where evening migration started soon. We saw 7000 Common Scoters, some Long-tailed Ducks and Velvet Scoters too. A flock of 13 Bewick’s Swans was nice. At night we visited Lintulahti but it was surprisingly quiet there. 2 Nightjars were seen on the way. It was almost midnight when we went to sleep.
On Saturday 11th of May we woke up at 4 a.m. but the sea was completely foggy. So we drove to Lintulahti where we saw 3 Temminck’s Stints and heard already several Common Whitethroats. We decided to drive to Hamina and on the way we saw one Rook. In Lupinlahti we heard 3 Great Reed Warblers and saw a Spotted Flycatcher. At 8 a.m. we were walking to Kirkkojärvi bird-tower. Then we heard a Penduline Tit calling and soon we also saw it building a nest!
We climbed to the tower and soon Tero Ilomäki and Hannu Kettunen and soon after them also “Jamppa” Pirhonen came there. Jamppa was still under the tower when he shouted that a Citrine Wagtail was coming over us. The bird was calling and I managed to get it to my scope and see it was a male. It landed into the reeds and was never seen again. During the morning we saw 2 Red-backed Shrikes, 30 Swifts, a Blackcap and heard a Reed Warbler and 2 Great Reed Warblers.
Jamppa, Tero and Hannu left to do raptor-watching to Hevossaari but we decided to stay. Soon Kari Haataja, Pertti Uusivuori and Kim Vinari came to the tower. And soo we started to see raptors. Quite a few 2 c-y Common Buzzards were seen but also some Sparrowhawks and a couple of Marsh Harriers. After midday we got a message that a Lesser Spotted Eagle was coming from Kotka and soon it was seen in Hevossaari. 25 minutes later Kari found it coming towards us and it was really showing well when it continued towards east. Soon after that we saw a Black Kite too. Other afternoon birds were 2 Arctic Skuas, 7 Bewick’s Swans, a Rough-legged Buzzard, a couple of flocks of big waders (probably Bar-tailed Godwits) and when all other had left already we still saw another Black Kite migrating at 3:50 p.m. We finally left Kirkkojärvi at 4:30 p.m.
After we had eaten we continued to Lakakallio where evening migration was quite strong. We saw 35000 Common Scoters, 500 Long-tailed Ducks, 35 Velvet Scoters, 7 Whimbrels and so on. The funniest and best observation was a crazy one! We heard a loud voice like something big was dropping down from the sky – like an aeroplane, or at least parts of one – but it was a flock of ducks! Sampsa managed to find them still very high and then we both managed to get them to our scopes and they were 19 Steller’s Eiders!
On the 12th day we woke up at 4 a.m. and the weather looked perfect. Anyway it was still very quiet. At 5 a.m. geese and divers started to migrate. We watched the migration until 10 a.m. and counted 413 Black-throated, 28 Red-throated and 259 diver sp:s, 5100 Barnacle Geese and 2324 grey geese. Also a Shelduck, 3 Short-eared Owls, 2 Haw Finches, a flock of 38 Bar-tailed Godwits, and some flocks of Bewick’s Swans – altogether 38 – were seen.
It was quiet in Vilkkiläntura and Lintulahti and the weather seemed to be too good for raptor migration so we decided to start driving back to South Karelia. We stopped briefly in Väkevänjärvi but soon continued to Kaislanen. A Penduline Tit was found easily and soon I left Sampsa to check the ducks as he was going soon back to Virolahti to watch evening migration together with Juha Koli. I drove straight to Parikkala and went to sleep.
In the evening I drove around Siikalahti by bike and heard Savi’s Warbler still singing and twitched a Tengmalm’s Owl that had been in Tiviänlampi. It started to sing at 11:23 p.m. and it was my Siikalahti-tick number 239! I also heard a Nightjar in Sounio. I had got 152 species to 100 hours competition – and I really hadn’t tried – I had just been birding hard.
J.A.