New year-ticks

On the 2nd of January I was at work but I spent my lunch-hour in a forest. There was no snow at all so even the smallest roads were in pretty good shape so I managed to visit Siberian Jay forests in an hour. On the way I saw a Hazel Hen and 4 Siberian Jays were found easily. On the way back I still saw some Tree Sparrows, a family of 4 Whooper Swans, the first Fieldfare since October and a Jay.

On the 3rd day I spent my lunch-hour visiting Pistoniemi Hawk Owl, Joukionsalmi Whooper Swan and Simpele Kokkolanjoki Dippers. As I have shorter day on Fridays, I still went birding after work. In Kangaskylä I saw a Rock Pigeon which I hadn’t seen at all in 2013 in Parikkala! In Siikalahti I saw a flock of 3 Black Grouses, a White-backed Woodpecker and a Willow Tit and in Tetrisuo I saw a Hawk Owl and a Goldcrest.

On the 4th day we had Imatra winte-bird counts again. The whole city of Imatra was walked by 9 teams that had different areas to check. We were counting in Tuulikallio-Karhukallio-Korvenkanta area which was really bad area! We saw 52 Rock Doves, 6 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, a Goldcrest, 2 Willow Tits, 74 Blue Tits, 287 Great Tits, a Treecreeper, 8 Jays, 48 Magpies, 32 Jackdaws, 45 Hooded Crows, 73 Tree Sparrows, 170 Green Finches, 17 Bull Finches and 9 Yellowhammers. So absolutely not a single better bird was seen! Waterbirds were not counted, but we saw Mallards, Goldeneyes, Goosanders, a Canada Goose and more than 10 Cormorants. Before the results were given we went to twitch a Great White Egret that was again in Kupari.

It was not a surprise that we had least species and birds. Altogether teams had seen even 42 species + those waterbirds – 10945 birds. The most interesting numbers were 3899 Great Tits, 1311 Blue Tits, 1708 Green Finches, 985 Tree Sparrows, 158 Jays and 41 Treecreepers. ALso Long-tailed Tit and Goldcrest were more numerous than ever. 128 Rock Doves and 90 House Sparrows were less than ever before and they are really not doing well nowadays. Only 1 Fieldfare was seen and no Waxwings at all, but 16 Blackbirds were seen. Only 84 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, 107 Redpolls, 23 Siskins, 136 Bull Finches and 5 Common Crossbills were counted. Olso Yellowhammers were still on the open fields and only 412 were counted.
4 Herring Gulls, 2 Hawk Owls, a Pygmy Owl, 4 Sparrowhawks, not a single Goshawk, 2 Black Woodpeckers, 3 White-backed Woodpeckers, a Grey-headed, a Three-toed and a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker were seen. 7 Nuthatch was also a good number. Other better birds were 2 Haw Finches, 7 Chaffinches, a Brambling, a Goldfinch and 5 Arctic Redpolls.

The rest of the evening after the results had been given was nice as there were lots of friends together.

On the 5th of January I woke up late but then went to check Lake Simpele that was still open from Härskiinmutka and saw 4 Whooper Swans and 24 Goosanders. Then I decided to continue to forests again where I saw 3 Siberian Jays, a Three-toed Woodpecker, a Crested Tit and 2 male Capercaillies.

On the 6th of January I saw some House Sparrows with a flock of 15 Tree Sparrows in our own garden. In the afternoon I went to run around Siikalahti and saw a flock of 14 Redpolls and a single Arctic Redpoll. On the next day I spent my lunch-hour in Kirkonkylä where I found 2 Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, 6 Long-tailed Tits and a Treecreeper on one good feeder. A Hawk Owl was still present in Argusjärvi. On the 8th day I saw only Hawk Owl in Argusjärvi and same Whooper Swan in Joukionsalmi.

J.A.