Year changes
On the 9th of December I visited Simpele Kokkolanjoki where I saw a Little Grebe and a Dipper. On the way I saw one of the same Marsh Tits in Koitsanlahti. On the 10th day we stopped in Imatra Vuoksi where we saw 9 cormorants, a Canda Goose and a male Smew.
On the 11th of December I was in Kokkolanjoki again and with Miika Soikkeli we checked all the better places. We saw 2 Little Grebes4 Whooper Swans, 9 Mallards, 3 Goldeneyes, a Black Woodpecker and a flock of 9 Long-tailed Tits. In Latvajärvi we saw 35 Black Grouses and in Änkilä a Goshawk. On the way back we saw 2 Grey-headed Woodpeckers in Koitsanlahti.
During the week I saw only a Goshawk in Kangaskylä and a Velvet Scoter in a small open water area in Lemmikonsalmi. On the 14th day I saw a Nutcracker in Simpele Roukko and on the 16th a Dipper in Tyrjä.
On the 18th of December we were again in Simpele and on the way we stoped in Koitsanlahti where were no Marsh Tits this time but 5 Pine Grosbeaks flew over us and a White-backed Woodpecker was drumming quite distant.
On the Christmas Eve both Marsh Tits were seen again and there was a Lesser Redpoll in a flock of Redpolls. It was my first ever in South Karelia. On the 26th day we visited Melkoniemi forests and saw all 4 Siberian Jays. A Capercaillie was heard flushing but almost nothing else was found.
On the 27th of December I did my winter-bird count again and it was one of the worst counts ever. All I saw were 17 Black Grouses, 2 Rock Pigeons, a White-backed Woodpecker, 19 Long-tailed Tits, 22 Blue Tits, 63 Great Tits, a Crested Tit, 2 Willow Tits, a Treecreeper, a Great Grey Shrike, 11 Jays, 17 Magpies, 50 Jackdaws, 14 Hooded Crows, 5 Ravens,12 Tree Sparrows, 15 Green Finches, a Redpoll, 10 Bullfinches and 30 Yellowhammers.
On the 29th day we were in Vuoksi again together with Miika Soikkeli and Ilkka Jarva. We checked most of the Finnish part of the river and saw a young Mute Swan that had been found earlier, a Canada Goose, a female Smew, at least 26 Cormorants and a couple of Common Crossbills.
On the 30th of December we drove to Kirkkonummi for New Year (or really to do first of January trip). On the way we saw a Goshawk in Joutseno and then tried to twitch a wintering Ortolan Bunting in Asikkala but all the fields were completely open, so there we no Yellowhammers at all. On a flock of 80 Redpolls we saw 2 Arctic Redpolls and 2 Gold Finches flew over us.
On the last day of the year we visited Kirkkonummi Porkkala but there were almost no birds at all, even though the sea was completely open. Only bird to mention was a young White-tailed Eagle.
The first of January we started with at least 130 other twitchers in Turku Topinoja. At 9 a.m. the gates were opened only because of us and we marched behind local birders to the right spot where even 3 Siberian Accentors had been overwintering. There was a small feeder where at least one of the birds had been visiting, so we started to look at it. It was still dark when I found the bird behind some bushes and managed to identify it as a Siberian Accentor but only a handful of other twitchers saw it. And as Hanna didn’t see it, we had to see it again.
During the morning we of course saw plenty of year-ticks and some of the better birds were a Goshawk, a Sparrowhawk, about 250 Herring Gulls with only 1 young Great Black-backed Gull, a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, a Fieldfare and a Woodpigeon that flew over us.
The locals were walking in the hill-side where the accentor had been any times but after a couple of hours there was still no sign of it. Then a bigger group decided to walk through the hill-side in a line and finally they flushed a Siberian Accentor that landed in front of all twitchers to the top of one bush. We were finally ready to move on and while we were walking back to our car, 4 Starlings flew over us.
We drove to Paimio Pitkäporras where should have been abselutely sure Stock Doves but all we saw was a flock of 400 Redpolls with some Arctic Redpolls. While we were driving again, we saw a White-tailed Eagle.
We drove through Salo centrum but didn’t see any Collared Doves, but 5 Woodpigeons. Then we continue to Kumela where we finally found 6 Stock Doves. But then the rest of the day didn’t go well. We tried to find Nutcrackers in several places without luck. Of course some common year-ticks were seen. So after all I got only 2 new first of January ticks.
On the 2nd of January we had an early flight to Ireland. We were birding mostly in western coast and the trip-reports can be read here:
J.A.