Migration watching day and a Great White Egret
On the 16th of April it was a migration-watching day. The weather forecast was bad – it was going to be a heavy northern wind. So we chose to go to the main tower in Siikalahti where you get some shelter from the wind. We were in the tower already at 5 a.m. and almost the whole 10 hours there were 6 of us counting birds. Unfortunately there weren’t that many birds to count but during the morning some Chaffinches, thrushes, Wood Pigeons and Curlews were migrating. But the wind got very strong during the day and it was very quiet then. But a Black Kite that we saw in the afternoon was a nice present to us all! Other birds that we saw were: 3 Canada Geese, 2 Red-breasted Mergansers, 6 Black-throated Divers, 12 Sparrowhawks, 8 Common Buzzards, 16 Rough-legged Buzzards, 9 Golden Plovers, 58 Lapwings, a Whimbrel, 30 Curlews, 6 Green Sandpipers, 160 Black-headed Gulls, 52 Common Gulls, 301 Wood Pigeons, 10 Waxwings, a Dunnock, 210 Fieldfares, 95 small thrushes, 4 Jays, 795 Chaffinches, 14 Bramblings, a Gold Finch, 107 Siskins and 200 unidentified passerines.
It was almost dark when I noticed that someone had seen a Great White Egret in Siikalahti! There was nothing told about the observation, but anyway I drove there to try to see it. But all white birds I could see were Whooper Swans.
On the 19th of April I headed to Siikalahti to try to find the egret again and surprisingly I found it already from the first tower! I took a couple of pictures of it but soon it was flying towards the bay. I walked after it to the main tower and from there I could watch it fishing. Almost all local birders came to see this 2nd ever Great White Egret for Parikkala and the first had been more than 30 years ago. It was also a new species to Siikalahti! I also saw 4 migrating Bewick’s Swans, heard 2 Grey-headed Woodpeckers and a White-backed Woodpecker drumming.
Later I visited Siikalahti 2 more times, also with Hanna, and saw the egret but it was snowing pretty much, so I couldn’t get any more pictures. Later in the evening my friend Pertti Hotta saw the bird leaving towards north.
On the 20th of April I didn’t see much on my lunch-hour but in the evening we twitched a 2nd c-y Pallid Harrier in Saari Pohjanranta with Harri Partanen.
The next days it was very hard winds again so I didn’t do much birding. A Slavonian Grebe was seen in Härskiinmutka.
J.A.