Spring - a game of two halves - part two - Arktika

It's fair to say Spring has not gone as planned. The April snows really have kept things at bay, and even the first couple of weeks of  May didn't help matters too much. 

This weekend we hoped to hit Arktika, the mass migration of Geese and other birds that tends to happen at the end of May. 

To facilitate this, and kill two birds with one stone, celebrating a family Birthday, we decided to rent a  mökki in Virolahti, a famous place for arctic migration, close to the Russian border.

In former Soviet Union...Birds watch you..

Things didn't quite go to plan. When we finally got to the rental mökki on Friday evening, we were naturally exhausted. Also, the owners had left the heating on full blast, which, combined with it being the hottest day of the year so far, a whopping 23 degrees, made for a distinctly uncomfortable night's sleep. The poor 'Jedi, a double coated breed, found it particularly hard to settle. 

Rental mökki in Virolahti. 

Getting up at 3a.m for Arktika migration was never going to happen. Instead we duded it up, arriving at hurppu for around 6.30. 

We hadn't missed much, however, the main push of geese had taken place mid-week and there was sweet F.A moving this morning. 

Birders indulging in Arktika

The view from Hurppu

With clearly nothing of interest moving, we decided to move on to Vikkiläntura, where a male Red Crested Pochard was in residence. This we saw quite nicely, though briefly, and was moving behind trees preventing pics. 

One of the towers at Vikkiläntura

The woods on the path to the bird tower were chocabloc with singing wood warbler, as were the woods around the mökki. A very common bird in Finland, two are singing within 50 meters of our home, but still a special species for an Irish birder. When I think of all the times we spent hunting for them in Wicklow, often without success. Absolute gems.



Wood Warbler 

Common Tern - for no reason other than tameness

As well as the Red Crested Pochard, the usual wetland suspects of Little Ringed Plover, Wood Sandpiper and migrant Little Gulls were in situ.

We then moved on to Kurkela bird tower, one of the best Raptor Watchpoints in Finland, right on the border with Russia. 

Kurkela Bird Tower

Russia

Alas, much like the Arktika migration, raptor passage was non-existent. A brief view of what looked like a Black Kite dropping behind trees was confirmed by another bird tower as it flew past there, but apart from the usual dozen White-tailed Eagles and odd Goshawk, it was just a couple of Honey Buzzards as best of the bunch raptor-wise. 

Honey

Luckily enough, we received word whilst on the tower that 3 Red Breasted Geese were on their way in a small flock of Barnacles. It didn't take long for these to appear, though a little on the distant side, you could just make out some distinctive patterning as they made their way east. 

This was the only flock of geese we saw all weekend, so we were blessed to have seen a quality species in it.

The main highlights of the weekend came amongst the passerines. These too seem surprisingly late and widespread. Normally you would expect to come across reasonable numbers of birds like Greenish warbler and Red Breasted Flycatcher in eastern woods at this point, but the bulk of such birds haven't moved yet. Even Wrynecks are few and far between, and expected Red-backed Shrikes absent.

None the less, some species have magically appeared, particularly birds like Thrush Nightingale, Common Rosefinch, Icterine warbler and various acros.

Tree pipit - these have been in since end of April, but always good to hear them singing. 

Common Rosefinch - Thou shalt not call them Grotfinch

I'm very serious about this. Do not call them Grotfinches. They're stunners, and always "Pleased to see you"! Even juvs have a cute quality. Just stop. Stop now. Stop it.

Thrush Nightingale - you get a few weeks of manic singing when these crackers are easy to see before they revert to their Ninja - art of invisibility ways.

The north side of Vikkiläntura was very productive for these species, as well as holding a singing Savi's warbler, a decent (but increasing) rarity in Finland. A crunching Great Reed warbler was also present.

Other random highlights included singing Ortolan bunting whilst walking the dog, nesting Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, my first Spotted Flycatcher of the year and numerous "Robocop-ing" Icterine Warblers.