A lot of time from the last post.. But so many things to write about now. 12th June my beloved Israeli friend Yael Lehnardt arrived to Finland and immediately in the afternoon of 13th we started our trip around the eastern and northern Finland. We also went to northern Norway for three days during our stay in Lappland. All the trip we concentrated on both ringing and bird watching.
We started from east and one day around Joensuu area produced for example 6 species of Owls (only thanks to Janne Leppänen!) and 2 Booted Warblers. In Kajaani area we stayed 4 days and managed to add our list tens of Bluetails, many Greenish Warblers, many nests of Three-toed Woodpeckers, Capercaillies, Hazel and Black Grouses, many Siberian Jays and Rustic and Little Bunting. We also found a nest of Bluetail (second ever for me) and got a historical recovery of a finnish ringed Bluetail. This bird was ringed by me one year ago at the same place. From Kajaani we continued to Kuusamo where we had our first Siberian Tits and lot of other nice birds including Hawk Owl, some Bluetails, Little Buntings and twitched Siberian Stonechat.
Straight after arriving to Lappland we added Dipper to my ringing list. The midsummer celebration we stayed at Tenniö open hut in Savukoski and enjoyed a nice sauna in beautiful surroundings and singing Bluetail on background. On our way to Saariselkä we had 17 Little Buntings at Salla. Some Siberian Tits were ringed in Saariselkä and also first Rock Ptarmigans and Dotterels were seen.
At Kaamanen we saw the famous Pine Grosbeaks and our first Arctic Redpoll. Utsjoki didn't produce anything special so we continued to Norway and drove to Vadsö. There we met Pepe Lehikoinen and Heikki Eriksson and spent one night together and celebrated Heikki's 30th birthday. Also Humpback Whales joined our party and gave us a spectacular show very close to the shore in a beautiful and calm night. Lot of seabirds were also seen, including one Great Skua.
Next day's drive to Vardö and Hamningberg produced Shore Lark, White-billed Diver, Glaucous Gull, hundreds of Fulmars, 2 Great Skuas and other nice sea stuff. Surroundings of Vardö city gave us nice views of Twites and Arctic Redpolls. A half-day visit to Hornoya island next day was filled with different Auks and close views of them in their breeding site.
When back to Finland, we drove to Karigasniemi. On our way we saw a male Ring Ouzel at Utsjoki. At Ailigas mountain we made 5 hours' hiking and saw Rock Ptarmigans, Dotterels, lot of Lapland Buntings and some Snow Buntings.
On the way back to Helsinki we stopped for one morning in Kajaani. The chicks of Bluetail have left the nest and only the male was singing in the nest place. We couldn't catch it but we caught another adult male only 200 meters from it. We were back in Helsinki 29th June and within next two days we managed to add Grey-headed and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers for the last lifers for Yael in Finland.
It was an amazing trip! So many new things for Yael but also many new things for me. We were very successful with birds and managed to see almost all the northern specialities I wanted us to see. Endless thanks to all the people involved and for their help during our trip! Yael, Annika, Janne, Teppo, Marko, Maria, Markus, Pepe and Heksa, you are the best!! Many thanks also goes to Mika Bruun, Harri Taavetti, Seppo Neuvonen, Tuomas Seimola and Joonatan Toivanen who gave us valuable information about many species there up north.
Here follows some documents whenever I had my camera with me..
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| Rustic Bunting, male. |
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| Little Bunting, male. |
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| Booted Warbler, male. |
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| Lapland Bunting, juvenile. |
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| Dipper, juvenile. |
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| Siberian Tits, male and female. |
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| Chicks of Bluetail. |
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| Bluetail, 3rd cy male. First ever Finnish ring recovery!! I ringed this bird as a 2cy male last summer at the same place. I added colour rings now. |
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| Tengmalm's Owl, female. |
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| Tengmalm's Owl, female. |
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| Short-eared Owl, female. |
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| Short-eared Owl. |
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| Great Grey Owl, female. |
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| Great Grey Owl, juvenile. |
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| Chicks of Red-throated Pipit. |
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| Dotterel, female. |
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| Lapland Bunting, female. |
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| Lapland Bunting, male. |
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| Rock Ptarmigan, male. |
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| Glaucous Gull, 2cy. |
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| Snow Bunting, juvenile. |
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| Chicks of Short-eared Owl. |
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| We met Pepe and Heikki at Vadsö Norway and celebrated Heikki's 30th birthday together. It was an amazing evening with Humpback Whales just close to us in a calm night.. |
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| Chick of Tengmalm's Owl. |
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| The open wilderness hut of Porontimajoki at Kuusamo. Great place to stay overnight if you don't mind water running just under your bed. |
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| Millions thanks to Yael for visit!! It was so great to have you here! The last evening feelings from Mbar terrace Helsinki. (c) Markus Lampinen. |
