13-15.6.13 Finally Finland
I arrived to Finland
on the 13th of June. After 16 hours of amazing sail from Sweden
by ferry. The Ferris route passes through thousands of islands and the view is
fascinating. Obviously lots of gulls and Arctic Terns are seen when still few
kilometers from the shore.
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| Moose אייל קורא |
On the first day in Helsinki Roni and I went birding around and check if
a nest of Parrot Crossbills is still occupied. It wasn't, but we had lots of
luck when encountering two Moose just along the main road, over the fence that
prevents too close encounters with them.
The great Finnish trip (report) paraphrase:
On the next day we headed north for a two-week trip all over east and
north Finland, including a couple of days in Norway. At this part of our trip
we had no idea how will it go.. How lucky we are about to be.
We packed all outdoor, ringing and cooking equipment we could think of,
took few liters of mosquito repellent and hoped
for good weather and lots of birds. We already new will have luck with mammals because along the road we had second mammalian encounter- with Wild Boars! These huge animals are rare in Finland and were probably coming from the nearby Russia.
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| Wild Boars חזירי בר |
When birding in Finland
you must know what to do, where and when. Without good knowledge the wide
forests, the long day (light all through the day)
and weather conditions can be unbelievably confusing. I had the great
opportunity to travel with one of the best Finnish birders and ringers- Roni Väisänen
and his wonderful girlfriend- Annika.
In the next few posts I'll do my best to show some of the birds and
views we have seen, describe a bite of what we experienced during these
insanely good birding and ringing weeks.
First day, 15th of June, Owls day!
We met Janne Leppänen near Joensuu after a long drive from Helsinki
and short sleep at around 8 in the morning. Janne is Roni's friend and is also
monitoring a large amount of nest boxes and nests of Owls in the area of
Joensuu. Great combination if you ask me. We joined him to check some
nest-boxes and visit some Owl species I eagerly wanted to watch.
Now, basic rules must be given at this point. First, never get nearby
nesting birds. No matter how badly you want to see them, getting nearby nesting
birds when lacking lots of experience (and the needed permits from the
authorities) is just stupid and might cause damage. Second, never open a
nestbox if you don't own it and know in which stage the breeding is in. third
and last, the forests are huge. Incredible amount of luck is needed to find a
nest accidentally. If you go out and search for it, please carry proper maps,
compass and preferably god GPS. All the trees look the same…
And of the Owls:
First, we went to check a territory
of Ural Owl Strix
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| Empty Ural Owl nest קן ריק של לילית אורל |
After a perfect observation for waking up (much better than coffee, said
the addicted) we went to ring some Tengmalm's Owls Aegolius funereus כוס חום in
few Nest-boxes. In all boxes the female was in, with the chicks, and jumped out
shortly after we came by.
We visited five boxes out of 90 Janne is checking every spring, some are
monitored for over 20 years by now. We were only enjoying his hard work and
ringing these stinky juveniles.
The chicks are מלשלשים every few seconds a very smelly liquid and the ringing can be
done only after climbing on trees up and down for most weekends during the
spring. Mosquito bites are only the bonus.
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Tengmalm's Owls Aegolius funereusאמא כוס חום |
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| Tengmalm's Owls Aegolius funereus כוס חום |
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| Mommy Tengmalm's Owls Aegolius funereusאמא כוס חום |
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| Eyes in the back, Tengmalm's Owls Aegolius funereusעיניים בגב, כוס חום |
The Famale was a third calander year bird, it is easy to tell it due to the moult in the outer primaries and the colour and condition of the older feathers.
For not getting bored, as if it is possible, we went to check a nest of
a third species of owl: Short-eared Owl Asio flammeus ינשוף שדות in one of
the fields around. The nest location can be found only when working in the
field. If looking for it many days can be wasted for nothing. Since the field
owner is also ecologist he told Janne about the location. Few weeks ago Janne
had visited and ringed the two oldest chicks while few more were too small and
some eggs were still incubated.
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| Mommy Short-eared Owl Asio flammeus אמא ינשוף שדות |
When we came, none was ringed. There were 7 chicks with no rings! How
can it be?
Apparently, the oldest chicks leave the nest way before they can fly
hand hide nearby, so in case the nest is predated, some will survive.
It's an amazing way to manage breeding on the ground. Combined with the
camouflaged feathering and high amount of chicks (9 in total) even a nest in
the middle of a field can provide few surviving Owls.
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| Short-eared Owl Asio flammeus ינשוף שדות |
The oldest chick is sometimes 16 days older than the youngest. The size
differences are nice to compare.
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| Short-eared Owl Asio flammeus ינשוף שדות |
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| Great Gray Owl Strix nebulosa לילית אפורה |
After all this excitement the others were hungry. I was too exited to
notice it but probably also very hungry. We went to have second breakfast at
Janne's summer hut, which not very surprisingly, is located in the middle of
the forest. We watched the Pied Flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca from the window
and wend "to find the dessert" near his house. I didn't expect it to
be so easy, so close, so sweet…
A female Great Gray Owl Strix nebulosa לילית אפורה laying on eggs!!! Since Janne knew the chicks
and clearly also the eggs are not yet ready for ringing we moved away very fast
and drove to ring some other chicks of GG Owl.
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| Pygmy Owl Glaucidium passerinum כוס גמדי |
But before we did that we went to try and locate an impossible species
this year, the Pygmy Owl Glaucidium passerinum כוס גמדי. With all species
of owls, some years are better than other when it comes to nesting. In some
years, they seem to breed very commonly while in other years nests are not
found (and, as I said, the forests are huge and finding owls while wandering
around is almost impossible).
Janne was walking and whistling the call of a displaying male. Walking
and whistling, whistling and calling. After almost half an hour, a horny female
answered. We got closer and the female got really puzzled. Janne was
continuously whistling and the female answered, not understanding where can be
the handsome male. After short time we realized there is more than one calling!
There must be a nest.. Longer search led to the finding of the nest, in which
we could hear some chicks, and another chick was heard from the tree (same idea
like with the Short eared owl).
We finally went to look for the GG Owl second nest. The nest was much
higher and lots of preparations were needed. As you can see, when getting close
to the chicks of this beautiful beast the ringer must be protected. 
The chicks were quickly ringed and put back in the nest, while the
mother was checking every movement and even standing on the edge of the nest, a
meter from Janne.
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| Great Gray Owl Strix nebulosa לילית אפורה |
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| Great Gray Owl Strix nebulosa לילית אפורה |
No words will describe the excitement, I'm still sorry for not measuring
how widely my eyes were opened, for not counting how many times my jaw had to
be lifted from the ground by my hands.
After two hours of sleep (in the early afternoon but considered as night
sleep), during evening birding in the forests and fields around the area, we
saw our 6th species of owl: A Long-eared Owl Asio otus ינשוף עצים foraging for food at the edge of the forest.
