The season of song is quickly drawing to a close in most parts of Finland, meaning I only have a couple weeks to seek out some of the songbirds I haven't met yet. It's been a bit of a busy week, and I only managed to get out Monday night ... Hopefully I'll be more productive over the weekend.
After having one night to partially recover from my Kuusamo trip, I took up an offer to go "twitch" one of the rare eastern species which had been found ~100km south of Kuopio -- Booted Warbler (Pikkukultarinta). I met up with my friend Hannu just outside the city, and we headed off for an evening of birding. When we stopped to pick up another birder, we were greeted by the breaking news that a farmer (maybe a little perturbed by the attention of birders near his fields) had just cut down all the bushes the bird had been hanging out in!!
Sooo ... not sure if it was worth the effort, we decided instead to go and attempt to ring Long-eared Owl (Sarvipöllö) nestlings in nearby Varkaus ... only to be asked to leave by a local lady who was upset that we were exciting her dogs!! What an odd start to a night of birding.
Fortunately, it was not a total bust. I did hear my first River Warbler (Viitasirkkalintu), the more uncommon Reed Warbler (Rytikerttunen), and even helped catch and ring a Marsh Warbler (Luhtakerttunen) -- which, it turns out, is a fantastic singer. A little later in the night I was able to get nice looks at a Sedge Warbler (Ruokokerttunen), which up to then had been impossible to see hiding deep in reed beds.
BUT --- As a last-ditch effort, we did go to our original destination. And, after an hour or so of walking fields in the early morning mist (it was eerie but amazing), we got to hear and eventually see the Booted Warbler not far from where it had been found. Crazy farmer ... can't stop us from getting our bird!!!
Posted by jaredclarke at June 17, 2005 03:39 PM