Finland 2019

Back in January, I was at a christening along with Lincs birder, Andy Chick. Needless to say we talked birds, and lo and behold, four days later we had a spring birding trip to Finland booked… (one of the more productive christenings I've been to). This was to be a fairly flying visit, as (a) I could only negotiate a few days away from the family, and (b) it was already shaping up to be an expensive trip (albeit much less than a trip with a tour company).

May rolled round, and we were off, flying out on Wednesday 15th, returning on Saturday 18th. Our itinerary was to arrive Wednesday night, have a morning's birding with Finnature around Oulu on the Thursday before driving over the Kuusamo, where we would have another a morning's birding with Finnature on the Friday before returning back to Oulu that evening, and then flying home on Saturday morning.

All in all it was a pretty successful trip - we had a tight connection in Oulu, which we made (although this wasn't helped by our Helsinki flight being delayed - we had to run through the terminal), and our accommodation in (or rather, just south of) Oulo was... interesting (think 1970s motel). We also had one big dip, but we were always going to be lucky to get a clean sweep. This is how things panned out:

Thursday 

We arrived into Oulu (which is at the northern end of the Gulf of Bothnia, Finland's fifth largest city, and self-titled 'Capital of Northern Scandinavia') in the late afternoon. After picking up the hire car, we drove a short distance to the Finlandia Hotel Airport, which was to be our meeting point the following morning.

Flying from Helsinki to Oulu

This was found without any difficulties, and would have been a very pleasant place to stay had we not been on a budget... There is also a viewing platform and trails on the shoreline behind the hotel, and of course we couldn't resist a quick look, which a range of wildfowl (including a pair of Garganey) and waders (including displaying Snipe and Green Sandpiper), and a selection of other bits and pieces, including a Crane over, singing Redwing, Fieldfare, Swallow and House Martin, White Wagtail, Willow Warbler, and plenty of Little Gulls. 

Our first bit of birding

It was then off to our hotel for a very unsatisfactory night's sleep before out early start the following morning….

Friday

With alarms set for 2.30am, it felt like I’d barely closed my eyes before it was time to get up; we arrived back at the Finlandia Hotel Airport just before 3am, meeting our Finnature guide for the day and the rest of our group – three fellow Brits, a Dutchman and a Californian.

2.30am

Finnature are obviously keen not to have the locations of breeding owls etc.. published on the internet (and to be honest, I didn’t really know where we were going anyway), so ‘Stop 1’ was somewhere north of Oulu, and produced a singing Pygmy Owl, brought in by a quick bit of playback. Only my second ever, following my first in Slovakia back in 2007. This patch of forest also held Black Grouse (bubbling somewhere in the distance), Waxwing and displaying Greenshank. A female Moose was the first of three we saw during the trip, and both Brown and Mountain Hares the first of many.

Our group and guide at our first stop

Pygmy Owl

Pygmy Owl

Moose - big beasts!

A short distance further on, our second stop produced my Most Wanted – a Great Grey Owl, initially spotted in a roadside tree by the Dutchman who was riding shotgun. It moved further away as the minibus was backed up, but we had satisfactory views of it before it melted away into the forest. Excellent! I was surprised that it wasn't in some pristine bit of forest, but on the edge of a small settlement (lots of rodent prey I guess). This area also produced Goshawk, 2 Parrot Crossbills and trumpeting Northern Bullfinch.

The track through the forest

Slightly further on, in the same area, we were then taken to a Great Grey Owl nest. This is what Finnature do (under controlled conditions), and it’s what you pay an eye-watering sum of money for 8 hours guiding for. The female was clearly used to visitors, looking at us for a couple of minutes, before losing interest. She was sat on a huge old Goshawk next, and the whole experience was fairly mind-blowing, made even more so when the male appeared with some prey. What fantastic birds.

Heading towards the nest

And what a nest it was...

Looking on

Views of the male

The male Great Grey Owl

After a bit of a drive off somewhere to the east, seeing thunbergi Yellow Wagtail, Wood Sand, Whooper Swan and Raven on the way, we were taken to location 3 for another owl nesting site – this time Ural Owl. This was a bit unsatisfactory, requiring a mirror to see into the nest box, and raised a philosophical dilemma – can you tick a bird if you’ve only seen its reflection? I have... This productive piece of forest and adjacent mire also held singing Pied Fly, Redstart and Tree Pipit, borealis Willow Tit (very smart and frosty), Cuckoo, Hazel and Black Grouse and Crane.

Wood Sand on a roadside pool

Viewing the Ural Owl nest box...

She was visible in real life!

Female Black Grouse

Birding in the forest

The forest is commercially managed, but still pretty nice

Prancing Cranes

Stop 4, back towards Oulu, was for Tengmalm’s Owl – another bird in a nest box, but this time bird did at least stick it’s head out to see what was going on; we enjoyed its permanent state of surprise for a few minutes before backing off. 

Tengmalm's Owl

Better at least than the Ural Owl...

Our fifth and final stop was back on the coast at Oulu – a small and unprepossessing tidal pond next to an industrial area, but one of just of a handful of sites were Terek Sandpiper still breed in Finland – and we were rewarded with a bird flying in and giving a quick burst of song. An LRP and two displaying Common Sands were also present here. And that completed our first session with Finnature – and very good it was too. 

Terek Sandpiper

We then started our nearly 3 hour journey north-east to Kuusamo, breaking at a couple of places along the way. First up was a huge mire site called Hirvisuo, although we didn’t see that much here – thunbergi Yellow Wags, Siskin, Common Redpoll, Tree Pipit, 2 Whinchats, and Cranes. Just short of Kuusamo we stopped by a lake just south of Kuolio, which yielded an adult White-tailed Eagle, several Little Gulls, our first singing Brambling, and a male Smew. Birds seen on the drive included familiar fare, such as Whooper Swan (not quite present on every lake and wetland).

Top notch mire habitat at Hirvisuo

Viewing tower

thunbergi Yellow Wagtail

An icy lake at Kuolio

Arriving into Kuusamo (a small town c.60km south of the Arctic circle and c.35km from the Russian border), we checked into our hotel - a great improvement on the one in Oulu. Grabbing an early supper, we then headed out for some more birding, visiting an area of forest about 15km to the north which looked promising based on its eBird list. We couldn’t find much here, but did have a couple of Hazel Grouse, 3 borealis Willow Tits, and a few each of the widespread breeders (Brambling, Chaffinch, Siskin etc.).

After a much better night’s sleep, we were up again at 2.30am for a 3am meet with our new Finnature guide. Our group today was comprised of three of yesterday’s party (two of the Brits and the Dutchman), plus a third Brit who was driving up through Scandinavia in his motorhome. Our first stop was just outside town, with a Willow Grouse by the road and two singing Rustic Buntings. Driving on, Capercaillie, Black Grouse and Hazel Grouse were all seen on the roadside, making it a four-grouse day, whilst two Woodcock were feeding in a grassy field.

Willow Grouse

Woodcock

Arriving at our second stop, the singing Red-flanked Bluetail present the day before failed to show, which was a shame – this was something I had been looking forward to. I think we were still slightly early in the season for this species (and seemingly others too, as many areas of forest were very quiet). However, compensation came in the form of a pair of Pine Grosbeaks which flew in and showed well for about 10 minutes – I’d not realised how big these would be (the size of a Redwing), and the colour of the male was something else - superb. Other birds included a pair of Rustic Buntings (I tried to log the call in my memorybank...), breeding Greenshank and Black-throated Diver, a Short-eared Owl and several crossbill sp over.

Snowy forest

Male Pine Grosbeak and an annoying twig

Female Grosbeak

Male Rustic Bunting - very smart

Greenshank

Greenshank habitat

Breeding Greenshank

Our next stop produced Siberian Tit without too much difficulty, and we enjoyed watching these birds over coffee. However, our luck then began to falter – at our fourth stop of the day, within spitting distance of the Russian border, there was no sign of the Hawk Owl which had been seen as recently as the previous day by another group. It was a bit windy, which perhaps didn’t help. A pair of Waxwings, 5 Taiga Bean Geese and a Rough-legged Buzzard provided some interest whilst not seeing the owl.

Siberian Tit

Andy not seeing a Hawk Owl

Taiga Bean Geese in the taiga

Waxwing

Our luck continued to waiver, as we spent ages looking for Siberian Jay in a very nice patch of protected forest at our fifth and final stop  – this was a bird I really didn’t want to dip, as it would have required another trip back! However, they eventually showed up back by the minibus just before we were due to leave, but only because another group had arrived, and their guide had put some bits of sausage out; the Jays took approximately 2 minutes to arrive! We also couldn’t locate any Three-toed Woodpeckers here, despite plenty of fresh field signs – a would-be tick for Andy.

Nice (protected) forest

Waiting for the Siberian Jays to show up

Back in Kuusamo, and having said farewell to our companions, we grabbed a quick bite for lunch before retracing our steps, first to an area just north of Kuusamo airport where our guide said a Hawk Owl had been seen two weeks previously. Needless to say, we couldn’t find it, but did have an immature White-tailed Eagle overhead, plus 3 Whimbrel, and a Golden Plover.

No Hawk Owls here either

Juv White-tailed Eagle - I'm not quite sure of the age of this - looks like a
2cy on plumage (lacking extensive white mottling on the belly), but a 3cy
based on wing moult?

Heading back to the Siberian Jay spot, we saw another Moose and a Rough-legged Buzzard en route, and then enjoyed close and prolonged views of the Siberian Jays, and wondering at their ability to appear out of nowhere, and vanish equally quickly on silent wings. However, once again the Three-toed Woodpeckers didn’t show. In fact, the only woodpeckers we saw or heard during our trip were Great Spots, which was a bit surprising given all the trees! 

Siberian Jays

Siberian Jay

Siberian Jay

Siberian Jay

Siberian Jay

It was then an uneventful drive back to Oulu, for another night in strange (albeit different) accommodation.With a little time to kill before our flight on Saturday morning, we revisited the Terek Sandpiper site, seeing two birds before they were flushed by a photographer, along with 2 Ruff and a Wood Sand. Back at Finlandia Hotel Airport, the tide was lower than our previous visit, and the exposed mud held at least 12 Temminck’s Stints, lots of Ruff (including a displaying male), and a Black-tailed Godwit.

Coastal habitat looking towards Oulu

And that was it – two flights and we were home by mid-afternoon. We clocked up just over 100 species in our short stay, despite several notable omissions, including Red-flanked Bluetail, Bluethroat, Two-barred Crossbill, Little Bunting and Three-toed Woodpecker. However, I can’t complain having seen 6 of my 7 target species – Great Grey, Ural and Tengmalm’s Owls, Siberian Tit and Jay, and Pine Grosbeak, and a nice selection of other northern species. I’ll have to twitch a Hawk Owl next time there is one within striking distance of the UK (or maybe even in the UK…).