Winter bird census in Kärjenniemi

 

Spotted Nutcracker, new species in my route

Cloudy Saturday on 12th of November, mild and calm weather, temperature few degrees below 0° C, almost prefect weather for winter bird census. Sunny day would have been even better, but those are rare here in November.

My route is 7 km long and it goes through many biotopes so basically I have a chance to see a nice variety of bird species. But this year the winter came early and lake Kärjenniemenselkä was already covered by ice, so no waterfowls or gulls this autumn. Fortunately there were still some rowan berries left for thrushes and waxwings, also lot's of cones in spruces, so I was pretty confident that I will see many species.

Black Woodpecker

And so I did. 23 species and total 698 birds. Nice surprise were the 3 Spotted Nutcrackers, new species in my route and a new species to my year list! Small surprise was also 3 Black Woodpeckers, it's usually scarce i.e. I don't find it every time. On what comes to berry and cone eating birds, most thrushes and waxwings had already gone south, but I still found a flock 11 Bohemian Waxwings, total 12 Blackbirds, 8 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, two Red Crossbills but surprisingly no Fieldfares. Also the amount of Redpolls and Siskins, which were scarce last winter, was promising, we may get a nice winter on what comes to birding.  All results can be seen here, on the website of Finnish Museum of Natural History.

Next winter bird census will be after Christmas, looking forward to see what I will find from Kärjenniemi that time. Maybe Grey-Headed Woodpecker, or Three-Toed Woodpecker, both would be new in my route. Or some big owl... If you want to join, you're welcome, just contact me and come to do census in Kärjenniemi!

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Author

Olli Haukkovaara

email: olli.haukkovaara @ proton.me

Valkeakoski, Finland