Introduction:
Where
Finland is the place in the Western Palearctic to see the amazing set of owls which inhabit the northern Taiga Forests, plus other highly sought-after birds including Siberian Jay, Siberian Tit and several grouse species. All can be located with relative ease and in a high degree of comfort by using the Central Finnish towns of Oulu and Kuusamo as bases.
When
The peak times to visit Central Finland are in May and June, when the territories of nesting owls have been located but before young have fledged, when most species become more difficult to locate. Some desirable migrant species such as Red-flanked Bluetail, Rustic and Little Buntings arrive quite late in May, which may be an influencing factor for some visitors.
A trip duration of four or five days is recommended; anything less would really be sacrilegious as this is such an impressive part of the world in terms of both scenery and wildlife.
It should also be noted that owl success is directly related to vole abundance. We were lucky to visit when the vole populations were at a cyclical peak and hence all owl species were nesting in good numbers. At the opposite end of the cycle some of the owls, particularly Northern Hawk and Great Grey, can be very thin on the ground if not absent altogether.
How
Anyone thinking of a trip to Finland should look no further than the website of Finnature, who hold an unrivalled reputation in guiding visiting birders to all of their desired target species (http://www.finnature.fi/). Our tour was superbly orchestrated by this first class company and brought to fruition by Markku Hukkanen, our supremely knowledgeable and totally unflappable guide. Markku collected us from Oulu Airport, chauffeured us around the wonderful northern forests in a brand new VW minibus and dropped us off five days later, with a full house of Finland’s most wanted bird species. The entire operation was faultless.
Daily Diary:
Saturday 14th May
Finnair are a great airline. When our tight Helsinki connection is whittled down to nothing, by an hour’s departure delay at Heathrow, our Oulu flight is held at the gate while we dash through the crowded airport to take up our seats red-faced and breathless. It is around 17.00 when the Airbus dips over a sparkling Baltic Sea to deliver us to Finland’s sixth largest city, where Andy Deighton, Martin Flack, Rob and Pete Hutchinson, Marc Lansdowne, Jonathan Newman, Volkert van der Willigen and I are greeted by Markku Hukkanen, our allotted Finnature guide.
Our luggage has missed the tight connection, but Finnair promise it will be with us by the end of the evening, and so we board the luxurious, brand new Volkswagen Caravelle minibus rather light on kit. The half-hour drive to Liminka takes us through the scattered suburbs of Oulu, where neat timber houses and modern glass-fronted industrial units are dotted amongst pines and newly budding birch clumps. Beyond the town is a flat landscape of huge horizons, where the forest is mixed with large arable fields whose dark brown soil is yet to show any signs of the new year’s crop.
Under a cloudless blue sky we arrive at the fantastic Liminganlahti Visitor’s Centre, a strikingly modern pine and glass structure located where the Baltic saltmarshes meet dry farmland. With no bags to unpack we immediately set out to explore the boardwalks leading through woodland and reedbeds, to hides which overlook the Baltic shoreline. In the warm evening light we watch distant flocks of Common Cranes and Whooper Swans, talon-grappling adult White-tailed Eagles and thousands of passage waders. Ruff, Black-tailed Godwit and Wood Sandpiper number in their hundreds on the mud, while Common Snipe drum, Northern Lapwing tumble and Eurasian Curlew pipe overhead.
Both Marsh and Hen Harriers hunt the saltings and even the corvids are impressive, with field-feeding ‘Nordic’ Jackdaws sporting neat silvery collars and smart Hooded Crows harassing the breeding waders. Half-a-dozen Mealy Redpolls feed in the birches beside the boardwalk and a pair of Pied Flycatchers is already prospecting a nestbox beside the Visitor’s Centre.
Our evening meal is a delicious offering of beef goulash, potatoes and cranberry sauce, rounded off with custard buns and coffee, which sets us up perfectly for an evening in search of owls. With the sun dipping towards the western horizon the temperature is already taking a dive by the time of our 20.30 departure, and we are very relieved when Markku takes a call to say that our luggage, full of warm clothing, has arrived at the airport.
Hats and coats are collected en route, as we head towards Sanginjoki to the east of Oulu. Leaving the paved road we head off into the Taiga Forest spruces on a gravel side road, winding our way through the trees until we reach the allotted spot. It is nearly 22.00 and the sun is now just above the horizon, cutting through the tangled mossy limbs and pine needles to cast long shadows through the woodland. Leaving the van we pick our way between the widely spaced trees, on a springy bed of moss and ground-hugging loganberry shrubs, to reach a large nestbox just 100m from the road.
Markku places his hand over the nestbox entrance hole and instantly a soft clicking is heard. This is the test the owl ringers use for nest box occupancy; a female Eurasian Pygmy Owl is sitting on eggs and clicking her bill from within. We are obviously in an occupied territory and the male bird may be close by, so Markku begins to imitate the bird’s single note call. It takes ten or fifteen minutes before a reply is heard, first distantly and then much closer, echoing through the otherwise silent forest in the incredibly atmospheric setting.
We are craning necks to find the calling bird’s concealed location when it suddenly drops from the trees to dive-bomb the source of the call and we have to duck as it hurtles past just a few centimetres above our heads! After a couple more dive-bombings the fearless little owl takes up position atop a tall spruce and calls continuously in defence of his territory, then gradually descends much lower, calling intermittently. Now just a matter of metres away, the fierce-eyed stunner provides fantastic photographic opportunities in a superb introduction to the delights of Finnish owling.
En route back to the minibus Markku shows us a Eurasian Pygmy Owl vole larder in another nest box, where the deep-frozen stash keeps the owls in fresh meat through lean periods in the winter. We set off back to Oulu but are soon out of the van again at one of Markku’s Tengmalm’s Owl nest sites. The head of the female bird is seen instantly in a nesthole high in a roadside Aspen tree, but the big surprise is the sudden appearance of the male bird on an adjacent telephone wire. The stunning little bird, with boldly outlined white facial disc and ‘astonished’ wide yellow eyes, is carrying a vole which he deposits with the female then heads off into the forest in search of more.
Leaving the tranquil river-side setting, with roding Woodcocks overhead, we continue the journey to Oulu and decide to call by the city dump before retiring for the night. A quick scout around the margins of the landfill site reveals plenty of rats but no Eurasian Eagle Owl and we soon decide to head for our beds. Back at the Visitor’s Centre there is still a bright orange glow on the Baltic horizon at 01.00, with ‘night time’ being reduced to just a brief period of twilight. This really is a unique birding experience and we bunk down in great anticipation of what our first full day in the Taiga Forests will bring us.
Sunday 15th May
A sunny pre-breakfast stroll down the nature reserve boardwalks provides a wonderful singing Bluethroat, plus Redwing, Pied Flycatchers and Tree Sparrows, with Raven and White-tailed Eagle passing overhead. When the Visitor’s Centre staff fail to show up to cook our breakfast we make for a nearby roadside service station, where the ‘All-you-can eat 5 Euro’ buffet goes down a treat; the revelation of edible ‘cheesy moccasins’ makes the visit worthwhile in its own right!
It is a forty five minute drive to the Vartti Forest, close to Siikajoki, where we again take to dirt roads which winds through blocks of Scots Pine, Norway Spruce, Silver Birch and Aspen. Our route delivers us to more open patches of grassland and clear-felled forest where we hope to find the first of the day’s big owl targets.
After several stops to scan the treetops, where Common Crossbills, Tree Pipits and Northern Wheatears are seen, it is ML who is the first to shout ‘Hawk Owl!’ when a large dark treetop blob materialises into one of the world’s most spectacular birds. Although a flock of ten Bohemian Waxwings are in a tree right next to us they attract but a quick glance as all eyes turn to the awesome predator perched high in a bare Aspen tree.
A daytime hunter, this awesome owl has adopted many diurnal raptor traits, as its name would suggest, with a long tail and proportionately small head giving a rather un-owl-like profile. The bird’s plumage is an impressive combination of finely barred white underparts, distinctly spotted dark grey-brown upperparts and a strikingly bold face pattern surrounding burning yellow eyes.
Our bird constantly rotates his head in search of prey and appears so confident of the domination of his territory that our presence is effectively ignored. When he decides to take up an alternative perch the hawk-like flight silhouette, with very long tail and rather narrow, bluntly pointed wings is revealed, a profile totally unique in this family.
The next couple of hours are spent transfixed with this fascinating creature, which is seen to catch several voles and deliver one to its incubating mate in a large hole in a broken Aspen stump. While we watch the Northern Hawk Owl a Wryneck begins to call and we set out to track down the singing bird. Finding the source of the calls takes some effort, but eventually we track down the increasingly-scarce migrant breeder high up in an Aspen, where it is joined by its mate.
Returning to the van, we drive for just ten minutes to a block of spruce, the location of our next avian Holy Grail. Brambling, Great Spotted Woodpecker and a sadly-dead Adder are seen as we walk, with an owl-entree being served up by Markku soon after we enter the forest. Unfortunately the incubating Ural Owl which he points out is in a large nestbox high in a spruce, and only the latter portion of its tail is visible, folded high above an unseen head.
All thoughts of unsatisfactory owl viewing are instantly forgotten when we round a clump of trees to come face-to-face with an incubating Great Grey Owl! The female bird is sitting at head height, atop a huge stick nest low in spruce branches, giving unprecedented viewing of this incredibly charismatic species. As if this is not enough, Markku soon picks out the male bird which is roosting close by on an exposed spruce bough. Another couple of hours are spent in owl-heaven as we soak in every glorious detail and photograph these magnificent beasts from every possible angle, now under a warm Arctic sun. What a morning!
The next few stops are a little less productive, as Tengmalm’s Owl and Three-toed Woodpecker fail to appear at their respective sites, with Common Crossbill, Pied Flycatcher and drumming Common Snipe providing the only entertainment. A slightly longer drive, via a roadside female Black Grouse, brings us to another Ural Owl nest site location. Leaving the van behind we walk down a sandy track through the conifers to a high ex-Goshawk nest, from which a long, barred tail protrudes. It clearly belongs to another Ural Owl, but try as we might nothing more than the very top of the bird’s rounded head can be seen in the deep nest cup.
Somewhat frustrated we set off back to Liminka, where a huge smoked salmon is dished up and soon dispels any hard feelings to the uncooperative Ural Owl. Tonight’s post-dining destination is the delightful Oulu city dump, with its huge mosquitoes, abundant Brown Rats and highly unsavoury smells. We spend a couple of hours studying ‘Baltic’ Gulls and again failing to see Eurasian Eagle Owl, which we learn is actually resident at this unattractive site. As we wait, Markku is tuned into the final of the International Ice Hockey Federation Championships, in which Finland are paired with Nordic rivals Sweden. Excited updates are regularly given, and when the 6-1 final score is announced in Finland’s favour, distant cheering can be heard and fireworks are launched above the city!
Next stop is another Ural Owl nestbox in the vicinity of Sanginjoki. It is an overcast night and inside the forest it is surprisingly dark by Finnish Springtime standards, so on this occasion we can’t even pick out an owl’s tail for our troubles. Playback has no effect and eventually we admit another defeat, with the Ural Owls now 3-0 up on the birders. Even the putative Eastern Hedgehog seen on the way back to the lodge has to be deleted when we later find that range means it is the same mammal we have in our UK gardens.
Monday 16th May
After our previous late night there is little enthusiasm for pre-breakfast birding, though Grey Partridge and Common Crane are pleasant distractions between porridge and cured ham. This time we take our luggage with us as we head back to the Vartti Forest for another attempt at some missing birds, and there is a distinct air of trepidation in the minibus as we know that this is our last shot at the extremely uncooperative Ural Owl.
Our journey provides male Hen Harrier and another female Black Grouse and upon disembarking at the now familiar forest spot we are met by Green Hairstreak butterflies skipping over the track in the sunshine. The very first birds to be seen are a pair of impressive Three-toed Woodpeckers, which proceed to copulate on a nearby branch! Our good fortune continues as a pair of Parrot Crossbills materialise in the pine under which we are standing and a small group of Bohemian Waxwings whizzes overhead.
So far so good, but now it is time for our Ural Owl visit. The only Moose of the trip is seen en route to the next block of forest, as well as a very obliging roadside Common Crane. Arriving at the large Goshawk stick nest we are again confronted by a long barred tail and an otherwise invisible owl. And again the incubating owl fails to show herself in spite of our concerted efforts to attract her attention. We try every viewing angle all around the nest and place ourselves on every available mound and anthill to gain some extra height, but all is to no avail. There is only one thing left to do; we will have to climb a tree!
Markku, with a long history of ringing owl nestlings, is actually something of a tree climbing expert and after a brief search selects a tall spruce on which to make his ascent. Although it is tall, the tree is actually quite spindly, with most lateral branches hardly classing as anything more than twigs. In spite of these obstacles Markku soon shoots up 10m into the canopy and pronounces that the full bird is in view from his elevated viewpoint.
Now is the fun part, as our group of unfit and uncoordinated birders try to emulate his arboreal expertise. First to go up is MF, easily the most fearless and fittest member of the team, and after a few minutes of scrambling and snapping he announces ‘I have eyes!’ The rest of the party follow in turn, with varying degrees of panting, cursing and branch-cracking. Ascending ten metres up a rocking spruce tree and still having hands steady enough to hold your bins is no mean feat, but eventually all the climbers are rewarded with a view of the huge, pale, and rather bemused owl sitting tight on her clutch of eggs. It’s a fantastic team effort!
With great irony, just after we have finished our climbing rota, the Ural Owl decides to leave the nest of her own accord to shed a pellet and we are able to stand at a vantage point and await her return. When she does appear we have a great view as she swoops through the trees on broad wings and briefly alights on the nest before settling back onto her eggs; this is certainly an owling experience we will not forget in a hurry.
A calling Crested Tit is tracked down close to the owl nest, then a little further down the track Markku shows us a huge hole in an Aspen which is the home of a Black Woodpecker and soon we have a magnificent male bird circling us in the open forest. Our final stop in the Oulu area is at Haukipudas, where we line up below a small hole in an Aspen and Markku carefully selects an appropriate stick. Scratching the stick on the side of the trunk makes the occupant of the nest hole think that a Pine Marten is scampering up the tree and a Tengmalm’s Owl duly pops her head out of the tree to see what is occurring. Camera shutters blaze and coos of appreciation are uttered from the assembled crowd, all extremely grateful of an owl which actually performs as it is supposed to. A great bonus is a couple of Woodcock, presumably a courting pair, who chase each other around the moss right next to the van giving unprecedented viewing of an extremely beautiful bird normally seen only as a treetop-skimming silhouette.
We begin our journey northeast to Kuusamo at around 15.30, with two-and-a-half hours of driving ahead of us. A brief stop is made at the wild-looking Hirvisuo Reserve, a huge roadside expanse of open brown heathland and meres, with a name which translates as ‘Elk Bog’. Here we see our only Taiga Bean Goose of the trip, a distant bird which appears to be nesting, plus our only Golden Plover, in fine breeding plumage. It is now drizzling and getting very cold, so we soon return to the shelter of the minibus to continue our journey.
The view from the window is a fairly consistent one of flat coniferous forest, punctuated by occasional arable fields and wetlands, until our first real Finnish hills are encountered around 60km south of Kuusamo. There are no dramatic peaks, but the landscape takes on a more undulating appearance and large lakes begin to appear at the roadside, as do our first grazing Reindeer. It is also clearly much colder here, as periodic patches of dirty grey snow are still lingering from a winter which is clearly only just being shaken off. Back in Oulu the Silver Birches and Aspens were bursting into green bud, while at this latitude the greenery remains tightly furled.
At 18.30 we roll up outside the sprawling Sokos Hotel, Kuusamo, in the pouring rain. Kuusamo is a ski resort town, but come the thaw it is naturally somewhat deserted and therefore we have the run of the very comfortable hotel. From our room’s window we can see large numbers of Little Gulls, plus a group of displaying Common Goldeneye on the lake, and in the restaurant we dine on tasty reindeer stew, with mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. The dessert is a traditional berry ‘soup’, all washed down with Lapin Kulta beer, which is our first alcohol of the trip and probably a good job with its £5 per half-litre price tag!
Tuesday 17th May
It has rained all night and it is still raining when the alarm sounds at 04.30. Our first port of call is an area of marshy heathland with sparse trees close to the edge of the town, where Mountain Hares abound and a very smart white-bellied male Willow Grouse stands at the roadside. When we get out in the rain to try for some grouse photos we stumble upon a very tame Muskrat which continues to gnaw grass shoots in the roadside ditch in spite of our intrusive presence.
The main destination for our pre-breakfast birding session is the Konttainen Escarpment, which is located half an hour north of Kuusamo, just beyond the Ruka ski resort. En route we pass by several marshes and some large lakes, each of which seems to have its own nesting pair of Whooper Swans, with three redhead Smew and a number of Arctic Terns also being recorded. Leaving the main road we are delighted to drop on a male and two female Capercaillie which, if you have only seen reintroduced birds in the UK, are effectively a tick! The beautifully mottled, orangey-breasted females soon scoot off into the forest, while the huge male flies down the road like a Lancaster Bomber! When he alights we take up a new position to see and hear his incredible display with head thrown back and tail fanned in the manner of a huge Boreal turkey.
At Konttainen a steep rocky ridge rises from the surrounding conifer forest to disappear into low misty cloud. It is still raining as we disembark at the roadside pull-in below the ridge, where the bird feeders apparently attract the occasional Siberian Jay, and we witness an unexpected overland passage of several hundred Long-tailed Ducks. With brolleys deployed it is something of a damp and miserable scene, or at least it is until AD trots down the hill to announce that he has discovered a singing Red-flanked Bluetail! We follow his lead up the wooden staircase which leads through the rocky spruce-clad slope to a point where we can watch this cracking little migrant flit from spruce-top to spruce-top, proclaiming his territory with a simple song.
Spurred on by our find we continue to the summit of the ridge where, between broken banks of low cloud, we glimpse some superb views of the lakes and forest ridges to the north. A pair of Two-barred Crossbills is a very welcome find, with the salmon-pink male sporting huge white wingbars plus diagnostic white tertial spots as he sings from his favoured treetop.
Next it is RH who appears, panting, to shout ‘I’ve got Jays!’ and we rush down-slope through patchy drifts of lingering snow to be confronted by two stunning Siberian Jays feeding low in the spruces. Although rather damp, they are subtly gorgeous birds and round off an incredible morning of brolley-toting birding.
A male Black Grouse, various wet Mountain Hares and a number of roadside Reindeer fail to stop our rapid return to Kuusamo to catch the last orders for the hotel breakfast, which is a fantastic buffet of cereal, bacon, egg, sausage, bread, ham, cheese, cake and fruit; needless to say we gorge ourselves sufficiently to survive until dinnertime!
As we dine, the sun miraculously breaks through and we can’t wait to get out for our first dry birding in Kuusamo. The first stop is just a few minutes down the road, where a small pine wood is bisected by the remains of World War II German trenches. Here Markku shows us a nestbox which he knows was used by Siberian Tits during the previous year, but it is yet to be checked in 2011. We have just assembled around the box to check its contents when a pair of Siberian Tits emerges from the pines and one of the birds, with a large white feather grasped in its bill, flies between us to enter the nestbox! We stay with these attractive Taiga Forest specialists for some time, and enjoy courtship feeding behaviour, before setting off on the forty-five minute drive to Oulanka National Park.
En route, at Kayla, our first pair of Hazel Grouse is spotted from the speeding minibus and triggers a rapid reversing manoeuvre on the gravel road. It only takes a short burst of playback to cause the male bird to shoot up into a roadside Aspen, just a few metres from the road, where we can enjoy the intricate plumage of black, white, browns and greys of this incredibly attractive bird.
Crossing the boundary of the Oulanka National Park, and entering the protected forest area, we find that Hazel Grouse could actually be described as abundant and in the course of the afternoon we see no less that fourteen separate birds. Many are attracted to the roadside by the iPod and one pair of territory-disputing males parade side-by-side across the track and past the minibus! Black Grouse are also present in force and we are treated to unrivalled views of both male and female birds in the bright sunshine.
A number of dazzling male Bramblings in full breeding plumage are very welcome, as is another male Parrot Crossbill. When a familiar shape darts over the road at treetop level a shout of ‘Hawk Owl’ brings us to an instant halt. The next hour is spent in the company of another magnificent pair of Northern Hawk Owls, which already have a well grown youngster who clambers ably about the thick bare branches of a dead pine.
On the track are the fresh prints of two Brown Bears, which have clearly passed the spot in the last twenty-four hours, and while we enjoy our owls we stumble across a pair of very obliging Rustic Buntings which feed unobtrusively on the forest floor; the male bird in full breeding regalia is an absolute stunner. A flyover Northern Goshawk completes our bird list for what can only be described as an incredible day of birding, almost within touching distance of both the Arctic Circle and Soviet border.
All is wrapped up with another excellent meal at Kuusamo and we raise our Lapin Kulta to Markku and our remarkable Kuusamo grouse-fest!
Wednesday 18th May
Although we have already seen all of our main target species we are keen to make the most of our final hours in this dramatic environment and therefore hit the road for a return visit to the Konttainen area at 04.00. En route, in rather dull and overcast conditions, we see a displaying male and a female Capercaillie, both Hazel and Black Grouse and many Mountain Hares, all at the roadside.
Parking up at the same roadside pull-in as yesterday, this time we ascend the Valtavaara Ridge to the south, in weather which has taken a much cooler turn. Mist drifts through the tall spruces as we trek over wet and spongy ground, to the tune of Green Sandpiper displaying overhead. Our efforts are rewarded with a male Three-toed Woodpecker, and males of Common Redstart plus Two-barred Crossbill.
We have all but completed a wide circuit of the hillside when a Siberian Jay is seen gliding over the road. After a short pursuit we move in on a pair of these handsome birds and MF deploys our secret weapon, in the form of chunks of his ‘Jordan’s’ cereal bar! The effect is astonishing and within seconds the pair of jays are feeding less than a metre from us in an incredible display of the totally fearless behaviour which is a common trait of many Taiga Forest species.
With this fitting finale to an incredible Finnish experience secured on film for posterity, we set off back to our Kuusamo breakfast via an obliging roadside Red Squirrel, and a couple of wetland stops which give us two pairs of Velvet Scoter, male Smew, plus tree-perching Greenshank and Arctic Tern.
After a huge breakfast meal we check out of the Sokos Hotel with time for a quick visit to Kuusamo Lake. On the mirror-like surface of the large water-body we enjoy in excess of three hundred summer plumaged Little Gulls, Muskrat and a pair of displaying Red-necked Grebes, with a farewell pair of Willow Grouse at the roadside nearby.
The journey back to Oulu for our return flight allows for a couple of stops too, where the final additions to the trip list are a hunting Goshawk, a group of five migrant Ospreys, five summer-plumaged Black-throated Divers on another mirror-flat lake, a pair of Siberian Jays and another female Parrot Crossbill.
At Oulu airport we bid a very fond farewell to Markku and thank him for guiding us through a totally unforgettable few days. With the help of Finnature we have seen some of the very best birds in the Western Palearctic amidst some of its most unique and impressive landscapes, in an experience which none of us will ever forget.
Ian Merrill
May 2011
i.merrill@btopenworld.com