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Birding Italy Trip Report #03
VARANGERFJORD AND FINLAND19th May to 1st June 2004by Mattia Altieri and Massimo Fedi
A dream comes true for seven of us: a birdwatching trip through the neverending woods of Finland and breathtaking Arctic scenaries of Varangerfjord. From May 19th to June 1st, a group of Italian birdwatchers goes to Scandinavia. Mattia Altieri, Stefano Benucci, Tommaso Campedelli, Giorgio Di Liddo, Massimo Fedi, Lorenzo Vanni and Andrea Vezzani are the members of the expedition. We rent a blue Volkswagen Transporter and drive for nearly 5.000 km through Finland and Northern Norway. Driving from Helsinki to Varangerfjord takes a whole day and allows us to see a pair sof Red-necked Grebes in breeding plumage and several tetraonids such as Black and Willow Grouses and Capercaille directly from the car. Just before the Norvegian border, we find a Ruff’s lek, with a group of 8 colourful males performing their elegant ritual. At Varangerfjord – where we rented a comfortable and fairly convenient house – we were welcomed during midnight sun by a small group of Harbour Porpoises and 6 Bohemian Waxwings. We spent 5 days in the Varanger area, each of them full of encounters and emotions. Spectacular seawatching at Hamningberg, in the Barents Sea: among several alcids, Gannets, Parasitic Skuas and Glaucous Gulls, we find 5 fabulous White-billed Loons. While we were looking at 3 of them, a Great Skua crosses our field of vision. In the small bay a Grey Seal emerges taking a big fish in its mouth to be immediately attacked by some hungry gulls. There were also many gulls in Hamningberg. What a surprise to see such a number of Glaucosus Gulls of all ages. Magic Hornoya, a small rocky island, whose steep cliffs host several thousands of breeding sea-birds. We left from Vardo on a small fishing boat. Deserted houses’ balconies in Vardo were decorated by Kittiwake nests, like geraniums in Italians houses are. As soon as we land in Hornoya, we are wrapped up by the noisy calls of thousands Kittiwakes, Herring Gulls, Great Black-backed Gulls and alcids: Puffins were the most colorful;
Guillemots were the most elegant and numerous, some of them of the bridled form; Brunnich’s Guillemots were relatively scarce, but easy to find; Razorbills were busy in courtship; Shags were nesting on the lower portion of the cliff, and Black Guillemots were swimming and looking for food , since it was too early for them to nest. Suddenly, a drama strikes the colony, when a Great Black-Backed Gull killed a Kittiwake sitting on its nest, cutting off the Kittiwake’s head and wings with its powerful bill and tried to take off with the corpse. Another Great Black-backed Gull was feeding on another corpse, with its former yellow bill became bloodede red. We spent only a few hours on the island, since times runs so fast when there is so much to watch and to hear. Walking to the lighthouse we encountered several paird of Guillemots and Puffins, too busy in courting and mating to care about us; only Shags look a little more alarmed with their erect black crest. On the path, we also meet a couple of Twites. Finally the fishing boat took us back to Vardo, while we were still longingly staring at Hornoya’s cliffs. Not far from Vardo, we also find a big group of King Eiders, with no less than 3 adult males and a fourth one sitting on a rock in full colours and “erect sails”. On a nearby beach there were a gathering flock of gulls: Common, Herring, Great Black-backed, Glaucous and two Iceland Gulls, while a third one was seen in Karlebotn, on Western Varangerfjord. The most abundant ducks in this area were Common Eiders and Long-tailed Ducks, while Common and Velvet Scoters were quite common too. However, none of them were nearly as beautiful as Steller’s Eiders, after having found a flock of over 800 of them in the inner side of the fjord besides other smaller groups here and there with a total of more than 1.200 individuals.
Waders were also well represented with Purple Sandpipers beeing very common in the Eastern coastal areas. Small flocks of them were feeding on rocks covered with sea-weed, mixted with Turnstones, Dunlins and Common Sandpipers, and are very confident. Knots, Curlew Sandpipers, Temminck’s Stints and Bar-tailed Godwits, all in breeding plumage, feed on the mud-flats. Driving along the coast, it were easy to meet a White-tailed Eagle (the commonest raptor of Varanger) sitting on a rock or calmly patrolling the sea surface. Short-eared Owl’s wavering and light flight is frequently seen over meadows and low shrubs areas. Long-tailed Skuas are mainly seen along the sea shore, while Parasitic Skuas, both in pale and dark morph and mixed couples, are almost everywhere.
Passerines weren’t many, but they were spectacular. Snow Buntings were fairly common in the tundra; a pair of Horned Larks at Kvalnes and another one near Berlevag; singing Bluethroats, Twites and Arctic Redpolls in willow and birch thickets – the latter being very fast in answering our calls; male Lapland Buntings perching on tundra’s low shrubs and singing were fantastic. Internal upland tundra is the domain of grouses, both Willow Grouses (parading males were quite common and conspicuous) and Ptarmigans (at the end of May the males are still in winter plumage). Two Rough-legged Buzzards flew low over the snow-covered hills, looking for voles. Inland ponds were still half-frozen: Red-necked Loons and Long-tailed Ducks were patiently waiting the ice to melt, to have some fresh water for nesting and diving. We drive North up to Berlevag. The narrow road was now running through dark ridges and sheer drops from the cliff to the sea. The rocks were battered by the stormy waves of the Arctic Ocean and crushed by the frost bite. Quite an end-of-the-world scene. Gulls and White-tailed Eagles seemed to be the only living beings at home here, but a closer look to the sea reveals Arctic Loons, Cormorants, all the alcid species, hundreds of Eiders and a few Goosanders. We also saw many mammals in the Varanger area: the Minke whale swimming in front of our house, seals, Arctic hares, foxes, rein-deers, elks and an ermine with a vole in its mouth. Varanger days were over and we started driving back South. On Kaunispaa hill, we found a couple of Ptarmigans a bit too confident in their mimetic ability.
We also saw several Golden Plovers and, finally, the real target of our quest: a pair of Dotterels, so beautiful in their breeding plumage, long white supercilium, bright coloured breast and belly.
Driving not far from Kemi, we had the most unexpected and exciting encounter of the whole trip. A Northern Hawk Owl sitting on the top of a spruce just alongside the road, stared at us for a few minutes, then fliyng over a nearby barn, tying to catch something in the grass, finally perching on a thin birch-tree limb and scanning the meadow below.
In the same meadow, a Black Grouse is parading and two Short-eared Owls are flying back and forth. Liminka, near Oulu, is the most important wet area of Finland. We saw over 400 Whooper Swans, 87 Cranes, 25 Temmink’s Stints, Black-tailed Godwits, Curlews and Whimbrels, Scarlet Rosefinches, Yellowhammers and Ortolan Buntings; 4 Caspian Terns near Oulu’s harbour. At night, Toni Usimaeki, our Finnature local guide, took us to a Tengmalm’s Owl nest. The female puts her head out of the nest’s hole. After a few minutes the male was back, a silent shadow, takings a Chaffinch to feed the family with. Pygmy Owl was no less fascinating; so small and so brave, it came very close to us and kept staring at us and singing. Ural Owl can be very aggressive when nesting, so we kept at distance, and we were satisfied to look at the female sitting on her huge nest. Finally, a female Black Woodpecker answered our calls and came very close on a birch tree. The day after, following Toni’s directions, we visited a beautiful wet area looking for Citrine Wagtail. We couldn’t find it, but we were rewarded by a group of Hooded Crows mobbing a huge Eagle Owl and Otter’s tracks on a muddy ditch bank. Next stop was the fabulous taiga around Kuusamo. Our local guide, Olli Lamminsaalo, gave us directions to look for the typical species of boreal forest. We are very lucky with Little Bunting, we found a couple very close to the city. The day after we’ll be looking for Red-flanked Bluetail – according to Olli’s informations, only two singing males have been seen this Spring in the whole Finland, and one of them is supposed to breed in a nearby hill called Iivaara. The dirt road to Iivara abounded of surprising beauties: a Woodcock, a few Black Grouses and a couple of Hazel Grouses answering our calls. Suddenly, a woodpecker crossed our way with its typical undulating flight. It was a Three-Toed Woodpecker and it kept feeding on a spruce bark, heedless of us.
On the narrow path climbing Iivara hill, we find a Red-flanked Bluetail, but it was a 1st summer, not the adult male in full breeding plumage which Olli told us about, so we keep searching. We went twice up and down the hill, and when we wee ready to give up we heard an alarm call quite different from Dunnock and Brambling calls (quite numerous here): there it was, a splendid blue jewel perching and singing on top of a tall spruce.
The following day, together with Olli, we visit a Hawk Owl nest with a female and a chick besides another nest of Eagle Owl with two chicks; we found by chance a nest of Capercaille under a bush very close to our path; we saw Ospreys, two Siberian Tits, Willow Tits, Smews, Gretaer Scaups, four Red-Necked Phalaropes and a courting pair of Whooper Swans. Siberian Jays are not as common as we thought, but we found a pair of them at a feeder near a parking lot; on the reverse, we find Black Grouse almost everywhere – up to 17 males parading in a meadow. We spent our last two days in Siikalahti, a Southern Carelia wet area near the Russian border. We were so tired when we got there at night, but a Woodcock was “roding” over our house and Janne Aalto was waiting for us, ready to take us to a fantastic concert. Ouverture : in front of a pond we can hear a chorus of Bittern, Spotted Crake and Water Rail. First act: River Warbler rythmic base with Blyth’s Reed Warbler solo! We are no longer sleepy and tired; using an electric torch, we could see both birds singing in the bushes. They don’t mind us at all and we can get close enough to see the former’s undertail and the latter’s white supercilium. Second act: three distinct performances of Grasshopper Warbler, Thrush Nightingale and Icterine Warbler. Grand final: Corncrake singing and displaying in a field; Nightjar, Crossbill and Golden Oriole. The following day, we visited the Siikalahti Park and we saw all kind of ducks, Osprey, Marsh Harrier, Hobby, Kestrel, several Little Gulls, Common Terns, nesting Slavonian Grebes,
Sedge Wabler, Reed Bunting, Yellowhammer and Scarlet Rosefinch is very common here. The trip was over. We drove back to Helsinki, our minds full of the beutiful Finnish landscapes: lakes, marshes, moors, woods, meadows. We saw 195 species of birds, with an average of 35 lifers for each of us. The only target species we missed were Gyrfalcon, Snowy Owl, Great Grey Owl (no nest were known this year) and the tricky Rustic Bunting, quieter than usual. We don’t complain of missing them: lacking will be a good reason for coming back to the Great North, looking for those birds, of course, but also looking for the feeling of appeasement and quiet happiness which this beautiful land can give. Open spaces, continuous day-light, loneliness, silence broken only by water sounds, rustling trees and singing birds, very scarce or no human presence: in places like this, it is much easier to feel ourselves as part of nature. We want to thank Alf Tore, Leena, Toni, Olli and Janne for their kindness and helpful suggestions. Most of all, We have to thank our fellow-travellers, whose knowledge, patience, generosity and sense of humour made this trip unforgettable.
Mattia Altieri mattia.altieri@tiscalinet.it Massimo Fedi maxmetaf@palinsesto.it Photos: Giorgio Di Liddo and Andrea Vezzani
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