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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

FINLAND/NORWAY - OULU, KUUSAMO & VARANGER - 22ND to 28TH MAY (1 Viewer)

Paul Chapman

Paul Chapman

Well-known member
Well I'll see if this works. Tomorrow morning with five friends we're off on a short trip north. Guides booked through Finnature for 23rd and 24th and then hoping to get further north than I have been previously to see what we can see. We should get to Oulu (delays permitting & fingers crossed) at 5pm tomorrow night and I'll have a crack at updating as I go along. I think this is my first trip without a single targeted tick as I've been to Finland birding twice before (and once for Santa).

(At least it will save me from being tempted to see another Marbled Duck for insurance purposes!)

All the best
 
Paul Chapman said:
Well I'll see if this works. Tomorrow morning with five friends we're off on a short trip north. Guides booked through Finnature for 23rd and 24th and then hoping to get further north than I have been previously to see what we can see. We should get to Oulu (delays permitting & fingers crossed) at 5pm tomorrow night and I'll have a crack at updating as I go along. I think this is my first trip without a single targeted tick as I've been to Finland birding twice before (and once for Santa).

(At least it will save me from being tempted to see another Marbled Duck for insurance purposes!)

All the best
Click to expand...

Enjoy!
Look forward to some updates as you go along
 
Looking forward to this as I intend to go back sooner or later for better views of Wolverine and a few mammal ticks as well as owls. Best of luck!

John
 
22nd May - despite a 40 minute delay at Heathrow we made our Oulu connection by the skin of our teeth - they were waiting and everybody else had boarded.

We got to Oulu at 5.30pm local time and are now grabbing a bite before a couple of hours sleep.

En route to the hotel we looked at two sites near Oulu airport - Papinjarvi Lake and Papinkari Bird Tower - and got the trip list started.

Whooper Swan - both sites and roadside fields
Mallard
Shoveler - drake at Papinkari
Pintail - six at Papinkari
Teal - drake at Papinjarvi
Tufted Duck
Common Scoter - about twenty paired up at Papinjarvi
Black-throated Diver - single in summer plumage at Papinjarvi
White-tailed Eagle - single at Papinkari
Marsh Harrier
Crane - 300+ in fields at Papinkari
Lapwing
Curlew
Common Sandpiper
Black-headed Gull
Little Gull - two at Papinkari
Herring Gull
Arctic Tern - one at Papinkari
Woodpigeon
Swift
Skylark
House Martin
Swallow
Tree Pipit - two at Papinkari
White Wagtail
Grey-headed Wagtail - pair at Papinjarvi
Fieldfare - everywhere
Willow Warbler - everywhere
Pied Flycatcher - heard Papinkari
Great Tit
Blue Tit
Coal Tit
Magpie
Jackdaw
Hooded Crow
Raven
Tree Sparrow - Oulu airport
House Sparrow
Chaffinch
Common Redpoll
Greenfinch
Siskin
Bullfinch
Yellowhammer
Total - 44 species

Nice to see the diver, Scoter and eagle as it was the most casual of casual glances at two sites. Game on tomorrow with a 3.00am meet (local time).

All the best
 
Last edited:
Hope you get some good stuff tomorrow on your tour! Keep an eye out near to your 3am meet as we had an Eagle Owl about 1 km from the wetlands centre.
 
23rd May - as a friend is driving and the signs say Kuusamo 200km, I'll do a premature update.

We met our Finnature guide at 3am at the airport hotel. We got there a little early and checked the shoreline notching up some early trip ticks.

From there, we winded the usual Finnature Oulu route with the following stand out highlights - a female Pygmy Owl brooding in a nest box, sightings of Black Woodpecker and Wryneck, a juvenile Tengmalm's Owl on the verge of fledging, a fledged Ural Owl and a fearsome adult standing guard close by, a female Great Grey Owl on her nest, a pair of Common Rosefinch, a breeding plumaged Slavonian Grebe, a breeding plumaged Black-throated Diver and three male Black Grouse. It would be churlish in the extreme to focus on any very minor disappointments but one of the party could not access the Tengmalm's Owl (as you needed to climb a ladder), we failed on Three-toed Woodpecker and we only heard Hazelhen. We failed to find Terek Sandpiper at the Oilport at Oulu but the tide was at its highest.

The main targets at Kuusamo are therefore Siberian Tit, Siberian Jay, Hawk and Tengmalm's Owls, Hazelhen and Three-toed Woodpecker.

The trip list has moved through the 100 mark in less than 24 hours and I'll update that now.

All the best
 
Trip ticks so far on 23rd May:-

Pink-footed Goose - two in fields
Greylag Goose - thirty in fields
Shelduck
Gadwall
Wigeon
Goldeneye
Red-breasted Merganser
Black Grouse - three males
Hazelhen - heard
Pheasant
Great Crested Grebe
Slavonian Grebe - single in summer plumage Oulu city lake
Kestrel
Oystercatcher
Redshank
Green Sandpiper
Greenshank
Whimbrel
Woodcock
Snipe
Temminck's Stint - Oulu airport hotel bay
Black-tailed Godwit - Oulu airport hotel bay
Ruff - Oulu airport hotel bay and oilport
Wood Sandpiper - Oulu airport hotel bay
Ringed Plover
Common Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Common Tern
Little Tern - Oulu airport hotel bay
Cuckoo
Sand Martin
Great Grey Owl - female 'Oulu Finnature'
Ural Owl - adult and fledged juvenile 'Oulu Finnature'
Tengmalm's Owl - juvenile 'Oulu Finnature'
Pygmy Owl - female 'Oulu Finnature'
Black Woodpecker - one plus 'Oulu Finnature'
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Wryneck - one male 'Oulu Finnature'
Feral Pigeon
Robin
Whinchat
Redwing
Mistle Thrush
Blackbird
Lesser Whitethroat
Chiffchaff
Wood Warbler
Sedge Warbler
Goldcrest
Spotted Flycatcher
Willow Tit
Treecreeper
Jay
Rook
Starling
Goldfinch
Common Rosefinch - pair
Common Crossbill - heard
Total - 102 species

All the best
 
Nick

Both pretty tricky. We worked quite hard to tick Three-toed Woodpecker in Latvia and I saw a pair on my previous 'Oulu Finnature' experience. On that occasion, we had a Hazelhen at Oulu and three sightings at Kuusamo. It will be interesting to see how we get on with the balance of the trip. They remain targets for the crew overall.

All the best
 
Paul Chapman said:
Nick

Both pretty tricky. We worked quite hard to tick Three-toed Woodpecker in Latvia and I saw a pair on my previous 'Oulu Finnature' experience. On that occasion, we had a Hazelhen at Oulu and three sightings at Kuusamo. It will be interesting to see how we get on with the balance of the trip. They remain targets for the crew overall.

All the best
Click to expand...

Paul

From the layby car parking area at Valtavaara we had Three-toed Woodpecker across the road in the forest edge. We heard the drumming and then spotted it on what seemed a favoured dead tree. We also got Red Flanked blue tail by walking up the small hill from the birdwatchers loop directly across from the car layby. On the birdwatchers loop we got Greenish Warbler, and Siberian Tit. A good bonus was a Nutcracker.

Good luck.

We got the Siberian Jay at Tullin Tupa on the way to Norway despite searching everywhere else without luck.

Dave
 
Last edited:
Paul Chapman said:
Trip ticks so far on 23rd May:-

Pink-footed Goose - two in fields
Greylag Goose - thirty in fields
Shelduck
Gadwall
Wigeon
Goldeneye
Red-breasted Merganser
Black Grouse - three males
Hazelhen - heard
Pheasant
Great Crested Grebe
Slavonian Grebe - single in summer plumage Oulu city lake
Kestrel
Oystercatcher
Redshank
Green Sandpiper
Greenshank
Whimbrel
Woodcock
Snipe
Temminck's Stint - Oulu airport hotel bay
Black-tailed Godwit - Oulu airport hotel bay
Ruff - Oulu airport hotel bay and oilport
Wood Sandpiper - Oulu airport hotel bay
Ringed Plover
Common Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Common Tern
Little Tern - Oulu airport hotel bay
Cuckoo
Sand Martin
Great Grey Owl - female 'Oulu Finnature'
Ural Owl - adult and fledged juvenile 'Oulu Finnature'
Tengmalm's Owl - juvenile 'Oulu Finnature'
Pygmy Owl - female 'Oulu Finnature'
Black Woodpecker - one plus 'Oulu Finnature'
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Wryneck - one male 'Oulu Finnature'
Feral Pigeon
Robin
Whinchat
Redwing
Mistle Thrush
Blackbird
Lesser Whitethroat
Chiffchaff
Wood Warbler
Sedge Warbler
Goldcrest
Spotted Flycatcher
Willow Tit
Treecreeper
Jay
Rook
Starling
Goldfinch
Common Rosefinch - pair
Common Crossbill - heard
Total - 102 species

All the best
Click to expand...

Brilliant stuff already, however brilliant that you got Great Grey Owl :t: :t: :t: :t: there hadn't been any in the country when we were there.... gutted.
 
Dave

Many thanks for that. Valtavaara on the menu tomorrow.

Two trip tick additions from the lake behind the Sokos Hotel - Goosander and Velvet Scoter (104). As well as Little Gull, Arctic Tern, Common Scoter, Black-throated Diver, Wood Sandpiper, Muskrat, etc.

All the best
 
24th May - the 'Finnature Kuusamo' experience duly delivered. It's 1.00pm Finnish time and it's time to head properly north. The highlights of the morning have been at least 5 Capercallie, 2+ Willow Grouse, 2 Siberian Jay, a pair of Hawk Owl including a male delivering food to the nest, a singing male Red-flanked Bluetail, 3+ Smew, 2 Black-bellied Dipper, a singing male Rustic Bunting, 3+ Siberian Tit, 5+ Hazel Grouse (with good but brief views of both males and females), excellent views of a pair of Black Woodpecker, 40+ Black Grouse, 30+ Velvet Scoter, several breeding-plumaged Black-throated Diver, Willow Tit and a very nice adult Tengmalm's Owl to the elation of the remaining member of the party that needed it.

A few padders to the trip list as well so full additions (as far as I can work out in sleep-addled state):-
Capercallie
Willow Grouse
Siberian Jay
Hawk Owl
Red-flanked Bluetail
Smew
Black-bellied Dipper
Redstart
Rustic Bunting
Song Thrush
Dunnock
Waxwing
Reed Bunting
Merlin
Siberian Tit
Brambling
Total - 120 species

Time for some driving. (We still need Three-toed Woodpecker but have some chances in the balance of the trip.)

All the best
 
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