Farnboro John
Well-known member
I have been looking forward to two weeks in Finland this summer ever since suggesting to my brother's partner Taru in the pub that we could gatecrash her parents' place when she and Dave went over. Huge thanks are due to Taru for a fortnight of interpretation with those Finns without English (not many I have to say), to her parents who accommodated and looked after us for nearly the whole fortnight, and to her sister and brother and their families who took the strain for part of the time as well.
Without further ado, off we go!
28 June
Dave, Marion and I flew from LHR to Helsinki, picked up two hire cars and belted off towards Savonlinna where Taru had already had a week with her parents. Two dead Red Foxes on the roads were part of very little roadkill seen the entire holiday and were the only foxes of the trip. Hooded Crows and a Hobby were the most prominent birds at motorway and fast normal road speeds.
We stopped at a randomly chosen layby for a leg stretch and found the answer to the age-old question about whether bears do it in the woods: yes they do because we found the toilet they do it on sitting amid the pine trees. Beyond this bizarre dumping ground was a gem of a lake with four summer adult Black-throated Divers loafing in the hot sunshine. I took pix just in case this was the only ones we saw: in fact we saw lots more but they were all more distant.
After about four hours of driving we reached our destination South-east of Savonlinna. As we were unpacking the car Marion remarked: "hey, that bird sounds just like a Corncrake!" "That's because its a Corncrake" was the reply.
Now Marion has maintained relentlessly that she is not a birder, has no ambition to be a birder, will never be a birder..... I'm sorry but the only British non-birders that can ID a Corncrake on call live in the Hebs - her cover is now well and truly blown! Marion is outed. Incidentally it called throughout our stay but we never saw it.
By the time we had all settled in it was 0115 and still not really dark.
29 June
Rest and orientation day. I was up and out earlyish and rewarded with a Honey Buzzard over the house, a Golden Oriole singing in the birch woods nearby, Whinchat, more Hooded Crows and some common stuff. Just after Marion joined me Taru's father returned from fetching his morning paper, grabbed us in a state of excitement and led us a hundred yards up the track past his barn to see a pair of adult Cranes feeding in the cut hay field. My camera was immediately clicking.
One of the Cranes had a huge bulging growth on top of its head that made it look rather like an airworthy Cassowary, but it didn't seem to impede the bird in any way. Perhaps it originally came from Chernobyl, though I saw it in poor weather later in the week and it wasn't glowing in the dark.
Once everyone was up and breakfasted we drove in to Savonlinna to provision shop and look round the town, as well as visiting the nature information centre in search of seal information. We didn't get much beyond what I had already found on the web, and decided to pursue a seal trip that way. We did find breeding Wigeon, several White Wagtails, and some Tree Sparrows, all of which were very approachable.
We also partook of tea and discovered that like America, Finland is not really a place for an English tea drinker - although we got quite used to Liptons Yellow Label.
Back at base I put a line of small mammal traps out before Taru took us out rowing on the lake in her parents' boat. In addition to a roding Woodcock before we launched, we added Goldeneye and Whooper Swan to the trip list, although after an encounter later in the trip I now suspect the swan was genuinely plastic - I mean manufactured rather than hatched! We saw plenty more later so its not important - but you need to keep your guard up even in the backwoods....
30 June to 1 July
When we began planning this holiday a main feature in my mind was always to spend a night in a bear watching hide. The rest of the gang decided it would be best to do this early on, partly because if it went awry we would have time to rebook, and partly I suspect because they thought John would be unbearably twitchy until it was done!
After our total failure to get any joy out of the organisation at whose hide Jon Hall nailed Wolverine, I had written off that species and happily left booking the bear hide to Taru, given her Finnish origin. She chose it from Google with as much regard for distance to the location as for sighting track record. You could therefore argue that our hide was picked with a pin - some pin it turned out to be!
Before we left I had a wander round the huge grounds and found my first live mammal of the trip, a Brown Hare. I also got record shots of Honey Buzzard. However, I left my camera in the house when I walked down to the summer cottage to check and lift the traps - I couldn't leave them while we were away. As a result I got no pictures of the Azure Hawker that allowed me to view it down to six inches. There was nothing in the traps either.
We spent much of the day driving up to Nurmes, all four in one car since luggage wasn't an issue on an out-and-back overnight hide trip. Dave drove, navigating by satnav and leaving me free to stare into the endless woods and up side tracks in the hope of spotting an Elk. In retrospect, I certainly saw one and possibly two more but we were on a bit of a timescale and moving fast so I didn't force a stop.
We met the bear hide guys in their office by a hotel in Nurmes, where they explained that about 95% of their clients saw bears before we all climbed into a 110 Defender and set off into the boonies. The drive took about an hour, the highlight being a bike we passed that our guide said belonged to the local nutter, who lived in the woods in summer, sleeping out and eating berries and roots. He also remarked that sometimes Wolverine was more regular than bear, which I had some scepticism over and wondered if his English was confusing Wolverine with Pine Marten.
The hide itself, as we dashed into it to get away from Mosquitoes the size of bears and ferocity of Wolverines, was of similar construction to UK hides: that is, a bear would only have to lean on it to either get in or push it down the bluff on which it was perched, overlooking a still forest pool with trees not quite down to the edge. Fixed glass slot windows lined the front edge, with chairs and beds lined along it and a proper toilet built into one corner.
We settled in and Olli set out a variety of snacks for overnight - Karelian pasties, rye bread and rolls with cheese, meats and salads to accompany, oranges, and fortunately plenty of drinks, because it was oppressively hot and the sun was glaring in through the windows in front of us.
Our arrival had disturbed Ravens from pecking at the baits on each side of the pool. Olli told us there were meat and fish baits to maximise the scent, Dave asked where the bait on the far side was from the big rock. I explained that wasn't a rock - it was a whole adult dead pig, and there was another on our side of the pool! They had been there since Saturday and it was now Tuesday, so perhaps the non-opening windows were a blessing!
We began our vigil. We had been told that sometimes the first animals arrived at 2000 hrs, but that came and went without incident. Olli conceded that most of the action is between 2300 and 0300. Initial excitement had faded to (in my case, having dragged everyone into this) near desperation. By 2330 even I faded out in the chair - the others were spark out although Dave insists he never slept, just rested his eyes. Yeah, right. I woke again after an hour and forced some alertness into my head. Middle of peak time - come on John.
Suddenly Olli remarked "Marte (word he had used for Wolverine - sorry if my spelling or understanding is adrift) on the far bank". Thinking still that he probably meant Pine Marten, I shook Maz awake before looking, by which time Olli had stated firmly in English, "There's a Wolverine near the bait on the far side".
I hastily raised my bins and to my total shock and delight, there was a great big black weasel with shoulders like Schwarzenegger, a golden skull cap and band round its flanks, and a confident rocking-horse gait, loping towards the pig along the grassy pool margin - a real live Wolverine in the open, showing well and absolutely and for all time on the list!!!
I had given a little lecture to the others on behaviour if anything turned up (I've seen too many twitches with early celebrations flushing the quarry) so we saved the cheers and conversations and just got on with enjoying this fantastic treat.
I took several photos, camera on tripod as the sun was below the horizon (just) and the light was very difficult. Flash was out of the question, but the Wolverine reacted to every press of the shutter despite the distance being 80 metres and through solid glass and wood. What hearing!
It tugged at the far pig for a bit, then bounded round to the right and appeared right below the hide, maybe 20 metres away! I forebore to take pix as I didn't want to risk the noise at that range, but Dave's camcorder was running and he got some cracking stuff with it. It approached the second pig and gave that a mauling, actually moving its 300kg a couple of feet before it climbed up with all four feet on top of it and looked around before deciding to grab a salmon instead and run off to cache it.
Before long it was back, went briefly back to that pig then ran back past us and round to the further bait. It was always very alert and kept an eye on the forest in case a bear turned up. I took one picture near the nearer pig - I was just unable not to for any longer!
Just beyond the far side pig it stood and sniffed and looked for a while, then slid into the pool and swam across, head high, back low, before clambering out and spraying water everywhere with a quick shake. It went back again to the nearer baits and grabbed another fish before finally departing into the forest away from us along the left bank.
When it was clear it was gone, there was a bit of an outburst from everyone, with me declaring that I really didn't now care if we didn't see a bear at all, and everyone absolutely delighted. Olli reckoned that there are about 200 Wolverines in Finland - not many, in miles and miles and miles of forest!
Adrenalin was now fizzing in our blood and for the moment, falling asleep again was unlikely. In fact we only had to wait about twenty minutes before Olli hissed "Karhu" which thanks to some very acceptable (but expensive) beer we already knew was Finnish for Brown Bear - and a huge male was approaching the far side bait. Well we thought it was huge - Olli confirmed it was the biggest of the three males that came to the baits. We had pulled off the double! He had told us we were unlikely to see females with cubs as they avoided places where males regularly went due to the latter's habit of eating cubs. A big male was fine with us.
It seemed well fed and well groomed, and if the Wolverine had body-builder's shoulders there are just no words left for the power exuded from the bear's bulk and the slow, menacing, rolling gait with which it approached the pig.
With its forepaws it rolled the pig towards it, flipping it over a couple of times before tugging at the hide and then pacing to one end to begin dragging the corpse into the woods. It couldn't get far because the animal was roped to a tree but it moved the pig effortlessly until the rope brought it up short, not even being slowed down when the body fetched up against a three-inch thick dead sapling - the tree was just snapped off and fell across the dead pig as it was dragged onward.
The bear made a fair meal off the pig, continuing to attempt to drag it away between ripping large lumps off it. Because it had got into the thin screen of birches we didn't get really in the open shots after it first moved the bait, but we could see all the action easily with bins.
After twenty minutes or so the bear moved away into the forest but it returned a couple of times, Olli speculating that it might have driven away a smaller bear. Eventually it paced the length of the pool and round the far end, showing more in the open though further away, and we thought it might come up to the near bait. We held our collective breath but it made off into the forest and that was that.
Again we had a few minutes of excited chatter before settling down with expectation of more action.
At about 0315 the Wolverine came back for another five minutes of bouncing about on the far bank and feeding on the far pig, which had now been opened up for easy dining by the bear. It took a decent amount of meat before making off again, presumably to its lair.
We gave it till about 0530 before Olli led us back to the Land Rover, pointing out on the way signs of bear rooting smack on the path we had follwoed down to the hide. Now he tells us. We adjourned to his summer home, a log cabin only about a mile from the hide, where we celebrated with a beer in one hand and a coffee in the other before he asked whether we wanted to go back the long way (i.e. the way we had come) or the direct route.
Despite thinking it would cut our chances of wildlife I agreed with the others that early access to the hotel spa and swimming pool, plus the free hotel breakfast, that were both in the package, would be very much appreciated after our hot, muggy, tiring wakeful night, and we went the short way. I asked whether there were in fact any Elk about and Olli said most of them had gone North.
About a mile from his cabin I shrieked "stop stop STOP STOP!" and the 110 slid to a halt in a cloud of dust. I asked Olli to back up a few yards an sure enough, about twenty yards off the track, browsing relaxedly on scrubby birches in a recovering area of clear-fell, a cow Elk regarded us calmly. I had the window down and the camera up in seconds, although the Elk didn't seem to be in a hurry to go anywhere. We filled our boots with views and pix in the bright sunshine of the new day, then as she moved slowly away across the clearing we set off again. I was delighted with the hat-trick, and Dave had finally laid his bogey to rest - after visiting both Finland and Sweden more than once and being told Elk were easy, he was beginning to feel jinxed.
I had spotted the long ears sticking out sideways from a tall narrow head and neck - rather like the top of a pneumatic drill - and now recognised that I had seen exactly that the previous day up a side track. I was quite happy to leave this sighting as the tick, however.
As so often when a guide has enjoyed his clients' company - and we had got on pretty well - Olli now tried to give us a bit extra with a visit to an active Beaver pond, but unfortunately the rodents weren't playing this morning. It didn't matter. We were on top of the world.
More later - but it doesn't get any better than this!
John
Without further ado, off we go!
28 June
Dave, Marion and I flew from LHR to Helsinki, picked up two hire cars and belted off towards Savonlinna where Taru had already had a week with her parents. Two dead Red Foxes on the roads were part of very little roadkill seen the entire holiday and were the only foxes of the trip. Hooded Crows and a Hobby were the most prominent birds at motorway and fast normal road speeds.
We stopped at a randomly chosen layby for a leg stretch and found the answer to the age-old question about whether bears do it in the woods: yes they do because we found the toilet they do it on sitting amid the pine trees. Beyond this bizarre dumping ground was a gem of a lake with four summer adult Black-throated Divers loafing in the hot sunshine. I took pix just in case this was the only ones we saw: in fact we saw lots more but they were all more distant.
After about four hours of driving we reached our destination South-east of Savonlinna. As we were unpacking the car Marion remarked: "hey, that bird sounds just like a Corncrake!" "That's because its a Corncrake" was the reply.
Now Marion has maintained relentlessly that she is not a birder, has no ambition to be a birder, will never be a birder..... I'm sorry but the only British non-birders that can ID a Corncrake on call live in the Hebs - her cover is now well and truly blown! Marion is outed. Incidentally it called throughout our stay but we never saw it.
By the time we had all settled in it was 0115 and still not really dark.
29 June
Rest and orientation day. I was up and out earlyish and rewarded with a Honey Buzzard over the house, a Golden Oriole singing in the birch woods nearby, Whinchat, more Hooded Crows and some common stuff. Just after Marion joined me Taru's father returned from fetching his morning paper, grabbed us in a state of excitement and led us a hundred yards up the track past his barn to see a pair of adult Cranes feeding in the cut hay field. My camera was immediately clicking.
One of the Cranes had a huge bulging growth on top of its head that made it look rather like an airworthy Cassowary, but it didn't seem to impede the bird in any way. Perhaps it originally came from Chernobyl, though I saw it in poor weather later in the week and it wasn't glowing in the dark.
Once everyone was up and breakfasted we drove in to Savonlinna to provision shop and look round the town, as well as visiting the nature information centre in search of seal information. We didn't get much beyond what I had already found on the web, and decided to pursue a seal trip that way. We did find breeding Wigeon, several White Wagtails, and some Tree Sparrows, all of which were very approachable.
We also partook of tea and discovered that like America, Finland is not really a place for an English tea drinker - although we got quite used to Liptons Yellow Label.
Back at base I put a line of small mammal traps out before Taru took us out rowing on the lake in her parents' boat. In addition to a roding Woodcock before we launched, we added Goldeneye and Whooper Swan to the trip list, although after an encounter later in the trip I now suspect the swan was genuinely plastic - I mean manufactured rather than hatched! We saw plenty more later so its not important - but you need to keep your guard up even in the backwoods....
30 June to 1 July
When we began planning this holiday a main feature in my mind was always to spend a night in a bear watching hide. The rest of the gang decided it would be best to do this early on, partly because if it went awry we would have time to rebook, and partly I suspect because they thought John would be unbearably twitchy until it was done!
After our total failure to get any joy out of the organisation at whose hide Jon Hall nailed Wolverine, I had written off that species and happily left booking the bear hide to Taru, given her Finnish origin. She chose it from Google with as much regard for distance to the location as for sighting track record. You could therefore argue that our hide was picked with a pin - some pin it turned out to be!
Before we left I had a wander round the huge grounds and found my first live mammal of the trip, a Brown Hare. I also got record shots of Honey Buzzard. However, I left my camera in the house when I walked down to the summer cottage to check and lift the traps - I couldn't leave them while we were away. As a result I got no pictures of the Azure Hawker that allowed me to view it down to six inches. There was nothing in the traps either.
We spent much of the day driving up to Nurmes, all four in one car since luggage wasn't an issue on an out-and-back overnight hide trip. Dave drove, navigating by satnav and leaving me free to stare into the endless woods and up side tracks in the hope of spotting an Elk. In retrospect, I certainly saw one and possibly two more but we were on a bit of a timescale and moving fast so I didn't force a stop.
We met the bear hide guys in their office by a hotel in Nurmes, where they explained that about 95% of their clients saw bears before we all climbed into a 110 Defender and set off into the boonies. The drive took about an hour, the highlight being a bike we passed that our guide said belonged to the local nutter, who lived in the woods in summer, sleeping out and eating berries and roots. He also remarked that sometimes Wolverine was more regular than bear, which I had some scepticism over and wondered if his English was confusing Wolverine with Pine Marten.
The hide itself, as we dashed into it to get away from Mosquitoes the size of bears and ferocity of Wolverines, was of similar construction to UK hides: that is, a bear would only have to lean on it to either get in or push it down the bluff on which it was perched, overlooking a still forest pool with trees not quite down to the edge. Fixed glass slot windows lined the front edge, with chairs and beds lined along it and a proper toilet built into one corner.
We settled in and Olli set out a variety of snacks for overnight - Karelian pasties, rye bread and rolls with cheese, meats and salads to accompany, oranges, and fortunately plenty of drinks, because it was oppressively hot and the sun was glaring in through the windows in front of us.
Our arrival had disturbed Ravens from pecking at the baits on each side of the pool. Olli told us there were meat and fish baits to maximise the scent, Dave asked where the bait on the far side was from the big rock. I explained that wasn't a rock - it was a whole adult dead pig, and there was another on our side of the pool! They had been there since Saturday and it was now Tuesday, so perhaps the non-opening windows were a blessing!
We began our vigil. We had been told that sometimes the first animals arrived at 2000 hrs, but that came and went without incident. Olli conceded that most of the action is between 2300 and 0300. Initial excitement had faded to (in my case, having dragged everyone into this) near desperation. By 2330 even I faded out in the chair - the others were spark out although Dave insists he never slept, just rested his eyes. Yeah, right. I woke again after an hour and forced some alertness into my head. Middle of peak time - come on John.
Suddenly Olli remarked "Marte (word he had used for Wolverine - sorry if my spelling or understanding is adrift) on the far bank". Thinking still that he probably meant Pine Marten, I shook Maz awake before looking, by which time Olli had stated firmly in English, "There's a Wolverine near the bait on the far side".
I hastily raised my bins and to my total shock and delight, there was a great big black weasel with shoulders like Schwarzenegger, a golden skull cap and band round its flanks, and a confident rocking-horse gait, loping towards the pig along the grassy pool margin - a real live Wolverine in the open, showing well and absolutely and for all time on the list!!!
I had given a little lecture to the others on behaviour if anything turned up (I've seen too many twitches with early celebrations flushing the quarry) so we saved the cheers and conversations and just got on with enjoying this fantastic treat.
I took several photos, camera on tripod as the sun was below the horizon (just) and the light was very difficult. Flash was out of the question, but the Wolverine reacted to every press of the shutter despite the distance being 80 metres and through solid glass and wood. What hearing!
It tugged at the far pig for a bit, then bounded round to the right and appeared right below the hide, maybe 20 metres away! I forebore to take pix as I didn't want to risk the noise at that range, but Dave's camcorder was running and he got some cracking stuff with it. It approached the second pig and gave that a mauling, actually moving its 300kg a couple of feet before it climbed up with all four feet on top of it and looked around before deciding to grab a salmon instead and run off to cache it.
Before long it was back, went briefly back to that pig then ran back past us and round to the further bait. It was always very alert and kept an eye on the forest in case a bear turned up. I took one picture near the nearer pig - I was just unable not to for any longer!
Just beyond the far side pig it stood and sniffed and looked for a while, then slid into the pool and swam across, head high, back low, before clambering out and spraying water everywhere with a quick shake. It went back again to the nearer baits and grabbed another fish before finally departing into the forest away from us along the left bank.
When it was clear it was gone, there was a bit of an outburst from everyone, with me declaring that I really didn't now care if we didn't see a bear at all, and everyone absolutely delighted. Olli reckoned that there are about 200 Wolverines in Finland - not many, in miles and miles and miles of forest!
Adrenalin was now fizzing in our blood and for the moment, falling asleep again was unlikely. In fact we only had to wait about twenty minutes before Olli hissed "Karhu" which thanks to some very acceptable (but expensive) beer we already knew was Finnish for Brown Bear - and a huge male was approaching the far side bait. Well we thought it was huge - Olli confirmed it was the biggest of the three males that came to the baits. We had pulled off the double! He had told us we were unlikely to see females with cubs as they avoided places where males regularly went due to the latter's habit of eating cubs. A big male was fine with us.
It seemed well fed and well groomed, and if the Wolverine had body-builder's shoulders there are just no words left for the power exuded from the bear's bulk and the slow, menacing, rolling gait with which it approached the pig.
With its forepaws it rolled the pig towards it, flipping it over a couple of times before tugging at the hide and then pacing to one end to begin dragging the corpse into the woods. It couldn't get far because the animal was roped to a tree but it moved the pig effortlessly until the rope brought it up short, not even being slowed down when the body fetched up against a three-inch thick dead sapling - the tree was just snapped off and fell across the dead pig as it was dragged onward.
The bear made a fair meal off the pig, continuing to attempt to drag it away between ripping large lumps off it. Because it had got into the thin screen of birches we didn't get really in the open shots after it first moved the bait, but we could see all the action easily with bins.
After twenty minutes or so the bear moved away into the forest but it returned a couple of times, Olli speculating that it might have driven away a smaller bear. Eventually it paced the length of the pool and round the far end, showing more in the open though further away, and we thought it might come up to the near bait. We held our collective breath but it made off into the forest and that was that.
Again we had a few minutes of excited chatter before settling down with expectation of more action.
At about 0315 the Wolverine came back for another five minutes of bouncing about on the far bank and feeding on the far pig, which had now been opened up for easy dining by the bear. It took a decent amount of meat before making off again, presumably to its lair.
We gave it till about 0530 before Olli led us back to the Land Rover, pointing out on the way signs of bear rooting smack on the path we had follwoed down to the hide. Now he tells us. We adjourned to his summer home, a log cabin only about a mile from the hide, where we celebrated with a beer in one hand and a coffee in the other before he asked whether we wanted to go back the long way (i.e. the way we had come) or the direct route.
Despite thinking it would cut our chances of wildlife I agreed with the others that early access to the hotel spa and swimming pool, plus the free hotel breakfast, that were both in the package, would be very much appreciated after our hot, muggy, tiring wakeful night, and we went the short way. I asked whether there were in fact any Elk about and Olli said most of them had gone North.
About a mile from his cabin I shrieked "stop stop STOP STOP!" and the 110 slid to a halt in a cloud of dust. I asked Olli to back up a few yards an sure enough, about twenty yards off the track, browsing relaxedly on scrubby birches in a recovering area of clear-fell, a cow Elk regarded us calmly. I had the window down and the camera up in seconds, although the Elk didn't seem to be in a hurry to go anywhere. We filled our boots with views and pix in the bright sunshine of the new day, then as she moved slowly away across the clearing we set off again. I was delighted with the hat-trick, and Dave had finally laid his bogey to rest - after visiting both Finland and Sweden more than once and being told Elk were easy, he was beginning to feel jinxed.
I had spotted the long ears sticking out sideways from a tall narrow head and neck - rather like the top of a pneumatic drill - and now recognised that I had seen exactly that the previous day up a side track. I was quite happy to leave this sighting as the tick, however.
As so often when a guide has enjoyed his clients' company - and we had got on pretty well - Olli now tried to give us a bit extra with a visit to an active Beaver pond, but unfortunately the rodents weren't playing this morning. It didn't matter. We were on top of the world.
More later - but it doesn't get any better than this!
John
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