wolfbirder
Well-known member
A brief flying visit to Central Finland was made to embark on a 'Finnature' day trip to hopefully see the speciality owls the dense forest in this region offers.
I pre-booked flights with Finnair, flying via Helsinki from Manchester, staying overnight upon my late evening on Friday 15th May arrival in central Oulu. Flight time from Manchester to Helsinki is about 2.5 hours, then the flight onward to Oulu takes about an hour at most. Return flights cost £250 approximately, and the transfer at Helsinki was smooth and all flights left on time. I had arranged to arrive late on 15th so I had a full day on 16th to explore the area. Leena from Finnature had kindly provided me with a few snippets of info regards Pallid Harrier sightings, which had been seen in Siikajoki, Tyrnava and Muhos on occasion in recent days. These small towns are all within a 20-mile radius SW and SE of Oulu.
For my 9.30pm arrival at Oulu Airport on 15th, I had pre-booked a SIXT rental car, having always found them excellent in the past. However, upon my 9.30pm arrival, their small booth was closed and their contact number just rang out. So I had to take a taxi into Oulu for 32 Euros, to my 3 star Hotel Cumulus. As SIXT office apparently did not open until around 9.30a.m. on the 16th, I decided not to bother with car hire at all, as I had intended to make an early start. The car hire was payable on arrival thank goodness, so I would have been even more annoyed! The hotel was fine, but I always struggle to sleep away from my own bed, especially in stuffy rooms with little ventilation. Maybe this was because the weather was unseasonally warm for this time of year. So I tried in vain just to rest on the 16th, though a stroll around the local park around midday unearthed Redstart, Pied Fly, Willow Warbler and singing Redwing. But i was pretty bored to be honest, it would have been great to get out into the countryside, to places such as Liminghati nature reserve.
I had to be up at 1.30a.m. for the 3a.m. Finnature guided tour on the morning of the 17th. It cost 40 euros taxi fare to Tupos Service station on the E75 dual carriageway. Infact I was there for 1.45a.m. So I had something to eat and drink at this excellent 24 hour facility. As arranged, Finnature's guide arrived 15 minutes before the 3a.m. stated day-tour departure, by the obvious tall ABC service station lighting advertisement tower in the right hand corner of the car park (its the tallest structure, you can't miss it!). The day tour with Finnature cost 200 Euro's per individual. If you want to have a good chance of seeing wonderful owls then I think it is worth this price. It seems to be a standard individual tour price in Europe these days, and bear in mind Finland is an expensive country (if you think that is too much).
You may wish to combine such a tour with a week or so holiday, but overall this short two night break cost me in the region of 600 Euros all things included. The taxi fares reduced the overall cost slightly, as the car hire price with SIXT, that seemed a very reasonable 134 Euros would have cost me more than the accumulated taxi fares.
So when is the best time to visit? Factors to consider are various, and luck does play its part. It is worth liaising with Finnature in advance, as the presence of nesting owls is strongly linked to annual vole fluctuations, some years birds can be more or less absent, and vole ' crashes' can occur due to disease and predation. Of course owls can turn their attentions to other prey, but voles do play a key part of their diet, especially the Great Grey Owl. Birds can also nest early, or late, and weather can be an influencing factor for the quality of your day trip, so dress appropriately according to the latest weather forcasts. It was sunny and hot for us, and also very still. Good weather for some birds, perhaps not so for others. But it made it pleasant and enjoyable. But it was decidedly chilly in the early morning in the forest especially, even with jumper, coat and gloves on. I was pleased to learn that it was a little early in the year for mosquito's!
Finnature offer tours for individuals or groups from Oulu or Kuusamo, I strongly advise you to visit their excellent website at www.finnature.fi. to see which area offers the best birding each year. A final consideration is for you to consider your chances of seeing target species and 'how' you may see them! The latter consideration may sound bizarre. But I was lucky in that my visit co-incided this year, with most of the owls actually been 'on eggs' -meaning that you had a very good chance of seeing them on the nest, but not doing much more! Hunting males can be away for 2-3 hour periods, so your chance of seeing much owl 'action' may be remote. Of course, as long as they are incubating eggs or keeping young birds warm, you should increase your chances of actually obtaining reasonable views. But even then, even with a bit of enticement by the guide, there is no guarantee the adult female will emerge from nest boxes (see later).
Perhaps the best time is just after chicks have fledged, though of course you then run the risk that birds may possibly have left the nest area altogether.
So, perhaps the best advice altogether is book as late as possible so that you visit at optimum times, though trips in their 4 wheel drive minibus can be fully booked up! There is a good range of dates though, so you usually can leave it late to book. And they run seperate trips altogether if you are a keen photographer who wishes to spend long periods at each nest site.
Onto the birding.........
At 3am we left Tupos Serice station on the E75 dual carriageway, and spent the next nine hours searching areas of dense forest via mainly driveable unmarked forestry tracks and roads in the Liminka, Lumijoki, and Siikajoki areas around 15 miles south-west of Oulu. At this time of year, light is ok from 3a.m. Then it just gets better and better. So what birds did the group of 7 birders on this day-tour see?
1) Great Grey Owl - a 'dream bird' for me and my main target species. This star of the show was kept until late in the day, it was known that the adult female was on eggs, at a traditionally favoured artificial nest site in woods somewhere near Siikajoki. Views from an elavated path through a clearing enabled quite wonderful views of this bird, from a 'shocking' distance of twenty metres! :t:B
She looked at us inquistively as she moved her head around at times. Sadly the male was not around during our visit, but we were all consumed by this beautiful bird. And beggars cannot be choosers! Seeing this bird was a virtual guarantee today as the nest is an open structure rather than a nestbox.
2) Ural Owl - a twenty minute walk to a nest box was frustrating though birding was good on the way. On arrival, again the male was away hunting during our twenty minute stay, and the apparently 'very aggressive' female could not be enticed to raise her head to the top opening of the nest box. However, there was a centimetre-wide slot down the middle of the box, and with careful viewing you could just see her dark eye as she peered out at us, as well as a chest streak and pale eyebrow, probably not enough for most decent birders to tick it! But me? Well I have - I could i/d it from the restricted views.
3) Pygmy Owl - the first bird we looked for. This was a bit of a gamble as the nest site had not been found, but the area where it was present was known. And the male quickly responded today, to playback tape. The still weather today perhaps helped, as on other days he had not always put in any appearance. The size of a Bullfinch, he immediately caught the eye as he flew to the top of a conifer where he showed well for long periods.
4) Tengmalm's Owl - a sitting female could not be enticed out of the first nest box, but late in the day, a second nest box was checked, and the slightest scratching by the guide on the tree bark below immediately brought out the lovely 'spring loaded' female ('head and shoulders' only) in a 'jack-in the box' or 'cuckoo clock' fashion! Views were excellent down to a few metres, and the group were very happy as for most, this was their target bird.
5) Short-Eared Owl - 3 birds seen in flight in fields during the day.
6) Rough-Legged Buzzard - superb adult seen soaring above field.
7) Black Grouse - a few lekking males seen on forestry track, or perched in adjacent tree, Couple of females also seen. Views of one male were supreme.
8) Lesser Spotted Woodpecker - male seen very well near Great Grey Owl nest. Guide knew exactly where nest site was.
9) Capercaillie - a couple in the front of the van at the time, saw one male fly into dense cover.
10) Common Crane - 3 birds seen over the day.
Without going into great detail, and in no particular order, we also saw 4 lovely Waxwings, several Tree Pipits, a few Redstarts, a few Pied Flycatchers (including a 'grey' eastern form male), Willlow Warblers, 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Siskins, Chaffinches, Yellowhammers, a few White Wagtails, female Crossbill, male Whinchat, Skylark, Redwing, Fieldfares, Jay, a few Swallows and House Martins, 2 Whooper Swans, Teal, Mallard, a number of Blue and Great Tits, Hooded Crows, Jackdaws, Magpies, Kestrel, Wood Pigeons, Black-Headed & Common Gulls, Curlews, a few Lapwings and of particular note, waders perched in trees (which is what they do here of course but it still seemed bizarre to see them in this environment!) - 1 Greenshank, 2 Wood Sandpipers, 4 Green Sandpipers and a Common Snipe.
We dipped on a few notable species - the Black Woodpecker's where the young had just fledged and left the nest, and also Three-Toed Woodpecker despite a lot of effort. We also heard calling Jack Snipe, Wryneck, Cuckoo, Bullfinch. We dipped altogether on Hazel Hen which proved very elusive in the forest.
So overall certainly very worth the expense and time. Along with birds like Gyr Falcon, Great Grey Owl is one of those wonderfully charismatic species that most birders yearn to see at some stage. I had enjoyed a wonderful day in wonderful company, infact if I return I might even do the trip over two rather than three days without getting any hotel accommodation at all. It would be tiring, but it would be feasable to arrive in Oulu late evening, get a taxi straight to Tupos ABC service station from the airport (which would only cost about 20-25 euros) and embark on the day tour at 2am (some tours depart at 2am rather than 3am). Then fly back the same day.
Either way, even with no or little sleep, this is a trip that I would recommend to anyone, even though you will not see vast numbers of species (total of 50 seen).
It is quality rather than quantity, and Finnature certainly delivered for me.
I pre-booked flights with Finnair, flying via Helsinki from Manchester, staying overnight upon my late evening on Friday 15th May arrival in central Oulu. Flight time from Manchester to Helsinki is about 2.5 hours, then the flight onward to Oulu takes about an hour at most. Return flights cost £250 approximately, and the transfer at Helsinki was smooth and all flights left on time. I had arranged to arrive late on 15th so I had a full day on 16th to explore the area. Leena from Finnature had kindly provided me with a few snippets of info regards Pallid Harrier sightings, which had been seen in Siikajoki, Tyrnava and Muhos on occasion in recent days. These small towns are all within a 20-mile radius SW and SE of Oulu.
For my 9.30pm arrival at Oulu Airport on 15th, I had pre-booked a SIXT rental car, having always found them excellent in the past. However, upon my 9.30pm arrival, their small booth was closed and their contact number just rang out. So I had to take a taxi into Oulu for 32 Euros, to my 3 star Hotel Cumulus. As SIXT office apparently did not open until around 9.30a.m. on the 16th, I decided not to bother with car hire at all, as I had intended to make an early start. The car hire was payable on arrival thank goodness, so I would have been even more annoyed! The hotel was fine, but I always struggle to sleep away from my own bed, especially in stuffy rooms with little ventilation. Maybe this was because the weather was unseasonally warm for this time of year. So I tried in vain just to rest on the 16th, though a stroll around the local park around midday unearthed Redstart, Pied Fly, Willow Warbler and singing Redwing. But i was pretty bored to be honest, it would have been great to get out into the countryside, to places such as Liminghati nature reserve.
I had to be up at 1.30a.m. for the 3a.m. Finnature guided tour on the morning of the 17th. It cost 40 euros taxi fare to Tupos Service station on the E75 dual carriageway. Infact I was there for 1.45a.m. So I had something to eat and drink at this excellent 24 hour facility. As arranged, Finnature's guide arrived 15 minutes before the 3a.m. stated day-tour departure, by the obvious tall ABC service station lighting advertisement tower in the right hand corner of the car park (its the tallest structure, you can't miss it!). The day tour with Finnature cost 200 Euro's per individual. If you want to have a good chance of seeing wonderful owls then I think it is worth this price. It seems to be a standard individual tour price in Europe these days, and bear in mind Finland is an expensive country (if you think that is too much).
You may wish to combine such a tour with a week or so holiday, but overall this short two night break cost me in the region of 600 Euros all things included. The taxi fares reduced the overall cost slightly, as the car hire price with SIXT, that seemed a very reasonable 134 Euros would have cost me more than the accumulated taxi fares.
So when is the best time to visit? Factors to consider are various, and luck does play its part. It is worth liaising with Finnature in advance, as the presence of nesting owls is strongly linked to annual vole fluctuations, some years birds can be more or less absent, and vole ' crashes' can occur due to disease and predation. Of course owls can turn their attentions to other prey, but voles do play a key part of their diet, especially the Great Grey Owl. Birds can also nest early, or late, and weather can be an influencing factor for the quality of your day trip, so dress appropriately according to the latest weather forcasts. It was sunny and hot for us, and also very still. Good weather for some birds, perhaps not so for others. But it made it pleasant and enjoyable. But it was decidedly chilly in the early morning in the forest especially, even with jumper, coat and gloves on. I was pleased to learn that it was a little early in the year for mosquito's!
Finnature offer tours for individuals or groups from Oulu or Kuusamo, I strongly advise you to visit their excellent website at www.finnature.fi. to see which area offers the best birding each year. A final consideration is for you to consider your chances of seeing target species and 'how' you may see them! The latter consideration may sound bizarre. But I was lucky in that my visit co-incided this year, with most of the owls actually been 'on eggs' -meaning that you had a very good chance of seeing them on the nest, but not doing much more! Hunting males can be away for 2-3 hour periods, so your chance of seeing much owl 'action' may be remote. Of course, as long as they are incubating eggs or keeping young birds warm, you should increase your chances of actually obtaining reasonable views. But even then, even with a bit of enticement by the guide, there is no guarantee the adult female will emerge from nest boxes (see later).
Perhaps the best time is just after chicks have fledged, though of course you then run the risk that birds may possibly have left the nest area altogether.
So, perhaps the best advice altogether is book as late as possible so that you visit at optimum times, though trips in their 4 wheel drive minibus can be fully booked up! There is a good range of dates though, so you usually can leave it late to book. And they run seperate trips altogether if you are a keen photographer who wishes to spend long periods at each nest site.
Onto the birding.........
At 3am we left Tupos Serice station on the E75 dual carriageway, and spent the next nine hours searching areas of dense forest via mainly driveable unmarked forestry tracks and roads in the Liminka, Lumijoki, and Siikajoki areas around 15 miles south-west of Oulu. At this time of year, light is ok from 3a.m. Then it just gets better and better. So what birds did the group of 7 birders on this day-tour see?
1) Great Grey Owl - a 'dream bird' for me and my main target species. This star of the show was kept until late in the day, it was known that the adult female was on eggs, at a traditionally favoured artificial nest site in woods somewhere near Siikajoki. Views from an elavated path through a clearing enabled quite wonderful views of this bird, from a 'shocking' distance of twenty metres! :t:B
She looked at us inquistively as she moved her head around at times. Sadly the male was not around during our visit, but we were all consumed by this beautiful bird. And beggars cannot be choosers! Seeing this bird was a virtual guarantee today as the nest is an open structure rather than a nestbox.2) Ural Owl - a twenty minute walk to a nest box was frustrating though birding was good on the way. On arrival, again the male was away hunting during our twenty minute stay, and the apparently 'very aggressive' female could not be enticed to raise her head to the top opening of the nest box. However, there was a centimetre-wide slot down the middle of the box, and with careful viewing you could just see her dark eye as she peered out at us, as well as a chest streak and pale eyebrow, probably not enough for most decent birders to tick it! But me? Well I have - I could i/d it from the restricted views.
3) Pygmy Owl - the first bird we looked for. This was a bit of a gamble as the nest site had not been found, but the area where it was present was known. And the male quickly responded today, to playback tape. The still weather today perhaps helped, as on other days he had not always put in any appearance. The size of a Bullfinch, he immediately caught the eye as he flew to the top of a conifer where he showed well for long periods.
4) Tengmalm's Owl - a sitting female could not be enticed out of the first nest box, but late in the day, a second nest box was checked, and the slightest scratching by the guide on the tree bark below immediately brought out the lovely 'spring loaded' female ('head and shoulders' only) in a 'jack-in the box' or 'cuckoo clock' fashion! Views were excellent down to a few metres, and the group were very happy as for most, this was their target bird.
5) Short-Eared Owl - 3 birds seen in flight in fields during the day.
6) Rough-Legged Buzzard - superb adult seen soaring above field.
7) Black Grouse - a few lekking males seen on forestry track, or perched in adjacent tree, Couple of females also seen. Views of one male were supreme.
8) Lesser Spotted Woodpecker - male seen very well near Great Grey Owl nest. Guide knew exactly where nest site was.
9) Capercaillie - a couple in the front of the van at the time, saw one male fly into dense cover.
10) Common Crane - 3 birds seen over the day.
Without going into great detail, and in no particular order, we also saw 4 lovely Waxwings, several Tree Pipits, a few Redstarts, a few Pied Flycatchers (including a 'grey' eastern form male), Willlow Warblers, 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Siskins, Chaffinches, Yellowhammers, a few White Wagtails, female Crossbill, male Whinchat, Skylark, Redwing, Fieldfares, Jay, a few Swallows and House Martins, 2 Whooper Swans, Teal, Mallard, a number of Blue and Great Tits, Hooded Crows, Jackdaws, Magpies, Kestrel, Wood Pigeons, Black-Headed & Common Gulls, Curlews, a few Lapwings and of particular note, waders perched in trees (which is what they do here of course but it still seemed bizarre to see them in this environment!) - 1 Greenshank, 2 Wood Sandpipers, 4 Green Sandpipers and a Common Snipe.
We dipped on a few notable species - the Black Woodpecker's where the young had just fledged and left the nest, and also Three-Toed Woodpecker despite a lot of effort. We also heard calling Jack Snipe, Wryneck, Cuckoo, Bullfinch. We dipped altogether on Hazel Hen which proved very elusive in the forest.
So overall certainly very worth the expense and time. Along with birds like Gyr Falcon, Great Grey Owl is one of those wonderfully charismatic species that most birders yearn to see at some stage. I had enjoyed a wonderful day in wonderful company, infact if I return I might even do the trip over two rather than three days without getting any hotel accommodation at all. It would be tiring, but it would be feasable to arrive in Oulu late evening, get a taxi straight to Tupos ABC service station from the airport (which would only cost about 20-25 euros) and embark on the day tour at 2am (some tours depart at 2am rather than 3am). Then fly back the same day.
Either way, even with no or little sleep, this is a trip that I would recommend to anyone, even though you will not see vast numbers of species (total of 50 seen).
It is quality rather than quantity, and Finnature certainly delivered for me.
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