2007 Tour Narrative
The birds have to be pretty special birds to make us ignore the mosquitoes of the Finnish forests and bogs. Thanks to Ari’s local knowledge we were rewarded with fantastic encounters with Pygmy Owl, Three-toed and Black Woodpeckers (the former feeding chicks at a nest hole), both Red-necked and Slavonian Grebes, Black-throated Divers, Whooper Swans, drake Smew, a brief Hazelhen and a couple of fleeting Willow Grouse, Woodcock, Common Cranes, Nightjar, Siberian Jays, Nutcrackers, Wood Warbler, Crested Tit, ‘trumpeting’ Bullfinches and both Rustic and Ortolan Buntings and perhaps best of all a singing male Red-flanked Bluetail.
At various marshes we enjoyed prolonged Bittern fly-pasts, family parties of Marsh Harriers, beautiful Little Gulls and our views of Corncrake will probably never be bettered! All this and we hadn’t even reached Russia yet! Once over the border, (at the second attempt), we experienced a delightful tour of St Petersburg with local guide Natalia - what better way to see the sights of this famous city than by boat?
The following morning we were on the road again, and our first roadside stops produced a multi-colored arrangement of Ruff with both Green and Wood Sandpiper alongside, White Stork and displaying Honey Buzzards overhead (that amazing wing-clapping display is always special to see). Less than a couple of miles away we were treated to Barred Warbler, Wryneck, Red-backed Shrikes and Golden Oriole.
Once around the shores of Lake Ilmen our birding was no less exciting and over the next four days we visited various parts of the lake and amassed a stunning list of birds which included both Lesser Spotted and White-tailed Eagles, Montagu’s and Hen Harriers, Short-eared Owls (with Long-eareds heard after dark), a great mix of eastern warblers from Marsh and Blyth’s Reed Warblers to Icterine, River and Grasshopper Warblers (several of these species we had also recorded in Finland).
The small fish ponds held Great Reed Warblers, several male Little Bitterns, at least one Little Crake, the most adorable juvenile Penduline Tit being fed by an adult and our first Thrush Nightingales. The water levels were very low in the lake this year and the increased area of marshland seemed to the liking of many White-winged Black Terns (in addition to the usual Black Terns and Little Gulls). Redshank and Wood Sandpiper were also abundant but sadly both Great Snipe and Terek Sandpiper weren’t as obvious with just two of the group seeing the former and the latter worryingly absent. We had no time to dwell on this though as there were still birds to see and highlights ranged from the two male Bluethroats on territory just meters away from each other (in itself not too unusual but the fact that one was white-spotted and the other red-spotted was certainly interesting!) Nearby we saw more Common Rosefinches, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Garganey, Greater White-fronted Geese, both adult and juvenile Marsh Sandpipers, an adult Caspian Tern and some super showy Booted Warblers, completing an incredible selection of north-eastern European birds in a region not visited by birders since our tour last year!
James Lidster.
Updated: October 2007