Mass migration of wildfowl on the Finnish Gulf, May 19th-23rd

Last week I guided two back-to-back cruises on the Finnish Gulf on board M/S Kristina Brahe. Starting at Helsinki on Wednesday 19th, we sailed east, all the way to the Russian border. The weather could not have been better, and the warm and still conditions prevailed throughout the week.
At this time of year the big thing in Finnish birding is the migration of arctic wildfowl and waders. This is a spectacle that everybody wants to experience. Hundreds of thousands of ducks and geese and tens of thousands of waders and divers take the flyway along the Finnish Gulf on their way from their wintering grounds in Europe to the breeding areas in far northern Russia. One of the main peaks is usually around 20th of May, and so these cruises were timed to coincide with this time window. Our timing proved to be perfect!

Already on the first evening we sailed straight into a mass migration of Long-tailed Ducks and Common Scoters. From Söderskär, a small lighthouse island SE of Helsinki Gustaf Nordenswan counted some 177 000 ducks, with 60 000 scoters and 100 000 long-taileds. On the same day some 10-20 000 geese were counted from different observation points in SE Finland, but we only encountered a few flocks.
The next day, Thursday the 20th, was one of the best in recent history. GN counted 522 000 sea ducks during the day from Söderskär, with 385 000 long-tails and 130 000 scoters, with the peak after six o’clock in the evening. We must have seen more or less the same birds from our ship, plus another 100 000 or so, which had passed to far out at sea to be counted from his island. As the sun was setting tens of flocks holding thousands of birds dotted the colourful sky, and it was clear that the passage was going to continue through the night. The colours of the sky and the sea were unbelievable, almost psychedelic, and definitely far too wild to be painted, at least if you want to retain your credibility.



After this peak the following days were still very good. Every day produced tens of thousands of ducks and thousands of geese, with a major peak of Barnacle Geese in the morning of the 23rd. Approaching Helsinki we saw an estimated 15- 20 000 Barnacles in just about two hours, most following the southern coast line of the capitol itself.

The hot easterlies had brought in some nice passerines too, and on Haapasaari, SE of the town of Kotka (the only place were we land on these cruises) we found 3 Blyth’s Reed Warblers, 3 Icterine Warblers and 2 Greenish Warblers singing. The most unexpected find, however, was a showy singing Siberian Chiffchaff.
An amazing cruise!