August, at last!

Finally, it is August!
July is a very slow month in northern Europe. After the breeding season finishes, for most birds by late June, birds go very quiet and practically disappear. In July it is often difficult to catch up with even the most common songbirds. Many of them are moulting and hide in the vegetation keeping a low profile. They are there, somewhere, but you won’t see or hear them.
Then comes August and everything changes. Already by late July mixed flocks of warblers start to appear, indicating the onset of the autumn migration. My garden in Hanko is an excellent place to experience the first waves of migrants. The first ones to appear are the Tree Pipits. Their diagnostic flight calls can be heard in the mornings, funnily a call that you never here during breeding! And then come the warblers and flycatchers. Last week some of the mornings were amazing, with tens of small birds feeding actively in the trees. At best there may be nearly one hundred small passerines feeding in just a handful of tall trees. Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs, Wood Warblers and Common Whitethroats feeding all together in mixed flocks, and at the same time 20-30 Spotted and Pied Flycatchers were hawking for insects in the canopy, while small parties of Tree Pipits were stalking the grounds. Every now and then groups of Yellow Wagtails, which don’t breed anywhere nearby, could be heard overhead heading south west.

The south coast of Finland is mostly rocky, and therefore not suited for waders. However, Hanko is different. Small beaches and shallow inlets provide good feeding opportunities for migrating waders. On the 7th of August the morning was warm with a moderate S wind and low cloud after a night with some heavy showers. Just the right conditions to go looking for roosting waders. I visited one of my local patches first thing in the morning, a small beach only some 300 m long, and was amazed to find a good collection of shorebirds for Finnish conditions: 300 Dunlins, 100 Ringed Plovers, 10 Curlew Sandpipers, 2 Little Stints, 1 Temminck’s Stint, 4 Grey Plovers, 6 Bar-tailed Godwits, 3 Wood Sandpiper, 1 Common Sandpiper, 1 Greenshank and 2 Oystercatchers, practically all of them adults in stunning breeding plumage!

Also raptors are already on the move. Since the end of July Kestrels (which also don’t breed locally) and juvenile Sparrowhawks have been showing almost daily, and in the last days numbers have increased. Also Marsh Harriers and Ospreys are already migrating and the first Honey Buzzards, most likely failed breeders, have appeared. On the 11th of Aug I had as many as 7 different species of raptors just from the garden, while chopping firewood, which gives an idea of how good the area is for migrating birds. In the open fields around the village Whinchats are building up in numbers, and yesterday evening I had a group of 15 in just one small field, but after a week or two there could be as many as 50! Looking forward to it.