Hide 1

Being much more sensible today, after breakfast we downloaded our pictures, put stuff on to charge and turned in, sleeping through until about 1.30pm. After a cup of tea we went out to try and buy some coca cola or other fizzy drink but the first shop was shut from 19-21st and the second shut at 3 on Saturdays so we headed back to the Lodge for the 4.00pm dinner of pea with meat soup, kebabs and spaghetti with a tomato sauce and fruit salad. We packed up our gear and made our way to hide 1 which has improved considerably, giving views on 3 sides with a peephole and toilet view on the fourth. The weather was very overcast but at least it wasn't raining. Having spent the first half hour destroying mozzies we settled down to wait for the first mammal to appear.
It was a long wait but around 10.00 pm I was looking out of the back windows when a youngish bear appeared on the forest edge. It cast about and found some food but was descended upon by a gang of gulls, which caused it to dash back into the forest. The next 2-3 hours saw quite a lot of bear activity as two young bears, a black, male bear and probably, two more bears came and went around the area to the right of the hide. The pair were probably a young male and female, with the male opening the boxes and the female following on a few minutes later after the gulls had had a feast. We took turns to sleep from around 1 o'clock and the last bear came in briefly from the right at about 6.20am but it just nosed about and then went off into the forest.

One of the bears was a yearling who approached the food but really hightailed it away when the gull mob descended. Back for breakfast before packing up ready to leave after a day out with Sabrina looking for owls. We drove north for about one and a half hours then we turned into a forest track and a Hawk Owl was spotted in a tree. We spent about half an hour watching and photographing it before carrying on to park in the forest clearing where we met up with a guy from Martinselkonin who walked us into an area where he had a couple of hides set up from where you could watch a Great Grey Owl on the nest. As well as the ground hides, there were a couple of tree hides, 30 foot up. David and Christian opted for the tree hides so went off through the trees while Nat and I set ourselves up in the tent hide. The next few hours were just brilliant. The owl sat on her nest, turned, stared and preened. At one point you could just see the chick's head over the edge of the nest. Changing over for the tree hide was an experience as you had to climb up a double ladder and manoeuvre into the hide through a 4' foot doorway, someone has to tie your gear to a rope so you could haul it up before being left with just you and the owl. Unfortunately she chose the time when I was up the tree to feed her chick so all I saw was the back of her head as she tore up bits for the chick.

We were going to be taken to an Ural owl nest, but Sabrina got a call saying the owl had just left the nest and wouldn't be back for 3 hours so we returned to the Hawk Owl area where we managed to loc ate 2 owls again. Having spent some time photographing them we went back to the Lodge, collectwd our gear and drove slowly to Sabrina's for our evening trip out for Flying squirrels.

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Hide 17

A slight mixup in details for this morning meant we were all dressed up ready to go out after breakfast so we decided to explore an area in Gosney about an hour away. We stopped for petrol and drinks and passed a museum which we thought we would visit on the way back if we had time. We drove up the 835 (913) in Gosney but missed the site and ended up at the Martinselkonin turn off. We turned round headed back 16 Km but could see nothing so we kept going until we noticed a sign for Lintutorni which turned out to be Bird Hide in Finnish.



Looking back from the road we could see a tower hide so we turned back and found a small car park just off the road. A short walk along a boardwalk being harangued by a Wood Sandpiper in a tree and we found the tower hide. Climbing up we could see across a great looking marshy area. Scanning round we saw a pair of Cranes, a Whooper Swan on a nest, several nesting Black-headed and Common Gulls and a couple of very noisy Greenshank on the islands. There were also Tufted Duck, Teal, Green Sandpiper and Goldeneye on the pools. Even though it rained for most of the visit we kept reasonably dry as the tower was covered.


On the way home we stopped at the Winter War Memorial built to commemorate all those who died or fought in the Winter War of 1940. There were also some old guns and Second World War vehicles as well as a modern looking centre. We didn't have time to go in but I would be interested in visiting another time.


We returned in time to have a shower and download some pictures before 4.00pm dinner of Meatball Soup, Chicken in a curry sauce with rice and Chocolate cake. We then collected our picnic bag and our gear and walked out to hide 17, which is quite new and placed on a different pool looking easterly with a reputation for not being very mozzie secure so we had applied repellant and we spent some time filling up gaps with tissue. We still had quite a number of them which we swatted ruthlessly. It was quite dark and overcast and rained fairly regularly through the night.
There was bait in several places in front of the hide, within about 30yds so we had hopes of some reasonable pictures. A Wolverine was the first to come in, quite fast from the right, and it gave great views. It moved quite fast in front of us until it got to the fallen tree where it found some food, then it came back along the lake to the base of a tree and opened another food cache. It then went back left until it disappeared in the bushes. It appeared again moving along the lake edge to the back of the lake where it disappeared.

Through the night we were visited by 4 different bears, two youngsters coming in together, which fed around the ground between the hides and the lake, giving absolutely brilliant views. We returned to the lodge for breakfast and a sleep before spending a bit of time wandering around the area near the lodge.




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Hide 6

Following the long day we had breakfast and then crashed out until about 2.30pm! David had put some small mammal traps out so after a reviving cup of tea we went to check them. No small mammals had tripped them so we left them and had a short walk round checking the flowers and finding Dwarf Cornel, Lily-of-the-valley and May Lily before our 4.00pm dinner of chicken soup, salmon, potato mush and salad and chocolate brownie cake.
We collected our gear, met up with the group and followed Sabrina to hide 6. This was a new hide for us and gave quite a different perspective across the lake from the opposite end. There are caches of salmon dotted around the lake and the gulls and hooded crows have learnt to check them out and are quick to clear up any spilt bits.

Through the night we had good views of a couple of bears feeding across the lake and visiting the other areas up the meadow. The big surprise was how many gulls there were and how aggressive they are when a bear opens a feeding box. A gang of around 30 or so swoop down in a screaming frenzy, scaring off the bears, some of them hightailing it away at speed. We also had a female Goldeneye feeding round the lake and giving something to look at through the night. Unfortunately, we nodded off and missed the reported Wolverine that came in about 5.30, waking up about 6.00 before returning back to the lodge for breakfast.






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Back to Finland

As we missed the flying squirrels last year and as Yari was offering a special deal if booked early we decided to return for a short break in June, hoping that the weather would be better. This time we thought we would fly to Kajaani and drive in from there, rather than undertake the long drive and overnight stay from Helsinki. As the flight was at 10.20 it seemed as if it would be a civilised start but the trip to Heathrow was painfully slow, nose to tail with short dashes of 50 mph all the way along the M25. The advantage was that the queue at checkin was very short but we didn't have time for our traditional breakfast.
We had two flights with a two hour wait over, giving us time for a drink and some lunch of Salmon soup with black bread. On the first flight I decided on chicken pasta in place of breakfast, not the most obvious thing but the choice wasn't great. The second flight was a 72 seater turbo-prop, reasonable comfy and not as noisy as I expected.

We collected the car and then headed for Wild Brown Bear Lodge where we settled in to our adequate room, and went for dinner with sausage soup, fried chicken and potato mush (their spelling) with a large salad choice and a fruit pie.

Before we flew, we learnt that there was an Oriental Cuckoo about 50kms away so we decided to go and twitch it. It took about one and a half hours and was a little,further than we thought but having got excellent directions we arrived to find a car load of people, with the inevitable, 'it was in that tree about half an hour ago but it's flown off.' During the next few hours we heard it calling, above our heads a couple of times, but it managed to elude us. On our drive there and back we saw a female Elk with a small calf, a fox, at least a dozen Mountain Hares and several Woodcock.
Our eventual return was so late it was hardly worth trying to sleep. There were a few Pied Flycatchers and a Siskin during a quick walk round the lodge before breakfast and bed.


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