Mammalwatching in northern summer night

High latitude summer nights are light, especially when there are no clouds in the sky. Perfect for night time outdoor activities, including mammalwatching. 

Weather was perfect last night, +19° C and wind 0 m/s i.e totally calm. I started my trip at  22:45 and headed first  to fields of Sääksmäki and Ritvala, tried to find a Badger (Meles meles), which I have not yet seen alive this year, only some roadkills here and there. I parked in couple of spots where I have seen the Badger during previous summers, scanned the fields with my binoculars, but nothing, no luck this time. Just the European Hares (Lepus europaeus), almost in every field.

European Hare (Lepus europaeus) on the road edge.

In addition to European Hares, I saw also one Roe Deer (Capreolus capreolus) and one White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus). These three species belong to group of the most common, or at least most visible species in this part of Finland. I spotted the Roe Deer by bare eyes, and confirmed the observation with binoculars. At 23:00 there was still a lot of light and binoculars worked well. Later at night, around 23:45 - 02:15 was already so dark, that I used my Pulsar Helion XQ38F thermal scope to find mammals. Again, mostly the  European Hares, but also the White-tailed Deer was found with thermal scope.

White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in the field. Thermal image.

While driving back to home through the forests, I spotted also three bats, single bats in three locations. I stopped every time and used my bat detector to identify them. They all were Northern Bats (Eptesicus nilssonii), the most common bat here.

Spectrogram of the Northern Bat (Eptesicus nilssonii)

This trip is basically an example of the very normal mammal trip, all other species are more or less bonus species. On what comes to find mammals, late summer is sometimes really difficult, because all grass and grain are full grown and mammals can easily hide very well in the fields and meadows.  Still, more you do these trips, more mammals you  will see. For example, I have seen the Eurasian Lynx (Lynx lynx) already twice this year, just by going out during nights.

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Writer

Olli Haukkovaara
Valkeakoski
Finland

Väinö the Walrus ain't no more just a dream to me

Väinö the Walrus

Today, on 19th of of July 2022, at 09.59 am my phone alerted about the Walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) in Kotka. It was the same animal I got dipped out on last Saturday. I rushed to change my clothes, jumped in my car and pushed the pedal. Soon I was in Highway 3, heading to south. And after two and half hours I was in Kotka. And there it was, waiting for me, Väinö the Walrus! 

It is an amazing creature indeed! Huge, handsome, a real cosmic mind-f*cker!

At noon, it was just resting in front yard of somebody's home. Police was there already, and so was the head of local Rescue Department. At that time they let us watch the walrus from relatively close distance, about 20 meters. Later in the afternoon, when the veterinarians came, police cordoned off the area and forced mammalwatchers, photographers and and media reporters move further away.

Soon the veterinarians informed that the walrus was famished and that it had lost the grease layer under it's skin that protects it in cold water. This started a big rescue operation and during evening they managed to force the walrus to sleep, transferred it in a big truck which took the walrus to animal hospital of Korkeasaari Zoo. I really hope it survives and will be moved later to the coast of Arctic Sea, maybe to northern Norway or even Svalbard.

This Walrus is the #96 in my Global Mammal Life List and #62 in my Finland Mammal Life List. Below is some more photos of it and it's route map from Norway to Finland.

Väinö's route, credits go to Rune Aae

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Writer

Olli Haukkovaara
Valkeakoski
Finland

Dipped out on a Walrus - a cosmic mind-f*cker in Finland!

Walrus in Hamina, photo credits go to Christa Granroth

A Walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) was found in Hamina, Finland on 14th of July. Possibly it had arrived there already during last week, according to local residents. For mammalwatchers in Finland, it's a real cosmic mind-f*cker! 

A cosmic mind-f*cker? What?? Well, here's a brief glossary:

A tick. The ultimate aim of twitching mammals. Quite literally the tick you put alongside the name of mammal species when you see it.

A lifer. Much the same as tick. An alternative term, meaning the first time in your life you have seen a certain species, so it follows it must be a tick.

A megatick. A very good tick. A species that has occurred only few times in certain area, like the country where you live.

A cosmic mind-f*cker. A very good megatick! Most probably a species never recorded in  in certain area, and most appropriate to something that is not only very rare but looks fabulous too. Something really good looking and handsome, say a Garden Dormouse or really big, like a European Bison, would justify such naughty language!

A first. Quite specifically, a "first for my country". Not just the first time you've seen it, but the first time anybody has seen it in your country. So if a mammalwatcher sees a first, he or she is in for a megatick, and possibly.... a cosmic mind-f*cker.

Dip out. To fail to see the mammal you wanted to see.

And the Walrus in question, was not only the first for Finland, but also a really handsome and really big i.e., a real cosmic mind-f*cker! The Finnish mammalwatchers got the first information about it on the 15th of July, but only very few of them managed to see it on Friday evening. During Saturday morning, lot's of mammalwatchers headed to Hamina, including me and my son Roni. Hamina is quite far from where we live, the driving time was 2 hours and 45 minutes. We arrived to "game field" in time, or so we thought, as the Walrus was still there, not in the beach where it had spent the night, but few hundred meters down stream towards the sea. At that point we made a wrong decision, we started to walk along the shore towards the sea. When we arrived to point of cape, there was a group of other mammalwatchers and they told us that Walrus was right here, 15 minutes ago, but it disappeared when a motor boat arrived. So, if we had not walked, but chosen to drive by car, we had managed to see it... 

So.. we dipped out on a Walrus - a cosmic mind-f*cker. It never came back, we were searching for it about 10 hours, until midnight. The twitching of Walrus turned to sheer heartbreak. 😞

Now we can only hope it will be found from somewhere else on our sea shore. Otherwise, I must travel to Svalbard.

UPDATE 17.7. at 16:42

The Walrus has swam in to the fishermens fyke net, in Suulisniemi, Kotka, about 15 km southwest from yesterday. The Coast Guard is trying to get the Walrus out of fyke net, but they both are underwater...

UPDATE 17.7. at 17:14

Good news: the Coast Guard got the Walrus out of fyke net and it disappeared out to the sea.
Bad news: No idea where it is...

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Writer

Olli Haukkovaara
Valkeakoski
Finland