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Oulu - Region of Owls and Paradise for Birders

Article (65DegreesNorth, May 2007):

The big nest box is a few meters high in the tree. Ornithologist Markku Hukkanen has to climb the tree to reach it. Four little Boreal Owls sit in the box, looking with big yellow eyes at the strange visitor. Carefully, Markku lifts them one by one out of their nest, puts them into a bag and carries them to the ground.

The ringing of owls around Oulu

Each of the owls gets a tiny ring of aluminium with a specific number and information on the ringing centre and country code around its leg. “Ringing of birds is important to be able to learn more about their life. With help of the ring, you can identify a single bird.” explains Markku.

Markku ringing an owl

Markku has been interested in birds since he was four years old, when his father showed him bird pictures and took him on little bird excursions. He was especially fascinated by owls and hawks. Together with his father, Markku started to put nest boxes up for birds about 20 years ago. Nowadays there are a few hundred of them in the woods around Oulu, most of them for owls. Intensive forestry has made it difficult for owls to find nesting places in Finland. For breeding, Boreal Owls need empty holes made by the Black Woodpecker, a large woodpecker species nesting in old trees. In forests used for wood production, the trees usually do not get old enough to provide such nesting places. “You can really see that there is a large demand on nesting places. When we put the first two nesting boxes for owls, the first one of them was already inhabited in the following year.” Markku remembers.

With time, Markku wanted to know more about the owls inhabiting his nest boxes – if they were always the same birds or where the youngsters would go when getting self sufficient. After studying to become a bird ringer, he got his licence in 1993. In Finland, the ringing of birds started in 1913 and is nowadays coordinated by the ringing centre of the Zoological Museum of Helsinki. The centre trains the bird ringers, purchases the rings and coordinates the information flow between ringers, finders of bird rings, and ringing centres abroad. The centre is also responsible for sharing information obtained with researchers, state officials and the broad public. Data from national ringing centres in Europe are stored in the EURING Data Bank. Analysts use this large data set to investigate various aspects of ornithology, including migration strategies, survival rates and problems for birds caused by human activities. In Finland, bird ringing is mostly voluntary work and nowadays there are about 700 active ringers.

The ring gets closed around the foot.

Now that they have rings on their feet, the four little Boreal Owls are participating in a special project of the Zoological Museum of Helsinki: a follow-up study of birds of prey. This study is a nationwide study for the whole of Finland, and aims to learn more about the nesting places, how many youngsters each owl succeeds to raise and about the development of whole population of owls in Finland.

Oulu, the owl region

Did you know that Oulu is real owl region? There are ten different owl species in Finland and eight of them are breeding in the area around Oulu. Since owls are active at night, they are not easy to watch. During the mating season in February and March you can hear them in the woods around Oulu and sometimes even inside town. This year there was a Boreal Owl calling in Kaukovainio, sitting in a tree surrounded by apartment buildings. When skiing in twiglight through the woods around Auran Maja, you also have the chance to hear the much bigger Eurasian Eagle Owl calling its somewhat scary “ooh-hu”. The amount of owls around Oulu is always fluctuating following the fluctuations of their main prey: Voles. In years like this year with a high vole population, the owl population will also increase - the owls have plenty of food and can raise many youngsters.

Boreal or Tengmalm’s Owl (Aegolius funereus)

However, due to the increased number of owls hunting voles, the vole population decreases. And as the supply of food for the owls decreases, so too does the population of owls. When the owl population is small, the vole population increases again – a never ending circle.

Birds or birding as a hobby

In April and May big flocks of Arctic birds migrate through North Finland. Some stay in Finland, some move up to the shores of the Arctic Sea. During this big “bird event”, bird watchers – or birders as they call themselves – from Finland and abroad gather at the hot spots of the country along the coast to watch those Arctic bird species. A good place to watch birds during migration time (and also year-round) is the bird tower in Liminka Bay and the fields around Tyrnävä. For ornithologists like Markku, there is no boring time in the year. From May to July he visits his nest boxes for ringing different bird species, mostly owls and falcons. From September to November is a good time to put new nest boxes on to trees and clean the old ones so that they are ready for the next breeding season. Then is time for paper work and reporting observations taken during the summer months. During winter time there are the monthly meetings of the local birders’ organisation, PPLY.

In Finland, many bird watchers are organized in BirdLife Suomi which promotes bird protection and research, along with social events and bird watching. It has over 9000 members here and is part of BirdLife International, an international organization with over 1, 2 million individual members in over 100 countries. The Finnish BirdLife itself is a roof organisation of 30 regional bird societies in Finland. The regional ornithological organization of Northern Ostrobothnia (PPLY) is located in Oulu. If you want to start bird watching in the area, these are the people you should contact. Besides bird observation and nature conservation projects, PPLY also organise bird excursions for beginners and social events, such as bird rallies and photo presentations.. If you can’t speak Finnish – no problem. There are many students and researchers from University among the birders of PPLY who can help you out in English. There is also a travel agency in the area specializing on bird excursions.

Birders taking a close-up picture

Clarification of owl names:

Boreal Owl or Tengmalm's Owl: Aegolius funereus

Eurasian Eagle Owl: Bubo bubo