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Avainsana: Bird watching

2 June 2017: OIRT RUS and BLR

Small afterwork RUS opening started at 1545 UTC, highest noted frequency here 90.6 MHz (:D). I lost few valuable minutes scanning CCIR frequencies, as the regional window was all the time going on OIRT, by GTRK stations. 70.4 MHz gave weather for Ulyanovsk, more interesting was 70.1a, which went to network without proper ID. It could have been GTRK Ivteleradio or GTRK Vologda, because the skip was very short (~1100 km). After 16 UTC Europa Plus Penza had local program on 68.09, later skipping to Moscow (exact 1012 km). Also some Belarus mixing from other cloud. Short skip is much more common on OIRT, and there are many interesting GTRK and private station in Moscow and nearby.. worth of trying!

New birds:

18) Muscicapa striata winters in tropical Africa. It builds nest almost everywhere.


Photo by JMN, June 2012.

19) Turdus pilaris


By Arnstein Rønning – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14936065

20) Dendrocopos major


By Hangsna – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46082936

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First good opening 22 May 2017

Untill today, May has offered only small OIRT openings in Central Finland. Recently TUR and F have been logged in other parts of Finland. All these small openings made us to wait for something better.. Finally today we had a good opening from Orenburg/Kazakstan (till 108 MHz) to Donetsk/Ukraine (low band), then skipping to Romania/Czechia/Germany (MUF appr. 96), including Switzerland, ending to small low band F/BEL. The conditions started during the test of new antenna feed to my balcony QTH, timing was almost perfect – against the Murphy’s DX law when conditions begin during the antenna is under maintenance work 😛 My personal log will be updated here little by little.

Today’s highlights:
Italian language show(!) from Radio Aksay in Kazakstan (clip)
SUI for the first time with proper ID (Radio Pilatus 95.7 MHz)

Meanwhile ES has been far away, birds have been my favourite objects to catch througout air. Here are some more species seen this month:

Prunella modularis (Dunnock) has been a common guest in garden. They return here from Central or Southern Europe from March to May.


By Alpo Roikola – Oma teos, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48112621

Corvus corone cornix (the hooded crow) and carrion crow (Corvus corone corone) are two closely related species. Roughly saying the fully black version carrion crow does live in England, France, DACH countries and Iberian Peninsula, meanwhile the grey version is found across Northern, Eastern and South Eastern Europe, as well as parts of the Middle East.


By Ken Billington – Praca własna, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12342566

Pica pica (magpie) is one of the most intelligent birds, and it is believed to be one of the most intelligent of all non-human animals. At least it looks always elegant!


By Pierre-Selim – Flickr: Pica pica, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19400996

Turdus iliacus (redwing) comes back from Western and Southern Europe during April.


By Andreas Trepte – Praca własna, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1907996

Anas platyrhyncho (mallard) is also known as wild duck.


By Diliff – Oma teos, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=490649

Bucephala clangula (goldeneye) is easy to recognize because of it’s white dot.


By https://www.flickr.com/photos/sbern/ – https://www.flickr.com/photos/sbern/13471929904/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36391956

Motacilla alba (white wagtail) winters in Africa and returns in April to Central Finland. Traditionally it is said it takes just short time to summer from the first sight of white wagtail.


By Andreas Trepte – Oma teos, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3800685

Phoenicurus phoenicurus (redstart) winters in Northern Africa. It is familiar in whole Europe.


By Thomas Kraft (ThKraft) – Eget arbejde, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2160906

Ficedula hypoleuca (European pied flycatcher) winters in Southern part of West Africa. It is known to attack and disturb other birds in different ways and a male may have two females. So kind of bastardo!


By Estormiz – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19848601

Cuculus canorus (cuckoo) is the only voice-identified of these birds. It is difficult to see, but easy to hear. The male’s song, goo-ko, is usually given from an open perch. During the breeding season the male typically gives this vocalisation with intervals of 1–1.5 seconds, in groups of 10–20 (sometimes I have counted even more than 100!) with a rest of a few seconds between groups. The song starts as a descending minor third early in the year in April, and the interval gets wider, through a major third to a fourth as the season progresses, and in June, around the midsummer, the cuckoo ”forgets its tune”.


By Cuculus_canorus_vogelartinfo_chris_romeiks_CHR0791.jpg: Vogelartinfoderivative work: Bogbumper (talk) – Cuculus_canorus_vogelartinfo_chris_romeiks_CHR0791.jpg, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16077960

Actitis hypoleucos (sandpiper) is common in whole Europe.


By Christoph Müller – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58660296

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Logs for May 2017

01.05. 15690 1115 D: Radio Farda, Biblis. Lähettää tässä 05.30-16.00 UTC
01.05. 17755 1230 ROU: RRI Tiganesti. Romanialaista musiikkia, mutta juonto kiinaksi yllätti.
02.05. 17615 1310 ARS: BSKSA Riyadh. Koraanikanavan releointia vahvasti 16 metrin aaltoalueella. Taajuus voi olla myös 17625 kHz. SW.infon mukaan asema on tähän aikaan äänessä molemmilla taajuuksilla, ja tarkkaa taajuutta onkin mahdoton päätellä jälkikäteen nettitietojen avulla. Nämä vihjetason asemat on nimittäin kuunneltu roskalavalta löydetyllä analogisella Hitachi TRK-5030E:llä, joka tuli varsin vähällä vaivalla kuntoon. Radio on 1970-luvun puolivälin matkaradio, ja sentyyppisillä ovat monet varmaan DX-nousukaudella ahkerasti harrastaneet.
02.05. 15370 1615 CVA: Radio Vaticana, Santa Maria di Galeria. Paavillisia asioita venäjäksi.
02.05. 11810 1710 ROU: RRI Tiganesti. Häirikköaseman kainalossa englanniksi mm. Ukrainan euroviisuista.
02.05. 918 1957 E: Radio Inter, Madrid. Probably with ERTU in Arabic. SVN off air tonight!
05.05. 15220 1007 CHN: CRI Kashi-Saibagh. Kiinan terveydenhuollosta ohjelmassa ”Mai Kina” unkariksi.
05.05. 15130 1132 ROU: RRI Galbeni. Englanninkielinen lähetys.
05.05. 15390 1330 D: Athmeeya Yatra Radio, Nauen. Tangkhulinkielistä rukoilua.
05.05 15160 1347 ROU: RRI Tiganesti. Venäjäksi. ”Vy efire Inter Radio Romania”.
05.05. 11910 1425 ROU: RRI Tiganesti. ”Europäischen presseschau” (eurotopics.net) & ”Volksmusik”.
05.05. 11790 1500 CHN: CRI Urumqi. Venäjänkielisen ohjelman aloitus uutisin.
05.05. 11700 1503 PHL: Vatican Radio, Palauig-Zambales. Tamilinkielinen lähetys pienen nopean feidin kera.
06.05. 6135 0155 BOL: Radio Santa Cruz. ”Radio Santa Cruz, desde Santa Cruz de la Sierra”. QRM UNID carrier.
06.05. 514 0220 EST: GO Ämari.
06.05. 432 0225 EST: G Ämari.
06.05. 398 0230 FIN: ESS Esse.
06.05. 397 0230 EST: UM Tartu. Weak under ESS.
06.05. 365 0235 FIN: VS Tampere/Vesilahti.
06.05. 1539 2130 UAE: tent. Asianet Radio. Testing here! Unclear ID’s and announcements.
07.05. 1467 1949 F: TWR Polska, Roumoules.
16.05. 15130 1015 ROU: RRI Tiganesti. Ranskaksi 19 metrillä.
20.05. 11950 1330 ROU: RRI Galbeni. Kotimaanohjelman releointia, mainio kuuluvuus.
22.05. 13635 0813 TUR: TRT Emirler. Turkinkielistä ohjelmaa, ID ”Türkiyenin Sesi Radyosu”. Demokratia oli tapetilla. Kuului täällä puhtaammin kuin 25 metrillä (3-4).

Another kind of loggings will follow… Aside of DX catches, I like to give an idea to our international readers, where (in which kind of country) these catches are maden! So here it comes – just a quick view to some of our colourful birds seen this spring in my QTH garden.

An European Robin (Erithacus rubecula) has stayed here all winter long, which is pretty rare here in 62.5 degrees North. At the moment they are more numerous, because Southern European tourists have arrived!


Photo by André Karwath aka Aka – Oma teos, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=97455

Instead these guys (Turdus philomelos) have been probably in Iberian peninsula all winter long! A song thrush was identified on April 30, 2017 in the garden, unfortunately only passing-by.


Photo by Andreas Trepte – Oma teos, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22435708

The common chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) is said to be second most common bird in Finland (must be millions!). The male is brightly coloured with a blue-grey cap and rust-red underparts. Some of them can be seen in Central Finland all year around, but usually they fly to Southern Scandinavia or Western Europe for the coldest season. ”Old people” use to say it takes ”half a month to the summer” after seeing first chaffinch of the year. Since female chaffinchs arrive a bit after the males, and I have seen already a week ago a female chaffinch in the garden, we can say that summer 2017 has officially begun in the dacha!


Photo by Thermos – Oma teos, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11534029

Eurasian blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus, syn. Parus caeruleus) is easily recognisable by its blue and yellow plumage and its size. Central Finland belongs to the northernmost regions, where it lives regularly.


Photo by © Francis C. Franklin / CC-BY-SA-3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37675470

Blackbird (Turdus merula) is a common guest in dacha!


Photo by Malene Thyssen (User:Malene) – This image was copied from da:Billede:Solsort.jpg on the Danske Wikipedia.date/timeusernameresolutionsizeedit summary21. jul 2004 kl. 22:30Malene300x22377974(Bedre foto af solsort)8. okt 2003 kl. 09:38Malene302x21318437(Foto af solsort), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=650945

The great tit (Parus major) is a distinctive bird with a black head and neck, prominent white cheeks, olive upperparts and yellow underparts. It lives here all around the year.


Photo by JMN, QTH balcony October 2, 2015

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