There have
been a few visitors already to the recently opened Örö Bird Brigade blog, among
others from the USA, Germany, Latvia and Estonia.
It is not
known to me whether the foreign visitors have found the blog via their interest
in military affairs (brigade), but perhaps as a disappointment to them, the Örö
Bird Brigade was established with other motives. Of course the presence of the
military on the island, which continued close to 100 years, has had an impact on
the environment. Even though the landscape we now observe is structured by
stone paved roads, small scale building and courts held partly open by military
exercises, the military presence has saved it from alternative, heavier land
use.
I have once
visited an old military island in the Bay of Finland, Suursaari, which belongs
nowadays to Russia. Suursaari and Örö share a common feature inherited from their
history – their woods have stayed in a more pristine state than e.g. Finnish
forests in general. From a birdwatching point of view this adds charm to the
environment in the form of old wood fauna. In Suursaari Red-breasted
Flycatchers (Ficedula parva) were
common; in Örö the first short visit gave observations of Black Woodpecker (Dryocopus martius), Lesser Spotted
Woodpecker (Dendrocopos minor) and a
few Great Spotted Woodpeckers (D. major).
So Örö is definitely a place for species which benefit from natural succession
resulting in old primary forest and/or from the open meadows based on the
continuation of the Salpausselkä end moraine called Salpausselkä II, the middle
ridge in a system of three parallel ridges with a SW-NE-direction. These ridges
were formed when the last glacier stopped for a while and deposited moraine and
till to sand and silt in front of the melting edge of the glacier. One much-studied
indicator has been the butterflies: the most extensive list of butterfly
species in Finland (over 1 600) has been collected precisely from Örö, mainly
as a pioneer work of one person, Jaakko Kullberg.
Besides its
forests Örö has a 13km long strandline, outcrops of the pre-Cambrian
Svekofennian Shield that has formed in places excellent hills to climb up to
check the possible migration routes of birds around the island. Where the
crystalline basement is not exposed, it is frequently covered by glaciofluvial
- glaciolacustrine quaternary sediments,
which form the gravelly/sandy beaches in the SW part of the island and the extensive
meadow areas, from open to scarcely wooded by pine.
So as you
may notice, there are several angles which make Örö if not unique, then close
to it in its surroundings, facing south and westward to open Baltic Sea, and forming
part of the latitudinal sequence of Cape Hanko (to the east) and Jurmo and Utö
Islands (to the west). All these are known as excellent bird places and are famous
for their uniqueness as occasional immigration platforms for birds from Russia
or more far away in E and SE and from the Baltic Countries region, or even from
further away south.
Two Örö Bird
Brigadiers, Jari and Raisa, will collect the next experiences, visiting Örö on
14.-15.4.2014: the enthusiasm we share to this island is greater than our
options to visit it at the moment. However, even if our trips are mainly
dependent on pre-organized boat services ordered for the needs of the National
board of forestry in Finland, we are nevertheless privileged to get this service
during the following year before Örö will be opened for tourism. By then, the
island will be serviced by a regular public ferry.
Ari_140413
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