Beyond 66.5 Degrees North - Days 9 and 10: South, West and Home

It was time to pack up and leave Norway and start the long journey home. So we packed our gear, cleared out and tidied up the hire car, ate some breakfast and hit the road southward. Before leaving Vadso we went online to find some accommodation as we had nowhere booked for the evening. We found a hotel in Ivalo near to the airport.

Our destination for the day was to return to the 'Grosbeak Motel' in Finland for another session on the feeders but we would try and see if we could have find anything on route. The trees returned to the roadside and grew larger as we headed southward. We made good progress weaving our way along the quiet pine forest clad roads of Finland under some fine weather and increasing warming temperatures. We occasionally would stop at a roadside lake to see if there were any birds to photograph. As usual when driving  through Finland, it seems remarkably devoid of wildlife.  It is there but hidden from view in the extensive forests and you really need to stop and explore for a while to find it. We found a male Smew on one lake, but it remained uncooperative and out of photography range.

We arrived back at the Neljan Tuulen Tupa in the early afternoon and it felt warm as I stepped out the car. In these northern latitudes, warmth generally equates to mosquitoes and they were out in force around the feeders at the back of the hotel. This made for some uncomfortable photography. I concentrated mainly on the Brambling which showed a lot of variation.

Some Red Squirrel where visiting including a couple of young ones.

I finally managed to get a photograph of a Siberian Tit which unusually just paused for a moment in its hyperactive life.

In the end I'd had enough feeding the female mosquitoes and started thinking a blood transfusion might be necessary if I remained any longer under the constant bombardment. The final photograph of the trip was a lovely looking male Pine Grosbeak which briefly appeared before I beat a retreat from the whining mosquitoes.

We continued southward to Ivalo and found the hotel we had booked earlier in the day. We decided this 'Norman Bates Motel' was not for us, the mop and bucket propped up against the entrance didn/t bode well and there was a much better looking place next door. We went back online and cancelled our reservation.

Our arrival at the adjacent hotel coincided was a coach of Chinese tourists. One in particular was fascinated by our camera kit and he insisted on trying my camera with the 600mm lens to photograph some of his travel companions in the hotel corridor. It was a funny moment.

There was not much left to do now except eat some food, go for wander and hit the bed for the early start in the morning for the flight home.

On arrival at the airport the next day we were the only ones there when we arrived for the first of the two flights home. Given that the woman on check-in had plenty of time to spare she decided she was going to weigh our hand luggage. This was not ideal as I decided to pack all my camera gear into my bag which took it about 7kg over the 8kg allowance. She weighed Adams hand luggage first and while he transferred excess weight to his suitcase at the checkin desk, I retire to a nearby packing table and transferred two camera bodies and the 100-400 lens into my photographers vest under my fleece. She weighed the bag and it was spot on 8 kg and it was tagged. I walked away and transferred all the kit from my vest back into the bag. I always think this hand baggage policy is crazy especially when you are in a queue and the behind person may weigh 40 to 50 kilos more than you.

Back in Helsinki I paid farewell to Adam who was picking  up a flight back to Paris and went off for mine back to Manchester and home. the rest of the journey went smoothly.

Overall it had been a great trip with the main target bird species found and photographed. The highlight of the trip was of course the Ruff which was the primary reason for returning to the wonderful Varanger Peninsula. I would like to express my gratitude and thanks to a few people:

• Firstly to Adam for being such a great companion and making it a special and enjoyable trip. 
• To Dawn and Jayne for holding the forts while Adam and I wandered the icy tundra. 
• To Agle at the 'Grosbeak Motel' ( Neljan Tuulen Tupa ) 
• For the great people who run the 'Birders Hotel' in Vadso (Vadso Fjord Hotel )
• To Alonza at Biotope for all his help (Biotope )

Hope you enjoyed the trip. Next year is already in planning and I will be heading somewhere warmer having spent the last two year's trips in the freezer!!!

Beyond 66.5 Degrees North - Days 1 and 2: Into the Circle

It took me a while to decide where to head to this year for my annual overseas trip. My initial thoughts were to travel up to the Outer Herbrides in mid-May but the more I considered it the more I felt the need to travel further north. After some deliberation I decided to plan a return trip to Arctic Norway which had been my first overseas photography trip back in 2010. I had fond memories of the place and certainly had some unfinished business with some of the birds up there, particularly the Ruff and Bluethroat.

On this trip I would be going with my friend Adam who lives in France and runs the Sanctuary Fishery. I met Adam because of skylarks (its a long story) and when I mentioned the trip to Arctic Norway he jumped at the opportunity. Adam has a profound love and understanding of the wildlife which is skillful reflected in his artwork and talents with pencil, pen and brush. He is also keen to learn photography and so the trip would be a good opportunity to show him the way around a camera and some of the techniques of bird photography.

Flights, accommodation and car hire was booked and so all we had to do was wait a few months until Friday 3rd June. The plan was for us both to fly up to Helsinki where we would meet and then take the connecting flight up to Ivalo in Lapland which would take us inside the Arctic Circle (Latitude 66.5 Degrees North) . From there we would drive up to the Varanger Peninsula in Arctic Norway.

Packing for a trip in a cold climate is always a challenge in terms of luggage weight allowance due to the need for carrying lots of clothing. The particular difficulty on this trip would be the very meagre hand luggage allowance of 8kg given that I would be taking wildlife camera equipment for two people.  As a back-up measure I purchased a photographers vest just before the trip into which I could load equipment if I ran into to difficulties at check-in. Travelling abroad with camera equipment is a constant nightmare for wildlife photographers. I do wish the airlines would take this into account as they do for people with sporting equipment and musical instruments. I am sure most photographers would happily pay a supplement to guarantee they could take the inevitably overweight hand luggage on to the plane. The equipment going into the aeroplane hold is just not an option.

For information on the kit used on the trip, I predominantly used the Canon 1DX mk2 with 600mm F4 Mk 2 lens both with and without the 1.4 extender.

As the date of departure arrived conditions in France were looking potentially difficult for Adam's journey with a series of violent storms and air traffic control and train strikes. Would we both make the connecting flight? In case of problems we hatched a back-up plan as on these trips it is always good to have a contingency to cover all bases. My passage through Manchester airport was smooth and text's from Adam indicated all was going to plan and schedule at his end. I boarded the plane only for the captain to announce that there was a going to be a 30 minute delay until departure. Given that I only had a 40 minute interval between flights at Helsinki as you can imagine I was starting to get concerned whether I could make the connecting flight. The plane touched down at 15.35 and the next flight was due to board at 15:50! The plane landed away from the terminal for a coach collection of the passengers. The coach then drove to the far end of the terminal, in fact about as far away from my departure gate as possible. I rushed in, through passport control, and on exiting there was a sign saying my departure gate was 15 minutes walk away and the plane was now boarding.

I am sure the next few minute of airport CCTV footage would make a classic comedy clip showing a frenzied run by me through the  airport with my heavy hand luggage. Through areas of duty free and against a sea people coming in the opposite direction. I just made it, arriving at the departure gate and a waiting Adam, in a sweaty heap under my heavy fleece which was too heavy to put in the case. It was a very close call but we had both made it. My only concern now was whether my suitcase would make the connecting flight which fortunately it did. Time to finally relax.

There was a noticeable temperature drop as we stepped off the plane into light drizzle at Ivalo. We were quickly through the tiny airport, collecting our hire car and heading north to our first destination which was an overnight stay at the Neljan Tuulen Tupa accommodation in Kaamanen. En route, we made a quick stop at a supermarket in Ivalo to buy some food supplies for lunches, figuring that the temperature in the car would act as a giant coolbox most of the time.

The Neljan Tuulen Tupa accommodation is a well known destination for bird watchers and photographers as the feeding station around the back of this log cabin style motel is probably one of the most reliable places to easily see Pine Grosbeak. We arrived around 20:00 and decided to get some food which gave us a view over the bird feeders with the first bird seen being a beautiful raspberry colour male Grosbeak munching its way through sunflower seeds. With our steak dinner polished off we headed round to the back to check out the feeders. Interestingly the large numbers of Redpoll present during my previous trip were noticeably absent. Given the weather was fairly miserable and the birds heading into their quiet period under the perpetual daylight, we decided to leave the photography until the morning.

Before going to bed, I end up having a very long conversation in reception with a Finnish Bird Ringer. He was on a 3 month trip to the area and from the look in his eye looked like he had been out in the wilds and under too much daylight for a little too long. However, it was an interesting conversation as he reeled off various facts and figures and confirmed there were very few redpoll in the area this year. He said if we had time he would show us some Hawk Owl and Smew nest boxes he was working with the following day.

We were up early the next morning for a session with the birds behind the motel before breakfast under some overcast skies. This is awkward place to photograph the birds as it is designed for feeding rather than photography. Located immediately behind the back wall of the motel at the top of a slope in a small clearing in the surrounding woodland. The ground is completely covered in the sunflower seed husks and so any bird on the ground such as Brambling tends to be surrounded by seed shells,  there are very few perches associated with the feeders so the birds tend to go directly to feeding tables and it is difficult to find an angle where can get a bird on a perch of the surrounding vegetation with a clean image background. After a while we decided to attach a perch to one of the table supports with some table ties for the Grosbeak. We selected an old weather silver grey piece of conifer in a hope that this would compliment the grey areas of plumage on the birds. In hindsight I am not sure this was the best perch choice but it had the desired effect of stopping the birds flying directly to the feeding table.

Birds coming into feed included Greenfinch, Great Tit, Siberian Tit, a good number of male and female Brambling, a solitary male Pied Flycatcher and both female and male Pine Grosbeak. All accompanied by some very active red squirrels.  I concentrated my efforts on the Brambling, Gosbeak and Flycatcher a selection of which are below. The hyperactive Siberian tit proved tricky but amusing as it would announce its arrival with a strange squeaking that sounded like a plastic toy.

The male Brambling looked amazing in their summer colours and a marked difference to the faded birds we see in the UK in the winter,

You can see in this last photograph the problem with photographing the birds feeding on the ground.

The male Pied Flycatcher was relatively obliging.

The Pine Grosbeak is the bird that draws many people to this place and this heavyweight finch is an impressive bird that is about the size of starling. The males with their raspberry coloured plumage are both impressive and attractive. A selection of Pine Grosbeak images are below from both the surrounding trees, the ground and our set up perch. Excuse the number of images but this bird was the main star of the show.

I came away from the feeding area feeling slightly frustrated and imagining the images that could be achieved if it was properly set up. It had been wonderful to see Pine Grosbeak again and we intended to make a return visit on the homebound journey.  However, it had been a good place for Adam to start gaining an understanding of the interrelationship between ISO, aperture and shutter speed on the camera.

After a good breakfast and given the long journey ahead, we packed up, checked out and hit the road northward. About 15km up the E75 we got flagged down by the Finnish Bird Ringer, from the previous evening, who was at the side of the road and asked if we would like to see a hawk owl nest. We followed him a short distance into a birch wood where there was a nest box and a female hawk owl sat on a telegraph wire alarm calling. Against a grey sky the owl on a wire was not going to make a good photograph. He then said he needed to check the chicks, and climbed a ladder to the nest box with full head visor to defend himself from the by now both angry and swooping parents. He took both chicks from the box, which both Adam and I thought was unnecessary particularly given the cold weather conditions, to show us.

We then followed him a short distance where he showed us a female Smew sitting on eggs in another of his nest boxes. I was keen to get moving and we both thanked him and hit the road once more.

Driving through Finland is not the most exciting journey for those looking out for wildlife as generally there is very little to be seen as most tends to be tucked inside the apparently endless expanses of birch and coniferous forests bordering the road. The only noticeable change as you head northwards past mile upon mile of lake and forest is that the trees start getting small and the birch more twisted and black stemmed, particularly as you cross the border into Norway. After a few hours driving we arrived at the western end of Varangerfjord and decided to have a break and call into the area around the back of the museum at Varangerboten where there are two hides overlooking some mud flats at low tide. Looking out of both hides all seemed to quiet with the only bird of note being a distance White-tailed Eagle on the beach trying to eat a large stranded fish whilst being harassed by parties of gulls. Returning back to the car along the boardwalk through the blackened birch wood we found a male Pied Flycatcher to photograph.

Back at the car, noisy Fieldfare loudly chattered in the scrub areas and perched on the top of the buildings. We continued eastward along the north coast of the fjord towards our final destination of Vadso, and stopped off by Nesseby Church to see if there were any birds around to photograph. This produced some Ringed Plover on the beach, after a bit of crawling around some Golden Plover and I also found a pair of very mobile Snow Bunting in the summer plumage moving around the rocky edge of the peninsula. I was particularly pleased to get the latter in front of the camera given the complete failure to find any last year in Iceland.

These Golden Plover are the northern race with their darker coloured heads.

The orange patches in the background of this photograph is one of the strange coloured lichens that grows on the rocks in the area.

Female Snow Bunting

 A very attractive male in his summer plumage.

We departed from Nesseby and continued on to Vadso, acorss the bridge onto Vadsoya Island, where our accommodation for the week, the Vadso Fjordhotell was waiting. This is now a main place for birdwatchers and photographers to stay while visiting the area and we met with a warm welcome. It looks much better on the inside than outside!!

However, the hotel does not offer an evening meal so after checking in we headed straight back out and across the bridge in to Vadso to find some food. We settled on a costly but tasty curry in the Indigo  which is reputed to be one of the most northerly Indian restaurants in the world. Back at the hotel we went through the daily routine of downloading the day's images, backing them up on to hard drives and charging batteries before heading for some well earned sleep after a long day. The black out blinds behind the curtains doing a half decent job of keeping out the perpetual daylight. Both of us were looking forward to following morning and our first proper full day of photography of the trip.