Lapland, May 2015:
Lapland, May 2015:
A surprisingly good week in Lapland. Always a spectacular place, but often the wildlife can be very elusive. This trip I done fairly well, finding some Northern specialities along the way.
Travelled via Ryanair to Skelleftea, then picked up a hire car. As I was planning to get to the Nrthernmost point, I didn't really factor in any hotels en route, choosing to sleep in the car when required! This worked well, and I got to a hotel near Nordkapp 3 days in for a couple of long sleeps, before the journey back to Skelleftea. It was quite easy to pick off good birding locations along the route. 3000km driven in the week!
Weather was mixed. mostly ok, with showers, but Nordkapp was atrocious with poor visibility for 2 of the 3 days I was there.
Highlights:
The week got off to a very good start at Gammulstraviken near Lulea. Here, despite getting lost, and only finding a small lake, I got good views of Caspian Tern and Osprey, plus Tree Pipit and Pied Flycatcher.
Petkula Bog: Superb atmospheric location at 1am, with Crane, Smew, Long-tailed Duck, Whooper Swan, Ruff, Bluethroat, and singing Little Bunting.
Tankavaara: I took on the 6km walk made difficult due to drifts of snow. Made it to the summit but had to return the same way. A Lapland Bunting at the summit was nice, and on the journey down I heard a sharp call followed by a Hoot, later confirmed as Ural Owl. The excitement continued with Siberian Tit near the car park.
Neljän Tuulen Tupa Ay cafe: Fantastic place to stop with the Pine Grosbeaks pretty much on the window ledge. Also Brambling, Siskin, Redpoll, Siberian Tit, and Willow Tit, plus Red Squirrel.
Lakselv / Stabbursdalen area: the Lesser White-Fronts were present but I only saw 3. Northern Bullfinch seen well in the park.
Nordkapp: Managed a seawatch before the weather turned foul. I was very lucky here seeing Orcas and Sperm Whale plus the only Glaucous Gull of the trip from the clifftops. The weather subsequently closed in, and I didn't see any sea from this viewpoint in the following days. Made worse that there are no other obvious viewpoints for seawatching in the area. Did manage Pomarine Skua from a fishing village, and Ptarmigan.
Roadside birds in Norway included Black Grouse, Willow grouse, Caper, Rough-legged Buzzard and Long-tailed Skua. Plenty of Arctic Hares seen too.
Vittangi in Sweden was another highlight with an overnight drive getting me Hawk Owl, and another Ural Owl, plus Moose, my only self-found Pine Grosbeak. Bogs at dawn had Spotted Redshank, displaying Jack Snipe, Taiga Bean Goose and Siberian Jay.
The long drive back to Skelleftea was brightened up by a very weird moment when I drove past some birders who turned out to be local Swedish Birders twitching their country's 2nd (?) ever Little Bustard.. Sometimes you just can't put a foot wrong!
did fail on a couple of counts.. notably no White-billed Diver, Rustic Bunting or Broad-billed Sandpiper, but after a winter in the UK when even Bramblings were absent, it was good to see so many highlights.
A surprisingly good week in Lapland. Always a spectacular place, but often the wildlife can be very elusive. This trip I done fairly well, finding some Northern specialities along the way.
Travelled via Ryanair to Skelleftea, then picked up a hire car. As I was planning to get to the Nrthernmost point, I didn't really factor in any hotels en route, choosing to sleep in the car when required! This worked well, and I got to a hotel near Nordkapp 3 days in for a couple of long sleeps, before the journey back to Skelleftea. It was quite easy to pick off good birding locations along the route. 3000km driven in the week!
Weather was mixed. mostly ok, with showers, but Nordkapp was atrocious with poor visibility for 2 of the 3 days I was there.
Highlights:
The week got off to a very good start at Gammulstraviken near Lulea. Here, despite getting lost, and only finding a small lake, I got good views of Caspian Tern and Osprey, plus Tree Pipit and Pied Flycatcher.
Petkula Bog: Superb atmospheric location at 1am, with Crane, Smew, Long-tailed Duck, Whooper Swan, Ruff, Bluethroat, and singing Little Bunting.
Tankavaara: I took on the 6km walk made difficult due to drifts of snow. Made it to the summit but had to return the same way. A Lapland Bunting at the summit was nice, and on the journey down I heard a sharp call followed by a Hoot, later confirmed as Ural Owl. The excitement continued with Siberian Tit near the car park.
Neljän Tuulen Tupa Ay cafe: Fantastic place to stop with the Pine Grosbeaks pretty much on the window ledge. Also Brambling, Siskin, Redpoll, Siberian Tit, and Willow Tit, plus Red Squirrel.
Lakselv / Stabbursdalen area: the Lesser White-Fronts were present but I only saw 3. Northern Bullfinch seen well in the park.
Nordkapp: Managed a seawatch before the weather turned foul. I was very lucky here seeing Orcas and Sperm Whale plus the only Glaucous Gull of the trip from the clifftops. The weather subsequently closed in, and I didn't see any sea from this viewpoint in the following days. Made worse that there are no other obvious viewpoints for seawatching in the area. Did manage Pomarine Skua from a fishing village, and Ptarmigan.
Roadside birds in Norway included Black Grouse, Willow grouse, Caper, Rough-legged Buzzard and Long-tailed Skua. Plenty of Arctic Hares seen too.
Vittangi in Sweden was another highlight with an overnight drive getting me Hawk Owl, and another Ural Owl, plus Moose, my only self-found Pine Grosbeak. Bogs at dawn had Spotted Redshank, displaying Jack Snipe, Taiga Bean Goose and Siberian Jay.
The long drive back to Skelleftea was brightened up by a very weird moment when I drove past some birders who turned out to be local Swedish Birders twitching their country's 2nd (?) ever Little Bustard.. Sometimes you just can't put a foot wrong!
did fail on a couple of counts.. notably no White-billed Diver, Rustic Bunting or Broad-billed Sandpiper, but after a winter in the UK when even Bramblings were absent, it was good to see so many highlights.
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