Wildlife Photographic Journals

Inside the Circle Day 4 - Heading to the Hills

Grey skies and a light drizzle began the fourth day. I was starting to wonder if the sun would ever show or if a week of persistant gloom was on the cards. Don't ask me how or whose it was but I managed to pick up a WIFI signal in the accommodation on the Netbook and online local forecast indicated an improvement in weather was due. I thought it was time to head up to the upland tundra to see what was on offer, following the River Tana valley and then heading upwards on the road to Batsfjord. The River Tana offers some wonderful scenery but as the journey progressed upwards the weather deteriorated to horizontal sleet and the amounts of laying snow deepened.

I pulled over where two smalls lakes were on either side of the road a few birds were present. I decided to come back for those later and headed out straight through the sleet across the tundra. Having walked for quite a while the only bird I encountered was a distant male Lapland Bunting but I was not surprised how quiet it was given the grim conditions and circled back towards the car and the partly frozen ponds. It looked as if Spring was slightly delayed here as it seemed to be in the UK this year and the expected abundant fly life was absent. On each pond there was a pair of wary Long-tailed Duck, in their summer colours. After a bit of careful stalking I managed to get a couple of photos.

By the side of the road there was a small number of Temminck's Stint which was one species I was hoping to photograph on my trip.

This tiny wader kept fluttering up like a large moth with its trilling song in display flight which was a real delight to watch. One bird was working its way across alarge area of snow so I decided to lay down and see if the bird would pass close. Whilst lying on the large sheet of snow, I realised that the woodland camoflague clothing was not really offering much benefit. The bird slowly made its way directly towards me up the white slope, pausing breifly on occasions. It is such a great feeling when you have a bird getting larger and larger in the camera viewfinder.

It was time to try a different area and as I headed off along the road, I noticed that the fuel was fairly low in the car. The Sat Nav had identified the nearest petrol station to be a Batsfjord so I made that my next destination of the day which would also give the opportunity to see what else the rest of the tundra road had to offer. The short answer to that was not a great deal, except some distant Shorelark, Snow Bunting and acrobatic Skuas. Mind you spotting birds in this habitat from a moving car is not that easy and the birds tend to be only revealed when you stop and start looking. After refuelling both car and myself at Batsfjord, it was time to start making tracks back. On leaving the town a bird was spotted speeding low and hawk-like along the side of the road before alighting on a bush. It turned out to be a cuckoo, not a bird I was expecting to find this far north and a welcome bonus.

The long journey back to Varangerflord was fairly uneventful with only a brief stop at the well known Gyr Falcon nest but no sign of life on the cliff face. The weather seemed to be improving with the sun occasionally breaking through. I decided a return trip to 'Ruff Bay' was needed but spotted a pair of Arctic Skua (both dark and pale phase birds). Time for some skua stalking to stretch the legs after the drive. The birds were at distance so a long commando crawl was required which eventually got me in close to the pale phase bird.

After a while the bird took off and in typical skua style undertook an inquisitive close fly-by. Great looking birds and a pleasure to see up close.

I finally reached 'Ruff Bay' which immediately looked like it was going to be less productive as the tide had already ebbed. As I checked some areas of rock platform a calling Oystercatcher took to the sky, a good warning indication of a nearby nest and the need to watch my step. The bird circled around and landed close by and then went in to a walking distraction display, feigning injury, to draw me away from the nest area.

The Ruff proved, as suspected, to be more elusive but I eventually after some patience managed a couple of photographs.

Well it had been a long but interesting day with three new species photographed and time to return to the accommodation where a hot shower and food awaited and think where my wanderings the next day might take me.