Inside the Circle Day 3 Part 2 - Discovering 'Ruff Bay'

As Ekkeroy faded in the rear view mirror, the coast road northward was rejoined under increasingly grey skies and strengthening drizzle. This was not the weather I was planning to be met by in June. The weather is not really an issue for me, but the amount and quality of the light can be. Currently I had neither good weather or light! It was time to explore one of the side tracks that headed in land and see what birds might be encountered. After about 50m down the track the car was brought to a stop as a golden plover was spotted. Just beautiful colours.



This bird was being particularly wary in typical Golden Plover style and moved away at distance to watch and stare. The next bird encounter was just extraordinary. Further down the track another plover was spotted and on stopping, this bird purposely made its way towards the red hire car (not the greatest colour!) until it was inside minimum focusing distance of 4.5 metres. The bird seemed almost intrigued by the car and walked around as if on inspection. This gave plenty of opportunity to photograph the bird in different settings.









It was a privilege to have such a prolonged close encounter with this wonderful species that really shone in the stark landscape. Even the light seemed to improve momentarily.

Whilst out on the track, Long-tailed skuas passed in chase but at too great a distance for the camera. On returning to the main road a turn was made south to re-explore the stretch of coast road travelled previously and back towards the accommodation. A Long-tail Skua close to the road was the first required stop.




The road passed close to a small bay, which for the rest of the trip affectionately became known as 'Ruff Bay'. The tide was in and waders were on the beach. I have photographed in some unpleasant situations but this small beach must rank at the top for memorable odour. The beach consist of 'hills' of decomposing red, purple and orange seaweed with a sewer from a small local settlement bubbling away below. A smell that comes to me even now with little thought required. The insects were the obvious attraction to the birds picking there way the debris. A reason to endure the stench was not the presence of waders common to the UK autumn and winter, but in their summer colours, like this Dunlin...



...its was a group of Ruff including a number of males. A bird I have longed to photograph and definitely now always will.









As you will notice by now the beauty of the birds is the individual colours of the male and what they can do with their summer headdresses.

Wonderful birds of which some more photos will appear in a later post and a great way to end the third day.

Inside the Circle Day 3 Part 1 -Following the Coast

I never sleep well in a different bed on the first night. The odds were against a good sleep on that first night in Norway with the perpetual light pouring through the thin curtain and a Willow Warbler outside the window deciding that 2am was time for a dawn chorus of incessantly descending plaintive notes. The mobile phone alarm rattled in to life at 6-30am and I woke from a brief sleep to overcast skies and limited light. Not idea for photography but at least the biting icy wind of the previous night had subsided. After breakfast it was time to head out and the day was to be taken up by travelling the road that follows the north shore of Varangerfjord. This first day proved to be productive so I will split it over two Blog posts.

My first stop was to be a small nature reserve on the small island reached by bridge from Vadso known as Vadsoya Kultureparc. From some pre-trip research I knew there to be a small pond there that usually held good numbers of Red-necked Phalarope. The UK population of this bird is probably around 30 breeding pairs most of which reside on the Shetland Isles. It was a wonderful sight on reaching the pond in my chest waders to see about 80 birds frantically feeding. If you have not seen phalarope feeding they tend to do so by spinning around in tight circles which can mean many wasted photos, particularly in low light and given the fact they are such tiny birds. Fortunately they are completely oblivious to human presence. Firstly a male bird which in this species are less colourful than the females.

and the bolder marking of a female for comparison

I think the birds were mainly feeding on midge larvae that they were picking out from the surface layers of the pond.

I will not inundate you will Phalarope photos as there will be more to come later in this journey but liked this photograph of the pair that decided to mate at close range right in front of me.

Before leaving the small nature reserve I decided to take a quick walk around to see what else was on offer for a return trip later in the week. At the far western end of the island I was greeted by the familiar calls from a large colony of Arctic Terns, which were being harassed out at sea by pursuing Arctic Skua. Below were rafts of Common Eider gently rocking in the small swell. Walking back through the reserve apart from the omnipresent Willow Warblers, I caught fleeting glimpses of Red-throated Pipit and thought I heard a brief burst of Bluethroat song.

Just by the nature reserve car park there is access down to a small area of beach which I though worthy of brief visit before leaving. A calling Oystercatcher soon started circling an obvious sign of its ground nest nearby so I quickly moved along and watched my step.

Further along the beach another small group of Red-necked Phalarope were encountered and a couple of birds were stepping out of the water and picking their way through the seaweed.

It was time to move on and as I travelled up the coast road, admiring the occasional distant sea eagle or skua on my journey, when I came to a sign pointing to Ekkeroy which I decided to follow as I knew there were some cliffs there with a large colony of Kittiwake.
The weather was turning decidedly damp as I made my way along the footpath at the base of the cliff and large numbers of birds circled overhead. It never fails to amaze the assault of the sensors created by a seabird colony in terms of sight, sound and smell.
I took a few photographs of the Kittiwakes but was distracted by an potential photo opportunity I had passed on the way.

A bird coming in to land on its narrow ledge with its progress under the scrutiny of its neighbours.

I made my way back along the base of the cliff to the Ravens nest I had spotted previously that was built on a ledge close to the base of the cliff. I love Ravens due to their size, apparent intelligence and the beautiful blue sheen to their feathers but actually have very few photographs of what is a very wary bird. There were three well grown young in the nest.

Slightly higher on the cliff face the adult birds were looking for a easy chick snack to pluck from a Kittiwake nest. Every time one of the Ravens took flight you could sense the panic flooding through the Kittiwake colony as the volume of calls rose.

Beautiful birds and a very welcome and unexpected encounter.

I think that is probably enough for this post but the rest of day was to get a good deal more colourful in terms of the birds encountered as I will reveal soon in the next installment.

Inside the Circle Day 2 - Heading to Varanger

The plane bumped around in the turbulence as it descended at lunchtime the following day through the thick grey cloud into Ivalo airport. There was a noticeable drop in temperature on exiting the plane and a strong icy wind accompanied with drizzle as I had finally arrived inside the Arctic Circle. The arrival formalities were quickly over at this tiny airport and in no time the hire car was speeding northwards past the Finnish lakes and mixed forest of birch and pine. The first destination was going to be the accommodation were I was supposed to have stayed the previous night just to the north of Kaamanen to visit the well known feeding station. Some lunch was in order first and stew was quickly consumed while watching a constant stream of birds coming to the feeders outside the window. This appeared to be mainly a mix of Brambling in summer plumage and various Redpoll. The stay at the feeders was going to brief as there was still many miles to cover to the destination but I was due to visit on my return journey southward at the end of the week.

The feeder setup was a bit awkward for photography with its position and light at that time of day but a few photographs were to be had and I started on the Redpolls which I have not photographed previously. Separating out the different types of Redpoll is not an easy task and I think there were two types visting here which were Lesser Redpoll and Mealy Redpoll.

The Redpoll photography was briefly interrupted by the arrival of a beautiful looking Red Squirrel, although it stubbornly refused to sit in a better photographic setting than on the mountain of sunflower shells that accumulated below the feeders.

I returned from the brief distraction to the Redpoll photography.

Movement in the pine tree to the right caught the corner of my eye and a female Pine Grosbeak landed with and audible thump. A surprising large bird (small thrush size) but subtly beautiful with its mix of grey and rust colours.

Unfortunately it was all too soon time to leave and continue the journey northwards as there was still a good 3 hour drive to the final destination where I had an appointment with a pre-booked evening meal. The journey was relatively uneventful, except for wrestling with an automated petrol pump, as mile upon mile of forest were passed with a noticeable decline in the height of trees with the progress northwards. After passing over the border in to Norway, a brief stop was made at Varangerbotn to check out a small nature reserve behind the Sami Museum which appeared devoid of bird life except for a few Arctic Skuas harassing gulls at distance out across the rough waters of the fjord. I continued my journey, stopping briefly at the amazing sight of two White-tailed Sea Eagles casually sat on the beach unfortunately out of photography distance, before reaching my final destination of Vestre Jakobslev which would be my base for the rest of the week. Stepping out the warm comfort of the car I was greeted by a strong wind armed with cold knives under a leaden sky. I decided after a warming stew supper that the best approach would be to settle in and make a fresh start in the morning under hopefully some better conditions.

Inside the Circle Day 1 - A Slow Start

As some of you will know last week I was away on holiday up in the Arctic Circle on a photography trip. The next few posts will be dedicated to that trip as I intended to give a day by day account of this Arctic adventure in the bird wonderland under the midnight sun.

My journey started smoothly with a trip to Manchester airport and a hassle free passage through to the departure lounge despite carrying some significantly overweight hand luggage holding the camera equipment. My mobile then bleeped with a text message from Finnair announcing that the first plane of the journey to Helsinki would be delayed by two hours. It took a couple of minutes to realise the ramifications of the short message which meant an almost certain missed connecting internal flight to Ivalo and a need to contact both car hire and the accommodation for the first night to make some rearrangements.

The late arrival in Helsinki meant missing the connecting internal flight by 30 minutes and a forced stay in an airport hotel until the next available plane the following morning. After checking in, a quick walk around to stretch the economy class legs revealed some Fieldfare at the back of the hotel. What caused me to go and collected the camera was the presence of a number of recently fledged birds, which is a sight that cannot be seen in the UK as they are winter visitors. This was not how I had planned to take my first photographs in Finland but it would be a good warm exercise.

The adult birds stayed in the trees above keeping a watchful eye over their new brood.

Down below most of the fledglings were hopping around on the ground except the youngest looking nird that was perched on a low branch.

The young birds were unconcerned by the presence of the camera and a few photographs were taken over the following hour.

Resting in the shade of a tree.

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Checking out the work of the local lumberjack

and generally appearing to enjoy soaking up the rays of some late evening sun.

The next post will see me continue my journey northwards and up into the Arctic Circle and finally put some new species in front of the lens.

Heading Northwards

Western Oak Woods

If you gave me a a choice to go in photograph birds in any woodland in the UK, the is one type that stands way above the rest. The Western Oak Wood in Spring. These wonderful ancient places with their twisted sessile oaks shrouded in moss and lichens explode in to life for a short period with the arrival and breeding of the three typical summer migrant bird visitors. As you sit in one of these woods, apart from being chewed by the local insects, you can almost feel the place vibrate with the frantic bird activity. The three birds are in my opinion some of the most beautiful small birds to regularly visit the UK and to have them all present in on place is particularly special.

The first of the trio, the Wood Warbler, is probably the most diffcult to photograph as it tends to favour the high tree canopy where it continually bursts in to atmospheric accelerating trill which is then followed by descending mournful notes. Aptly named as one of the group of 'leaf warblers'.

Occasionally you will come across a more obliging bird that comes lower down.

On these occasions the birds always seem to be slightly inquisitive.

It is the males of the next species, the Pied Flycatcher, which often catch the eye as a tiny monochrome bird drops from the tree to the ground to grab a caterpillar.

From my experience the male birds are generally easier to photograph and tend to sit in a spot longer than the females. A shaft on sunlight breaking through the leaves overhead just spotlit where this male was perched.

Another male on a typically moss covered fallen branch

The female is less striking with her brown colours but still a visually appealing bird with those large eyes.

The final bird of the trio, the Common Redstart, is a bird for which I have a great deal of affection. I have spent a great many hour photographing them, the results of which has built in to a very large library of images. However, I can never grow tired of photographing this species. They are surprising similar to a robin but with a constantly flicking red tail which is often the most obvious feature when one flies past.

A female taking a short break from nest sitting duty as revealed by her ruffled belly feathers.

The male with his superb combination of colour. A brilliant white forehead, set in black leading in to a slate grey back and red tail. When you first see a male up close for the first time through the lens it makes you stop in you tracks.

The males are also quite inquisitive if they suspect you are there but cannot see you.

I cannot think of better way of spending the days of May than in such fine company and wonderful surroundings and I am sure next May will see me turning the camera towards these species once more.