ONE HUNDRED

Today, My Big Year project ticked species number one hundred for the year! And what a bird it was. I am currently in the far north eastern part of Norway, in a small fishing village called Båtsfjord located on the Varanger penninsula. This is actually as far east as Istanbul, Turkey! Yesterday was a travel day, and I spent 18 hours to get here. Compare this to a trip I made in November last year to the Antarctica, where I spent 22 hours to get to Ushuaia on the very souther tip of Argentina and you get some idea of the challenges and effort it takes to do a Big Year in Norway.

This is my third winter in a row I visit Båtsfjord. The last times has been to do photography of the stunning arctic sea ducks, namely the King eider (praktærfugl) and the Steller's eider (stellerand). This time however, I am here to search for a Snowy owl (snøugle) that was seen here last Friday. I consider this to be one of the most difficult birds to get (at least of the breeding ones in Norway), so when I got to hear about it I had booked my tickets already 15 minutes later.

However, the northeastern Norway is very weather beaten and today was no exeption. It was horribly cold, even for a Norwegian. Temperature was minus 14 celsius, which isn't too bad, but when you add 40-45 knots of wind on top of that it makes your cheeks burn a bit....Too bad weather for searching for the owl though, but I anyway go something to celebrate.

In Båtsfjord, the small eco-tourism company Arctic Tourist has a photography hide for the Arctic sea ducks. We got plenty! About 200 king eiders only a couple of meters away and about 20 Steller's eiders were feeding close as well. Sometimes too close to photograph them (!).

King Eider was indeed a worthy 100th species of the year. Closely followed by the even more stunningly beautiful Steller's eider as number 101.

King eider in stormy conditions

This beautiful bird was a worthy 100th species of the year!

With these images, I was honored to open the photography hide season for Arctic Tourist. Februrary is a very good time to photograph these amazing birds, and there are still some available space during February, while March is starting to be pretty full. So hurry up if you want to photograph the guys close up.

Male Steller's eider - equally fantastic as the king eider.

Other species added to the list was Glaucous gull (polarmåke) and Waxwing (sidensvans). In the evening, the wind eased a little bit, and we went night spotting for the owl without any results except for a red fox and some reindeer as well as northern lights dancing on the sky. Will continue the search the next days, and fingers crossed that this enigmatic bird that has eluded me all these years finally will cross my path.

New species: 4

Total: 103

-EG-

Colourful Safari

Båtsfjord in Northern-Norway has long been considered one of the best places to photograph the king eider (praktærfugl) and steller's eider (stellerand). These two bird species are so colourful, that they easily match any exotic rainforest bird any day and has always been high on any birdwatcher's "want to see" list. The birds breed in Siberia, and start to arrive Båtsfjord in late November. The number reach a climax in early February. The small company Arctic Tourist has for a few years offered boat trips around the harbour and out in the fjord to see and photograph these birds. Arctic Tourist has now improved their service, and are offering a floating hide to get even better pictures. I spent a few days testing this hide last week, and from the very first minute I was very impressed with how well it works. The birds simply didn't care at all, and many times I had both king eiders and steller's eider within one meter distance! The hide is mobile, and we tested different locations and back grounds. I think we found the best spot at the end, even though the back ground might feel a bit tight at times there are a lot birds to choose from. A steller's eider female had her favourite dive spot just four meters away. All day I was companied by about 40 king eiders, 60 long-tailed ducks (havelle) and 10 stellers ducks. Grey seals often popped their head up as well, but were usually on a bit longer distance.

The hide is not a luxury one, but has room for two and you can choose between openings so you can sit comfortably on a chair taking pictures from about 1 meter above sea level (easier for flight and action), or you lay flat on comfortable sleeping mats and reindeer skins (to keep you warm) and use the lower lids where you are only about 30cm above sea level. For these lower ones, I highly recommend an angle view finder on your camera to avoid a stiff neck. The hide is built like a small hut, and you are sheltered from the weather but it is non heated.

Arctic Tourist is building new hides as we speak - a bigger one for 8 people is planned as well as one that you can drive around in with the help of an electrical outboard engine. It remains some testing to see if this works well though.

Båtsfjord is well north of the Arctic circle and lights returns in late January. Arctic Tourist plans to start their bird hide season from 1st February until some time in early April when the birds migrate to Russia. I was there mid Februrary and the daylight hours were from 0730am - 1500pm. Early February has more birds, but less behaviour. March has less birds but more displaying birds which is an advantage for more interesting behaviour shots. Båtsfjord is a very small fishing village, but there is both a hotel and nice motel in town as well as an airport and a number of food stores.

I can highly recommend a visit in the hides of Arctic Tourist. For more information, please see the website: www.arctictourist.no. They also offer other trips in the area such as king krab safari and trips to the famous bird cliffs Syltefjordstauran during summer. Below are a few of the images I've taken the last week from the hide.

 -EG-