Finnmark is an exceptional birding destination. In the summer it can offer a
taste of the arctic and of the east as well as breathtaking scenery and nights
that never get dark.
This trip was my third to Finnmark following ones in May 2011 and March
2012. My partner in crime for this trip was fellow Rarities Committee member
Bjørn Olav Tveit and we had an aim for the trip to find something to trouble
our fellow committee members aswell as to see as many of the specialities as
possible.
For me the chance of finding Arctic Warbler (lappsanger) and Little Bunting
(dvergspurv) was the number one priority as my previous visits have been too
early for these birds. Tradition says that they don't arrive until the third
week of June but in recent years there have been earlier records with perhaps
global warming having a say? Also this May has been exceptionally hot in the
far north so things were likely to be early this year.
To maximise birding we planned to sleep in the car and sleep as little as
possible. We managed to stick to our plan although for Bjørn who had just
returned from a few days in Amsterdam this meant quite a lot of additional
sleeping in the passenger seat.
We landed in Kirkenes at 11am on Thursday 13 June but took 45 minutes to get
on the road as our hire car was not ready. We birded our way towards Varanger
with the big highlight being a singing male Arctic Warbler (lappsanger) at the
classic locality of Neiden Church. This was the first observation this year in
Norway of this late arriving migrant but already the next day there was a
report of three birds in the area. We first picked it up on song which is a
trill slightly reminiscent of Wood Warbler (bøksanger) of which there was also
one in the area. Having seen Greenish Warbler (østsanger) only a few weeks ago
it was great to gets its cousin and appreciate the plumage differences
between the two.
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| singing male Arctic Warbler (lappsanger). Look at that supercilium! |
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| looks a bit less special here but the wing band(s) are visible |
Close by were also a number of Long-tailed Skuas (fjelljo) resting by the
fjord. Judging by the number of pellets in the area they are finding enough
food although they did not seem to be breeding.
We worked our way along the Varangerfjord from Varangerbotn to Nesseby to
Vadsø without finding anything particularly rare but there were Red-necked
Phalaropes (svømmesnipe), fine summer plumaged Bar-tailed Godwits (lappspove),
a flock of Taiga Bean Geese (sædgjess), Arctic Skuas (tyvjo) and White-tailed
Eagles (havørn) to entertain us.
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| the pond at Nesseby with Red-necked Phalarope just metres away |
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| Red-necked Phalarope (svømmesnipe). Note the mosquitos on the water which are the food source for so many birds |
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| slightly different angle |
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| Bar-tailed Godwits (lappspove). Note the different plumages related to sex and age. The reddest birds being adult males, the orangy birds females and the white birds probably in their 1st summer |
We slept the night just after the small village of Skallelv by a small bay.
I slept in the car and Bjørn outside where some curious sheep woke him early in
the morning.
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| Bjørn Olav sleeping |
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| inquisitve sleep taken from my hotel room |
The next day we continued up the coast to Vardø and then to the literal end
of the road at Hamningberg. We visited (after first driving a long way up a
wrong track) an area of marshes about 7km from the coast that was quite simply
excellent. Six Little Gulls (dvergmåke) looked like they were thinking of
breeding, there were Ruff (brushane), Long-tailed and Arctic Skuas (tyvjo) plus
loads more. We decided this would be a good place to spend the night especially
as there was a new and pleasant toilet there (always an important factor when
sleeping in the car).
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| All the mod cons |
Our time in Vardø was mostly spent going through many hundred Herring Gulls
(gråmåke) waiting for fish in the harbour where we turned up a few colour
ringed birds and four 1
st summer Glaucous Gulls (polarmåke). I will
have a separate post later on the gulls (optional reading!).
Also from Vardø our only King Eider of the trip - a male but probably in its
2nd summer hence not quite full plumage and in the harbour a relatively close Brunnich's Guillemot (polarlomvi).
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| Brunnich's Guillemot (polarlomvi) |
During the day we had good numbers of Red-throated Pipits which allowed
themselves to be photographed and both Arctic (polarsisik) and Common Redpoll
(gråsisik). North of Vardø a White-billed Diver (gulnebblom) was the highlight
for us. It was not an adult but its plumage seemed to be too advanced for a
bird in its 2cy. I have not managed to find out what 3cy birds look like but
suspect this was one.
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| Common Redpoll (gråsisik). Despite the cold colours note the large dark feather in the undertail coverts and broad barring on the flanks |
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| same bird as above. Note also the strong bill |
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| Arctic Redpoll (polarsisik). Not always easy to seaprate from its Common counsin but note the pure white undertail coverts and rump, very little streaking and small bill |
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| Red-throated Pipit (lappiplerke) |
We headed back to the marshes for the night and checked out some very low
roadside cliffs which we had been told were a Gry Falcon location. We spotted
an extensive area of droppings and then a large falcon flew in.
Unfortunately it was only (?) a Peregrine but nice all the same. It doesn’t
seem possible that falcons could breed here but it looks like a suitable
resting place between hunting missions. At the marshes as we heated up our
dinner we were treated to displaying Jack Snipe with at least two birds in the
air. They make the most incredible noise that is likened to a galloping horse
and I had always wanted to hear one. We slept heavily and looked forward to an
early start and more displaying waders.
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| Adult Peregrine Falcon (vandrefalk) - it should have been a Gyr (jaktfalk) |
When we awoke at 4am we couldn't open the boot of the car and it was clear
that the battery was flat. We had chosen automatic hybrid car for ease of driving
and also in silent mode it is great for listening for singing birds in the
forest whilst driving. The downside is that it cannot be jump started so we
needed help. We also needed to have mobile coverage! We walked nearly a
kilometre before we could ring for help. Help took a little over an hour to
arrive (impressive hey?)
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| help on the way |
and in the mean time we enjoyed Bar-tailed Godwits,
tundra Bean Geese, Bluethroats (blåstrupe), Lapland Buntings (lappspurv),
Rough-legged Buzzard (fjellvåk), Ruff and Arctic and Long-tailed Skuas amongst
many others. We also had a fox methodically walking the area searching for
nests or young birds and attracting lots of attention from nesting birds – in
fact it was a good, if unfortunate, way of what was out there.
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| Long-tailed Skua (fjelljo) |
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| Bluethroat (blåstrupe) |
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| Lapland Bunting (lappspurv) |
On the road again at 0630 we headed for Nesseby where we had seen that there
had been some good numbers of seabirds the evening before. This site is at the
western end of Norway’s only east facing fjord and can produce some good
seabirds with Europe’s only (?) Soft-plumaged Petrel its best record. Winds had
turned from favourable easterlies to northerlies so there was less to see but
two summer-plumaged Little Auks (alkekonge) were very unexpected.
We gave it a couple of hours and then headed towards Pasvik. Our second service
station hamburger confirmed that petrol stations have now cracked the code and
with renewed energy we headed south into the tongue of land called the Pasvik
valley that is Norway but should really be Russia or Finland. We stopped
regularly to check stand of birch trees for Arctic Warblers or Little Buntings.
It took a while but we finally heard a song familiar from the iphone. Little
Bunting! A male showed really well and I managed decent pictures and video.
What a great bird and a tick that has been a long time coming.
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| Little Bunting (dvergspurv) |
After enjoying this bird we headed deeper into Pasvik. The river at
Skrøytnes held good numbers of ducks and waders and also flycatching Waxwings
(sidensvans).
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| View over the taiga in Pasvik with Russia and the industrial plant at Nikkel in the distance |
We searched for Red-flanked Bluetails (blåstjert) but couldn't locate any
and then decided that we would spend the night searching marshes for displaying
Broad-billed Sandpipers (fjellmyrløper) and Jack Snipes. We drove roads until
they were impassable and then walked, visited suitable marshes two or three
times but heard nearly nothing. We had been told that nightime was the best
time for these species in Pasvik and with no wind listening conditions were
good although some drizzle was perhaps not good (especially for my camera). We
kept going until 4 am but with little to show for our troubles and just slept
in the car in full field dress. Awaking slightly refreshed at 7am nearly the
first noise we heard was a galloping horse. So much for Jack Snipe being a
nocturnal displayer!
Buoyed by this we set out for the Tommamyra marsh supposedly teeming with
our two target waders. It took a while to walk out as I managed to literally
take us in circles but with subsequent good use of GPS we eventually found our
way to the marsh. There were waders but not the hoped for ones. Breeding Spotted
Redshank shouldn't be looked down upon though.
An unexpected bonus from our wanderings though was at least four singing
Little Buntings which gave us eight in total - a pretty respectable count for
this rare breeding bird.
After some searching we found ourselves Siberian Jay (lavskrike) and
Siberian Tit (lappmeis) although Pine Grosbeak (konglebit) evaded us. We also
had singing Parrot Crossbill (furukorsnebb) and a close meeting with a pair of
Hazel Grouse (jerpe) but a steamed up camera allowed me no pictures.
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| Siberian Tit (lappmeis) |
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| Waxwing (sidensvans) |
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| Parrot Crossbill (furukorsnebb) |
Another visit to Skrøytnes was very productive. With no wind and great light we
were able to pick out many birds. 31 Smew (lappfiskand) of which only 2 were 2
females was a huge count as was 14 male Shovelers (skjeand) and three Garganey
(knekkand) were rare so far north. 15 minutes of adrenalin came from a distant
1st summer plover that eventually flew and revealed black armpits and hence
meant it was a Grey Plover (tundralo) but before that had been the subject of a
conversation as to whether it originated from America or the Pacific. Amongst
the many other birds here were some Ruff with a little display from a couple of
the males, Little Gulls, a Great Grey Shrike (varsler), Waxwings, Little Stint
(dvergsnipe) and nesting Wood Sandpipers (grønnstilk) which sat on tree tops by
the path shouting at us.
Our final push for the day was to find more easterly warblers or buntings and
we located a new singing Arctic Warbler but couldn't relocate the first Little
Bunting from the day before.
Our trip was great fun and very full on. This write up does not do it justice
but hopefully the pictures and videos (to come soon) will. We had in total 120
species and saw most of the specialities for Varanger and Pasvik. Missing were
Steller’s Eider (stellerand) which has not been reported for a month or so and
is now becoming very unreliable in the summer here probably as a result of a
declining population. Pine Grosbeak was a surprising absence from our list and
raptors and owls were generally scarce with no Gyr Falcon (jaktfalk) and the
only owl a Short-eared (jordugle).
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| Sedge Warbler (sivsanger) was relatively common and far more showy than in southern Norway |
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| male Brambling (bjørkefink) - a common and pleasant site all over Finnmark in the summer |
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| more phalaropes. It was difficult deciding which picture was best.... |