Home»Arctic Norway - March & April 2016
A stunning place to visit and one of the most memorable trips I've done, the timing of which was to coincide with the some of the arctic wintering species such as King Eider and Steller's Eider still being present, before their spring departure to breeding grounds further north and east. A joint trip with JHo, it covered the period 29th March to 4th April, when daylight hours were around 5.00am to 7.30pm.
Based around Varangerfjord at virtually the northernmost point of Continental Europe, a 1,000 miles north of southern Norway, 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle and located further east than Istanbul, it's probably the easiest place in Europe to see arctic wildlife. A sparsely populated area, with just the odd fishing village of any size, it genuinely feels remote.
Some terrific locations visited including Pasvik Valley (a forested area, part of the Siberian taiga, which runs south alongside the borders with Russia & Finland with its Hawk Owl, calling Tengmalm's Owl, Capercaillie, Black Grouse, Willow Grouse, Siberian Jay, Pine Grosbeak and Siberian Tit), Vadsøya on Varangerfjord where the hotel was based (great spot for Arctic Hare and the Northern Lights), the floating hide at Bâtsfjord and the ride around the fjord itself on a RIB (ridiculous close views on King Eider, Steller's Eider and Long-tailed Duck), crossing the high tundra (Ptarmigan here), the huge seabird colonies at Hornøya, an offshore island close to Vardo (Brünnich's Guillemot amongst the usual auks), plus the birch woodland of Vestre Jakobselv (Lesser Spotted Woodpecker the highlight here).
Didn't miss much by way of targets, maybe Arctic Redpoll and Gyrfalcon (the latter of which we'd seen in Iceland). Other than Reindeer (still looked after by the indigenous Sami people/Laplanders) and Arctic Hare, mammals were a struggle - Arctic Fox, Wolverine, Lynx, Wolf and Bearded Seal were all very slim possibilities and not that surprisingly we didn't see any of them. Brown Bear also present in the area would still be hibernating this time of year.
Unbelievably lucky with the weather, great light for photography and generally sunny with no wind chill, so even though the temperatures were around freezing, at times a fleece was fine. Impressive sunsets, a snowy landscape, wide open vistas, blue sea, blue sky and mountains all added to the experience.
Numerous highlights included the trip out to the seabird colonies of Hornøya, superb displays of the Northern Lights at Pasvik Valley and Vadsø, flocks of arctic seaduck from the floating photo hide and RIB at Båtsfjord, close range views of taiga species of bird at feeders in Pasvik Valley, plus Reindeer roaming on the tundra with Varangerfjord as a fitting backdrop.
