Beyond 66.5 Degrees North - Day 8: High Tundra Junction

As the forecast had predicted, we woke to some better weather conditions on day 8.  The wind had eased to a gentle whisper and the cloud above was broken. We had decided that the photography mission for the day was to head to the upland tundra areas with our prime target hopefully being Dotterel.  Given the previous wind conditions we had avoided the upland areas, on the basis that if it was bad at sea level it would be twice as bad at some altitude.

Before I describe the day, I thought I need to mention a little about Dotterel which have remained elusive to me. All bird photographers have a personal 'bogie species', a bird they would love to photograph but despite their efforts, seems to stubbornly refuse to appear in front of the camera. I have tried for Dotterel in the UK,  with the spring passage birds on their northward migration. However, each attempt has ended in failure with the birds departing just before I arrived. To be fair though I have only tried on a couple of occasions so my absence of success is mainly due to a lack of concerted effort on my part. For wildlife photography, as in many of life's pursuit, the more effort you put in the greater the rewards.

We left the hotel and headed west along the fjord befor taking the road northwards along the Tana River Valley, before heading upwards on to the high tundra. Our destination for the day was the road junction at Gedjne which offers a range of upland tundra bird habitat including a series of pools and lakes. Below is a couple of photographs to give you an idea of the landscape. There were still areas of deep accumulation of snow in places and the snow cliff along the small river valley in the photograph below was about 6 metres high.

On arrival at the road junction, we spotted a male Long-tailed Duck in the roadside pool with which to start the day's photography.

On the pool on the other side of the road was a pair of Red-Throated Diver but we would return to them later after we went looking for our main target bird of the day, the Dotterel. We headed directly to an area where we had been told we may find some of the 'elusive' birds and  came off the main road and headed up to a plateau area along a dirt track. As we came up to the summit, there in plain view by the side of the track was a male Dotterel.

After taking a few photographs from the car and scanning round we also found the more boldly coloured and marked female. We parked up and then spent around 40 minutes carefully photographing the birds on foot, aware that this is a sensitive time for the birds and not wishing to cause any disturbance. A selection of these images are below.

A great start to what would be our last full day in Norway. As we were up on the plateau passing bird watchers must have seen us and decided to travel up the track to see what we had found. Soon three cars were heading up the track towards us. When asked if we had seen any Dotterel, we replied that we had seen one flying off as we did not want the birds to be subject to the pressure from this sudden deluge of people.

We came off the plateau and parked up by a lake next to the main road and decided it was time for some food and we raided the diminishing supermarket supplies in the boot. It was pleasant sat by the lake eating cheese and crackers watching the antics of ruff in the reeds on the far bank. Even the sun was doing its best to try and break through the clouds overhead.

Returning to the road junction area it was obvious that these lakes were alive with birds. Suddenly the lack of birds on the coast through the week all started to make sense. The  unusually warm spell a couple of weeks early had caused the snow and lakes to melt up in the high tundra area and the birds had moved up in response to start their breeding earlier. We spotted some Ruff on the shore of a lake with a low ridge to tuck behind to photograph them from. I only took a couple of photographs as I had my eye on some other species and left Adam to them. I moved back up to the small pool where the Long-tailed Duck was and started photographing some Red-necked Phalarope and also had a Wood Sandpiper working along the lake margin in front of me. Occasional the sandpiper would burst into a short display flight only quickly to return to resume its feeding activities in front of me.

My next target was in the small pool on the other side of the road where there was a pair of Red-throated Diver. It was cloudy at first so I waited there for a while for the sun to break through. Always a pleasure to spend time with these birds.

I then crossed the road junction again and across onto the willow scrub along the margin of the bigger lake where I could hear Bluethroat singing and the trill display flight calls of Temmincks Stint. The Bluethroat were typically being awkward, frequently appearing briefly on the top of the vegetation but always slightly too distance. After a bit of perseverance I managed to get close in on the birds on a couple of occasions with them in a decent setting.

The Stints were hyperactive and whizzing around in fluttering display flights and occasionally landing on top of the low scrub.

Whilst trying to photograph the Bluethroat, I noticed a Ruff working it ways along the edge of the lake towards me. As it got closer I realised it had the colouration of the bird that Adam had been talking about for the past few days. The one he named 'The Purple Prince'. I must admit that I had suggested that such a bird didn't exist but there it was now in all its glory in front of the camera.

The  weather was starting to close in and it had been a long drive to get here so we decided to call it a day on the high tundra and head back to Vadso. After the daily dose of Pizza, we headed back to the hotel. Outside the weather and more importantly the light had become really good. The wind had dropped to nothing and golden light bathed the landscape. We picked up the cameras once again and headed out on to the nature reserve next to the hotel on Vadsoya Island. I was aware Adam had yet to photograph any Red-necked Phalarope and so we headed directly to the pond.

I left Adam with these hyperactive waders and decided to go for a wander to see if there were any other waders along the shoreline. Whether there were any I will never know as I was stopped in my tracks my Arctic Terns. It looks like the absent birds had finally returned and were prospecting an area to set up their nesting colony.

The light was now beautiful and with some gathering dark clouds in the distance made a perfect setting for photographing some of these elegant long-distance travels in flight. Up to this point in the trip opportunities for any flight photography had been virtually non-existent due to conditions. As the birds were inspecting the area for next locations they were frequently hovering over a spot which allowed for some more interesting poses with their wings and tails stretched wide.

One notable difference with the warmer stiller conditions was that it suddenly brought the mosquitoes out. To give you an impression here is Adam walking amongst them.

Circling back towards Adam, I came across one of the resident Mountain Hares and took the opportunity to get a few photographs in some warm soft back-lighting before bring the days events to an end. It had been a long but rewarding day.

Back in the hotel we started packing as we would be checking out in the morning to start the long journey home. By the time I had finished it was around midnight and it was still light and sunny outside. For those of you who haven't seen what the midnight sun is like I took a quick photograph outside the hotel at 12:15am.  As you can see it really does create beautiful light.

There will be one more post to come on this trip which will just tie up the journey home which included a brief stop-off back at Gosbeak Motel.

Immersed in Iceland: Day 8 - Blast Frozen

It was a relatively leisurely start on our eighth day in Iceland and after breakfast had a quick nose around the birch scrub surrounding the hotel. A few photographs of an unusually inquisitive and well coloured Redpoll resulted, a pleasant way to start the day.

It was time to get the 'campervan' back on the road and today the plan was to head slightly north from Borgarnes and west along the Snæfellsnes peninsula. We had no particular destination in mind and just thought we would drive around and see what we would encounter. The forecast looked reasonable and proved correct with some sun and occasional light shower of rain. Unfortunately the forecast was also correct in terms of the wind which particularly strong in the morning and whipped in off the sea in punishingly relentless and icy gusts.  One of those days when getting out the 'campervan'  was a bit like steeping out of a warm bed and straight into a ice cold shower.

Our first stop off was on the south side of the peninsula at a place called Ytri Tunga as there was a sign post that indicated it was a place to see some seals. Of course we were mainly on the look out for birds and we passed a couple of Whimbrel going up to car park by the farm at the end of the track next to the beach. When we picked up the 'campervan' we were warned to be careful with the doors and the strong winds as apparently it is common for the hinges to be damaged by an open door being caught in a gust. As we were parked at the crest of the beach the actual problem was proving to be getting the doors open against the fierce onshore wind.

We were met with a rocky beach interspersed with areas of sand and quickly spotted a few waders dotted about and headed off in our separate directions, enveloped in the arctic blast of wind coming in off the sea. The waders were proving typically evasive as they had the whole trip and after getting a few photographs of a Purple Sandpiper and a Knot, I spotted half dozen summer coloured Sanderling scurrying around a small patch of sand.

I decided the best approach was to work my way round to the sea side of this patch of sand and onto a rock outcrop next to a narrow channel filled with bladderwrack. Here I would tuck myself into the rocks and wait for the Sanderling to appear along the edge of the sand, giving the unusal perspective of looking back towards shore. This also had a slight advantage in that it would offer a small amount of shelter from the wind. The Sanderling plan never really worked out but as I sat there a small flotilla of Eider worked its way inshore up the channel. These generally nervous ducks were unaware of my presence in among the rocks. At this point I actually became grateful for the strong wind and the rough water it was creating. When photographing birds on water my preferred conditions are flat reflective calm or the dynamic atmosphere created by rough water and spray. The Eider worked their way all the way up the channel, right past where I was crouched, and then all the way back again allowing plenty of time to get some photographs.

With the Eider encounter over I thought I should go an try and find some Grey Seals. A short walk along the beach and scramble over some rocks found me face to face with four inquisitive seals bobbing in the water in front of me. However, A grey seal on grey water under grey skies is never going to make a particularly attractive image.

With the tide advancing quickly and the risk of getting cut off at my position, I decided to beat a hasty retreat. Meeting up again with Steve we decided that being blast frozen was not much fun and we would carry on continue exploring the peninsula. On the track from the farm out to the main road we stopped briefly to photograph another Black-tailed Godwit.

We decided to take a road that cut across the mountainous spine of the peninsula as the north coast would likely be more sheltered from the wind and work our way slowly towards the tip.  As we approached a small town, on the outskirts was a tiny pool with a small island. Driving past a elongated shape caught my eye sticking out of one end of the island.

Given the tiny size of the pond this looked like a good photo opportunity. However, before trying and to give time for the light to improve,  we decided to head to the other side of the road where there were some low cliffs above the sea with good numbers of white winged gulls and Fulmars. Importantly our move to get out of the worst of the wind by heading north seemed to have worked. As we walked to the cliff edge the gulls typically moved off a small distance. It was an attractive place with a river tumbling down through the cliff and onto the black sand and pebble beach.

We started off photographing Fulmars which were incredibly close at times landing on the cliff and scything their way through the updrafts. It seemed we spent quite a while their and I think it was nice just to be out of the blasting wind and enjoying a bit of 'warmth' as the sun started breaking through. One Fulmar even landed on the cliff right in front of allowing opportunity for some full frame head photos. I love the structure and colour of the beaks in these tube nose petrels.

 As we stood there on the cliff edge there was a steady trickle of passing gulls. Tending to ignoring the Herring Gulls (which I can photograph any day at the bottom of my street), we concentrated on the adult Glaucous Gulls, mottled juvenile Iceland Gulls and occasional menacing Greater Black Backed Gull.

The sun was now out and it was time to head across the road to try the Red Throated Divers. Lying in the sun by the edge of this still pond, with half dozen Red-necked Phalarope paddling around in front of us, it felt like we were on a different planet from the conditions we faced on the beach in the morning.

The pair of divers slowly drifted up and down the small pond which provided a great location for photographing the birds. The tranquility of the scene was slightly interrupted by occasional passing cars on the main road and the clattering and banging of a car repair garage behind us.

We left the pond and headed a couple of hundred metres down the road and in to the town to grab some food. Heading out of town there was a high waterfall tumbling off the hill side and we stopped briefly to take a couple of photographs. Obviously I was trying to photograph more fulmars here ;)

With no real destination in mind we naturally followed the north coast along to the tip of the peninsula and where a quick internet search suggested there was a small sea bird colony. Small would be a good description with a few Kittiwake and Fulmar having taken up residence on the low volcanic cliffs.

These ended up being the last bird photographs we took that day. Time was pushing on and we had quite a long drive now to get back to Borgarnes. Also as soon as we rounded the end of the peninsula we were back in the full force of the blast freezer wind which created some reluctance to leave the warm comfort of the 'campervan'. On our journey back to Borganes we occasionally stopped to take a few landscape photos as our respective other halves always like to have a few photos to gain an impression of the places we have visited.

One of the many lava fields

Arriving back in Borgarnes it was quite late and we stopped for a bite to eat before heading back to the hotel. It had been an interesting day exploring the peninsula and it had produced quite a good variety of birds even though our route was made up on the move. The next day it would be time to move on again as we would head back down into the south-west corner of Iceland. Going to bed I set my alarm clock to 'your going to feel like a zombie in the early afternoon setting' as I thought I would go out for a very early morning wander round the birch scrub surrounding around the hotel again before we headed south.....