Kittiwake-conflict in Stø / Krykkjekonflikten på Stø

The kittiwake / krykkje / tretåig mås (Rissa tridactyla) is a seabird species breeding on cliffs along the coasts of the north Pacific and north Atlantic. In Norway, the main distribution of kittiwakes is in the northern parts of the country. They are primarily fish feeders, and are much more pelagic than other gulls outside the breeding season and do not scavenge at garbage.

Kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla)

The Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, NINA, have monitored the populations of seabirds in Norway for the last 30 years, and their research show a very clear and dramatic decrease in numbers of kittiwakes in Norway. Since the monitoring started, the population of kittiwakes have decreased by 70-85 % and the number of kittiwakes is now only a small fraction of what it used to be.

This dramatic development has accelerated during the last couple of years and in 2010 the status of kittiwakes on the Norwegian Red-List changed from Vulnerable (VU) to Endangered (EN).

Dead kittiwake under the colony

It was, therefore, with a small shock that I noted that the local colony of kittiwakes here in the fishing village of Stø in Vesterålen in Northern Norway was covered with a large net this season. Already last year there were some small remains of an old net in the upper part of the colony where both dead kittiwakes and kittiwakes entangled in the net were found. Needless to say, the number of breeding pairs also in this colony has now decreased.

Net has been put up in the kittiwake colony to prevent the birds from breeding

Gunnartangen argues that the birds can not get entangled in the net !

Who puts up a net in a colony of an endangered species and why? The answer turned out to be the owner of Gunnartangen Rorbuferie, an operator that offers accomodation in Stø with the slogan on their web-page: "Welcome to a vibrant fishing village in Vesterålen, where you can enjoy the nature both on land and by sea - winter and summer"

Gunnartangen Rorbuferie with the kittiwake colony in the background

 

In an extensive article on NRK (Norwegian News); here it is shown how the owner explains that the kittiwakes are chasing the tourists away, agressively attacking people and that most inhabitants in Stø wants them gone. In addition, he explains that he was there first and that the kittiwakes must leave. He also argues that the net is constructed in a way that the birds can`t get entangeled. The authorities, are, however of another opinion and classifies the net as fauna-criminality.

This is puzzling, because many that offer similar accomodation are happy to have kittiwakes close by and/or on their accomodations, and tourists and guests in the village are delighted to take pictures of the birds and even at a distance of 2m from the birds the kittiwakes hardly even bother to look at you, and they definitely do not attack.

Passing by the kittiwakes is perfectly safe

Dead kittiwake beneath the colony

To point out that the arguments are far from both the truth and the public opinion I have therefore published a short report together with the Norwegian Ornithological Society (NOF) today; NOF-report about the kittiwakes in Stø and I encourage anyone with experience from their stay in Stø to contact Gunnartangen and express their views (good or bad) in order to give the owner a realistic view of what they have experienced. Contact; Gunnartangen Rorbu-Ferie

Like in most fights between endangered species and humans, one side is heavily armed while the
other side doesn`t even know there is a war going on and if there is not room for both people and birds in a fishing village, then something is very wrong indeed...

Transit of Venus / Venus-passasjen

On June 05 and 06, the planet Venus will pass in front of the disc of the Sun - a so-called Transit of Venus - for the last time this century.

The transit of Venus can be seen very well from Norway (early on June 6) and is an historical event that won`t happen again anywhere on Earth in our life-time, so grab the chance to catch this historical event if you are lucky with the weather! In Northern Norway, which now have midnight sun, the entire event is visible.

For detailed information about local times, practical information and how to observe the transit of Venus, I urge all Norwegian readers to have a close look at the following web-site which provides an excellent overview of the event: Venus passasjen 6 juni 2012.

As I wrote in the end of May, a very good and informative overview of the event has also been published by Jan-Erik Ovalsen and can be ordered here: Venuspassasjen 2012 informasjonshefte

For International readers, I recommend  a look at the following web-pages where you will find detailed information about when, how and where to view the event: http://transitofvenus.nl/wp/ or http://old.transitofvenus.org/index.htm


Below is a picture of the Sun with it`s many Sun-spots taken today - 04 June 2012 - with a Nikon DSLR and a home-made Baader solar safety filter.

The Sun, 04 June 2012. Nikon D3, AF-S Nikkor 300 mm with Baader solar filter.

Note the many and large sun-spots that are covering the solar disk.

REMEMBER NEVER EVER too look directly at the Sun as it can cause permanent eye damage. Sun glasses, smoked glass, CD-plates or similar IS NOT ENOUGH. ONLY filters specially designed for the purpose should be used. In Norway, proper glasses for watching the eclipse can be ordered here: http://www.astroevents.no/briller.html

I wish you all clear skies for this rare astronomical phenomenon which will be witnessed by millions of people around the world!

Bird Picture of the Week / Ukens Fuglebilde

The last week has been dominated by strong winds and snowfall here in Northern Norway, and the unusual weather for the season presented me with a candidate for the bird picture of the week.

The Eurasian Dotterel / Boltit / Fjällpipare (Charadrius morinellus) is normally found high up on mountain plateaus during the summer here in the north of Scandinavia. During periods with heavy snowfall late in the summer they are, however, sometimes forced down from the mountains to forage, and yesterday I found a small group of dotterels seeking food on a partly snow-clad lower field.

 

Eurasian Dotterel

North Norwegian Summer / Snø i Stø

After a week of rain, snow and strong winds many of us in Northern Norway are starting to wonder what happened to the summer.

Below is a photo from the fishing village of Stø in Vesterålen, Norway where I am currently working taken on the 31 May.

North Norwegian Summer - Stø, Vesterålen - 31 May 2012

Bird picture of the week / Ukens fuglebilde

Now when the summer has returned to Northern Norway (even though it has been snowing for most of the last week..), a large number of different birds have arrived to their breeding grounds here in the north, and many are still on their way.

During the summer I will therefore start posting a picture each week of the bird-life of the area, with focus on characteristic species of the season.

First out in the series is the Red Knot / Polarsnipe / Kustsnäppa, (Calidris canutus). These beautiful medium-sized waders started to arrive in Northern Norway last week, and can now be seen in huge flocks along our coasts.

Each year, they stop in Northern Norway before continuing their migration to the breeding grounds in the high Arctic.

Solar Eclipse Tonight / Solformørkelse i natt

Tonight, the Moon will pass in front of the Sun, creating a Solar Eclipse. The eclipse is best seen in a band on the Pacific side of the Earth, where a so-called annular eclipse can be seen. During an annular eclipse, the Moon and the Sun are exactly in line (just like during a total solar eclipse) but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun, leaving a "ring of fire" around it, while during a total Solar Eclipse, the entire disc of the Sun is covered by the Moon.

For details on where from our planet the annular eclipse can be seen, I recommend a visit to the NASA Eclipse web-page: Annular Solar Eclipse of 20 May 2012

Here in Norway, the eclipse will be much less impressive and may be rather difficult to see, but from the northern parts of the country it should be possible to catch a glimpse of the eclipse. Since the eclipse will happen just after midnight here in Norway, the northern parts of the country, which now have midnight sun, are favoured.

As seen from Norway, only a tiny fraction of the Sun will be covered by the Moon , but if you have a clear view of the northern horison it should be possible to see the eclipse from around ca 01:20 - 02:20 local time in the morning of 21 May. The solar eclipse of tonight is the second midnight-sun solar eclipse possible to see from Norway within one year, the last one happened on 01 June 2011 (picture below).

The Midnight Sun Eclipse of 01 June 2011 as seen from Tromsø, Norway

The solar disc is covered by the Moon (top) while the Sun was setting

behind a mountain that covers part of the solar disk (bottom).

For detailed information about when and how the solar eclipse can be viewed from various places in the country and instructions on how to best view the eclipse, see the following web-page: Detailed information on how to view the Solar Eclipse from Norway

REMEMBER NEVER EVER too look directly at the Sun as it can cause permanent eye damage. Sun glasses, smoked glass, CD-plates or similar IS NOT ENOUGH. ONLY filters specially designed for the purpose should be used. In Norway, proper glasses for watching the eclipse can be ordered here: http://www.astroevents.no/briller.html

Below is a picture of the Sun with it`s many Sun-spots taken with a DSLR and Baader solar safety filter on 15 May 2012.

The Sun, 15 May 2012. Nikon D3, AF-S Nikkor 70-200 mm with Baader solar filter.

Note the many and large sun-spots that are covering the solar disk.

UPCOMING EVENT - TRANSIT OF VENUS - 06 JUNE 2012

Even if the solar eclipse won`t be so dramiatic as seen from Norway this time, it is a very good idea to get hold of some solar-eclipse glasses now to be ready for the next big event that will take place on 06 June 2012 - the transit of Venus, which can be seen very well from Norway and is an historical event that won`t happen again anywhere on Earth in our life-time. I will post detailed information on the transit of Venus later in good time for the event, but I already now urge you to read more of the event here:

Norwegian readers: Venus passasjen 6 juni 2012. A very good overview of the event has been published by Jan-Erik Ovalsen and can be ordered here: Venuspassasjen 2012 informasjonshefte

International readers: http://transitofvenus.nl/wp/ or http://old.transitofvenus.org/index.htm

Otter / Oter

After having tried several times to get close to an otter (Lutra lutra) with my camera, I have discovered that they are true experts at disappearing, even though you have your eyes on them and know where they are.

Most of my photos of otters have, therefore, been taken either at long distances, or have turned out to be unsharp and blurry in the brief meetings along the slippery tidal zones where they are most frequently encountered here in Northern Norway.

Last week I discovered an otter feeding on a fish far out on a rocky outcrop, and after waiting until it had finished the lunch and went out to sea again, I decided to hide in a place where I thought it likely that the otter would either pass by close or get up to land. Not daring to look up too often, I took the risk of loosing eye-contact with the otter, and so, it suddenly came up very close.

Even though I managed to hide in the right place this time, it is clear, after looking at the photos afterwards, that I have to try to do the same thing again with better light and a nicer background, but it was a nice encounter with a wonderful animal.

Snow Buntings and Snow Huntings

One of the nicest signs-of-spring here in Tromsø in Northern Norway is when the large flocks of Snow Buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis) arrive. To me, they always make me think of some kind of large black-and-white butterflies when they fly around, and their beautiful and rather mournful song stir up many memories from when I lived on Svalbard up in the north. In short, it`s one of my favourite birds.

Snow Bunting - male

After having spent the winter in Russia and adjacent areas, the Snow Buntings migrate north-east in the spring and stop here in Northern Norway before they continue on their long journey to the breeding areas in Eastern Greenland. The coasts of Northern Norway is the last chance for them to refill their body-reserves before undertaking the long flight across the Atlantic, and many of them double their weight before they continue their journey.

Snow Buntings coming in for landing on a grassland patch

The first Snow Buntings usually arrive here in the end of March, but the large flocks arrive somewhat later in April and mix with the local breeding birds. In some years, they pass by the area almost unnoticed, mostly high up in the mountains, but in years with heavy snow-fall in the spring (like this year), they may be seen foraging in large flocks along the coasts and mud-flats and even in the middle of Tromsø city center.

Early in spring, the flocks are dominated by males. The females usually arrive a bit later.

This year, the snow is still falling even though it`s soon mid-May. Other birds, with similar migration patterns and breeding habitats, have also turned up in the large flocks now, and during the last couple of days Lapland Buntings (Calcarius lapponicus) have arrived within the Snow Bunting flocks. During a weekend trip, I spent some time with the birds with my camera in the rather chilly summer weather of Troms.

Two Snow Buntings together with a Lapland Bunting

Two males fighting on top of the snow. The background has been burned out.

The arrival of the Snow Buntings attracts various birds of prey that don`t say no to a well-fed bird. While photographing a flock in the snowfall this Sunday, one of the most formidable hunter of small birds, the Sparrow Hawk (Accipiter nisus), suddenly appeared in the middle of the flock and grabbed a snow bunting for lunch.

With relatively strong winds from the East, it is probably just a matter of days before the majority of them leave now, but soon another nice spring-migrant, the Red Knot (Calidris canutus), is here again, replacing the black and white flocks with flocks of red...

Great Grey Owl / Lappugle

After the first time I saw a Great Grey Owl (Strix nebulosa) in Northern Sweden many years ago, I have always wanted to spend more time with this majestetic big owl of the Northern Forests. This spring, there has been many reports of the great grey from many places over Scandinavia, and finally, I was able to stand eye to eye with the king of the forest again.

I spent too little time in the forests to be able to tell a story about the owls, but most of the daytime was spent resting, and few or no attempts to catch voles was seen during mid-day. In early morning and in the evenings, they started to get more active and with ever-lasting patience, their special hunting-technique often gave result. The food was always eaten directly after capture.

Resting during daytime

Great Grey Owl - Landscape

Early morning

As the evening drew closer, the owls started to get more active and after much waiting suddenly an owl would take off after hearing something under the deep snow. After locating the sound of a vole under the snow-cover, she (or he) hit the snow with amazing precision using the long legs to get down to the vole - a hunting technique that will never stop fascinating me.

Seconds after taking off, the owl often hovered in the air for a fraction of a second for some final fine-tuning, and then dived towards the invisible target under the snow with determination.



  

This time, the owl didn`t manage to catch anything and soon flew away again to start listening again. With the crust on top of the snow being hard, the hunting got more and more difficult and this is probably one of the reasons why so many great grey owls have been reported in areas far south of their "normal" range of distribution.

Portrait - Great Grey Owl

Off hunting in the evening...

Snowy Owl / Snøugle

Seeing a Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus) once in life is a dream for many people, and as a keen biologist, I have always shared that dream. When I moved to the high north of Scandinavia, I knew that I at least had the theoretical chance of seeing the species, but despite a historical good breeding year in 2011, I never managed to see the owl. (I do, however, have a pretty good overview of most of the white stones and owl-shaped lumps of snow in the surroundings... : - )

A fairly stationary young female owl in Lapland offered my first meeting with the great white owl, and even though I had hoped to discover one in the mountains close to where I live, I was not disappointed. What a beauty!

 

During the first day with the owl, she was sitting motionless during pretty much the entire day and showed no signs of hunting, neither in the morning, nor in the evening. The only activity was some occasional cleaning of her plumage or some yawning and stretching. Some locals that we met talked about seeing her feeding on a mountain hare (Lepus timidus) the day before, so maybe she was content and well-fed and was enjoying some rest in the sun.

In the evening, the owl started to get more active. However, the weather during the last days (with really warm days and bitter cold nights), had created an almost impenetrable crust of ice (skare) on top of the snow, making it very difficult for the owl to reach through, and the first hunting attempt was unsuccessful.

Stretching the wings in the evening light

In the afternoon of the second day, the owl successfully caught two voles, both within 40 minutes. With the hard snow cover, I was impressed by this, and it really made me wonder how on earth she could possibly locate and catch the food. Not until I started to look at the pictures during post-processing did I get a more clear idea of the special hunting strategy. The owl saw something I didn`t - which is hardly surprising, but it almost slipped my eyes even when I had it in front of me.

The first successful hunt I saw, happened at quite some distance and the sequence below is composed of 5 hand-held shots with a 300mm lens, showing the owl coming in from the right and chasing a vole that is running on top of the snow to the left, and finally grabbing it in the claws. Why did the vole go up on the snow in the first place? I thought that maybe they simply come up every now and then if the tunnels under the snow are not good enough, and didn`t think much more abount it.

In the sequence below, the reason why the vole had come up on the snow became evident (even though it is hard to see from the pictures taken at such big distance). The little pole/stick to the right in the photos (that I used to center the individual frames) suddenly dissapeared when I was centering the last frame, and that`s when I discovered that it was a weasel (Mustela nivalis) or a stoat/ermine (Mustela erminea).

Probably the weasel had been hunting the vole under the snow, and the vole, trying to escape, came up on the snow, only to find another predator - a hunting owl. Life is hard when you`re a vole! In the last shot of the sequence the weasel returns back in the tunnel under the snow.

The photo must be viewed in large size so see this - the photo below is a 3000x2345 pixels version.

Snowy Owl hunting sequence:

A vole is being scared up to the surface of the snow by a weasel. The vole is then

elegantly caught by the owl while the weasel had to start hunting for another prey.

Snowy Owl - White-Out

 

As the evening came once again, it was time to say goodbye to the owl, and after a day with much overcast weather, the clouds started to slowly drift apart and the waxing moon came out. As the moon shone over the snow-covered landscape, the owl was once again sitting in a nearby tree searching for any signs of food - a very difficult view to leave, but a meeting full of memories.

 

Late evening

Ice Halo

Among the various optical phenomena, the common rainbow is probably the most well known.

Less known, but occurring more frequently, are the various types of ice halos around the sun (or the moon), and now during late winter/early spring halos can be seen rather often (but take care not to look at the sun!).

The various shapes of ice crystals in the upper troposhere can produce many different types of ice halos including coloured or white arcs and spots and below is a picture of the most frequent ones, observed a couple of days ago.

Several different types can be seen in the picture and below is the same version of the picture with labels of the names of the different halos.

Still some beautiful nights left..

The nights above the Arctic circle are rapidly getting lighter and lighter, and soon only the very brightest stars can be seen.

There are, however, still some beautiful nights left and even some auroras have been visible lately, before the night-photography season is over for this time and the midnight sun period will take over.

Below is a photo of the Moon and Venus shining over a silent fjord in Northern Norway. Some rather dramatic clouds heralding a change in weather is adding that little extra bit of drama to the otherwise silent landscape.

Norwegian Fjord with Moon and Venus

Crossbills - (Korsnebber)

The season for northern lights is inevitably coming to an end even if there might still be a chance to see the auroras for a couple of more weeks. Despite high solar activity lately, most parts of Northern Norway have experienced lots of grey and cloudy weather, and only occasionally the green glow of the aurora has been possible to glimpse through the thick cloud-cover.

The nights are getting light quickly now and the spring is marching in with new signs of spring coming almost each day. Birds arrive again from the south to their breeding areas in the north and without the dark skies "Northern Lights Photography" will focus more and more on the Scandinavian wildlife until the next season in September-October - in the year of solar maximum!

First out are some of the early breeders among birds up here - the crossbills. All over Scandinavia, the Two-barred crossbills (Loxia leucoptera) have occurred in higher than usual numbers after an invasion from the north-east (Russia) last year, and in many places they are still around feeding on their favourite food - cones of larch.

Two-barred crossbills (Loxia leucoptera) feeding on larch

Two-barred crossbill (Loxia leucoptera) - male

Two-barred crossbill (Loxia leucoptera) - male

The unusual shape of the bill - giving them the name crossbills - is an adaptation to assist in the extraction of the seeds from the cones as can be seen on the short video-clip of common crossbills (Loxia curvirostra) below:

Common crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) feeding on cones in Tromsø