Yeah, right! Publish a photographic blogpost from Båtsfjord in March with no pictures of drake King Eiders? Sounds like an brilliant idea to get no hits on a webpage... Well, my last post covered only drake King Eiders from Båtsfjord, so I suppose "my" audience has seen enough of them for a while :-) The thing is that there are lots of other stunning birds in Båtsfjord during late winter.

I spent the afternoon on 22 March birding the inner part of the Båtsfjord fjord. The weather was nothing to brag about, so most of the birding was from the car. I recorded 18 different species, but as you can read from the list below there were lots of birds, and several species of high quality ;-) In addition there were three different Grey Seals in the harbour.

The rarity highlight of the day was no less than a Tufted Duck! It's not an annual species during winter in Finnmark. Coming from a good wintering site for the species, I was not too intrigued by it's prescense. I chose to focus on the magnificent Arctic seaducks.

In the afternoon the mountain opened for convoy driving again, and I prepared myself for another exertion behind the wheel. It was the same shit as yesterday, but once again I survived. I was on my way to Vardø and the Gullfest 2013. Unfortunantely the snow blizzard lasted all along the Varanger fjord to Vardø. On arrival I was blessed with a cold Arctic beer. My roommates Arild, Carsten, Morten, John Martin, Anders and me went to the first talks of the Gullfest.

Once more, if you want to visit Båtsfjord to get an experience for a lifetime, contact Ørjan Hansen via his website Arctic Tourist. All Eider species can be photographed at close range from his floating photo-hide. The season is January to April. The Arctic seaducks disappear during the breeding season. Both Steller's and King Eiders may breed far east of Finnmark. Some of them maybe as far as the Bering Strait?

I left Vadsø and the brilliant birds there, and headed for Båtsfjord in the afternoon 22 March. I was up for one of the most breathtaking birding moments of my life, but had to pass severe obstacles before that.

The drive to Båtsfjord is supposed to last 2 1/2 hours. However, the weather became so bad that Båtsfjordfjellet (the only road to Båtsfjord passes here) had to close. Some time in the evening the cars were allowed to drive in a line behind a large snow-showeler. The weather was terrible, and both the window-lashes and tires did not always respond the way I wanted.

After a pretty devastating ride I met up with Ørjan Hansen, the director of Arctic Tourist. He offers several birding products, ranging from eagle safaris to close-up photography of sought-after species. Most famous is his floating hide targeted at Arctic seaducks such as King and Steller's Eider. Tomorrows todo!

Ørjan picked me up at 5 a.m. and we, a woman from southeastern Norway with an interest for photography and myself, went directly to the hide. Just minutes after our entry the ducks came! It was still rather dark, but despite of the blizzard and extreme wind conditions nearby, the hide was impressively stable. The light was not good at all, but the shapes and colors of the King Eiders compensate for whatever I lost. Being present in the hide without disturbing the feeding eiders at all, felt completely unreal when parties of all three eiders passed just an arm-length away. Here are some pictures of different drakes, all shot with 400 mm and Canon 7d or 5d mk II. Click to view large.

On this post you only find the ultimate speciality of Båtsfjord, the King Eider. I will follow up with a post covering other birds (including the royal females) in Båtsfjord in a few days. The season for King Eiders is all winter, but if you want to do some serious photography from the hide, choose February-March. Then the King Eiders and other seaducks are still there, and the light has returned. Don't hesitate to contact Ørjan (link above).

Birdlife Norway, my employer, is part of a project aiming to boost and enhance the bird tourism in Finnmark county. During a week in late March 2013 I visited some of the people offering products for birders and bird photographers. First up was two days in Vadsø, the coastal end in the south of the Varanger peninsula. See the map on the bottom of the page.

I arrived Vadsø in Finnmark county, northern Norway in the afternoon 21 March to meet up with Øyvind Zahl Arntzen, the manager of Arntzen Arctic Adventures. Øyvind offers several products for the nature enthusiast, and I was about to experience two of them. This afternoon we went out with his unique floating hide, which is a rebuilt boat with cover, suitable for four photographers and the driver. The engine was run by solar power, and completely quiet. We circled around in the harbour for an hour or so, and thanks to Øyvinds knowledge about the birds behaviour we came close to several diving ducks, where the enigmatic Steller's Eider was the target. There were less than a hundred present in the inner harbour this afternoon, and we drove around the small flocks, and drifted alongside them without disturbing.

Other birds present in the harbour area was Common Eiders, Long-tailed Ducks, Red-breasted Mergansers, Mallards, Black Guillemots, Purple Sandpipers, a Black-headed Gull, Great Black-backed and Herring Gulls, and the numerous Black-legged Kittiwake.

Early in the morning the 21st we drove some 20 kilometers west of Vadsø. Øyvind prepared his snow scooter, and I was placed in a sledge behind the vehicle. We drove into the Birch forest, and ended up in Varanger Birdpark. This site has several feeders for passerines, a raptor hide, nesting boxes for owls, redstarts and other passerines, as well as a large well equipped cabin that may be rented.

At the time I was there it was the passerine feeders that gathered birds. Small parties of redpolls (mainly Arctic, but also some Mealy visited the feeders, and gave splendid photo opportunities even without us hiding. A few Great Tits hung around, as well as two Siberian and a Willow Tit. Close to the park a Three-toed Woodpecker entertained us with its drumming all through the stay. Other birds recorded in the park this morning was Raven, Hooded Crow, Greenfinch and Bullfinch.

Last year Øyvind had attractive species like Hawk Owl, Tengmalm's Owl, Common Redstart and Siberian Tit breeding in nest-boxes during the summer. We went on a little snow scooter drive to more elevated areas, to look for owls and whatever, but did only manage to see a couple of Siberian Tits during a sudden snow blizzard that came over us.

There are only hours left until take-off to a week in Arctic Norway. The target is Varanger in Finnmark county. Finnmark is the northernmost mainland in Europe, and is probably the hottest destination in Norway for foreign birders. Placed at a latitude of up to 71 degrees north and a longitude similar to Istanbul, the fauna is both both unique and hard-faced.

On 16 March seabirds were counted from a height near Vardø. More than 400 000 alcids, 7 500 King Eiders and 12 000 Common Eiders were counted from a single point. Stunning numbers, and I really look forward enjoying them live!

The alcids have just returned for their breeding season at Hornøya ("Horn island") just outside Vardø. Hornøya holds thousands of pairs of Atlantic Puffins, Common and Brunnich's Murre (Guillemot), Razorbill, Kittiwakes and Shags. In addition thousands of gulls will be around at any time. The gulls will mainly be Herring, Glaucous and Great Black-backed, but we will also meet Iceland Gulls and Black-legged Kittiwakes. There is also a faint chance of seeing oddities like Ross's Gull and maybe Glaucous-winged Gull? The latter was seen a few years ago, the only Norwegian record up to date, in Vardø town.

In April 2012 the first Arctic bird festival was arranged in Norway, namely the Gullfest. This year it is moved a bit forward, to 21-26 March. During the Gullfest participants will be fed with a spectacular program including ringing of Arctic gulls, visiting the Hornøya bird cliff (where tens of thousands alcids have returned), talks from several established birders and much more...

I am representing the Norwegian Ornithological Society in a project developing Finnmark as a birding destination. During my visit in Varanger I will also meet some people offering birding adventures for tourists. Exciting projects with floating hides and boat trips for photography, feeders set up to attract Arctic passerines and more.

Steller's and King Eiders, Glaucous and Iceland Gulls, Gyr Falcon, Brunnich's Guillemot, Arctic Redpolls and tens of thousands other birds - here I come! Hopefully I will serve some snapshots from the trip during the week. Stay tuned for more!

March is a good month for building and placing nest-boxes for passerines. Did you know that it is possible to offer Oystercatchers and Mew Gulls man-made residence as well? An easily constructed platform mounted on top of a pole may serve as a perfect nesting site for the two species. Both species breed in April and May, so it is time to build the platforms now if you want them breeding this spring.

Along the shore in Porsanger, Finnmark county (map below) you can see 2-3 meter high poles with small "fenced" platforms on top. They are placed there for the birds. These pictures were taken 21 May 2011.

Both the Oystercatcher and Mew Gull usually breed on the ground. The breeding success of such species is often correlated to the local predatory pressure. Obviously, a platform such as these makes the nest unaccessible for four legged predators, such as cats and minks. In addition they will not get any problems with high tides or waves visiting their nest. At least it seems they prefer platforms before the traditional ground in this area, possibly because of increased breeding success.