We are whiling away the summer at our cabin near Bodø, north
of the Arctic Circle. Temperatures have hit 30C (in the shade – no kidding!)
and it is over 20C in the sea. Birding has been just an incidental activity and
I have spent more time in our newly acquired rubber boat trying my fishing luck
– so far I have only managed to feed the family on one occasion when a decent
sized cod was careless enough to take the lure although I have had a number of
fish that were small enough to deserve a second chance.
There a number of “comic” terns in the area and I have
always had problems in deciding what they are which I eventually concluded is
because both Arctic (rødnebbterne) and Common Tern (makrellterne) are breeding
here. That I am losing my touch though came with a small breeding colony that I
found and was able to observe through bins. I convinced myself they were Common
Terns but the pictures show them to be Arctic. My only defence was that it was
overcast and difficult light conditions...
I have seen Arctic (tyvjo) and Long-tailed Skua (fjelljo)
and a migrating flock of Cranes but strangest sighting must be this
White-tailed Eagle which seems to be missing a major part of its wing rather
than just moulting some feathers. It flew without any problems and as can be
seen was able to catch food.
 |
| Arctic Skua |
 |
| Arctic Tern |
 |
| Fritilary Butterfly of some description |
 |
| White-tailed Eagle missing a chunk of wing |
 |
| midnight sun |
No comments:
Post a Comment