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.
 Mr. Steller  Male Oldsquaw  Blizzard Gull |  Mrs. Steller  The Queen  Touching the surface |
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.
| Common Eider (1600+ individuals) King Eider (250+) Steller's Eider (80+) Long-tailed Duck (20) Tufted Duck (1) Mallard (12) Purple Sandpiper (75) Herring Gull (180) Great Black-backed Gull (3) | Glaucous Gull (7) Black-legged Kittiwake (200+) Black Guillemot (5) Great Tit (2) Willow Tit (1) Hooded Crow (20) Eurasian Magpie (3) Eurasian Raven (4) House Sparrow (4) |
The inner fjord of Båtsfjord was packed with Eiders in late March. Mostly Common Eiders, but several hundred King Eiders and about a hundred Steller's Eiders.
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.
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.
Rear view of a drake Steller's Eider
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?
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