" ...though we travel the world to find the beautiful,
we must carry it with us, or we find it not "
Emerson (1803-1882)

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Hornøya highlights











Spring blizzard on the island shortly after my arrival - kind of messed up our work plans and buried a few nests... swept away a few low-placed kittiwake nests... made life a bit exciting for a day or so!


And midnight sun....

Hornøya




























































I spent the last 2+ weeks on another island: Hornøya is a small Nature Reserve off Vardø's coast. That's pretty close to Russia, for those who wonder where the heck the small town of Vardø is - Vardø is almost as far North and East as you can go, for towns in Norway. It's a nice town, with a fabulous backdrop of the Finnmark plateau - snowy, gravelly hills stretching forever with not a lot of human life out there (plenty of reindeer and lemmings mind you).

I was helping out with Greater-Black backed and Herring gull work.  Shitty... noisy...but fun!
Here are a few shots - the lighthouse is where everyone stays, and there were researchers from all realms gathered there. The social life was great - ask the others... I couldn't take the pace!

And whilst I was up there, I became second-time Aunt!  Yes, my sisters clan are growing. Charlie Matthew deserves a special mention, and was born about the time that the Black-backed gull chicks started to hatch (....a dubious honour perhaps!).