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!).

May to date

May was a month of transitition, I guess, and started with a superb outing on local hot Norwegian rock at the start of the month.  Spring definitely felt on it's way.  Coastal cragging - nice!

There were also parties on the beach (yes, that is a pig: now sausages...) with friends who were leaving to work elsewhere in Norway, and bicycle rides to support others who were cycling across the country - I accompanied Rene and Tim on their send-off from Vilmarkssenter/Tromso to the ferry port to nearby island of Senja. This involved a 9hr return journey for me, which was painful to say the least (not the sweet goodbyes so much as my ass!).

  

I then journeyed Northwards (Cruise-ship transport - now that's a fine way to commute to work), for a pre-breeding season visit the island of Hjelmsoy with Geir, my new boss for the summer, as I switch from work at the busy dogyard to life in a seabird colony!  Hjelmsoy is where I will spend the most of my summer....  it's a fair-sized island, of several kilometres squared, not far from Nord Cap, which is mainland Norway's Northernmost tip.  Athough as you can see, it was rather snowy for the time of the year, it was already promising to be a hub of seabird activity. I shall be there monitoring kittiwakes, guillimots, puffins... and trying to catch some sleep in the 24h daylight!  We spent a week on the island, checking the progress of the breeding birds. Seems kittiwakes are slow this season, with nests still unbuilt, but gulls nesting and laying already, and plenty of bird life about. There were clouds of snow buntings foraging energetically on bare patches of ground. Ah, it's good to be in the North.  These birds are infrequently seen in the UK, and remind me very much of the two field seasons I spent avoiding polar bears up in Nunavut, Canada.  

'Goodbye Vilmarkssenter' - the expression says it all!

Ice-cream send-off at the ferry port to Senja island.

The fishing-boat transport to Hjelmsoy - a short stop from Havoysund.

But first Trollfjord, a ridiculously big cruise ship - an overnight journey from Tromsø to get to Havoysund.
Leaving Tromso behind.... 


And yes, I sat in this sauna for hours, and actually saw whales swim past at one stage (I had to blink twice!).





My home-to-be for June. Can't wait to be there again!

Ha det bra Vilmarkssenter

Spring has arrived: snow is melting out fast, rain has arrived, the cyclists have flown, and I am off to N Norway for a summer of seabirds.

So, it's -

So long, Vilmarkssenter, and thanks for all the...er... chocolate cake (Jan!)

Hut in the hills

I was away skiing by myself the other week.  I was lucky with the weather for two days, and covered a fair amount of snowy terrain, some of which was pisted... some not. It was an adventure on skinny XC skis with no steel edges on icey pistes and windslab - some spectacular faceplanting with a back pack on! ;)

Ski and sun

Well, I was away for a few days recently (well, almost a month back now but slow to blog about it!). This is what seems to be the National Sport around Easter time. Spring skiing. I was on snowshoes (!) due to injury, lack of skis, and ... mostly lack of technique...  But it was a glorious, hot day and we all had a good time out the back of Tromsø, nearby the Lyngen Alps region.  After this day in the scorching sun a few of us skiied on into a hut for the night.  We awoke to grey skies and snow.  You got to take these days as they come.