12 April 2012

GullFest day1 - the Taiga prologue

The GullFest 2012 is on! 

We are doing a birding warm up for the Arctic GullFest - the Taiga prologue. We have two nights a the Birkhusky B&B in Pasvik. Today we headed deep into the taiga to their cabin - and bird feeder. Finding birds in the vast taiga is a challenge, but a feeder certainly helps. We arrived by dog sled, an extraordinary experience in itself. As we got close to our base camp  Nils Van Duivendijk spotted a Hawk Owl in a tree. We later refound this beautiful bird and got more decent photos. Of course we connected with our other target birds: the Siberian Jay, Siberian Tit and the extraordinary Pine Grosbeak.

A few photos from the day follows below. More photos to come later - these are just fresh out of the memory card. Tomorrow we take the coastal express to Vardø - a 3.5 hours pelagic. 

Stay tuned for GullFest updates the next days. We got lots of nice things happening 

 Adult male Pine Grosbeak Pinicola enucleator 


Lunch at the fireplace in the taiga - Trine the very kind owner of Birkhusky, with Nils Van Duinvendijk, Tristan Reid and Martin Garner.

 Hawk Owl Surnia ulula


 Birding by dog sled - Arctic style


A very cooperative Hawk Owl - we lured it close with a piece of Reindeer fur! Imagine - Hawk Owl striking Reindeer!!

 Seamus Enright sound recording taiga birds

Siberian Jay - a reflection of the Pine tree colours


More photos to come later - stay tuned


Tormod A. / Biotope
@BiotopeOffice