Øvre Pasvik - birding the arctic taiga - Gullfest pt.2

Hawk Owl about to strike

In the Pasvik taiga forest the arctic bird festival Gullfest turned into an Owlfest! The Pasvik section of Gullfest was an epilogue of Gullfest where we aimed to show our invited guests some of the finest birding in the arctic. The taiga forest of Pasvik is the northernmost coniferous forest in the world. The taiga forest stretches from Pasvik and all the way to the Pacific coast in the far east. The birding here is spectacular, when you where to look, that is. To maximise the niceness and chances of great experiences we teamed up with our Pasvik friends Ben Arne Sotkajærvi aka Mr.Pasvik and the good folks at Øvre Pasvik Camping.

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

PASVIK - one autumn day in the taiga

All photos by Tormod Amundsen and Elin Taranger of Biotope / copyright. 

Photos below: 

Siberian Tit - a perfect match and a compliment to its environment 

Old house in Pasvik 

Pasvik river scene. 

Birds, architecture and landscape of the northeastern taiga: A study in all shades of brown and green.

We are working on a project where we assist approximately 30 tourism businesses in Central and Eastern Finnmark with expertise and advice on arrangements and fascilities for birds and birders. We have for more then two years initiated and contributed to several bird projects in Finnmark. The aim is to promote birds, nature conservation and nature-based tourism. This goes very well together. Both tourism and conservation has much to gain from a focused initiative and close collaboration. This work involves everything from giving advice about feeding stations to attract birds, to bird-watching facilities at strategic locations. Varanger Fjord is an already well-known birding destination in the world. Here you can experience the tundra and the Arctic coast and all the bird species that belong to this environment. In Scandinavia Pasvik is well known among birders. Internationally, however, this is a better kept secret. We aim to change this. The combination Varanger and Pasvik is actually quite unique. Here you find taiga, tundra and arctic coastline within a days drive. It takes less than 4 hours to drive from Vardo / outer Varanger Fjord to Nyrud, deep in the Pasvik taiga forest.

Conseptual map: Biotope - architecture & nature