Gyrfalcon vs Raven - Hornøya photo workshop, part 2

Gyrfalcon Falco rusticolus (Gyr vs Raven photos follows below)

The Hornøya bird hide / wind shelter - a good base camp on windy days in the Arctic

The Hornøya 2012 bird photo workshop is just finished, and it has been a week with lots of good company and fantastic nature experiences! For my part it has been days of travelling back and forth to Vardø to run our architectural office, and making more things happen in Varanger, while at the same time

Northern exposure 2012 - the Hornøya photo workshop, part 1

For the second year we are arranging a photo workshop on the magnificent Hornøya island, Varanger, in collaboration with nature photographers Bjarne Riesto and Knut Sverre Horn. On the menu we have three days of fantastic nature experiences, talks, boat trips and a spectacular bird cliff with thousands

Redrawing Ørland - pro nature destination development

We just spent one week in Ørland, central Norway. In close collaboration with the good people at Ørland Kulturhus (cultural centre) we are now making a new destination development scheme for Ørland. This includes designing a new Ramsar center / exhibition, to be completed this summer. The past week we have had lots of great meetings with people involved in this project, we have spent much time making time-lapse movies in the tidal landscape, and collecting content for the coming exhibition. 

We very early realized that we had to redraw the map for Ørland. Maps define our perception of a place, and something was very obviously missing from the ordinary Ørland map: the vast tidal landscapes. Below is the new Ørland map - with tidal landscape included + depths in the sea. This makes a much more meaningfull map for everyone with an interest in nature. The map is still a work in progress, so more info to come. But no doubt that both the birder, the fisherman, the diver and the kayak paddler will find this a more relevant map, compared to the ordinary plain-blue-sea-map. The vast tidal landscapes is the basis for Ørland wetlands status as a Ramsar area.

Ørland map by Biotope

The Lapwing is a character bird on Ørland. The drawings above (soon to feature on T-shirts) are made on a workshop arranged by Thomas Hjeltnes / the Cultural center: 5th graders version on this beautifull bird. We propose a new name: Varied Lapwing. Exellent drawings - anyone who has ever carefully studied a Lapwing will understand the variation. It is a study in the play of colour and light.

A key part of our engagement in Ørland is to include local resources - and they are plentifull. We have had many meetings with very resourcefull people and this will inform the coming exhibition to a great extent. The exhibition will not only feature much information on the nature, birds and wildlife of this great place, but also the people who use these areas for a variety of purposes: the local birders, the divers club, fishermen, kayakers, hunters all share an interest in the wise use and sound development of Ørlands nature. We will make more then an exhibition: it will be a meeting place. 

Tune in to the Biotope website to follow the progress! For now we present a few photos from our week in Ørland:

 

Workshops

Båtsfjord Kings - a room with a view

King Eider Somateria spectabilis, adult male in Båtsfjord harbour, Northern Varanger Peninsula - 04.03.2012 

We have just been on a two day trip to the northern part of the Varanger Peninsula. One of our main goals was to test a floating photo hide prototype made by fisherman and nature guide Ørjan Hansen in Båtsfjord. The harbour in Båtsfjord must surely be the worlds best place to experience King Eider (and more!) at close range.

A room with a view. young male Common Eider Somateria mollissima, 2cy 

This too is ´another-day-at-the-office´ article: Our engagements let us meet, in our opinion, some of the finest people in Finnmark! Ørjan in Båtsfjord is one of those creative just-do-it-people we like to join forces with. The new floating hide was finished the night before we arrived Båtsfjord. The idea was to

Varanger Eider bonanza

Winter birding in Varanger is an Eider spectacle: Steller´s Eiders, King Eiders and Common Eiders are present in tens of thousands. They share much of the same areas, but the various species have different preferences. Typically the King eider favour the rougher seas. In general they stay further out then the Common eiders, prefering deeper waters. They also like the northern part of the Varanger Peninsula very much, with Båtsfjord harbour as a prime location to experience them at close range. The Stellers Eiders prefer more shallow waters, and have their favoured places from Ekkerøy to Vadsø and Nesseby - Inner Varanger fjord. The large rafts of Common Eiders are found mostly from Ekkerøy (mid Varanger Fjord) to Vardø, outer Varanger Fjord. However all species are found all around the Varanger Peninsula, often in semi-mixed flocks.  In winter and early spring finding them is a very easy task. 

Common Eiders and Steller´s Eiders surfing the waves in gale force winds, photo taken from the Biotope office 28.02.2012.

Lately we have found ourselves doing too much time working and little time birding. We have many projects going on both in Finnmark and other parts of Norway. All bird-related, of course, ranging from mapping and analysing to exhibition design and bird hide / wind shelter projects. This is why we live in Varanger: we are surrounded by spectacular birdlife, so even if the work days are long we can enjoy great nature experiences from our office window. 

Photo above from Biotope office window, taken with Nikon d300s + 50mm F1.4 

Stabbursnes Wind Shelter - bird conservation & promotion

We have designed a series of bird hides and wind shelters that will be built in 2012. We design these hides with weather conditions, sight lines, users and nature promotion in mind. We basically engage in those projects that are truly worth promoting, and Stabbursnes nature reserve and nature trail is such a project. It is situated in inner Porsanger fjord, in central Finnmark. A well known site for Norwegian birders: This is the only place in Norway where you with near 100% certainty will see the critically endagered bird species Lesser White-fronted Goose. 

Birdlife Norway (Norsk Ornitologisk Forening / NOF) have for more then 20 years kept a close watch on the development of the Lesser White-fronted geese at Stabbursnes in Finnmark. One of the last breeding sites in Europe. Every year in May on spring migration

GULLFEST 2012 - INFO på norsk / in norwegian

Grunnet flere forespørsler serverer vi nå all GullFest-informasjon på norsk i denne artikkelen

Due to several requests we now provide all GullFest-information in norwegian in the article below. 

English version:https://www.biotope.cloud/2012/01/gullfest-arctic-birding-highlight-of.html

GullFest 2012 - Verdens første arktiske fuglefestival

Biotope  har tatt initiativ til en aldri så liten innovasjon i fugleverdenen - en arktisk måkefestival: GullFest! (måke = gull på engelsk, uttales ´gøll´). Fra 13-17 April 2012 vil vi arrangere verdens første arktiske fuglefestival, med Varangers unike fugleliv som hovedattraksjon! Dette er et samarbeidsprosjekt mellom flere parter, med støtte fra Direktoratet for Naturforvaltnings Naturarv-prosjekter til Destinasjon Varanger og Vardø Friluftsforening som lokal organisator. Dette er en hybrid av et prosjekt: det er både festival,  fagseminar, natur- og destinasjonspromotering og en web-event! Vi har gjennom mye arbeid fått med oss nøkkelpersoner i den internasjonale fugleverdenen. Martin Garner / Birding Frontiers er en av festivalens internasjonale medspillere. Han vil være både festivalguide samt stå for en svært spennende foredragserie. Tristan Reid fra den britiske podcasten (nettradioen) ´Talking Naturally´ (dette er BBC for fuglekikkere!) vil både holde foredrag og kringkaste på verdensveven under hele festivalen. Ellers blir det mange engasjerende foredrag, blant annet av Nils Van Duivendijk (Nederland) - en pionér innen artsbestemmelse av fugler. Han har skrevet ´Advanced Bird ID Guide´, en bok som ble en anerkjent klassiker umiddelbart etter utgivelse. På GullFest blir det foredrag og lysbildevisninger for både erfarne feltornitologer og måse- og titting-tittere (som det heter i nord)!

Det er mye snakk om nordområdene for tiden, med nye muligheter innen olje, gass og shipping. Vårt mål er å sette fugler og natur på kartet! Varanger har lenge vært kjent blant fuglekikkere som en fugledestinasjon i verdensklasse - og med god grunn. Her møter Golfstrømmen arktiske farvann, og i den østvendte og grunne Varangerfjorden finnes et yrende liv. Dette er intakt natur med fisk i havet og fugl i lufta! Bli med på GullFest 2012:

Vår GULLFEST basecamp, vil være en stor lavvo på Hasselnes, med flott utsikt til Vardø havn og fuglefjellet på Hornøya. I tillegg til et fantastisk fugleliv vil det bli servert lokal varm mat. Det blir satt opp vindskjul, og det blir varme i lavvoen.

Varanger in winter / early spring - info on birds, sites, accommodation

We get quite a lot of requests from birders that are planning trips to Varanger this winter / early spring. Varanger has been rated one of the top 100 birding destinations in the world - but locally no one has, until quite recently, paid any attention to these qualities, but this is improving rapidly! I very much appreciate emails and with both feedback and questions from birders, and I try to respond to all mails as best I can. To make your research a little easier, I have put together a short (or long - depending on your bird interest level..) article with some advice and on birds, sites, accommodation and more for a winter or early spring visit to Varanger (V-Fjord / Peninsula + Pasvik / South Varanger). It is based on mails I have written in reply to birder and bird photographers requests. 

New and updated ´Varanger winter birding article´ 
(with new photos, updated info, etc)

Above: -Steller´s Eiders - a Varanger winter / early spring speciality (digiscoped, by the way)

           - Northern lights (Aurora borealis) in february, over the high tundra, Varanger

With our website we aim to present our engagements as architects and birders living in Varanger (we work on pro nature projects all over Norway). To a large extent this includes

GULLFEST - the Arctic birding highlight of 2012

In collaboration with Martin Garner of Birding Frontiers we have put together a new birding event: the Arctic GullFest! 

Everyone who ever thought of visiting Varanger - this is a very good opportunity to do so! There is a lot happening in the arctic north. There is much talk of the North East Passage opening new global possibilities in trade, oil- and  gas explorations / exploitations - We aim to put birds and nature on the map. Varanger has for a long time been a well known birding destination, and for good reasons: This is where the Gulf stream meets the climate of the arctic. Seas are kept open and the shallow Varanger fjord is facing east and is therefore protected by heavy waves caused by typically heavy westerly winds, on top of this (and because of) is one of the richest fishing fields of Norway. All this combined makes ground for spectacular birdlife. We want to promote and protect this as best we can, and make these natural qualities count when the future of the arctic north is being decided. 

At the same time we want to make this a great experience as possible, for those who are engaged in birds and nature. The first Arctic Gullfest is from 13 - 17th of April 2012 and you are invited to join us for this very exiting birding event! 

GULLFEST PROGRAM / ABOUT : 

This will be five days of great birding experiences, inspiring and educational talks and slide shows.

We invite you to come to the town of Vardø, one of the most bird rich places in the famous birding destination of Varanger Fjord. 

Ørland revisited - back to the roots

and with more on being birder architects..

We just revisited Grandefjæra on Ørlandet. Here you can find our first built project: Grande Amfi, or Grande outdoor amphitheater & bird tower: concept and design by Biotope. This was a birding-to-the-people-project, aimed at making it easy to bring a school class or tour group, and spend the day in what is one of Norways largest continous tidal areas - a Ramsar area and a fantastic place for birds, and for birders.