150308 Varanger Second day in hide

Varanger, Norway 150305-150311 

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© NF Photos 150308

150308 Sunday

Woke up at 4.30 and met the gang at 5.20 to go to the hide. Spent the morning there. We had the breakfast pack with us so everyone was free to eat as they wanted. Or when a break was needed for back ache :) The second woman on the tour only had a small camera so she sat comfortably on a chair at the higher up openings. I, of course, had to check out every free opening there was. It was fun having the birds so close. Especially the male King Eiders, they were curious and several of them came looking into the hide openings, checking us out. :) 

The ducks were eating ice. I guess it was to get sweet water into the system. Not only salty sea water. 

King Eider and Steller´s Eider

Long-tailed Duck ( alfågel)

Two images from inside the hide. As you can see it was not an easy task to get used to shot the birds outside.
 Especially if they came too close as the King Eider males used to do. It´s me to the left.

At ten the morning shift was over and we had some free time before lunch at 11.  After that we met at 12 for another boat ride. Gorgeous weather and great number of birds. 

Black-legged Kittiwake (tretåig mås) to the left

After the boat ride I and Andreas decided to take a walk down to the water to try to find the Purple Sandpiper ( Skärsnäppa). It was not far but we still managed to take the wrong road down to the beach. We did find it and we also saw a pair of Black Guillemot (Tobisgrissla) and two seals. Some ugly ones IMO. 

 Slept an h in the afternoon and took a shower. I could borrow a cable from A and then uploaded my images to the laptop. Feels good to have a backup. Dinner at 18.00 and then we met to look at some images and maybe share some technique in image manipulation.

But then the woman in charge this evening came and told us there were an aurora in the sky. We closed the meeting and went out hunting aurora. Sadly we did not see much, It was a weak aurora and also clouds moving over. But we did see it!  Back at 21.00 and went online, packed most of my things as we are leaving tomorrow and wrote the diary. To bed at 22.45 and then up at 4.45 for the last visit to the hide. 

A PR video from the hide:

The KING's HARBOUR photo hide at Båtsfjord, Varanger, Arctic Norway

King Eider male having fun

Lots of light everywhere in these shots

NF Catching light

Our World Tuesday
Wild Bird Wednesday

Varanger on NF Photo  NF Birds around the world   

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Labels:    Resor, travel, trip, journey, Sverige, Sweden, sky, photo, photography, Monica Johansson, NatureFootstep, nfphoto, NF_photo, nature, natur, fågelskådning, birding, resa, travel,  birding, Black-legged Kittiwake, Båtsfjord, King Eider, light, ljus, Norge, Norway, photography, Steller´s Eider, tretåig mås, Varanger,  Long-tailed Duck, Alfågel,

150307 Varanger First day in hide

Varanger, Norway 150305-150311 

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© NF Photos 150307, Båtsfjord, Varanger, Norway

I woke up in good time and met the others at 5.00 h.

We had been given some therm overalls so we should not freeze in the hide. It was rather tricky to get it on the first time. And it made you feel like a truck.  Båtsfjord at 5.40 

Well, we got to the hide at 5.30 and started to unpack and getting ready for the birds. We had scared them off when we arrived but the birds soon came back to the location. It seemed as it was a fishing factory that dropped of wastes and the birds came for it. Free breakfast I suppose. That´s great, the birds helped clean the area and was helped surviving the winter at the same time. And also helped the locals to get some much needed income. Three birds in one stone J not bad.

That´s me in the middle of the boat on the way to the hide. 

Birds, gulls,eiders and other ducks, getting ready for breakfast. 

It was a bit tricky getting used to shoot from floor level. But finally I got the hang of it. There was four very nice species that we came for. And they were there, and a few others too. We had mostly sunshine in the morning. Beautiful light on the birds.

King Eider Male and female images. The very reason for my trip. 

 At 9 we were picked up to go by boat and catch flying birds. Now it started to get a bit windy. At 11 we were back to the hotel for lunch and then back to the boat for another trip, But now it was cloudy and really windy. We got sprayed with water and we even got some snow. The wind increased and after an hour we had to go back to shore. Rather wet then.

Looking through my images I realize that it was good having three days in the hide and the boat. It certainly took a while to learn how to get the shots you wanted. The last images is much better then the first ones. 

Back at the hotel I took a cup of coffee and then slept for 2h. Dinner at 18.00, rather long as we had no evening activity planned. And a few other people joined us at the table. Back to the room at 20.00 and fixing things like images and charging batteries. 

Tomorrow morning we will meet at 05.20 to go back to the hide. Right now it seem to be raining instead of snowing. Probably very slippery outside. We did have some problems with icy path between  the parking and the entrance to the hotel. 

Sky Watch Friday

Varanger on NF Photo  NF Birds around the world   

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Labels:    Resor, travel, trip, journey, Sverige, Sweden, sky, photo, photography, Monica Johansson, NatureFootstep, nfphoto, NF_photo, nature, natur, fågelskådning, birding, resa, travel, bird, boat, båt, Båtsfjord, fågel, gömsle, havsfåglar, hide, Norge, Norway, photography, Varanger,