Breeding bird survey in Norway: day 5

Another rainy day. At the foot of route 1905.

The alarm did ring and I did hear it but once I looked outside I said no, it would not be another wet day. It was pouring rain and i decided to stay indoors. Back to bed. I got up an hour later though. It wasn’t even 6. With this time schedule I got used to early starts.

So the weather didn’t change for most of the day. Rain, rain, rain. I was only going out for firewood. I used the time to catch up with a very needed break, washing, writing and chatting. Also managed to talk and see my lovely girlfriend on skype who I really miss very much.

The Sun came out in the late afternoon. The forecast for the coming days looks very promising so hopefully I shall be able to attack the route tomorrow. The mountain looks calm now but see what happens tomorrow. You never know …

Breeding bird survey in Norway: day 4

1910 the u shaped long trek in the mountains with 5 willow ptarmigans, golden eagle and white tailed eagle

The beginning of the route for the day was fairly easy. A nice track took straight up to the first survey point. Approaching a set of bushes a white and brown hen took off from under my feet and landing pretending to be injured. Willow Ptarmigan wanted to attract my attention away from its nest. It was situated at the bottom of a bush with 7 eggs inside. This woke me pretty quickly J I didn’t even need to have coffee. Took a picture and off I went not to disturb the bird. On the way back along the track the male bird turned up although I intentionally went around to avoid any disturbance of the breeding ptarmigan.

Other than these birds there were no other observations worth mentioning. After this the ascending started. Hills, stones, rivers, 70 degree steep slopes and lots of water, absolutely everywhere. No trekking shoes would have managed to handle this. The only proper gear for here are the basic rubber wellington boots. Simple technology that works much better than any Gore tex or anything else.

the survey route. the place where the picture was taken is in the first half of the route. i carried on for about a km into the snowy mountain hill

Once I though I had climb up the hill a valley followed and then another not a hill but a mountain top with at least 200m altitude difference. To make it even more difficult going up the hill the walk had to be over a stone field with big rocks. Patches of snow made the climbing even more puzzling since I wasn’t sure if there is anything underneath the snow. Once that finished a complex set of bogs and swampy areas started. At that moment snow came up. I was already.  At the end of the route so couldn’t stop. I had to do it. Strong winds were following the mountain pass that was formed at the top where I was going and all the wind was concentrated and channeling down that pass. What a survey work. And birds? What birds? Of course there were. I had a total of 5 Willow Ptarmigans, White tailed Eagle, Golden Eagle, Dipper, Bluethroat, Northern Wheatear, Ring Ouzel and a few Bramblings and Redwings here and there. Well I can’ say it wasn’t worth it.

It took me about 1.5 hours to come down from the mountain top. I was really exhausted. Slowly approached my camp and desperately wanted to get some food. It was already 13.00. Packed my stuff and looked at the maps for the new place where I need to go. I turned out that it was nearly 200km away. Well, I will get a nap first. The ‘day’ is long ;)

So I did. Got a nap and got on the road. En route I got some fruit to catch up with the needed vitamins and put some petrol in to ensure the mileage. I was heading towards Narvik, south of Finnsness.

The route starts just by the road so it would be an easy start. This would give me some time for a longer sleep. This time I needed a warm and cosy place, a house. The map shows possibility for renting a place in the area so. I just need to find it. Wondered a bit here and there and just stopped y the road to ask a young couple about possible places to stay. Well they were going right there. It turned out that the father of the lady rents a place. We negotiated a price and there I was. Ohhh my God. FINALLY a hot shower, electricity and running tap water. I don’t believe this. Three bedroom house with a kitchen and a bathroom were all for me. A fireplace was on and it quickly warmed up the house. I can’t explain the pleasure I had to be in a proper house and leave the tent for a while. I had forgotten what the comfort of a home is… people often don’t appreciate what they have until they loose it.

After a hot shower and tea I crashed down. The forecast for tomorrow wasn’t very positive but I did set the alarm for 3 a.m.

Breeding bird survey in Norway: day 3

I had set up my camp not far from the starting point of the route not to loose time moving about. The day started at the usual time 3 a.m. Quickly packed the staff for the day and off I went.

The first count points of the route were in a birch forest at the bottom of the hill. Reaching them meant a little bit of wading in the flowing water. Although it was cold, snow from the mountains was melting and there was water everywhere. I took a second pair of shoes with me in case I got wet but luckily this didn’t happen with my wellington boots.

Soon the adventure started. Some of the points were right in the middle of stone fields. Reaching tem was really slow and had to be rather careful. The stones were rather slippery with big gaps in between so it can be rather unpleasant if I fell down. The route slowly started taking me higher and higher. Weather began to change and from calm became rather dynamic. Habitat also changed from birch forest to alpine rocks. Large patches of snow were occupying most of the land around. Mist started to come up. Although it was fairly chilly large patches of snow were melting forming unseen tunnels under the snow. This made the walk on top pretty dangerous and it was pretty inconvenient walking there. Luckily I had my walking sticks with me which allowed checking the grounds of every step. The birds were there though. Ring Ouzels, apparently nest on the cliffs in Norway. Bluethroat, Redpoll, Redwings, and pretty strange for me, several Reed Buntings were around the birch trees and scrub. At home these buntings would be around reeds.

Up in the mist a Peregrine Falcon call thrilled in amongst the cliffs. This showed some live in the scene which was pretty quiet. So there are birds up here. May be if it was a week later it would have been better.

Coming down from the mountains a Long-legged Buzzard turned up nearby my camp. This was the last bird for the route. Time to pack and for the next route.

It didn’t, starting point and had a lot of free time. Decided to walk around just as I did on the previous day. It’s important to experience the country. The survey route was at the end of a fjord so it must be picturesque around. A gathering of gulls attracted my attention for a while. There were a few Herring, Common, les ser and Greater black-backed Gulls. A couple of Oystercatchers were also around but that’s about it.

greater black backed gull, copyrigjt Iordan Hristov

Common gulls

A White Wagtail with food sat near me for a while wanted me to take its picture. There we are J

White Wagtail

Further along there were only a few Common Gulls and a lot of wind. The end of the fjord opens up to the ocean and it must be pretty rough here all year around. I would be curious to understand how and why would people live here. It’s really rough. Perhaps some of them are fishermen but what about the rest? And the houses looked really well maintained. I must say I am totally in love with these Norwegian houses often with big windows and large veranda with the colours of the country flag red and blue. You would see other colors too but these were the most impressive ones. There was one with white, green and red like the Bulgarian flag, but why our houses are not like this. I will leave that up to you to decide. 

On the way back to the tent a group of caribou were grazing just along the road. These would be domestic animals kept for meat.

Time for a small drink and some sleep.

Breeding bird survey in Norway: day 2

After the depressing day yesterday today I feel a bit better. Woke up at 3.20 and off I went for another try on the route. The weather looked ok although the forecast was for another miserable day. Started the survey with some blue sky. That’s optimistic, I said to myself but didn’t want to be too quick with the conclusions – the route is 6 km long so the weather may change any time.

Soon i started noting down the birds from the points: Brambling, Willow Warbler and Redwing were the most common ones. A got a few individuals of Spotted Flycatcher, Common Redstart, Cuckoo, and Common Redpolls. Although I do enjoy all these birds there were a few highlights for me too: a male Willow Grouse. I have seen it just once and it was great to see it again although it didn’t stay for long.

The habitat was constantly changing from birch forest to open bogs and hills were going up and down. The weather didn’t stay very bright though. There were showers now and then which made me prey for no rain at least until I finish the route. Well, I did it. In about 4 hours I managed to do the route. Finally. It really feels like a success and a relief. Time for the next route.

Quickly packed the wet tent and spread it in the car to dry out and off I went. The next place isn’t too far – only 20 or so km to the south west of here. And what a place that is. The steep terrain doesn’t allow doing the conventional 6 km square shaped route but the points are situated along a valley with steep hills covered with snow. The river here still has ice. This would be another challenging route with barren ground and steep hillside. That’s for tomorrow. Off I go.

It took me a while to find this place because the guidance papers weren’t very good and I stayed for some time in the neighbouring valley. At certain point I was even considering going across the mountain because I wasn’t aware of another road. There was nothing on the map. I had a nap in the area ;) and decided to go back the same road to search for a place to drive to the neighbouring valley. And yes there was J I am glad I didn’t took the more difficult route.

Once in the new area, it was exactly as explained. Pretty rough terrain – understand steep slopes, rocky hill sides and snow and glaciers. Well these are the areas where I will have to do the survey. But that would be tomorrow.

I decided to take a drive in the area to see more of this beautiful landscape. It proved worth it. Just watch see these photos…

No comments. Breath taking views, aren’t they. Got some fruit fro a shop and off I went to my tent for the needed sleep. It would be a hard day tomorrow.

Breeding bird survey in Norway: day 1

The night was really short. I struggled getting up after having only a few hours sleep but what made me think twice was that it was raining. Not heavily but it was raining. A few birds were singing so I decided to give it a try. At certain point it even started snowing and birds became quieter. That was the moment when I decided to give up. Before that I did see and hear a few good birds for me that I haven’t seen for some time. At the first 3-4 points where I did the counts I had a few Common Redpolls, Bramblings in breeding plumage which we rarely get, Redwings and lots of Willow Warblers. There was some droppings of Moose and I also had white and brown Hare which I am not sure how to treat. It would be strange to be artic hare, shouldn’t it? I just had to stop with the survey after the first 4 point counts. Nothing was there and it was raining and snowing. I really didn’t want to waste a whole day like this especially having in mind that I have 10 more to go.

I went back to the tent and got some of that needed sleep.

Well it is now 11 a.m. and the rain still hasn't stopped.

The afternoon was pretty difficult. The rain didn’t stop and I couldn’t do anything. I spend most of the time in the car. It was pretty depressing. Did some reading but that was it. I was occasionally changing the location to make some difference but then still stay in the car. Tried a bit of birdwatching from the car but not very productive. Did see an Arctic Skua, a Red-breasted Merganser and 2 Arctic Terns though. I was getting a bit worried about this rate of progress. The only thing I could do is hoping that the weather will improve.

Went to bed or should i say into the tent as early as 7 p.m. for an early and hopefully productive start.

Breeding bird survey in Norway coming up

New trip is on my list for the coming three weeks when I shall be travelling around the northern parts of Norway to conduct a field bird survey. I have to cover 10 survey routes in the area of Tromso in the second half of June. The terrain is pretty ruff but I have got some good gear so I hope everything would be fine.  I have got a Deuter Neosphere -10 sleeping bag (1,4 kg), and a 3.8 cm mat from Robens (610 gr), and a Trimm Himlite tent (1,6 kg). I shall be testing and writing about this gear and its performance. Some of the routes are in pretty remote areas with high altitude difference among the survey points. For some routes it is over 500 m and the starting point of some routes is about 4-5 km from the nearest road. The survey of each route should start at 4 a.m. so it would be quite a challenge to do this trekking during the night. Luckily it would be fairly light up there. Anyway I intend to camp somewhere in the vicinity of the starting point and will probably walk to it on the previous day to reduce the walking time during the night.

field route for surveying breeding birds in Norway

The landscape though looks absolutely stunning. Will try to post updates when possible because I shall be camping most of the time and will be hard with the civiliziration. My notebook will be next to me though so I shall post some news now and then.

a part of my luggage :)

Well I am looking forward to it. Stay tuned if interesting to hear about my birding stories and wildlife adventures

Breeding birds survey in Bulgaria

I just realised that the deadline for conducting the breeding birds survey in my local patches approaches rather soon. I plan to be away in the coming days for more birding stories and the forecast for the coming days is not promising either, so I decided to just go and do the survey. 

Waking up was rather difficult. After a couple of days in a row getting up at 4.30 a.m. was a bit of a pain. Nevertheless I managed to start just on time and 6.20 I was already at the field. Lovely. Now I do not regretting getting up this early. Lovely meadows rich in birds and butterflies. All wet though :) My wellington boots couldn't cope with this. Water started coming in because the grass were pretty high. The rain from last night didn't help either but anyway. This is the only chance to do my survey. I kept on walking through the fields. 

copyright Iordan Hristov

Since today was the only time I had before the rain and my other duties, I had to count the birds in both of my survey plots. Never done that before and I probably shouldn't but never mind. I managed to do it before 10.30 a.m. which is a good time.

Birds were not as active as I expected. Do not know if it was from the rain last night or from the late season. Generally they should be pretty vocal although it is the beginning of June. A pair of Roe Deer showed right at the beginning of my first survey plot.

copyright Iordan Hristov

Some of the birds seen include:

1. Honey Buzzard - the highlight of the survey. Never seen it in either of the plot before. 

2. Golden Oriole

3. Skylark

4. Tree Pipit

5. Cuckoos - loads

6. Wryneck

7. Barred Warbler

8. Lesser spotted Woodpecker

9. Yellow Wagtail

10. Mistle Thrush

11. Hawfinch

12. Red-backed Shrike

13. Bee-eater
14. Ortolan Bunting
15. Hawfinch
16. Chaffinch
17. Nightingale
18. Chiffchaff
19. Wood Pigeon
20. Jay
21. Corn Bunting
22. Blackbird
23. Song Thrush
24. Great Tit
25. Blue Tit
26. Wood Nuthatch
27. Blackcap
28. Yellowhammer
29. Raven
30. Quail (heard only)
31. Common Buzzard
32. Barn Swallow
33. House Martin
34. Greenfinch
35. Kestrel
36. Common Starling
37. Great-spotted Woodpecker
38. Syrian Woodpecker
39. Alpine Swift
40. Common Swift
41. Robin
42. Tree Sparrow
43. House Sparrow
44. Woodlark
45. Long-tailed Tit
46. Common Whitethroat
47. Goldfinch

.. and a few more..

not too bad for a common birds survey. In just of the plots I had 40 species for about 1,5 hours. In total it would be about 50 species for a couple of hours birding from 6 to 10 a.m. That is what the general countryside of Bulgaria is like. I love it :)

Unfortunately, the trends of some bird species are negative and birds are rapidly decreasing. Some of them with over 60 % for the last 7 years...