Lapland flowers

Arctic Bell-Heather Casiope tetragona

While looking for birds in north Norway, I find myself walking past some wonderful displays of wild flowers. Here are just a very few selected species. The bell-heather and diapensia grow up on the high plateux, where it is windswept and the plants all grow very low to the ground.

 

Diapensia lapponica

In the lower heaths and bogs one of the mose abundant plants is the Labrador Tea, along with various species of heaths, such as Mountain Heath Phyllodoce caerulea and Bog Rosemary Andromeda polifolia.



 Labrador Tea Ledum palustre

 Lapland Lousewort Pedicularis lapponica

Waders in north Norway

 Spotted redshank

I am up in north Norway at the moment studying high latitude breeding waders. The habitats are lakeside mires within which there are several sub-habitats utilised by various waders for feeding and nest sites. Open water is used by red-necked phalaropes, open sedge is used by broad-billed sandpiper, close growing sedge is used by jack snipe, wood sandpiper and reeves. Spotted redshanks nest on the nearby heath and lead their chicks into the bogs to feed.

 Lakeside mire

 Spotted redshank

Wood sandpiper

Ringing buzzard chicks

Yesterday I was out ringing buzzard chicks with Dave Leitch, Ewan and Jenny. We ringed birds from several broods bringing the group total for 2001 to over fifty chicks. These are quiet raptor chicks, compared with those of most falcons or accipiters. So the whole effort was a relaxed experience with time to appreciate the birds. And even easier as Ewan did all the tree climbing and passed the chicks down to the grown where we ringed them in comfort, then passed them back up to Ewan at the nests.

Here are a few shots of the birds being ringed.

Outer Hebrides

 Berneray beach

I took a few days off last week and went for a trip around the Uists. I had planned to ring wader chicks there as they are usually so abundant in the machair grasslands. But this year, with such cold wet and windy weather, there were very few chicks. Nor any adults about. The oystercatchers were in flocks, or on eggs. I have never seen the islands so quiet with birds.

So I spent a bit of time watching for otters. Its always good to see these amazing animals. Fascinating how they can move so liquidly. And it good to get out of the bogs for a few days and walk with sand beneath my feet.



Cotton grass blowing in the breeze.

Shetland - whimbrel

Scalloway Castle

I have been pretty busy over the past several weeks, what with studying greenshanks in Sutherland then whimbrel in Shetland. And as the weather has been cold wet and windy the whimbrel were slow to go down on eggs. Many pairs were simply standing around as if waiting for warmer weather before they laid. So not many photographs of whimbrel, and in place I have posted a few shots of a variety of buildings on Shetland.  

 Norse click mills along a streamline

A floating hut out from Voe harbour