Lapland in early May 2012

Early May is my favourite season to visit Lapland. There is still loads of snow around to guarantee an interesting light for photography, migrants have already arrived, but the wintery conditions further north prevent them from moving any further, forcing birds to concentrate in suitable habitats as the wait for the spring to proceed. And then there is that possibility of finding something unexpected, as always in birding.

This time I started around Tornio, in south-western Finnish Lapland, just on the Swedish border, on the 4th of May. The weather was splendid, blue skies, light winds and +9 C, and a perfect light for photography. The air is crystal-clear, water from melting snow is running everywhere, big rivers are just about to shed their ice and the sea is still frozen-over. Near the coast open areas were partly free from snow, allowing birds to find some food, while most of the forests were still out of reach, because of the deep and wet, soft snow. Recent warm spells had caused some fields and meadows to flood, and these were a haven to migrants. Cranes, Whooper Swans and Greylag and Bean Geese as well as Black-headed Gulls were around in their hundreds, while flocks of ducks, Curlews and Lapwings were everywhere. And raptors, they were showing well too. Rough-legged Buzzards were still on migration, heading even further north, but every now and then some would stop to hover above the fields. Two different Peregrines, and adult female and a yearling, 5 different Hen Harriers (both adult males and females), 3 Common Buzzards, Kestrel, male Merlin, Sparrowhawk and a young Goshawk, all put in multiple appearances during the day, and all this within a radius of 500m! The topping of the cake was, however, two different Pallid Harriers, an adult female and a young male, which were also hunting the same area. Watching the female hunt was quite impressive, as she stooped like a Peregrine from the skies, trying to hit the Black-headed Gulls bathing in the flooded field.
I stayed in the area for an intense 6 hours and this afternoon alone had already made the whole trip worthwhile.

Excellent light for flight-shots -Crane

adult female Pallid Harrier

For the evening I moved further north, to north of the Arctic Circle. Here the landscape was clearly more wintery. Snow was still lying knee-deep everywhere, with just some exposed patches of bare ground on the road banks and steeper slopes. And there were no birds at all! During all evening I heard one Mistle Thrush, but did not see even one passerine! However, there are other birds than passerines. Quite early on I found a very obliging Short-eared Owl, just by the roadside, which I photographed from the car for quite a while.

The Short-eared Owl from 4th of May

And half an hour later I found the first Great Grey Owl (GGO), in an area where they had been seen all spring. What a bird! It was perched just by the tarmac on one of these 1 metre tall white plastic markers indicating the edge of the road for snow-ploughs in winter. But it did not stay for long and soon moved back into the forest. All in all some 40 GGOs are estimated to have occurred in this restricted area during spring. Living so close to a major road is dangerous for a low-flying owl, and several were found killed after collisions with cars. About 10 days ago the numbers started to decline, coinciding with warmer weather and a rapid snow-melt, so possibly the birds moved into the forests to breed as soon as the conditions permitted.
At 10pm I finally found a small field with 3 GGOs hunting! The sun had already set some time ago, but I just couldn’t resist taking some pictures. I really felt privileged being surrounded by three giant owls just minding their own business, hunting, without taking any notice at all of my presence. Finding the GGOs was actually one of the main reasons for this trip, as we still need some completing recordings for the upcoming book on owls by The Sound Approach. These birds were all just hunting to themselves, and every vole the managed to get, they also kept to themselves. No courtship feeding, no calling, no signs of breeding behaviour, just getting on. Anyway, this would be also my hotspot for the coming days.

The next day, May 5th, was grey and dull. During the day I was driving around searching through new areas hoping to see more owls. The only one I could find was one of the trio from last night, which had chosen a tree just next to the field. It was just roosting, but you could see how it reacted towards the sounds from the voles moving under the snow, as its head turned suddenly every now and then and it was staring at this fixed point for ages, just as if it could see through the snow watching the doings of the voles beneath.

There were also some flocks of newly arrived migrants along the roadsides, mostly Redwing, Fieldfare and Mistle Thrush and Chaffinch and Bramblings. The best bird was a female Ring Ouzel, which is a rare bird in Finland. Other nice sightings were an adult female Peregrine, with the biggest and fullest crop I’ve ever seen, and a stunning male Hen Harrier, which swept past the flock of feeding songbirds in seconds.

Male Hen Harrier at its best

At 7pm the forecasted snow-storm started and the visibility dropped to almost nothing. Decided still to take some shorts of the GGOs in this weather, since the trio was again in the same field as the night before. At one point a young Rough-legged Buzzard appeared out of nowhere and started to mob the nearest owl, and I managed to get some decent flight shots of the raptor. However, the wind had by now gained so much force that the owls couldn’t use their favourite perches in the middle of the field, but had to revert to the forest edge to find some shelter. On my way back I found a new GGO just by the roadside, bringing yesterday’s and today’s total up to 8 different birds.

GGO hunting in a heavy snow-storm on May 5th

Redwing

... and Ring Ouzel

It’s now the morning of 6th of May when I am writing this. The storm has continued all night, and when I look out there is probably about 10-15 cm of new snow, with more coming all the time! It looks like mid-winter again. The road conditions will be interesting today for sure, but probably also interesting conditions for photography. We’ll see.