Thursday was forecast to be a sunny day further inland including in the mountains at Sulitjelma. I had to make the most of the day as the ongoing forecast is a bit uncertain and I may not get another chance for some good buttering.
I chose Sulis instead of Graddis in Junkerdalen because Sulis is 40 minutes less driving and has had far less historical coverage so the chance of finding something new is much higher (I dream of discovering new sites for Dusky-winged Fritillary (dvergperlemorvinge) and Arctic Grayling (tundraringvinge)). I awoke at 0430 with the disappointment of the previous night’s footy game fresh in my mind but felt energetic and excited with what the morning would bring.
On the way I stopped at Klungset to do some birding. As I noted last year something serious has happened here and numbers of Velvet Scoter are a fraction of what they used to be and I counted fewer than 100 in the whole area. A very distant male Surf Scoter was almost certainly the same as seen a month ago but I was unable to pick out the American White-winged Scoter also seen a month ago. Other good birds were King Eider, Great Northern Diver and Red-necked Grebe. Here are the two eBird checklists I made:
Up on the mountains the forecast cloudless skies were not evident and I had to wait patiently for the sun to come. I spent some time looking at the many alpine/arctic flowers that the area is famous for but my knowledge of plants is poor so I am reliant on taking photos and using AI to help me although I see there are often very similar species and often feel I can’t trust the answer I get well enough to register my sightings.
I am on firmer ground when it comes to butterfly ID and when the sun did shine then the butterflies flew. I had a period of around an hour when there were many individuals which would stop on flowers but as the morning drew on there were fewer to see and then they would often just zoom by.
Two of the special species of the area are Pale Arctic Clouded Yellow and Northern Clouded Yellow and I had many sightings with Northern being far commoner. I have always found these a challenge to photograph but this time did fairly well although the first mentioned remains difficult. I also got film of both species which allowed me to capture the upperwings which you otherwise never see. A couple of Moorland Clouded Yellows were also present (as I had noted last year) and the presence of all three species at the same site must be unique.
Norse Grayling, which was my first record here, and Alpine Grizzled Skipper were also special species. Fritillaries were very scarce and I had just three individuals of three species (Pearl-bordered, Small Pearl-bordered and Mountain) but nothing rarer.
The pictures are in no particular order
Northern Clouded Yellow (mjeltgulvinge) with a Scotch Burnett (fjelblodråpesvermer)
A video grab showing the uppering of a male Northern Clouded Yellow (mjeltgulvinge)
And Pale Arctic Clouded Yellow (polargulvinge)
Moorland Clouded Yellow (myrgulvinge)
An as usual out of focus picture of Pale Arctic CY
I did get to see it nectaring well if briefly
Norse Grayling (nornens ringvinge)
Alpine Grizzled Skipper (polarsmyger)
A fuzzy but rare shot of the upperwing of Norse Grayling
Another Pale Arctic Clouded Yellow. They are particularly green when seen like this
Northern CY
This moth would appear to be a rare Enthepria polata (polarbergmåler)
Looking west at 0840 when the sun came through
amongst the flower were these scarce Arnica angustifiola alpina (fjellsolblom)
And these already flowered Diapensia lapponica (fjellpryd)
Røvika at 0615
Selfie with a Northern Clouded Yellow. This was the first butterfly I saw which started to fly just before a big cloud covered the sun causing it to land again allowing close study
Looking south towards Junkerdalen at 1250 when I left
It was a joy to find two families of Curlews (storspove) close to the cabin with males keeping their eyes on broods of 2 and 3 nearly fully grown young.
The final part of the summer holiday is beginning and for the first time since 2022 I will be back spending time at the cabin outside of Bodø, north of the Arctic Circle. Jr and I drove up starting from Oslo at 08:55 yesterday and we covered 1281km in 23 hours and 50 minutes with less than an hour of that used for sleep but including 5 stops for birding/butterflying and dog airing. When you drive north through the night in the middle of the summer it never gets dark and that helps keep tiredness as bay although once we got to the cabin we felt it.
Apart from the stops the drive up was extremely bird and animal free with the total of big/interesting species observed (excluding Cranes which are getting almost too common) being 2 Common Buzzard, 3 Kestrel, 1 Marsh Harrier, 1 Raven, 1 Fox, 1 Hare and 4 Moose. This is an appalling total!!
The stops were for Apollo butterfly which was a quick success, Pallid Harrier which was a dip although a male Hen Harrier did show, Ørin in Trøndelag for waders which was also a dip, Saltfjellet on the Arctic Circle where Red-necked Phalaropes and Ruff were good but no raptors or Long-tailed Skuas and finally 35 minutes from the cabin Klungsettvika where they were alarmingly few sea ducks but hopefully my stop was too fleeting and further visits will deliver more.
At the cabin a pair of Common Gulls has nested on the roof and two large young are still there with the parents guarding them - it will be a noisy stay!
Apollo butterfly - a beautiful beast of an insect
A bit more distant
There were also a couple of Hummingbird Hawk Moths (dvergsvermer)
Saltfjellet looking south
My first ever Lesser Teatblade orchid (småtveblad) which were tiny
Red-necked Phalaropes (svømmesnipe)
The view from the cabin and I have already seen Common Porpoise (nise) and Arctic Skua (tyvjo)
Yesterday, I took only my second trip of the year
out to the islands of the Oslofjord and it was a fairly rewarding trip even if
it was bugs more than birds that featured. I had hoped for a few waders or
maybe a Y-b Warbler but the only warbler I had was a single Chiffchaff and
there were only two waders – a Knot and a Common Sandpiper. Knot is a good Oslo
bird though and a late Common Tern was also noteworthy.
The undoubted bug highlight was a Hummingbird
Hawkmoth which fed just metres away from me and gave me my best ever views of
the species. Bug #2 was Brown Hairstreak at a, for me, new location for the
species. I noticed that there was a lot of blackthorn (slåpetorn) and decided
to walk close to it to see if there were any butterflies and sure enough two
females flew up and then landed in trees and showed very well.
Today a quick check of Nordre Øyeren and Maridalen
revealed my first Great Grey Shrikes of the autumn at both sites indicating that
the species is now on the move.
Hummingbird Hawkmoth (dagsvermer)
note the probiscous inside the flower
it really is long!
female Brown Hairstreak (slåpetornstjertvinge)
and the other female
juvenile Common Tern (makrelterne)
much is written about the Oslo fjord being "dead" but the large numbers of Cormorants are witness to large numbers of fish
juvenile Knot (polarsnipe)
Great Grey Shrike (varsler) at Nordre Øyeren
and the bird in Maridalen..
which was chasing a Yellowhammer (gulspurv)
a late Osprey (fiskeørn) with a flock of Jackdaws (kaie)
Buzzard (musvåk) in Maridalen
a Coot (sothøne) on Maridalsvannet. This is only my second record there and only the fourth ever. I noticed a bird in the middle of the lake whilst out with the Mrs on Sunday and took some pictures but only looked at them today and found out what it was.
Goosander (laksand) on Maridalsvannet. Probably 2 family groups
