A whole seven days after the last day of sun we saw it again yesterday although I had to drive over an hour to experience it and its arrival was a whole three hours later than forecast - but it was all worth it in the end!
I, of course, went to Sulitjelma and hunted butterflies. I was not alone on that errand with another birder/butterer visiting all the way from Lista. Øyvind however was only having a short stop on his way even further north and only got to enjoy 5 minutes of sun before having to leave. I was able to wait it out though and when the sun did finally show for longer periods I finally, and after lots of efforts, got to see the Pale Arctic Clouded Yellow as well as is possible with nectaring individuals too close to focus on and one in the hand such that I could see the upperwing. I also got to see Northern Clouded Yellow’s upperwing so I can now «forget» about these species and concentrate my efforts on the really rare species that I am certain occur up here😊
Pale Arctic Clouded Yellow (polargulving) showing the underside of both wings
I had to take matters into my owns hands though to finally see the upperwing
This small flower rich hillside was where the previously pictured individual was flying from flower to flower. Previously when I have seen them they have barely had time to stop
Spot it?
And here another individual. It was only 50m away and was also nectaring but was not quite as easy to follow. It was a much more heavily marked individual making me wonder if one was a male and the other a female.
A second, and more heavily marked, Pale Arctic Clouded Yellow (polargulvinge)
My usual out of focus flight shot but this is actually better than normal
Again showing both wings whereas previously the forewing has been hidden
When the light shines through the wings and the forewing is raised then you can see the upper side pattern
An almost acceptable flight (take off) shot
The upper side of a Northern Clouded Yellow (mjeltgulving)
I had to pick it up and blow on it when the sun had gone behind a cloud to get it to open its wings but it flew off strongly when the sun came out again
Clouded yellow habitat and with a much larger flying object in the background
One flying by
And here the upperwing caught as it nectared
Birding has occurred too with the Surf Scoter sighted a few times and even digitally documented. Wader passage is picking up with both adult and juvenile Spotted Redshanks now moving. A male Garganey felt like a strange species to see north if the Arctic Circle but they are observed regularly enough over the years that I am sure they breed locally from time to time. Very good numbers of Common and Arctic Terns (a couple of hundred), Lapwings and breeding Lesser Black-backed Gulls were also satisfying sightings.
Arctic Skua (tyvjo) which breed on a bog nearby
Collared Doves (tyrkerdue) also surprisingly occur this far north although are rare
Garganey (knekkand) - in flight its blue forewing showed it was a male in eclipse
Adult Spotted Redshank (sotsnipe) with Greenshank (gluttsnipe)
Bar-tailed Godwits (lappspove)
And the male Surf Scoter (brilleand) showing his white nape patch..
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.
Jr and I have fled the heatwave Oslo is experiencing and have left temperatures in the mid thirties and replaced them with the low tens. This has resulted in two days and 1300km of driving to our cabin near Bodø. The weather should improve whilst we are here but I am writing this sitting next to a radiator on full…
As usual I kept a count of raptors on the drive up and it was a meagre total with just 3 Kestrels, 2 Peregrines, 1 Merlin, 1 Rough-legged Buzzard and 2 White-tailed Eagles meaning about 1 raptor per 150km….
Three well planned Beast walking stops did result in some action for me. A stop in 30C heat gave me an Apollo butterfly which even briefly landed on my head although the battery on my camera proved to be flat so I had to resort to photos with my phone. In this photo you can see me taking a photo of the Apollo.
Jr is the shade whilst I am enjoying this Apollo:
Just before we got to the Arctic Circle a stop in Mo i Rana gave me to two additions to my Nordland county list - Jackdaw (kaie) and Nutcracker (nøttekråke). I have tried for them here before with no joy but finally succeeded. Both seem to have an isolated northerly breeding outpost here and the Nutcrackers are of the siberian subspecies so are different to the birds around Oslo.
Adult and juvenile Nutcracker (nøttekråke) of the race macrorhynchos
Here the parent has extracted a seed from a cone to give to junior
A stop at Saltfjellet on the Arctic Circle was very successful with Long-tailed Skua and Red-necked Phalarope. The skua was actively hunting at very close range but I am unsure as to what it was searching for as a lack of any raptors suggests no rodents.
Long-tailed Skua (fjelljo)
Red-necked Phalarope (svømmesnipe) male who by his behaviour must have had young nearby
