Summer holidays - heading south

Our summer holidays are far from over but part 2 at the cabin in Bodø is over and I am writing this whilst we are driving back south.

The time at the cabin ended with a new, and my 66th Norwegian species of, butterfly when I again visited the alpine habitats around Sulitjelma and found a species I have long wanted to see - Northern Couded Yellow, which is orange on the upperside and impossible to miss as it flutters over the tundra. It was also much more approachable than the Pale Arctic Clouded Yellow which I again found and despite it  quickly disappearing over the mountainside I manged OK pictures of it on the ground hiding in grass.

A quick stop on Saltfjellet as we crossed the Arctic Circle revealed the strange sight of 14 noisy Long-tailed Skuas and 2 Arctic Terns flying around high up seemingly catching flying insects.

Northern Clouded Yellow (mjeltgulvinge)

The undersidenwoth the sun shing through and showing the orsnge colours

The underside

A much better picture of a Pale Arctic Clouded Yellow (polargulvinge)

Golden Plover (heilo)

With the Blåmannsisen glacier in the background

Wigeon (brunnakke) duckling

Wigeon mum

Whooper Swan (samgsvane) family

6 Long-tailed Skuas (fjelljo)

Long-tailed Skua and Arctic Tern (rødnebbterne)

Female Bluethroat (blåstrupe) who clearly had young nearby

False musk orchid (fjellkurle)

habitat of Northern Clouded Yellow

Vanilla scented bog orchid (Fjellhvitkurle)

This balloon was floating over the cabin at 130,000 ft (39.6km) and is the size of a football stadium with an instrument to measure cosmic rays hanging under it. It was launched from Sweden by NASA. more info here  https://sites.wustl.edu/xlcal/home/