The West Wind

 It's Tuesday mid-afternoon and I am just sitting down after a very challenging week.  The whole week has not been challenging, just most of it.  Over the past weekend, as now, I have felt depleted.

On Sunday, I was driving in my car and listening to the NYT The Daily interview podcast.  The interviewee was Anthony Hopkins, of movie star fame and now 87 years old.  If he is as he sounded in his interview, he seems to be a completely lovely man.  He, apparently, continues to act and keeps a full schedule.  When asked, by the interviewer, what he does when he is not working he replied, "Oh I don't know, read, play the piano."  At the end of the interview, he was asked to read this poem.  He went to fetch the book and he read so beautifully.  It might be considered a masculine poem, but I don't care.  Beauty is beauty and we all need beauty in our lives.  And, the other thing about this poem, it's an honest poem.  We all need honesty in our lives, too. 

There is a lot about birds, bird song, the land, flowers and, as always, so much more, especially the wind.  I loved the poem and loved hearing Anthony Hopkins read it.  I think it fits well on this blog and, even if it doesn't, it fits well in my heart.  Though unrelated to my current conundrum, the words will give me courage to say words of my own to end a thirty plus year friendship.    

Everything below was copied from Your Daily Poem.  Thank you to Your Daily Poem.com.

The West Wind by John Masefield Next

It's a warm wind, the west wind, full of birds' cries; I never hear the west wind but tears are in my eyes. For it comes from the west lands, the old brown hills. And April's in the west wind, and daffodils. It's a fine land, the west land, for hearts as tired as mine, Apple orchards blossom there, and the air's like wine. There is cool green grass there, where men may lie at rest, And the thrushes are in song there, fluting from the nest. "Will ye not come home, brother? ye have been long away, It's April, and blossom time, and white is the may; And bright is the sun, brother, and warm is the rain,-- Will ye not come home, brother, home to us again? "The young corn is green, brother, where the rabbits run. It's blue sky, and white clouds, and warm rain and sun. It's song to a man's soul, brother, fire to a man's brain, To hear the wild bees and see the merry spring again. "Larks are singing in the west, brother, above the green wheat, So will ye not come home, brother, and rest your tired feet? I've a balm for bruised hearts, brother, sleep for aching eyes," Says the warm wind, the west wind, full of birds' cries. It's the white road westwards is the road I must tread To the green grass, the cool grass, and rest for heart and head, To the violets, and the warm hearts, and the thrushes' song, In the fine land, the west land, the land where I belong. This poem is in the public domain.   John Masefield (1878-1967) was an English poet, author, and playwright. Both his parents died while he was a child, and at the age of thirteen, annoyed with John's "addiction" to reading, the aunt in charge of caring for him sent him off to train for a life as a sailor. Although his experiences at sea provided much material for the stories and poems he would later write, John soon tired of that harsh life and, on a voyage to New York, he jumped ship. For two years, he worked at odd jobs in that city, using his free time for reading and writing. He eventually returned to England, married, had two children, and established himself as a significant literary talent. As his stature as a writer continued to grow, John became an internationally successful lecturer and was appointed as England's poet laureate, a position he held for nearly forty years. He actively wrote and published until he was 88 years old. John Masefield wrote the poem "The West Wind" in or before 1902, the year it was published in his first collection of verse, Salt-Water Ballads.  Buy on AmazonBuy on AmazonBuy on AmazonBuy on Amazon

Writing leads to other writing

It's October 1st and we are enjoying a wonderful prolonged summer. Only I know that it's really not summer.  I'm a four seasons person—would not change that for anything—so when the warm, sunny weather leaves us I will move on to real autumn.  Still, the fine weather is lovely and should be enjoyed.

I was recently walking around the neighborhood and reflecting on how I had actually spent my summer.  It would be easy for me to say that I didn't do much.  But that wouldn't be exactly correct.

When I returned from my Finland and Norway trip at the beginning of June, I spent the next four weeks writing about it on this blog.  It was a great trip and writing about it, episode by episode, was such an enjoyable activity for me.  Then writing about F/N, lead to writing about our brief and distant sighting of a Terek Sandpiper for 10,000 Birds titled:  There's a Shorebird on the Roof.

The July ABA Magazine article titled Lost on the Frontier by Brad Meiklejohn led me to write:  Missing the Gray-headed Chickadee.

Then I listened to Nate Swick's prologue on the ABA podcast about the new documentary film by Owen and Quentin Rieser titled Listers and I was inspired to write:  To list or not to list.  I'm waiting for Quentin Reiser's book to arrive in the mail today.

I enjoyed remembering my experience in the Andaman Islands in March of 2023 and contributed to a collaborative post titled Our 6 Rarest Birds Seen So Far.  My bird is the Ruddy Kingfisher.

Finally, having nothing to do with birding, I finished reading Nightingales:  The Extraordinary Upbringing of and Curious Life of Miss Florence Nightingale by Gillian Gill, published in 2014.  I'm a slow reader so it took me a while to finish.  It will be the best book I read in 2025 and I felt compelled to attempt to write a review.  This is a review of the sort that I do not feel qualified to write, but it turned out okay, I think.  But then I was reading a 10,000 Birds blog post and I was reminded that I had left something important (to me anyway) out of my review.  So I wrote:  Florence Nightingale and her Little Owl.

I have other writing ideas for the 10,000 Birds blog.  It is a fun blog.  It's an international site, has a very engaged editor who is also a birder, and I encourage others to look it up and subscribe.  You will see photos of birds you have no hope to see in real life, read of very different birding experiences, read about birding guides and lodges from all around the world, and perhaps be inspired to make a contribution of your own.  After all, none of us can watch, listen or read about politics all day.  Now is not a good time to put our heads in the sand (unfortunately, I have never been able to put my head in the sand, despite having examples all around me of how to do it), but even still it's important to have a diversion.

So this summer I wrote.  You could argue that this also means that, true enough, I didn't do much.  But this is not true.  Writing about birds has helped me find the strength to pay attention to our Democracy and not put my head in the sand.  I can't write if I have my head in the sand.  

As the new posts I write come out, I'll also publish them here. 

  Yes, someone is in there.  Enlarge to see.

Another Argiope spider - Banded Garden Spider

See the Addendum 09/21/2025 below.  

I have the classic iNaturalist app which I don't use often, so I use poorly.  So far, the only information I have is Genus Argiope, which is probably correct.  But I know this is not a Yellow Garden spider as is shown in the previous post.  It is similar, but definitely a different spider.  Check out the red medallion patch on the rear of its abdomen.  

There were two.  The first smaller than the one above.

The large size of this spider makes it a female; she knocked the smaller spider (a smaller female) away from the central part of the web

When the smaller spider tried to re-enter the web, she chased it out again.  The smaller spider was the only spider I saw at first.  It probably built the web.

Appreciate any feedback in the comments section from anyone who might know the common name of this spider.

From NC State University Extension:  Male black and yellow 

garden spiders are remarkably smaller than females.

I copied the photo above from NC State Extension that describes the male black and yellow garden spider as tiny.  At first I didn't look at the photo closely; now I see, that is indeed a tiny male spider perched just over the round medallion on the female's rear abdomen.  The spider in the NC State extension photo appears the same as the Belle Isle spider I found.  This is the only matching photo I have found so far.

While the spider I photographed at Belle Isle is certainly different in appearance than the one I photographed at Devine Preserve, apparently they are all lumped into the genus Argiope and are called black and yellow garden spiders.  Of note, my Belle Isle spiders' web did not have the corkscrew appearing stabilimentum (shown in the NC State photo). Maybe its web was still being constructed. 

Addendum 09/21/2025

I have a friend who is really smart about these kinds of things and she recently responded to my email asking for her thoughts on this spider's common name for identification.  She has her own meadow where these spiders are showing up.  She notes that they are very successful hunters.  My friend proposes that this spider's common name is Banded Garden Spider (Argiope trifasciata), a native of North and South America, but beginning to spread around the world.  They have also been seen on the Canary Islands, the Azores, Egypt and other places.  

If you see Banded Garden Spider photos on-line, you will likely be looking at the ventral side (underside) bands and from where the spider gets its name.  It never occurred to me that a spider would not be named for the appearance of its dorsal side (topside).  Again, not harmful to humans; it goes after garden pests.  Leave it alone and get rid of your pests.

Yellow garden spider

I went with friends yesterday morning to Devine (Nature) Preserve in Washtenaw County.  Oak savanna forest (some very big oaks!) and meadows dominated by sweet Joe-pye weed (Eutrochium purpureum) and goldenrod (several kinds).  There is, apparently, a marshy area also, but this was inaccessible.  Cattails were visible, but it has been so hot and dry that the marshy part was likely quite dry.   

We saw several good things, but this may have been the main attraction for me.  My friends had seen many before. 

Yellow garden spider (Argiope aurantia) 

As is true for most species of spiders, females are larger than males.  I am just assuming that our spider was a female.  It was about two plus inches long from tip of front legs to hind legs.  My friend has created her own meadow on her property and has seen several of these in her meadow.  The "corkscrew appearing" web is called a stabilimentum and is unique to Argiope species spiders.  The function is not fully known.  It may be so that birds and other creatures can see the web and avoid running into it. 

Apparently, in the right habitats this is a common spider, but it was my very first time seeing it.  The important thing to know about the yellow garden spider is that it is highly beneficial catching and eating several types of pests.  If you have one, or two or three, in your garden or meadow, leave them alone!  They are doing good work.  It is completely harmless to humans.  A truly stunning orb-weaver spider. 

Seeing this spider reminded me of the female Golden Silk orb-weaver spiders (Nephila clavipes) that I saw in Panama in 2016.  The male Golden Silk orb-weaver spiders were tiny in comparison.      

Female Golden Silk orb-weaver (Nephila clavipes). Enlarge the photo to see the web. 

I was also reminded of a relatively recent New Yorker book review by Kathryn Schulz titled An Arachnophobe Pays Homage to the Spider, February 10, 2025, in which she reviews the book The Lives of Spiders (Princeton), by Zimena Nelson.  If you are, like Kathryn Schulz, an arachnophobe (a very common affliction), or a arachnoid lover (yes, they do exist), you can pick this book up for a good price at a variety of on-line used bookstores.  Then, again, if you are an arachnoid lover you may already have it.

I wouldn't say that I'm an arachnophobe but, occasionally, I've been known to step into meadows for a closer look at something.  I did that a couple of times during our Devine Preserve visit.  I would not like to look down and find a yellow garden spider with it's eight legs trying for a foothold on the front of my fleece or sweater - never mind some other area of my clothing!  But I am very happy that the yellow garden spider is amongst us and just trying to do its job.  It was thrilling to see.    

Personal anecdote: Things get all jumbled up

Recently I wrote two blog posts for 10,000 Birds.  After seeing the Terek Sandpiper in Finland on May 23rd, I wrote There's a Shorebird on the Roof.  Then, sometime around mid-July, I received my copy of the ABA birding magazine (Vol. 57, No. 4, July 2025) and was spellbound by Lost on the Frontier by Brad Meiklejohn (pages 30-45).  You can read the article with an ABA membership.  After seeing the Siberian Tit in Finland, I was deeply saddened and wrote Missing the Gray-headed Chickadee.  Not all birders are members of the ABA and 10,000 Birds is an international birding site.  I felt a personal urgency to get this news out.

After this is when things got all jumbled up.

On the morning of Friday, August 1st, I logged into the ABA Community site, and learned that a Terek Sandpiper had been seen on Buldir Island in the western Aleutians on July 21st by birder Nick Ramsey and his friends.  The photos he posted are beautiful.  I read his write-up and remember thinking, this is the way to see and enjoy a Terek Sandpiper.  After a busy day I capped it off with a documentary movie titled Folktales about Norwegian kids doing a gap year.  I liked the movie and, as I was driving home, I was thinking that I should email the details of this movie to our Finland/Norway guide, Anttu.  Then I remembered, no, he's from Finland - even though the movie takes place in Finnmark.  In the movie a couple of bird vocalizations could be heard (I recognized a thrush's song) and one scene showed a Siberian Jay perched at the top of a conifer tree; however, it was not a movie about birds or birding.  I didn't email Anttu.  I slept pretty well that night, somewhat uncommon for me.  I was aware of some dreaming, but that's about it.

Finnmark County in Norway is shown in the bright green area.  We traveled in the Varanga Peninsula (circled) directly north of Lapland, Finland.  We saw our King Eider in Vadso Harbor (arrow).

Recently I have been having dreams about being lost somewhere and trying to get to some other place but I have also lost my phone.  So how will I ever get to where I need to be?  There is always a lot of fumbling around.  Everything remains unresolved.  These have been early morning dreams so I have been able to wake myself up from them.  I'm always relieved.  Thank God it was only a dream.  I look for my phone where I leave it each night before sleeping to make sure it's where it should be.

Early Saturday morning, August 2nd, I was semi-awake from 4:00 - 5:00 am, but then fell back to sleep.  Then I remember that I opened my eyes and the clock read 6:20.  I fell back to sleep again and began dreaming.  I dreamed that I was stopped at a gas station and was speaking with someone (it wasn't clear who) and I happened to glance over at a pond that was adjacent to the gas station.  I saw a male breeding plumaged King Eider paddling calmly next to a Mallard.  Oh my god, oh my god, still in my olden days thinking, I have to call someone.  Again a lot of fumbling around.  Who should I call?  I had no birders' numbers in my phone and I couldn't think of anyone's name.  I kept watching the little King Eider swim placidly along.  Wait, what am I thinking, I have the Discord app.  Oh, but I'll need a photo.  I began the process of trying to get a photo with my iPhone's terrible camera, reminding myself that it doesn't need to be a good photo, just recognizable.  As I was trying for the photo, I was also trying to think of my Discord password.  And so it went ... by this time I knew I was dreaming and forced myself to wake up.  My cat was staring at me. Feed me, she said.  It was 8:00 am and the King Eider was gone.

Birds have hard lives

Today at Detroit International Wildlife Refuge located on Lake Erie again I was looking for Odonata.  I was on the walkway between two ponds; this year with an explosion of phragmites growing on both sides.  I heard a Killdeer and thought it was flying overhead, but it continued to call insistently and I saw it then on a large triangle of grass where the walkway meets the bike trail.  The Killdeer was quite riled up, calling and walking rapidly this way and that way - as they do - especially when the mate is on its nest or juveniles are nearby.  I did not see a mate or any juveniles accompanying it.  

Then, at the edge of the grass, on the asphalt bike trail I saw something that appeared mostly white.  It could have been a dropped piece of clothing, a crumpled bit of tissue, a white-footed mouse ... or a dead baby Killdeer.   

It had been dead for perhaps an hour or two?  It was still warm, but of course the asphalt was warm.  It was not crushed or otherwise damaged as if a cat or other predator had got it.  I wondered if a bike had hit it.  It was just a fuzzling.  Perhaps not even big enough to get out of the way on its still wobbly legs.  Lying on the asphalt as it did the parent bird could see it clearly.  I believe the parent was still calling to it, warning it and trying to protect its little fuzzling.      

At the edge of the bike trail I found an area of tall grass with shade that had a soft little pocket at its center.  I laid the fledgling Killdeer in the center and pulled the taller grass down and over the top.  It wasn't covered fully, but it was no longer visible on the bike path either. Whether this calmed or fooled the parent bird, I don't know.    

My experience with observing death is that people, perhaps not all but many, will just shrug and say that death is part of life.  Not just with animal death, with human death also.  True enough, this isn't wrong.   But death, even human death, is also becoming less and less honored. A shrug of the shoulders.  Holding this tiny creature in my hand and thinking about what to do for it and for its distressed parent, I wanted to honor the sadness and misfortune of its unnecessary death.  

I was reminded of an experience in Norway.  The van was traveling on a two lane road that traversed a vast area of tundra.  Ahead on the road we saw a white clump.  There were only two possibilities for what the white clump could be - both ptarmigan.  Our guide stopped the van, got out and walked to the clump.  He held up the dead body of a Rock Ptarmigan.  Having passed a dead Willow Ptarmigan earlier, we knew his feelings - "drivers are careless, they don't pay attention, they don't slow down" - and then, to our collective groans from inside the van, he gave the ptarmigan an inelegant heave and threw it back out on the tundra.  On the tundra the ptarmigan would not continue to be run over by vehicle tires and end up a squished blob with feathers blowing in the wind.  On the tundra it would at least be someplace where another animal might find it and make it a meal.  On the tundra it was someplace where it had once lived.  Both ptarmigans were dead at the peak of their breeding season, on the cusp of bringing new life into the world.  

Anthropomorphic?  Probably, but I'm okay with that.

Moving on

How do I move on from writing and editing my Finland and Norway trip posts?  To tell the truth, I'm happy that I completed my project, but I always feel sadness when something I enjoyed so much is finished.  Changing my blog title photo is a good start.   

I only know one other way.  That is, to get back out in the field.  I didn't choose the best of days, overcast skies and threats of rain proved to be true for this particular day.  Still, I went to Crosswinds Marsh in the hopes of finding - well, anything; but my focus was on dragonflies.  Overcast skies are not the best weather for odes, but I did see a few things.  I also got the photo of the perched Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus), one of my favorite birds to photograph - somehow I never tire of it - to switch out my blog title page.  Otherwise, overall I didn't see much, but I did find and photograph a few other things.  Back to business as usual.  

Can anyone guess what this tiny bottle brush is?

Milkweed tussock tiger moth (Euchaetes egle) caterpillar

A really good name for this beautiful caterpillar.

The stem the caterpillar is traversing is that of common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca).

Incidentally, the hairs on this caterpillar are not poisonous or toxic, but they can cause irritation of the skin if handled.  My guess is that birds keep their distance!

Above:  Juvenile Rough-winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx serripennis)

Unexpected to see the juvenile Rough-wing lined up along the boardwalk railing with all of the juvenile Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica), now fledged from their nests beneath the eves of the cabana.

Above and below:  *Female Saffron-winged Meadowhawk (Sympetrum costiferum)

The Saffron-winged Meadowhawk is a new dragonfly for me (see addendum below) and this is always exciting.  It's hard for me to find a new species of dragonfly.  I don't get to travel to enough new places and new habitats, so my luck rests with finding a new species at my typical haunts.  Possibly three other Sympetrum species were also present in the same area today.  I don't have confidence netting dragonflies, but today I think I would have been successful.  Unfortunately, I didn't take my net along.  IDs of Cherry-faced, Ruby and White-faced meadowhawks will not be accepted if they have not been examined in the hand.

Finally, I saw this tiny, 1 inch, new damselfly trapped in a spider web along the boardwalk and thought it was dead.  I released it from the web and its wings flicked a little.  Soon it was crawling all over my hand and occasionally trying out its wings.  I had to take the photos with my iPhone's awful camera.  I have no idea what it is, but will go out on a limb and say it's a Skimming Bluet (Enallagma geminatum).  Skimming Bluets are common at the edges of the water of Crosswinds Marsh, it was very small and appeared as if it would mature into a black-type bluet.  My second guess is Orange Bluet (E. signatum), although I've never seen one at Crosswinds Marsh.  No reason they can't be there.

  Afterthought:  Could also be an Eastern Forktail (Ischnura verticalis).

Not a bad afternoon.

Addendum 07/28/2025

* My identification of the Saffron-winged Meadowhawk was disputed and a second opinion held up the dispute.  I've retracted this from the on-line site where I document the Odonata that I see in the field.  It is now a Sympetrum sp.  As with many of the Sympetrum sp., the Saffron-winged is a dragonfly that needs to be netted and viewed in the hand for proper identification.  This is certainly not a first for me.

Kun kaikki on sanottu ja tehty

Kun kaikki on sanottu ja tehty.  When all is said and done.  I hope that Ismo Leikola will not disagree with this translation.

In the first couple of days Nigel Redman told us that, at the end of the trip, he would ask each trip participant to list their top five favorite birds seen on the trip.  So, we should be thinking of this as the days went by. This may be a Rockjumper tradition and I like it.  I admit that I spent some time on this little task.  

My list:

5.  Tied:  Ortolan Bunting and Red-throated Pipit

4.  Smew 

3.  Boreal Owl

2.  Dotterel 

1.  King Eider

The final group wide tally is available in the last addendum (scroll down) dated 07/22/2025.  Click on the link Finland and Norway trip report.  After writing all of this, for my own favorites, I might have switched places with Dotterel and King Eider on my list.  But it doesn't matter. Both are great birds. 

My favorite photos

Singing an aria to the sea.  Puffins doing cute things?  Impossible!   

Dotterel, so well camouflaged, on his nest in the middle of the tundra (in photo center and slightly to the right).

This male Dotterel is on Kaunispää Fell, a vast tundra landscape, by himself to incubate his eggs and raise his young.  If I understood Anttu correctly, this was his third breeding season in this location.  The further north we traveled, we saw many birds migrating to their arctic breeding sites, many to Siberia, but this Dotterel was my favorite.  The distance he flew to get here and his success reminds me of the hard lives that birds have.  I'll be checking in with Anttu next year to see if our Dotterel is back for another year.

My best photos

When I returned from the trip and downloaded my photos, I immediately deleted about two-thirds of them.  I continue to enjoy all that I kept for one reason or another - especially those that I included in my blog entries.  But, honestly, it seemed to me that none of the photos were really good.  There was always something - distance, lighting, angle, camera settings, being rushed, whatever it might have been - that seemed to thwart a really good image.  I will probably always be challenged by my deficient digital camera IQ.  I did select four best photos, three of them already included in prior entries and one additional that I didn't have a place for.

I've always wanted a photo like this, but never thought it would be a Boreal Owl!

Things lined up quite well for this Red-throated Pipit photo.

Note:  When I received Nigel Redman's Rockjumper trip report, I was amused to see that the photo he selected for Red-throated Pipit was his own and, essentially, identical to my photo above.  I swear, I did not pilfer any photos for these blog entries.  [Of course, the exceptions are Bernard Raynaud's Red-flanked Bluetail and Capercaillie photos and Anttu's Dotteral photo - all of which I included with permission.]

Photo of Common Eider and King Eider swimming together is very appealing.

 

Except for the way this handsome duck's eye looks, I like this bright and colorful photo: Eurasian Wigeon (Mareca penelope)

Our biggest miss

Every trip has a few.  For this trip I would say that our biggest miss was the Ring Ouzel (Turdus torquatus).  In the Norway "cap" it seemed we were always in Ring Ouzel habitat.   Anttu did callback in several different areas.  Even I, to get out of the van that was protecting me, (and at the same time driving me crazy), from the driving wind while the others were standing around doing a sea watch, went walking up the road and began doing my own callback for the Ring Ouzel.  No luck. But wouldn't it have been something if one had responded?  My escape was a nice little getaway, even if just to stretch my legs.  Later the van came along and picked me up.  Getting back into the van, I felt like a re-captured prisoner, only not in as much trouble.  On the whole though we didn't miss much.    

For anyone interested, here is the eBird trip report:  Finland and Norway eBird trip report.  All of the eBird entries were compiled by our Finnish guide, Antero Topp, with Finnature Touring.  For my money, Anttu's efforts were truly phenomenal.  I will say that, at trip's end, he looked exhausted.

Addendum on 07/08/2025

Why wait until next year to check in with Anttu about the success of the Dotterel's nest?  I emailed him yesterday with two questions.  This morning I received his reply as follows:

1. I think it was successful because the male was still hatching in mid June when the last Finnature group visited the site. Hatching time can be 28 days so I don't know absolutely sure what was the result, but it has been successfully on the eggs already for about 20 days so it looks really promising. Of course the chicks have to survive many days before they can fly and I haven't heard anything about the chicks. Male was ringed on 07 Jul 2019 very close to where the nest was also this year.  It was only a few days old and it was still in the nest.

2. Yes you can use my photo.

Anttu's photo colors are much richer and the Dotterel's face is clearer.

Anttu writes that the Dotterel was ringed (banded) on 07 July 2019, making him now six years old.  This is older than I had originally thought, and he has shown remarkable nest site fidelity.  The miles he has flown!

Addendum on 07/15/2025

I'll be honest and say that, no doubt, from time-to-time I'll return to these blog entries and tweak them here or there.  But this is the end. Assembling my photos to tell the story and writing the narratives - 23 entries in just over a month - was an enormously pleasurable activity for me.  Since returning from Finland and Norway just over five weeks ago, I haven't achieved much else around home.  

My blog goes against what I believe it is that attracts others to view blogs; which are the photos.  I spoke about this recently with another blogger who places his photos front and center.   My blog includes a lot of narrative.  I always try my best with my photos, but for me it's the story of the trip and writing about it that brings it back to life.  I loved Finland and Norway and this is a trip I don't want to forget.  Even the whiny parts.  My own belief is that people, generally and worldwide, are reading less and less.  But, for me, I want to read more and more. Call me a contrarian and I will plead guilty, but for me reading is where I find the richness in life.  

Addendum on 07/22/2025

As promised and hot off the press, just received in my email this morning.  This is the official Rockjumper Tours Finland and Norway trip report.  It was compiled by Nigel Redman, our tour leader.  Rockjumper Birding also includes the trip report on their website.  It's a good website.  I recommend checking it out. 

If you got through this whole thing - all 23 posts - thank you all for looking and reading. 

Marathon

There are many kinds of marathons.  A running race.  An extra innings baseball game.  A World Cup soccer match that ends with a penalty shoot out.  A three and a half hour long war movie that you watched to the end.  I think of my Finland and Norway blog as a marathon. 

Unlike running a marathon which, in my younger years, I failed to finish, I have nearly made it to the end of my trip.  Twenty-two posts so far with one more photo entry and perhaps an adjacent essay-style entry will finish it off.  I've truly enjoyed it.  I told my best story and it may be my best trip review yet.  Of course, primarily it's all about the birds, but this is what the trip was inescapably about.    

After finishing the eider post, I switched out my header.  You can tell I was a little punch happy when I made it. 

A few additional photos to add.

Sign at the border of Finland and Russia.

The road was blocked by a locked gate.  We came here on May 26th for our afternoon coffee and cookies after seeing the White-throated Dipper (Cinclus cinclus) beneath a road bridge over a fast moving river at Jyrkänkoski.  The border was about an hour drive from there.  Just a week before our visit to the dipper site and the Russian border, this article appeared in the New York Times:  "Russia Beefs Up Bases Near Finland's Border."  Gives me the shivers.  I was happy to be on the Finnish side drinking my coffee and eating cookies.

A charming, mid-morning stop for coffee and bird feeders at a restaurant in Lapland.

Lapland resident.

Båtsfjord harbor, Norway

One view, used for my header, of Båtsfjord village

Above and below:  Black Guillemot (Cepphus grylle) 

In Båtsfjord harbor where I found the Black-legged Kittiwake colony. There were four in total.

Another view of Båtsfjord harbor across from the kittiwake colony.

The above landscape is beautiful.  Reindeer in the center.

Nesseby Church in Nesseby

Sheep with lambs.  

Do I need five photos of sheep with lambs?  Probably not, but I did enjoy watching them.  At first I thought there was just one sheep with two lambs, but then others came out from behind the little grassy hills to join them.