I've just returned home from a week away in Norway, visiting the Lofoten and Vesteralen Archipelago as part of a short Naturetrek tour. This is the first time this tour has run since I last went there in 2018.
On this occasion the weather was much better and despite the current difficulties with flying at the moment we managed to assemble on the Lofoten Islands after two short flights and a three hour ferry crossing. After a couple of days here we motored north to the Vesteralen islands and stayed for three nights on the island of Andoy before making our way home again.
These islands are a long way north (inside the arctic circle) and the weather was cool but generally calm and pleasant. Calm seas meant we were fortunate to see a Blue Whale, Minke Whales, Harbour Porpoises and several Basking Sharks and other interesting mammals included Mountain Hare and Elk.
Sea-birds included Puffins (which are sadly declining rapidly in this part of the world), various gull species, common auks, and Fulmar and three species of diver. White-tailed Eagles are a regular sight on the west side of Andoy and other raptors seen on the tour included Golden Eagle, Merlin and a single Goshawk (with crow prey). We enjoyed a singing male Bluethroat and it was great to see good numbers of breeding Curlew, Redshank and Golden Plover.
Of course the amazing landscape is the main selling point of this trip and I will post some scenery shots in due course.
Guests from previous tours this spring have kindly been mailing me their images from Speyside, Provence and Iceland and I have created some tabs or pages on this blog specific to these tours where these images can be seen (please see the tabs underneath the main image at the top of the home page).
Regards
Neil M
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| Bluethroat. |
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| Elk. |
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