Trip reports

Lapland Wilderness

Tuesday, 6 November 2007

This talk by Gordon Langsbury was about the remote north of Norway and the northern forest zone in Finland. As always, the slide photographs were brilliant and we were treated to the tip that slide presentation offers a superior quailty to straight digital, so Gordon has converted his digital shots back to slide.
Varanger Fjord faces eastward to Russia and the bleak treeless topography certainly looked as wilderness as it could be, but the birdlife made it something special. The birds there are largely known to us as winter visitors and now we could see them in their spectacular breeding plumages.
In the Finnish section we were taken southwards to the forest edge, and here Gordon started with the owl species - from the small Tengmalm to the huge Great Grey. And just as interesting was to see how many species had made the long journey from Africa all the way to the top of Europe.