Arctic Finland & Norway Part 2

Batsfjord is Norway’s largest fishing community and while we were there a lot of capelin were being unloaded at the fish factory, resulting in a blizzard of Black-legged Kittiwakes, Herring, Glaucous and a few Iceland gulls. Standing downwind (winds of 50-60 mph) of a boat unloading capelin results in being sprayed with a fishy slurry. This is what happened at this location during our second week and we all smelled like a chowder gone bad. So did our rental car.

A big flock of Common Eiders was joined by a few Kings. The Steller’s Eiders didn’t seem to be too interested in joining the chaos.

During these frenzies, I tried a few motion blurs. This one at f/14 @ 1/13 ISO 200

Arctic shopping cart/stroller

Salmon for breakfast every day!

A flock of Steller’s Eiders fly past a fish drying rack.

Many of our photos were taken from boats. Orian’s decor was first class!

The reason we were here: Two drake King Eiders fly over a choppy Barent’s Sea.

The other reason we were here: A pair of Steller’s Eiders take off.

A drake Common Eider struggles to get airborne.

In the inner harbor some Black-legged Kittiwakes were nesting in the broken windows of a building on the wharf.

The best spot for a good composition was out on a questionable ledge that had about three feet of snow on it. I had to do some work in order for us to get our gear out there.