Photo: Common Gull swoops in for attack, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. May 31, 2021. 21:53

With summer just around the corner, many of Lofoten’s migratory birds will have chosen their nesting sites and begin laying eggs. In my valley, I can already see dozens of pairs of mostly common gulls spread out across the moorland. Every once in a while when something passes through, they will scatter to the sky in a flurry of noise and commotion.

Most of the migratory bird species on Lofoten are ground nesting: the various gull types, arctic skuas, oystercatchers, curlews, geese, and more. The result is the parents can have various levels of aggression when one passes too closely – particularly the arctic skuas, which might actually physically contact you, while most of the others just do a near flyby.

If you are just passing though an area, then there is not too much to be done, but do keep an eye out of where you are walking to hopefully avoid stepping on a nest full of eggs. The most common nesting areas are in the wild, coastal heather terrain which offers plenty of cover. But not all birds are this smart, and if you’re walking around the villages in late June, its likely you’ll see fresh chicks walking around the sidewalks and harbours at times.

If you are camping however, it is best that you pay attention to any annoyed birds. Camping too close to a nest will cause the parents to keep away, which might cause the eggs never to hatch, or, allow predators like stoats to approach and eat them. I’ve seen a few abandoned nests, still with eggs, in areas where it was obvious people had been frequently camping over the summer.

Just something to keep in mind while out enjoying Lofoten’s nature.

Head over to my Instagram account for (almost) daily postings of the local conditions here on Lofoten: @distant.north

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 70-200mm f/4
135mm
ISO 400
f 4.5
1/800 Second
WB Daylight

Photo: August northern lights spiral into the sky over Storsandnes beach, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. August 31, 2020. 00:50

This week it is my yearly reminder that the northern lights are not just a winter phenomenon and can already become visible in the last week of August in the sky over Lofoten.

Lofoten’s aurora season runs roughly from August 20 – April 20; so they are visible from Lofoten for 8 months of the year! For the very early and late auroras to be visible, it will typically have to be from a moderate solar storm, pushing the northern lights fully overhead or even into the southern part of the sky. Low to moderate activity needs a little longer to be visible, as the northern horizon still glows quite bring into the first weeks of September and from the first week of April.

Happy aurora season for all those coming north in the next months. The sun’s activity is still increasing over the next years, so the northern lights will be more common than previous years – it just requires the weather to cooperate!

Head over to my Instagram account for (almost) daily postings of the local conditions here on Lofoten: @distant.north

Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 20mm f/1.8
20mm
ISO 2000
f 2
2.5 seconds
WB Daylight

Photo: Norwegian Marshmallows – AKA tractor eggs – in freshly cut field in late July, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. July 25, 2022. 01:42

Every year beginning sometime in mid July the summer harvest of the fields begin to provide winter feed for the few sheep still remaining on Lofoten. Until two years ago my neighbor used to farm this field, but he has since retired, leaving only one sheep farmer left in my small village. Even without local sheep, the grazing land remains quite important and other nearby farmers have taken over the cutting and harvesting of the fields.

A few weeks ago – Friday Photo #496 – I posted an image of the field on a stormy summer evening, still full of flowers but already becoming quite overgrown. It felt a little later of a harvest this year, even though the summer has been a good one and the overall feel of the landscape to me is that things are a few weeks ahead of ‘normal.’ Perhaps it was the fairly cold and wet weather in the second half of July this year that has seen them waiting.

And indeed they seemed to be in a hurry once the tractors did arrive; working until after midnight on both Saturday and Sunday nights. This picture was taken at near 02:00 early Monday morning just after they had finished wrapping the bailing the loose grass. And still later they returned to collect everything!

So for the farm meadows, the flowers are now gone for this year and harvested fields remain. In a while, once the grasses grow a little taller again, the sheep and lambs will be moved into the fields during the autumn after they’ve been collected from the mountains. And then they will also be gone, along with the migratory birds and one day I’ll stand out in my yard and notice that its eerily silent; all the life and noise of summer has gone. From then on, winter is not far away.

Head over to my Instagram account for (almost) daily postings of the local conditions here on Lofoten: @distant.north

Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 14-30mm f/4
28mm
ISO 100
f 10
1/13 second
WB Daylight