foresttwitcher
Virtually unknown member
I guess many birders will have a species or family that prompted interest in their early years of looking at books / field guides, due to colours, patterns or behaviour, that in time became a bit of an obsession. In my case it was the Eiders.
Common Eider was eventually easily ticked off on many trips to Scotland for climbing / mountaineering or island hopping. But I always had the other two possibilities in Europe as dream species that I was unlikely to be able to get to see. As things changed recently and I was in the position to plan a trip to Norway last spring I held out more hope. As the planning for this trip of a lifetime progressed I hoped to make the best use of my time to include Finland for Boreal Forest species as well. In booking the guides for this, the owl species on offer began to take priority and I sacrificed my chances of the Eiders by going later in the year and sure enough I failed to fine any summering Eiders (apart from Common) in Norway in May 2018. I thought I had lost my chance.
However, unexpected compensation for last years delayed flight to Helsinki (sorted via AirHelp) altered things. So I began to look into flights for a return trip to Varangerfjord. Initially I hoped to fly to to Vardo, Vadso or Batsfjord but these flights were very expensive and required numerous plane changes and up to 18 hours! The next nearest airport was Kirkenes; the flights still costly and whilst the return was OK the outbound flight involved an overnight in Oslo airport. Ivalo was the next nearest but still pricey. Finally I found Easyjet still flew to Rovaniemi as late as the end of March for a very decent price. So, although this meant a longer drive then I would have liked, I had soon booked flights, a hire car (with AddCar, through Rentalcars) and budget accommodation -in Norwegian terms - in Vadso (through Trivago). Basically all this was covered by the compensation so I just had to find the cost of fuel and food/drink. So a brief re-return was on.
Common Eider was eventually easily ticked off on many trips to Scotland for climbing / mountaineering or island hopping. But I always had the other two possibilities in Europe as dream species that I was unlikely to be able to get to see. As things changed recently and I was in the position to plan a trip to Norway last spring I held out more hope. As the planning for this trip of a lifetime progressed I hoped to make the best use of my time to include Finland for Boreal Forest species as well. In booking the guides for this, the owl species on offer began to take priority and I sacrificed my chances of the Eiders by going later in the year and sure enough I failed to fine any summering Eiders (apart from Common) in Norway in May 2018. I thought I had lost my chance.
However, unexpected compensation for last years delayed flight to Helsinki (sorted via AirHelp) altered things. So I began to look into flights for a return trip to Varangerfjord. Initially I hoped to fly to to Vardo, Vadso or Batsfjord but these flights were very expensive and required numerous plane changes and up to 18 hours! The next nearest airport was Kirkenes; the flights still costly and whilst the return was OK the outbound flight involved an overnight in Oslo airport. Ivalo was the next nearest but still pricey. Finally I found Easyjet still flew to Rovaniemi as late as the end of March for a very decent price. So, although this meant a longer drive then I would have liked, I had soon booked flights, a hire car (with AddCar, through Rentalcars) and budget accommodation -in Norwegian terms - in Vadso (through Trivago). Basically all this was covered by the compensation so I just had to find the cost of fuel and food/drink. So a brief re-return was on.
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