Snow convoy and Eiders.

This morning we decided to try and make our way to the northern part of the peninsula, either Berlavoag or Batsfjord or both if we have time. Travelling in this part of Norway takes much longer than at home as the average top speed is around 80Km and that's not always possible. Factor in the odd stops we make checking out birds, feeders or the sea and time allowances aren't always easy to predict accurately. We had a pre-breakfast walk along the jetty where we saw Purple Sandpipers feeding along the tideline, ate another filling breakfast and then set off around 9.00. We saw a few flocks of Eider but they were fairly distant and stopped to check some trees, but these were quiet.
The road out to Hermaness looked a little too snowy for comfort and as the road past Tana Bru is periodically closed except for an escorted convoy access across the high ground we pressed on and today, luckily, we arrived just 10 minutes before the next convoy.
The drive across was an experience, with visibility down to inches at times. The landscape was huge vistas of snow, very white, with a few summer houses up to their eves in snow, and skidoo parks with their attendant cars parked while their owners go 'off-road' on a network of skidoo trails.










At the junction with the Batsffjord/Berlevog road the snowploughs do a sort of ponderous waltz as they turn round to return down the road. There is a cafe but it is closed at this time of year.
As the time was getting on and it looked like it would take another fairly long convey back we opted to go to Batsfjord and so turned right.
Batsfjord was a nice, colourful town with a mainly ice-free harbour. Sitting on some ice just off-shore was a flock of Stellar's and King Eider and a walk along the jetty meant we could get relatively close to them without disturbing them.










Having checked the times of the convoy back we decided to go for the next one as it would still be quite a long trip back but the road was open when we got there so we didn't have to wait and we drove back towards Tana Bru. There were a few very snowy patches and it was a bit like driving down a 'cresta' run on a bobsleigh run, but we did get along faster than behind the snowplough.
A random stop on the side of the road found a house with some feeders where there were Siberian Willow Tit, Snowbunting, Great Tit, and Redpolls coming and going with a brief visit by a pair of Northern Bullfinches.
We drove back to Pikkuskitsi, stopping along the way to scan for Elk and stopping at Verangerboten for an Italian meal at the cross-roads. There was a forecast of Level 4 aurora activity so we came back out at 10.00 but the weather got more and more snowy so we called it a day and returned home.