Day 8 - Sabrina's Hide

Day 8

After spending a short time watching the feeders we turned in for some much needed sleep before walking out along the road to a bridge over a woodland stream and then walked up a track. We saw lots of wintergreen in the ditch and roadside, as well as lots of Silver studded blues and some hawkers and emerald dragonflies but they were too fast and difficut to identify as they didn't settle.

After a lovely late lunch of Salmon on pasta with the addition of Don from Stroud who was also coming to the hides we got into the car and drove to Sabrina's site which was about 10 minutes away and a lot easier to get to. Once we were in the hides, she put the bait out around the clearing and then left us to it.

It was quite quiet for a while with the interest being a few gulls that came and investigated some of the caches until David noticed something moving in the clearing in front of us. A quick look as it walked away and it looked like a fox, until it turned round and it was a wolf.

It was very nervous and kept well into the woodland edge. About 15 mins later we saw a bear arrive and over the next 7 hours we had multiple sittings of the red-ear tagged bear and at least 4 sightings of the wolf. The bear ambled about eating small scraps and every now and then took larger lumps off into the forest to cache. The wolf appeared to be watching the bear and possibly raiding the caches after it had left but it never came out of the forest edge.

After the bear had left we took turns to sleep and around 4.30 I stood up to stretch, glanced out of the small side window to see a Wolverine investigating the food hidden in front of the big hide. I woke David up with difficulty and we watched it as it dug up food and then it trotted off behind the hut with a bone. We had our fingers crossed that it would return, which it did and eventually it worked it's way round to where we could see it from our windows. We enjoyed great views for about half an hour before it took a bone off into the forest and didn't return.

Returning to Sabrina's we had another lovely breakfast, took a short walk down the road looking at the flowers and butterflies. We found a copper which turned out to be Scarce Copper and also found some more Lesser Marbled Fritillaries. We walked down to the lake and found lots of flowers including Marsh Cinquefoil, Fringed Loosestrife, Rosebay Willowherb, Red Campion and cranesbills.

As we walked back we came across these old Granaries which are now being protected as part of the historical landscape.

Day 7 - A night at Wild Brown Bear

Day 7

Breakfast was at 8.00 and it was quite a spread with 2 boiled eggs,cut in half, several small sausages, slice of bread with cheese and sausage, 2 pancakes with some sort of cheesy cream inside, muffin, fruit and yoghurt. We then packed up, loaded the car and set off back to Lentiira. The border was about an hour away and it took us about an hour to cross, mainly due to there being a bus in front which took time to process, the actual crossing itself took about half an hour.

Arriving back at Sabrina's we unloaded the car, took our stuff upstairs, had a cup of tea and went for a walk along the road to a bridge and then a hot, walk along a track. We found several dragons and lots of silver studded blues, great spotted woodpecker, willow warbler, but couldn't get back to the river so we turned round and went back for a 3.o'clock lunch/dinner before setting off to Wild Brown Bear for a night in hide 17.

Because it had been hot and humid most of the day the walk in left us dripping with sweat and the hide was very warm. On the way we noticed Twinflower and some lovely Heath spotted orchids. Along the swamp there was also an Azure Hawker, a first for us. We eventually cooled down enough to be more pleasant and started our vigil. Around 8.15 David suddenly noticed a bear walking down the right hand side of the lake but it disappeared before we could get a camera on it, a shame as the light would have been great. It re-appeared in front of hide 20 but quickly went off into the forest, looking very spooked.

A little while later a couple of gulls floated through and then a bear appeared behind the hides to the right but again it was a very brief appearance before it went back into the forest. A few minutes later it started to rain.
Around 11.30 a Wolverine came from the right and bobbed itself along the water's edge stopping to open one of the traps for some food – it was so dark that a video was the only option to record it and after it disappeared there was little else to see until we packed up and left at 7.00 am. On the way out we stopped to chat to a couple who were also leaving to see how they had got on and then to photograph the Twinflowers and orchids. 

In the carpark we waited for Sabrina and noticed a figure we recognised from last year- it was Kyle going into the accommodation. Sabrina called him out and we had a chat before going into the dinning room to chat with Harry and then returning to Sabrina's for breakfast.

Day 6 - Back to Kostamus

Day 6

We met up at 8.30 for breakfast in the restaurant. This was once again Rice pudding and butter, bread, cheese, sausage and tea.

Our baggage was taken from the accommodation down to the port while we walked the shortcut. One russian word I can translate.

The boat came in at 9.45, our luggage was moved to near the gangplank, then onto the stern area. The boat left at 10.10ish and we saw a large goosander flock at the mouth of the port. We saw a few Gulls and black guillemots with at least 3 sightings of Beluga on the way. There were not too many passengers as it was the early boat. There were a group of lads from Bella Russe who had probably been working on the island and were now going home – one of them calmly asked for some water, Sabrina emptied some out of a bottle and handed them what was left and there was a group of women accompanying a priest from the monsaztry, who spent some time feeding bread to the gulls, which meant they came quite close. Most people get the later one across and the boat can be very crowded. It was a great crossing with the sea like a millpond for most of the way until we neared Kem when it clouded over and we got a few spots of rain.

After disembarking with all our gear, Sabrina fetched the car, we loaded up and drove round to the restaurant for lunch which was fried chicken, rice with peppers, tomato and cucumber. We then walked round to a spot just outside where a disused railway track went between 2 arms of a tidal creek. It was alive with butterflies, mainly common and silver studded blue but also a black veined white with Jacob's ladder in a garden and a large copper flew through. A man and his son were collecting water from the pump opposite so the mains hasn't reached here yet.

We walked a little way in with flowers all along the track incl harebells in blue and white, buttercups galore and some heath spot orchids with sundews and a yellow clover with brown bracts in a little clearing among the trees. There was a Barnacle goose, arctic terns and common sand in one of the pools and a curlew calling from the seaward side. A few dragonflies patrolled the paths and reeds but wouldn't settle enough to identify easily.

We set off  back to Kostamus and our hotel for the night with a few stops along the roadside and a guel stop for us and the car. We had a marsh orchid, some common spotted orchids, clustered bellflower in blue and white, Small marbled frittilary, common and silver studded blue, white faced darter, and pale clouded  yellow along the verges and a stop at a lovely bridge to avoid following a very dusty lorry had common sand, lots of dragons and beautiful demoiselles.

The horseflies and other biting things were horrendous so we kept our breaks fairly short and we did have a long way to go.

We arrived at the hotel about 9.00, checked in and then walked round to a restaurant where we had a nice meal of pork steak and chips with a Balsamic sauce, although as the menu was completely in Russian how Sabrina managed is amazing, but the waitress did have enough english to say 'steak' and between them it worked. We left just as the place was beginning to fill up with locals and the disco lights got going. We then walked back to our rooms for a good night's sleep.

Day 5 - A day with the Belugas

Day 5
This morning was a 3.45am get up, a cup of tea, and then we walked down to the Victoria, loaded our gear and set off for the island. Stanislav, the captain (Stani), took us straight in to the shore of the island and we landed ourselves and our gear without getting wet.

We set up on table rock with a self-inflate mattress to sit on, or catch up on some rest, and food for our 14 hour stint at being castaways. The tide was on the ebb so we chose a rock to settle on and looked out for the Belugas. There are three main pods along this stretch, although there is a lot of interaction with individuals and whole pods joining together for what appears to be social reasons, the pods rolled, breached, jumped and tail slapped. There were whole stretches of times when there were few or no whales to be seen. At one point we watched for about an hour as several Bellugas interacted in what apppeared to be mating behaviour. There was a steady stream of red-breasted mergansers, as well a several small flocks of Eider.

During one quiet spell we went for a walk round the island, There were lots of tern chicks and lots of terns still on eggs. We had to dodge the terns dive bombing us as we walked. There were lots of terns loafing on the rocks and Dunlin and Oystercatcher pottering round the water's edge.Around the landward side we found a couple of pairs of Turnstones, acting very cautiously, we then saw 2 chicks pottering in the rocks and vegetation.

There was plenty of bird art dotted about the foreshore.

During the day 2 osprey flew past and a steady stream of people visited during low tide, brought by the cross-country vehicle with huge tyres, making little impact on the sand. One officious russian guide demanded that David moved out of the edge of the water, declaring that it was disturbing the whales who would have come closer! They were about 15/20 meters away! We had plenty of time to watch the terns coming and going, feeding their chicks and just loafing. 

We were collected by Stani in freshening breeze at around 8.00pm, accompanied by a friend of his who had come out to see the Belugas. It was nice to look back at the island where we had such a great time. The structure is a watchpoint for the researchers.

Dinner was a repeat of yesterday with it being left in the dining area of our room so we took it to the microwave before eating the chicken rissole and rice with tomatoes. We then returned for a good night's sleep.