It’s officially here, the midnight sun has arrived in the North Cape. And here is what we have to look forward to…This photo was taken last year in June.
If you want to follow the midnight sun this season, here are two webcam links:
and
Where the sun doesn’t dip below the horizon until the end of July.
On April 14th, the day that one million puffins arrived up here in the North Cape, there were some other beautiful birds that had already claimed their posts on the rocky cliffs of Gjesvaerstappan – the comorants or “skarver”in Norwegian. Here are a few shots taken on our fabulous bird safari of the comorants – a sea bird with exceptional fishing skills.
Sometimes we are fortunate to be at the right place at the right time. This past Sunday my family, along with around 90 other lucky souls, experienced an amazing phenomenon. Each year, on April 14th, 500,000 pairs of puffins-lunderfugl, return to Gjesværstappan to lay their eggs. That boggles my mind… twentyfour hours prior, a million birds were on their way to a remote spot in the North Cape of Norway!
Gjesvæarstappan is a group of islands and a nature reserve for millions of arctic seabirds that lay their eggs in the steep rocky cliffs. Bird safaris are offered from May to August.
Our boat was called the Lundekongen or Puffen King, and as you can see, we could not have asked for better weather. Perfect for a landlubber like myself.
The Children’s Trekking Association, part of the Norwegian Trekking Association, organized the outing and before we set sail, we had a visit from a special puffin that shared some facts about these beautiful birds.
We learned that each pair lays just one egg which is placed in a hole up to a meter long. Their sharp beaks are used to dig the deep holes. They can dive up to 40 meters to catch fish in the ocean waters and a puffin can live to be 30 years old. Their nickname is the sea parrot, because of their colorful beaks.
And then we were off to greet the puffins on their arrival day.
And they were there to be greeted!
They filled the waters and the sky.
Next year I will be bringing a better camera lens to get some close ups. This one will have to do for now.
I walked to work to today and couldn’t help but take some shots. We may not have flowers yet, but this boat had bright orange, lime green, and lemon-yellow flags that provided the dash of sping colors to match the beautiful day.
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