Spring in Lapland - 19th May

I awoke to find that it had been snowing for most of the night and it continued to do so during the day, but with brief sunny periods.

I decided to walk to an area of marshland about 1km from my cabin from where I could hear many birds calling and displaying, but my singing and talking loudly incase of bears was getting on my nerves and probably disturbing some of the things I was trying to see, so I put some stones in a plastic water bottle

and taped it to my walking staff and each time I moved the staff, the stones rattling in the bottle made a noise.

The conditions made walking quite a challenge because you might be in deep snow for a short distance and then in areas where the sun had penetrated, the ground was clear.

Walking in snow was also unpleasant because often below the snow there would be deep melt water and so my boots and trousers were constantly wet and my feet cold. Another issue with ground covered by snow was that you could not see the many holes and cracks in the ground and at one point my leg went down one of these and I cracked my elbow on a rock.

Arriving at the marsh it was well worth the walk though. There were Ruff displaying, Spotted Redshanks, Greenshanks, Wood Sandpipers, Whooper Swans, Whimbrel, Goldeneye, Smew and Teal. It was amazing to see wading birds displaying in these snowy, wintry conditions.

Back at the cabin I continued clearing the snow, carved a spoon from Birch and put together a wooden bed. Birds close to the cabin included Great Tit, White Wagtail, singing Redstarts, Raven and Meadow Pipit. There were also fresh Hare and Elk tracks.