Grey Seal colony

This week I visited a breeding Grey Seal colony. Its latin name Halichoerus grypus means "hook-nosed pig of the sea". These were the types of views I was expecting to get of adults and their pups..

so imagine my surprise when I found pups sprawled across the footpath

This population are Eastern Atlantic Grey Seals. About half the worlds breeding population of Grey Seals are found around the coast of Great Britain.

The breeding site is known as either a rookery or haul-out. The pups are born with a white coat and start to moult at 2 - 3 weeks old.

They will suckle from their mother for about 21 days. After about 7 weeks the pups make their way to the sea and begin to feed.

One of the pups proved to be incredibly friendly and came so close that it was infact too close for me to then photograph.

I did get a nice piece of video of it though.

Autumn in Lapland 25th September 2008

Overcast all day today.

Spent most or the day birdwatching around the cabin today as there were lots to see. 1 Grey-headed Woodpecker (a rare bird in Lapland) was moving around from tree to tree associating with a Great-spotted Woodpecker. There was a Reed and Rustic Bunting feeding around the cabin plus; Fieldfare, Redwing, Waxwing, Goldcrest, Redpoll, Chaffinch, Brambling, Greenfinch, Raven 1 female Goldeneye on the lake and a noisy Jay. There were also a family party of 7 Siberian Jays feedling on a piece of pork I put in a tree. I spent about 3 hours photographing and filming them.

They are such a beautiful bird.



I slit some logs this afternoon

spent a bit of time fishing but still caught nothing!!

Filtered some more water

and then I made a "Moose caller" for Anki's grandchildren.

You can use a plastic cup or cut the top off of a bottle

then make a small hole in the base large enough to get a piece of nylon cord through (the inner line from parachute cord works well)

Now wet the string and pull gently between thumb and forefinger

Autumn in Lapland 23rd September 2008

Cloudy first thing, then sunny but became overcast late afternoon and cleared just before dark.

This morning I sat and watched a Great-spotted Woodpecker wedge a cone in the crack of a tree trunk as a vice, so it could extract the seeds.

Here is the end result

I decided to make a bird feeder using bits I had found discarded by others. It's amazing how long such a simple thing can take to make when you have limited materials and tools. The seeds drop out of holes at the bottom of the tube.

This afternoon I collected two fallen Birch for firewood for a winter trip I am planning. I cut the trees up using a sabre cut saw (a kind of hand operated chainsaw with teeth pointing in both cutting directions).

Then I carried the sections back to the cabin for cutting up and splitting.

some were too big to carry on my shoulder so using this piece of rope


I made a simple handle for dragging the logs back, which reduced the strain on my back.

On one of the trees there was a really nice bur (a bur in Swedish is called a "kasa" and so as I understand it is not the cup that is truly the kasa, but the item it is made from). In Finland they are called "kuksa".

There has been a male Crossbill singing around the cabin most of the day and a pair of Northern Bullfinch appeared briefly. There was also a black form of the Red Squirrel around and when I rowed to the far end of the lake at dusk there was a female Moose feeding on Bog Bean. A male then appeared calling to her, she replied and then they both disappeared into the forest.

Autumn in Lapland 19th September 2008

Cloudy with sunny periods, but only 4 degrees.

There were about 60 Waxwings feeding in a Rowan tree just outside the cabin this morning.


We walked up the hill behind the cabin today

and found a couple of lots of bear shit.

You can clearly see that it has been feeding on berries!

After stopping for a brew and some lunch we returned to the cabin and Phoebe and Liam sorted the berries we had collected.

I cooked the Lingon (Cowberries) with apples and sugar

to make jam and syrup

I also baked an oat cake

In the evening we went to Ingvar and Anki's cabin where they had prepared Reindeer stew and then Cloudberries on waffles with double cream!


Birds for the day included; 3 Northern Bullfinch, 1 Jay, Hazel Grouse and 2 Capercallie

Spring in Lapland - 31st May

Clear, sunny and 27 degrees today!!!!

I caught 3 Perch and 1 22 inch Pike in the trap today.

It is a sad day for me today as I will be leaving tomorrow.

This morning I had problems lighting the stove (the chimney may be blocked), so I made a fire outside to cook on.

For breakfast I had fried bannock and the remainder of my dried fruit and sun flower seeds.

I walked to the marsh but it was very quiet, though there were many Green Hairstreaks around and 1 Holy Blue.


I spent the afternoon cleaning and tidying in and around the cabin and spent the evening rowing around the lake, with the beaver as a companion.

Spring in Lapland - 27th May

So I was up at about 02:15 to try and find the beaver (there are Chaffinch and Redwing singing in this piece of film).



The first birds I saw were a pair of Long-tailed Ducks sitting on the ice outside the cabin.

I walked around the lake and on the northern edge I could hear gnawing of bark and could see the water moving. I moved very slowly and managed to get to about three metres of the beaver, who was completely unaware of my presence.

I even filmed it for a short time



before it noticed I was there and with a slap of its tail on the water it was gone.

Pleased with my success I walked over to the marsh where there was nothing unusual and then made my way back to my bed.

After breakfast I decided to walk to a much larger lake that I had visited last autumn. Minerals in the ground mean that a compass can not be relied upon for navigation so as I travel I keep looking back to note distinctive features that I can look out for as I travel back. I also make small marks on trees to help define my return route. The picture below shows a mark on the left of the tree so I know I must turn left here.

The lake is in a low valley and it was almost like going back a week in time as there was still a lot of snow and most of the lake was frozen!


Smew, Goosander and Goldeneye were the only birds here and I also flushed a female Capercallie as I walked back.

I spent the rest of the day rubbing down and painting more windows and I finished the kuksa I was making.

Spring in Lapland - 26th May

As predicted I awoke to a wet rainy morning, which then turned to snow. By mid afternoon it was sunny but with an icy cold north wind.

1 Common Gull flew low over the lake, 1 Redwing singing just outside cabin, 1 male Wheatear around the cabins today (probably forced to take a break from its migration by the weather), I Wryneck (a member of the Woodpecker family) around today. Here is a picture of it on the sauna chimney

I spent most of the day working on the kuksa that I started yesterday to give as a gift to the guy who gave me the knife.

I also collected some local plants to experiment with as food;

I have found references to "Old Mans Beard" lichen being used as a survival food.


If cooked for a long time it is supposed to release starch and has also been used as a gluten substitute to make bread.

It reminded me of pubic hair prior to cooking and after testing it at various intervals during a 10 hour cooking period, it didn't change much!

I do recall from a Ray Mears programme though, that the resulting water could have been used to treat fungal infections.

A plant that I do enjoy is Labrador Tea

though if I drink too much of it, it sometimes gives me stomach ache.

This evening as I sat carving the kuksa, a beaver appeared swimming around the edge of the lake.

I've decided I will get up early tomorrow morning to try and find where it is feeding.

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.

Hammock and tarp

It has been a long time since I used my hammock and tarp, so I used them at Assington Mill last weekend.

My tarp is a Hennessey Hex-fly and the hammock is my own creation. I use a Reindeer skin (or my Swanndri hooded bushshirt) to line my hammock for insulation. The nights were warm enough that I only had my sleeping bag laid over me.

On Saturday night I was serenaded all night by a newly arrived Nightingale.

and I also heard badgers squabling close by.