It has taken nearly a month for me to sort out the images taken on the next stage of this trip. Day 2 was spent in the bus travelling from Kaamanen to Batsfjord, the afternoon sitting in a convoy waiting for a snow plough to open the road into Batsfjord.

Day 3 was a before-dawn start to the new floating hide in Batsfjord harbour. The large one is big enough for up to 12 photographers with very low-level windows - that meant laying down for hours - not to be recommended for my 68 year old body - the things we do for that special image!!! We did circulate round the hide to make sure that everyone had the same opportunities but I found it hard going after 4 hours.

The first couple of hours were frustrating with birds all around but useless photography due to the light. This is where the Canon 7D is showing it's age. It's low light capability just does not cut-the-mustard in comparison with later cameras. Cannot wait for the Mk2 and hope that it is a high spec. Anyway, after binning the first couple of hundred of high ISO shots, the benefits of this superb hide became evident after the sun started to rise.

Common Eider were all around and CLOSE

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King Eiders everywhere - the most numerous of the four species

Long-tailed Ducks were less numerous but came close eventually although the sun on the bright white plumage of the males was a constant contrast problem.

Even the elusive Steller's Eider came close in after a time.

After spending most of the morning in the hide, the afternoon was spent in a boat cruising the harbour looking for flight shots

A total of 104 images were keepers from this day - many more images in the Recent Additions section and all images from the trip so far in the European Trip section of this webite.