Noctilucent Clouds and Bears in Finland
After the couple of months of lockdown it was really good to travel again. This time we went by car, though took the easy way by crossing the Baltic Sea in a ferry. The ferry leaves at 3am from Travemunde. The arrival would be around 9 or 10am 30 hours later; the exist time depends on the amount of containers and how quickly they can be moved out.
Noctilucent clouds in Saimaa
This year there was the famous NEOWISE comet visible in the Northern hemisphere in July. We went out after midnight trying to see the comet in a ‘dark’ place, with Tony who is a photographer. Not a chance… first of all even at 1am it’s too light, and secondly the noctilucent clouds were on the way, as well as some fast moving dark clouds. Yes, they were rain clouds.
In Saimaa region we got another good look at the noctilucent clouds, or night shining clouds. This time the weather conditions were perfect: no normal clouds, no wind and full view to the lake. The clouds were very beautiful, moving slightly, thus making the look different all the time. We were out there to photograph the clouds from midnight to nearly 2am. Even in the darkest moment in the end of July, you can see the sunlight in the horizon.
Noctilucent clouds consist of ice crystals and are in the altitude of around 80km. They are visible only during summer months between latitudes of 50° and 70°, roughly two hours after the sunset. Many people who live in these latitudes think it’s just a normal thing, not knowing that they are actually seeing something pretty special.
Brown bear near Russian border
Again I tried my luck to see bears. This was the 3rd time. The other times I was in private hides in North Karelian wilderness. In those times I saw wolverines but not bears; besides one mother bear with two cubs crossing a road in the middle of the night.
This time it was going to be different. We went first to Boreal Wildlife Center in Kuhmo. The hide itself was within the border zone, some 500m from the Russian border. We selected the swamp hide with the wish to see wolves as well. This year there have not been many foreign photographers, thus we had all the luxury to select the hide and be alone there.
Getting ready for the night in a bear hide
The first bear arrived pretty quickly after we had settled in. Wow! During the evening we observed in total five different bears; two of them came back multiple times. I had not realised that the brown bears come with so many different colours; from blond to nearly black. There were two large males at the same time. Once the bigger bear arrived, the smaller big bear gave the place. There was some tension between the two. Most likely these bears knew each other and didn’t need to show off who was the strongest.
This time no wolves, or other mammals. There were three white-tailed eagles, a number of Northern Ravens and gulls.
We spent another bear night in Erä Eero’s hide in North Karelia’s wilderness. We chose for the lake hide this time. During the evening we saw two bears and no wolverines for which this place is known for. The setting is very beautiful: end of a lake, forest, trunks here and there. You only wish to have the main actors in the set. When the bears came it was already pretty dark. In the end we were just observing the bears and Ravens. These two nights left me with a desire to see and photograph more of wildlife in Finland.
This year our focus was in East Finland: wilderness of North Karelia. We spent a couple of days in Ruunaa hiking area and the Patvinsuo National Park. Ruunaa is about the river and its rapids; Patvinsuo is about the wetlands. Both places are worth a visit.Patvinsuo National ParkThis part of Finland is pretty wild compared to many other regions. Thus, you need to be prepared in terms of accommodation and food. There are no accommodation nor shops (let alone restaurants!) in every village.
There is a large variety of landscapes in East Finland: lakes, islands, forests, wetlands, hills, etc. It’s somewhat less known compared to the archipelago in the southern part of the country, and Lapland.