Northern Norway, June 12-19, 2023
Towering peaks of sagvanditt dark stone, spotted with drifts of snow, dwarfed the small layer of birch greenery from which they arose, and reflected on the glassy fjords that glistened at their feet. This was the endless landscape that rolled in front of my eyes as I traversed the Troms county or fylke by bus. The Troms and Finnmark counties of far northern Norway are at roughly the latitude of the northernmost 1/5 of Alaska, yet unlike other land masses at that northern latitude, the climate here is warmed from the south by the gulf stream and therefore supports lush forests and year-round open seawater. This contributes to its distinctiveness and means that its tundra breeding birdlife mostly exists several hundred meters (or 1000+ ft) up in the Finnmarksvidda, and other high mountain plateaus, or viddas.
