Female Common Crane

(15 November 2016: see below for an explanation of the extra photo I've just posted)    We drove this afternoon to the Grimsdal Valley, making a long and fascinating (and beautiful) circuit south and east of our lodge.  In the past there were over 50 summer farms in the valley; few are active now, and some have been converted to lodges.

Early on we had a pair of Common Cranes (also called Eurasian Cranes--grus grus). The brown on the female's back indicates she is breeding; the male has much less. We have seen many Sandhill Cranes in the U.S. over the years, and thus we very much enjoy our opportunities to see them in Europe (in at least five countries: England, France, Estonia, Hungary, and now Norway).

Morning was spent on an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to see arctic foxes, high above our valley--they did not show themselves, but nearby we did see arctic foxes in enclosures. They have been captured elsewhere in the wild  as part of an effort, starting last year, to breed them in captivity and reintroduce them; they are endangered in the wild.

The afternoon was excellent;  bluethroat, cuckoo, golden plover, willow grouse, kestrel, hen harrier were among the birds we saw.  And there was a musk ox quite close to the road, but mostly well protected from photographers by thick brush--my shots were not worth putting up here. Tomorrow we go on to the Trondheim area for the last day of our tour.

Edit (2016-11-15):  I have just put up an extra of a common cuckoo, in connection with news that cuckoos were tracked for the first time by satellite migrating over 8,000 km from China to Africa.