I get very excited when I hear of birds I used to see in the UK venturing up north. Cormorants used to sit on the boats in Bristol docks and I have been looking out for them here. I didn't think one would turn up on the river when the temperature drops to -22'C. 

 It was a glorious morning with wonderful light for photos.

The daytime sky is becoming bluer and it does feel like spring is possible - even if it will be a couple of months or more away!

Today was one of those days when it has truly felt great to be alive, and to be living up here. Biting cold,  crystal ice and a lovely warm sauna to come home to.

Finally there have been some clear skies and the sun has been visible.

And at midday the sky was blue: not very intense, but it was so good to see. The temperature has dropped to about -8'C which is still incredibly warm for the time of year.

But, it's great to get outside. I am enjoying 'dementia skiing': using nordic walking poles. I guess I am just getting old - but at least I get some exercise.

I've not done much photography (except for cats) as the weather has been poor. For a start we only just dipped below zero between Christmas and New Year, so have had very little snow cover. The ice has been omnipresent and I am much appreciating the spiked shoes I bought a couple of years ago. The birds were really late leaving and I am sure I heard greenfinches in the back yard area yesterday.
Persistent cloud has stopped any hope of watching revontulet; so far this is all I have seen this winter.

I have much appreciated having a long winter break - over two weeks off work. It's been a great time to get a few things done, even starting some studying to get more qualifications together in order to be elegible, eventually for a permanent job here. In the UK it seems there are many ways to qualify to teach at secondary level across a range of subjects here you have to have a standard much higher (Masters level in specified subjects). I wonder if there'd be any science teachers in England if the same standards applied.

 The swans are still here. The temperature has hardly dipped below zero and it's been very damp and murky.

Behind the clouds apparently there have been great revontulet. I don't like this weather - anything between +5'C and -5'C is too English for me.  I much prefer the colder, clearer skies e ven if the birds have by then flown.

A grey heron wouldn't be anything to write home about back in the UK, but there were 16 gathering a month ago around the lake shore at the back of the house. That's quite a record this far north. Incredibly shy, they were too far away to photograph and I thought they had flown off a long time since. Yesterday I was out on a rare stroll and one flew by.

The birds are gathering and getting ready to leave and I am not looking forward to the emptiness of the winter. It's crazy to think that the noise of a few thousand cranes in a field will suddenly disappear.

It's hard to describe the sound the cranes make. It's loud but not unpleasant. I do miss the huge flocks of starlings from the UK - this is the closest thing to it. They rise up, disturbed and then fly off to another field as a huge crowd. And then in the sunset more threads of cranes continue across the sky.

I guess they do this for a week or so before they all fly off permanently.

Behind the clouds last night there were great revontulet, so now the photohunt for those begins again.

It's autumn. It's the start of the hunting season. A bird watching trip to a nearby lintutorni, a sanctuary where a week or so ago I saw three white-tailed eagles (two adults and their young), and the place is packed with cars and caravans. Luckily there is one area of Liminka Bay which is safe for the birds and protected from hunters, but it did feel like an abuse of The Nature. Sure, I'm the foreigner, not understanding the desire to blast animals out of their lives each year, and it's not really my place to make comments on the Finnish culture: afterall hunting is an important means of providing food before the hardships of winter, for all those impoverished four wheel drive owners who stalk their way across the swamp in the latest hunting designer gear.