Summer Travels – Lovund

For the fourth stop in our travels around Helgeland, Norway last summer, we left our car and took a fast-ferry (read: nausea-inducing) to the windswept island of Lovund. With much of the island jutting up out of the sea, we actually saw Lovund, way off in the distance, from the previous stops on our trip.

While Lovund is only inhabited by about 500 people, the salmon industry has led to a thriving economy. Adding ourselves and small number of other nature-loving tourists (mostly Norwegians) to the mix, we had a quiet, laid-back experience.

One reason we chose Lovund as a destination was the fact that 200,000-plus puffins nest on the steep scree slope on the western side of the island. It was a bit of a disappointment that the viewing sites were far below the nesting puffins, way up between the large boulders. Even with my big paparazzi lens, it was clear right away I was not going to get a nice puffin portrait.

That said, it was pretty awesome that we could just lay back in the evening and watch puffins flying in and out from sea with fish for their young. And I mean a TON of puffins. We also saw huge white-tailed sea-eagles, as well as golden eagles and other birds we were happy to spot, soaring above us.

Here are some images taken from our three night stay on the Norwegian island of Lovund.

Most of the island is taken up by that steep mountain, with the rocks the puffins nest in on the right side of this image (and the viewing site below that, off the edge of this shot)
A view to the northeast
Someone testing the water at a beach outside the little town
Red buildings on the water
Apparently, the gulls found a favourite nesting site
With a closer look, we could see a young gull in the nest
Moments later they are squabbling, as only gulls can
Another view as we head up to one of the puffin viewpoints
The marine layer in the mornings made the jagged islands of Træna in the distance look more like the Monument Valley of my home state of Arizona. So strange…!
You can see here where people are allowed to go to view the puffins — at the bottom of the tall, steep boulder scree
This illustrates the difficulty I had in shooting the puffins. This is the one and only image I got of a puffin amongst the rocks. This was shooting at 600mm and look how tiny it is in the shot, if you can even find it.
Watching the puffins flying in and out from sea was pretty durn cool.
Almost all of the puffins had fish in their beaks for their younglings
A golden eagle soaring above us
A white-tailed sea eagle — with a nice fat fish in its talons
Another white-tailed sea eagle
The sea eagles were so big, we could easily spot them off in the distance
Love me some cotton grass
Pretty colors in a marshy field
The sun still up after 10pm
At 11.30pm, the sun is dipping below the horizon

Published by kewtiebird

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I am a photography enthusiast living in Oslo, Norway. My favourite subjects tend to be landscapes and nature - but I enjoy photographing urban scenes, architecture, abstract shapes and street images as well. Welcome!

20 thoughts on “Summer Travels – Lovund”

    1. Many thanks! Yeah, we’ve been to Runde before and looking down on the puffins from above there made for an easier viewing experience. This trip we had to be content watching them flying in. My better half had his binoculars and that was fine for him and I could easily see them with my long lens. Flying. The puffins were well hidden in the boulders from us when they landed.

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    1. Ooo, glad you found that tiny puffin. 😊 I have a Tamron 150-600. It’s big. Not sure how it compares in terms of heft to a 600 prime (but buying it used put it much, much, much cheaper than a prime). I’d love better glass but it will never happen at that focal length. 😉😉 Thanks for commenting!!

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