KAIRA Lemmings

Lemmings are very common in the Kilpisjärvi area, and they have featured on this blog before. But when we went for a service trip to KAIRA in late June, we took a simple panorama with an iPhone, and then transformed it into a circular, so-called "little planet" panorama – and we were quite surprised by what we found!

Click on the image for higher resolution; you can just make out the KAIRA site in the 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock sectors!

With this image we wish all of you a very good weekend!

Photo and processing: Thomas Ulich (on MiVyoo you'll find the original panorama and details on how it was done).

Lemmings

Lemmings are arctic rodents similar to voles. In Kilpisjärvi they were very plentiful this year. Our nature enthusiast Stuart managed to get quite a few very nice photographs of these creatures during his stay. Today we post the best of them.

There are many species of Lemming found around the arctic, this one is the Norweigian Lemming and this year it was very common. The population of Lemmings vary in a cycle during which they increase in number until the habitat can no longer support so many and they are forced to migrate en masse to find food. In some years the population reaches plague proportions when the ground is literally crawling with them. During these plague years large numbers of them die crossing rivers, lakes and other obstacles, which led to the myth of 'mass suicide' this myth was further enhanced by a so called wildlife documentary made in 1958 by Walt Disney in which hundreds of lemmings were captured and taken to the top of a cliff in Canada, they were then forced to run on to a revolving turntable which hurled them off the cliff thus creating the myth.

Cute lemming. Copyright Stuart Keenan.

I discovered they are not always so cute though and some would squeek loudly as I past and actually challenge me if I moved closer.

Angry lemming. Copyright Stuart Keenan.

It goes without saying that this year, there also seem to be quite a lot of young well fed owls. On my way back to Sodankylä I counted at least 15 young owls beside the road, preying for voles and lemmings that were brave enough to attempt crossing a road -- a common sight this year as well.

Calm lemming. Copyright Stuart Keenan.

At first I thought the reason for the aggressive behaviour of some lemmings might be because they were females with young nearby, but one of the biologists told me that breeding lemmings tend to be pretty quiet and its more likely to be individuals on the move, perhaps when they are on the move they are more vulnerable to predators and therefore more defensive.

Agitated lemming. Copyright Stuart Keenan.

Very agitated lemming. Copyright Stuart Keenan.

Photos and text: Stuart Keenan.

Ducting problems

With the cables checked and the mausoleum complete, it was time to try running through the first 115m cable pair. This would go from the RF-container, through all the ducts and out to antenna tile location HXX (far western corner).

Ilkka Virtanen checks the ducting prior to the first cable-run attempt.

We got the cable through the RF-container ducts, and then the first stretch from the mausoleum to the 'corner' before heading up to the array. However, the final stretch to the array was somehow blocked. We worked at it for a bit before recovering a loose piece of geotextile that was blocking the tube. However, the cable-pair still refused to go through.

The draw string was working, and some checks with rope were also working. However using the 'lemming' didn't. The 'lemming' is our nickname for an improvised test canister. It is attached to the draw-string loops and can be used to check that a cable duct is clear. The name is from the fact that a lemming is what would be best able to check on the duct situation. And this is the closest we can approximate to a lemming!

Taping the 'lemming' to the draw-string for another reconnaissance mission!

Well, it turned out that we had a serious blockage. We suspected that there might be a problem with one of the frameset anchors having pierced the duct pipe. However, a test excavation indicated that this was not the case. What we did find, however, was some seriously crimped pipework! As a result, we checked all the ducts and realised that there was just one stretch where two of the four pipes were blocked. So we excavated the entire area.

The team digs out the four-pipe run by the northern array corner.

Sure enough, this is what we found.

Crushed cable ducts.

These crimped pipes are probably due to extreme ground pressure during the movement of vehicles overhead.

Well, we have no choice by the re-work the trench and put down new pipe.

More lemmings!

Remember the lemming hiding under the HBA tile? The fact is that they are very common and over the last weeks, we've seen countless of the little creatures.

However, it is rare to actually get close to them. They are timid and dart away quickly if you approach them. And, being so small, they are difficult to photograph.

But this little one was relying on its camouflage to protect it, allowing me to get a little closer. Can you see it... just the front part of its body is sticking out from under the rock.

If they don't move, these little creatures are extremely difficult to see. However, just after I took this photograph, this one decided to make a break for it, scampered over a snow drift and disappeared under a layer of ice.

Lemmings!

At one point we left the collapsed tile to go and deal with other parts of the site and then to get some food. On our arrival back, we noticed there was a little visitor to the collapsed HBA tile.



This is a lemming (Lemmus Lemmus). These small furry creatures (about 10cm long) are subnivean animals, meaning that they live at the layer where the snow meets the ground. As the snow has been melting we have noticed a few of their little tunnels at the ice-edges. There are actually a lot of these creatures about and we have seen many now. Although shy, I managed to get close enough to take the above picture, before it jumped over the timber and scurried away over the snow banks.

Lemmings are probably most known from a famous computer game of the same name, where the player had to save these hapless creatures from disaster. Personally, I don't recall a level where you had to fetch them out from collapsing LOFAR HBA tiles.